Shadow the Hedgehog (Anime)

## Shadow the Hedgehog

"Ultimate Creature" Shadow the Hedgehog

**Shadow the Hedgehog**, is both a fictional character and deuteragonist of the *SKB's* *Sonic Pokémon* series created by Yuji Naka and Ken Sugimori. He is an mobian hedgehog/alien hybrid who resembles Sonic in many ways.

Shadow was created by Gerald, and is the end result of Project Shadow. However, the project was closed, and Shadow was captured by G.U.N. and put into stasis on Prison Island after his friend Maria was killed.

50 years later, Shadow was awakened from hibernation by Gerald's grandson, Dr. Eggman. Initially, Shadow's goal was to destroy Mobius and avenge Maria's death; but he ultimately decided to save humanity, which almost cost him his life.

The hedgehog later returned to save the

"*I am Shadow! Shadow the Hedgehog!*"

—Shadow the Hedgehog.

## Appearance

*Voice Actor*: Jason Griffith (English), Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Fadwa Souleimane (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Bulgarian), Kenneth Chan (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Croatian), Pavel Vondra (Czech), Not Known (Danish), Victor van Swaay (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Filipino), Benoît DuPac (French), Not Known (Galician), Jan Makino (German), Giannis Stefopoulos (Greek), Yaron Chai Menashe (Hebrew), Not Known (Hindi), Not Known (Hong Kong), Dániel Hamvas (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Fabrizio Vidale (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Malay), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Persian), Grzegorz Przybył (Polish), Rómulo Fragoso (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Dmitriy Filimonov (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Steve Kratz (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Thanthorn Kirakachinda (Thai), Not Known (Turkish), Not Known (Ukrainian), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Vietnamese), Reginaldo Primo (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Canadian French), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (French Creole), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish), Not Known (Spain-Spanish), Not Known (Taiwanese Mandarin)

### Physical Appearance

Shadow is an anthropomorphic black hedgehog with red stripes on his quills, around the edges of his eyes and on his arms and legs. He has red eyes, a patch of white fur on his chest, a black nose, a tan muzzle, and small, triangular ears with tan canals. He also has five quills on his head, four of which curve upwards, and one that curves downwards, has two spines on his back and a short, pointy tail. For attire, Shadow wears white gloves with black cuffs and red tongues, and Air Shoes which, like his gloves, have black cuffs and red tongues. On each of his wrists and ankles he wears a single Limiter.

* Hair Color: Black and Crimson
* Skin Color: Tan
* Eye Color: Red
* Age: Ageless
* Birthday: Unknown
* Height: 100 cm (3' 3")
* Weight: 35 kg (77 lb.)

## Personality

Shadow is extremely arrogant, blunt, aloof, cold, aggressive, brooding and very loyal to whomever he is serving and determined to whatever cause he is fighting for. He is anti-social and does not speak or smile much. However, he often smirks when being sure of himself, or if he thinks lowly of someone.

But deep down, he does have a heart. He cares for those who cared for him such as Maria, Molly, Rouge and Chris and often follows their goals in his own fashion no matter what the cost is. He can be caring to Sonic by showing up and saving Sonic when he needs it the most and genuinely respects him as a rival. Because of his past though, Shadow rarely trusts anyone besides himself.

Even when he does, he prefers not to have them get too close to him, lest tragedy should impact him again.

Shadow is easily the most self-sufficient of all the characters. However, his lonesome and arrogant attitude also puts him apart from the other characters. Nevertheless, Shadow can at times be ruthless. For example, when he learned of Cosmo's true mission, he set off to kill her. Shadow, however, did this to try to protect the universe, implying that while he has a good motive, the means used to achieve it are only acceptable to him.

Shadow firmly believes that he is the "Ultimate Creature" and almost all other life forms are lesser beings and thinks that no one can stand a chance against him. Despite this, he respects a worthy opponent and likes to see someone give him a challenge, a part of why he respects his arch-rival, Sonic.

Shadow only talks when it is absolutely necessary and dislikes being in groups, preferring solitude. Shadow often thinks teamwork is unnecessary because he can handle everything on his own. However, he will help his allies when needed.

Shadow is often depressed about the loss of Maria, which is why he keeps to himself, but his relationship with her is obvious as he goes to great lengths to protect the planet and keep her dream of peace and prosperity alive. He has also been seen protecting other characters, for example Sonic, Chris, Molly, and Rouge, proving that while his attitude makes him seem like a careless person, he does have some compassion.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Rouge (ally)
* Maria Robotnik (best friend)
* Molly
* Chris Thorndyke (to a degree)
* Mr. Tanaka
* Team Chaotix
	+ Vector
	+ Espio
	+ Charme
* Gerald Robotnik (creator)

### Neutral

* Team Sonic
	+ Sonic (arch-rival)
	+ "Tails"
	+ Knuckles
* Team Rose
	+ Amy Rose
	+ Cream the Rabbit
		- Cheese
* Cosmo
* Dr. Eggman
* Bocoe
* Decoe
* Bokkun

### Enemies

* Bio Lizard
* Metarex
	+ Dark Oak
	+ Pale Bayleaf
	+ Black Narcissus
	+ Red Pine

## Abilities and Powers

Shadow is easily one of the most powerful characters in the series. He is extremely fast, capable of matching Sonic's and move at such velocity that he releases yellow energy discharges in his wake that he can use against enemies. As examples of his speed, Shadow could move both Molly and Rouge away from a large explosion in less than a second and can even dodge laser barrages.

