Sonic OVA: Full "Look-a-like" & OST Production Demo

Hi guys, illuminor here. Sorry for any potential bad English (not a native speaker). I'm the guy who shared the full version of "Look-a-like" and a production demo of the OST to "Sonic the Hedgehog" (OVA) with all of you.

First of all, here's the source files you're after:

These are both 192kbps MP3 files. It's exactly what I got from my source, unaltered. There's no FLAC or any other higher quality versions on my hand, and I doubt there ever will be, unless a miraculous official release ever happens. This should still be slightly better than YouTube-compressed sound.

You can also check them out as YouTube videos here and here.

I hope you enjoy. For those who want to hear the full story, please keep reading :)


How it was found

It was an accident, really. As a fan-translator, I was interested in finding out the full lyrics to "Look-a-like" (for the sake of translation, of course, because it's hard to translate something you can't even hear well). The internet is full of fan-extended remixes of the song, but for some reason, no one ever mentions one particular line that you can partially make out in the OVA itself. Specifically, at the end of part one, where Sonic, Tails and Knuckles fly into Eggmanland (or Robotropolis, if you prefer the English dub), you can hear Riyu Konaka sing: "A long time ago...", then the characters' voices interfere with the rest. Everywhere (and I mean EVERYWHERE, because I went all over Google) this line is documented as: "A short while ago... I was born..." Of course, such line does exist in the song, but it's in another verse! No one on the whole internet ever mentioned what I could actually clearly hear in the anime itself. The officially released "short edit" of the song did not include this fragment as well. Being perplexed by all that, I kept digging, until I accidentally found a way to contact someone who was actually involved with making the OVA. I will not mention their name to avoid any potential harm to them.

Anyway, my request to them was simple: "Can you share the full lyrics, please?"
I was ready to be completely ignored, but to my surprise, the person responded pretty quickly and (OMG) promised to look into it. To be honest, even hearing back from them was already exciting. Unfortunately, my excitement slowly faded as weeks passed by without any further response from them. About a month later I was sure that this is it and I'm not getting anything, and I was about to finally let it go. But then I suddenly got a new message from them. They said they couldn't find the lyrics (I've seen some of you ask about the lyrics, so here's your answer: I didn't get them), but they want to share something with me instead. This "something" was an .mp3 file containing the true full version of "Look-a-like" you all have been listening to for the last couple of days. This have caught me by surprise, I wasn't expecting anything like this, but at the same time I was incredibly glad that such a gem was finally uncovered. To share it with the rest of the world, I've reached out to my friends who run the local Sonic community, SAAC. Although not worldwide, they have a much bigger social following than I do, so they could do a much better job of spreading the news to the rest of the world. Which worked like a charm, and now you're all aware of the discovery.

While reading your feedback on the full song, I've seen a lot of people express hope for the OVA's official soundtrack to surface as well. And so I thought: "Why not also ask for that? Maybe, just maybe a miracle will occur..."

So I messaged my contact again and got a reply the very next day! They said they don't have a master sound source, but they do actually have a demo recording. And they have sent it to me. The recording I got contains a few pieces of the OST spliced into one .mp3 file. Unfortunately, it's not in the best quality imaginable and has occasional sound artifacts (like static). I believe it's made by digitizing an old cassette tape, but I may be wrong. Also not every track that can be heard in the OVA is present, and some of those that are present have several notable differences compared to what we were used to hearing over the years. This leads me to suspect that what we have our hands on may be an early demo recording of the OST when it wasn't quite finished. But we've gotta appreciate what we have. This is the coveted official soundtrack after all. We finally have it after 24 years. And, before you even ask, yes, the South Island theme is there! The file also contains a couple of unknown tracks, including a brief vocal piece. My contact doesn't exactly recall their origin. They say it's completely possible that these unknown and previously unheard tracks might have been intended for "Sonic the Hedgehog" (OVA), but ended up not being used. They also don't deny a possibility that it may have been something completely unrelated (like made for another project that was being developed at the same time) and accidentally got in the same recording. So, to cover all the possibilities, I'm sharing it in its entirety, without taking anything out.

I'm happy to be the one to share this incredible stuff with you. With so many large news websites mentioning my name, it's a bit overwhelming, because I've simply messaged the right person, asked them politely and got way more than I expected. That's all I did. And I suddenly had the honor of reintroducing a priceless lost piece of Sonic's history to the world.

And I guess that's it, guys. Thank you for reading and good luck. If there's any further news on this matter, I will make another post on this blog. Cheers!

Comments

  1. Hi, I'm a TV News Producer and was curious to corroborate some of the information in this post. Is there any way I could get in touch with you for details?

    -JH

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    1. You can reach me on Discord: Geo#4593

      I must say in advance that I will not be able to provide commentary in any form other than text.

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  2. Hi there. Wow that is a good find. ^_^ Heya if it's OK, I'm doing a Sonic animation. I already completed one to raise my animation skills. Since I'm doing another one soon. Could I use the Demo BGM for the animations if that is OK? If so Can you let me know who to credit for it please.

    Thanks :)

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    1. Hi. You don't have to ask for my permission. I'm not the creator of this music, I just happened to get my hands on this recording and shared it with the rest of the world. Just credit Sonic OVA's composer.

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  4. hi illuminator, my name is sonic hyper cd i am a fanduber and i am organizing a project for fandub al the sonic ovas in latin spanish for fans of my language, i could see that you cooperated to make a fandub in russian of sonic the ovas excellent job , but my case is that I need the sound effects of the sonic ovas could you pass me the sounds you used or the ova without a voice channel.
    I await your answer.

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    1. Sorry, but I can't. My only contribution to that project was the translation. I wasn't involved otherwise.

      ...also you could've at least get my nickname right.

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  5. sorry illuminor for misspelled your name and thanks for answering and by chance you don't know where I can get some effects.

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  6. Just wanted to say thank you and congratulations for finding such highly sought-after material from the Sonic fandom. Been watching this movie and listening to the tunes contained within it my entire life and never imagined that out of the blue we'd get such high-quality recordings of it. You're a hero, and the fandom owes you a huge thanks.

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    1. Thank you for such kind words! Although I don't consider myself a hero, this whole finding was very much an accident, albeit a happy one indeed.

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  7. Thank you so much, you really give us hope that the finished ost might be uncovered one day!

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  8. Thank you so much. I have tears in my eyes finally listening to this.

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  9. Hello Illuminor, I just wanted to comment that I actually contacted Mitsuhiro Tada (the composer himself!) on Twitter over this matter and GOT A RESPONSE!
    My message said something like "Nice to meet you, Mr. Mitsuhiro Tada. Is it possible that we get the official Sonic OVA soundtrack someday? With love, a fan." (only in Japanese generated with Google Translator). His response was, again, according to Google Translate: "Hello. Thank you for your message [Smiling face with smiling eyes]. I'm dreaming too, but SEGA doesn't seem to have any plans to release it so far. Sorry. May my dreams come true someday."

    Which is... sad, in a way, but also nice to know he himself would like the score to be published! I guess SEGA is the one to make the decision.

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  10. I'm a little late to the party, but this is quite a treat nonetheless! Thank you! It's fun and insightful noticing the differences between the demo songs and the finished versions in the OVAs.

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