Amy Rose

is a fictional character in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series. She is a pink anthropomorphic hedgehog with a cheerful attitude, but large temper. She has the ability to summon a giant hammer, and serves to be Sonic's self-proclaimed girlfriend, although Sonic tends to ignore her in most incarnations.
Amy was designed by Kazuyuki Hoshino and first debuted in the Sonic the Hedgehog manga published by Shogakukan, followed by her official debut in the 1993 video game Sonic CD under the name Rosie the Rascal; since then, she has appeared in several games, television series, comics, and anime as the main character.
Amy is among the series' most controversial characters; although many journalists have found her character cute and powerful, others have found her annoying, with several also criticizing her implications in gender representation in video games; despite this, Amy Rose is consistently ranked as among the most popular characters, having appeared in several pieces of merchandise since 1993.
Concept and design
Amy Rose was created by Kazuyuki Hoshino, who was a character designer and visual designer for Sonic CD. Naoto Ohshima, who'd originally created Sonic and who was spear-heading the project, influenced Amy's design of her headband and trainer shoes. Her hair was originally color red, and her skirt orange. Amy was redesigned by Yuji Uekawa in Sonic Adventure with a red dress and boots. Although Sonic CD was Amy's intended debut, she ended up appearing a year prior in Kenji Terada's Sonic the Hedgehog manga.
In the Japan, Amy Rose is voiced by Taeko Kawata, with the exception being Sonic Shuffle where she is voiced by Emi Motoi. Her English voice actor has changed several times; she was originally voiced by Jennifer Douillard from Sonic Adventure to Sonic Advance 3, before being replaced by Lisa Ortiz, who'd previously voiced the character in Sonic X; she was replaced with Cindy Robinson in 2010 who continued voiced the character until announcing her departure in 2021.
In the Japanese version of Sonic CD, Amy was named Rosie the Rascal, while the American version instead calls her Sally Acorn, a character who appeared in the American television series and Archie comic book.
Appearance
Amy Rose is an anthropomorphic pink hedgehog appearing in the video game series Sonic the Hedgehog, published by Sega. She first appeared in Sonic CD (1993), the first and only Sonic game released for the Sega Genesis add-on the Sega CD. Her roles in the games varies, with several main series games including Sonic Adventure (1998), Sonic Heroes (2003) and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) featuring her as a playable character. Others, including Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) limit her to a non-playable role.
In the series, Amy is generally depicted as cheerful, yet strong. She also tends to insists that she is Sonic's girlfriend and follows him, despite Sonic tending to ignore her. Due to her not possessing the speed of other character, Amy defends herself with a large hammer.
Reception
Amy Rose has been met with a polarizing reception from media critics. Lucas Thomas of IGN spoke positively of the character saying "one of the coolest things about Amy is her enormous, walloping hammer". Contrarily, both Thomas East and Jim Sterling consider her among the worst Sonic characters, with them criticizing her personality. Justin Towell of GamesRadar considers her introduction in Sonic CD one of its flaws, although he added that she is not the "annoying brat like in Sonic Adventure". Cindy Robinson's voice acting has also been met with criticism, with several drawing comparisons to Minnie Mouse's voice.
In addition, Amy has been criticized for her implications in gender representation in video games; the Electronic Gaming Monthly staff noted that her pink coloring and tendency to run away from danger are in common with Japanese female characters.
Despite the divisive reception, Amy is among the most popular characters in the series by fans; in a Japanese poll in 2006, Amy ranked as the fifth most popular character, behind Knuckles, Tails, Shadow and Sonic respectively.