He is also very agile and has incredible jumping skills that allows him to jump hundreds of meters into the air. Furthermore, Shadow can use his vast super speed even in space, attacking and moving freely, something even Sonic cannot do. Shadow has a significant degree of physical strength as he could push back against one of Final Mova's heads single handed.

His body is also able to resist incredible punishment, such as being slammed into solid surfaces and even survive from being struck by powerful laser cannons or by Sonic's charged Spin Attack. By removing his Limiters from his wrists, Shadow can access his full power, which enhances his overall power so drastically that he can single-handedly destroy an entire Metarex fleet. However, using his full power for too long drains his stamina to the point where he will be rendered unconscious.

Shadow is naturally able to tap into the arcane powers of any nearby Chaos Emerald (fake or not) and utilize their chaos energy to empower himself and use a variety of Chaos powers, and has a special connection to both them and the Master Emerald. In "Shadow Knows," he is seen unleashing a blast of energy to destroy some security robots.

Shadow has fearsome combat skills, as seen in his first encounter with Sonic and during his raid on the Blue Typhoon when he was able to fight his way through a weakened Sonic, Knuckles (though Shadow is shown to struggle a bit when he fought against Knuckles), and "Tails". He was also shown fighting his way through a large fleet of Metarex soldiers, destroying them all.

In addition, Shadow shows above-average intelligence, such as when fighting Scarship he realized a head-on attack wouldn't work. He then switched for some more advanced tactics and instead decided to shake the ship apart from the inside by striking its body at incredible speed.

With just one Chaos Emerald, he can induce Chaos Control to stop time, warp himself through space. He can also create multiple Chaos Spears or merging them to create one slide of chaos energy to increase its attack power. He is also able to use Spin Attack for both offensive and defensive maneuvers but does not use it to the same extent as Sonic.

### Weaknesses

While Shadow does get a stronger boost in power due to a lack of Limiters, this does burn Shadow's energy much faster and he can pass out if he's not careful. He also burns Limiters much faster in his Hyper form than he does in his super form this way, and can tire out more quickly in his Chaos form.

Shadow was initially a somewhat easy target for manipulation during the time he had amnesia due to his confusion about who he was and his eagerness to learn anything more about his past.

### Equipment

Shadow wears a pair of specialized shoes. These footwears produce small jet streams that let him hover-skate on non-solid surfaces such as water and at speeds equaling Sonic's.

Shadow also has four Limiters on his body, one on either wrist and ankle, that limit the amount of power he uses during combat and other situations.

## History

### Past

Fifty years ago, a top-secret project known as "Project Shadow" began on the Space Colony ARK. Led by Professor Robotnik, it was a government-sanctioned initiative to create "the ultimate creature," an immortal being that Gerald hoped could be used for the benefit of the world. After creating the prototype, Gerald was able to successfully create the finalized creature: Shadow the Hedgehog.

Once brought to life, Shadow immediately befriended Maria, Professor Gerald's granddaughter, and they became close during their short time together. Maria really wanted to visit the Mobius, but because she suffered from an illness, she could never do it. Shadow also wanted to go to the planet to learn the meaning of his existence.

However, Gerald's progress with Shadow was ruined when it was leaked to G.U.N. of how he was able to create the successful prototype. Afraid of the implications, it was decided to launch an invasion of the ARK and put a stop to the work being done there.

After G.U.N. troops descended onto the ARK, they caused chaos and confusion as they went about apprehending anyone involved in Project Shadow. Knowing that the G.U.N. forces would be there at any moment, Maria convinced Shadow to enter an escape pod, her final wish to him being that he gave the people on the planet a chance to be happy.

Wishing him goodbye, Shadow could do nothing as he watched the G.U.N. soldier Mr. Schmitz storm into the lab, firing a shot which would forever change the hedgehog's life as it ended the life of Maria. Learning of his granddaughter's death, Professor Robotnik soon went mad with grief, swearing vengeance on humanity for taking away the only thing that ever meant anything to him.

Though just what exactly transpired is cloudy; what is known is that both Gerald and the escape pod that held Shadow were gathered by G.U.N., Shadow having to be put to sleep in a stasis capsule within Prison Island, and Gerald being incarcerated. While imprisoned, Gerald brainwashed Shadow so that the hedgehog would ensure that his doomsday program onboard the ARK, which would wipe out humanity as his revenge, would be activated once Shadow awoke.