The Story of the Mysterious Sonic Statue

I love unusual life stories that turn into something so big and sensational that they seem more like a movie where everything is fantasy. And if the story is about video games, it's even cooler. Games, characters, universes and everything related to them, are something that comes from the heart and if you, like me, have the same feeling for this whole universe, you will love this story: that of a mysterious statue of Sonic the Hedgehog discovered in Japan, and whose origins took a long time to be discovered.

This story begins on December 20th, 2015, when a motorcyclist who was testing his new bike decided to take a long ride on the roads of Japan. Without a specific destination, he was wandering the highways when suddenly he came across something unusual, a giant statue of Sonic on a snowboard that was fixed between two trees. So, he took out his phone, photographed the moment and posted it on X (back when it was still Twitter).

It was noticeable from the photo that the statue looked somewhat faded, its paint was peeling, the improvised structure didn't look very safe, there were some small cracks in it and, what was most annoying, Sonic's nose was broken, leaving the hedgehog out of character.

It didn't take long for the photo to spark the interest of the hedgehog's fans, and the news quickly spread. Everyone wanted to know the exact location of the statue.

But unfortunately, the motorcyclist didn't know how to answer. Having traveled many kilometers without a specific destination, he didn't remember the place, as he had stopped several times, and he also didn't remember the route he had taken that day.

Since fans are more persistent than investigators, the community began to look for information about the hedgehog statue. Some time later, the first result of the investigations arrived: fans found another post dated back to 2009, where the statue was seen in better condition and with its nose in place.

Analyzing the location of the photo, the statue could be somewhere near Mie Prefecture, in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan.

Even with this information, it was still difficult to pinpoint the exact location, as Mie Prefecture has a geographic area of ​​5,774 square kilometers. It's like looking for a speck of dust in the desert. But, as mentioned before, fans are very persistent creatures.

Internet detectives began to do intensive research, trying to cross-reference information from the posts the motorcyclist made when he was in the region, to try to learn more about the place and find possible locations. But unfortunately, they were unable to find any answers and the searches ended up fading out.

The following year, in 2016, the mystery of the Sonic statue would once again draw attention with a post from another person who took a photo next to the statue, which made Internet detectives go back to work on the search. This time, they wanted to locate the statue at any cost.

It took another two years of relentless searching for the hedgehog, when finally, in March 2018, a user of the Sonic Stadium forum managed to find the much-desired location of the statue using Google Street View.

It was deep in the mountains, on a quiet road on Route 39 (Iga Kori Dole Rd), next to the Maefukase River, in the city of Takao in Mie, Japan. Near the Mie Prefecture, confirming the information about the location discovered by the photos on Twitter.

With the exact location, the community detectives made an agreement not to publicly reveal this information to the rest of the world due to the safety of the item, as they feared that people might damage the statue or even steal it out of pure malice.

They were also afraid of vandals who might vandalize it, since, from the moment the news spread, the fan base wanted to know more about it for the love of games, but there were also people who were on the opposite side and hated their efforts.

Later that year, a Twitter user discovered something in his research: an official video of the owner of the hedgehog statue. It was an advertisement for Sega World Kadoma, and in one scene of the video we can clearly see a statue of Sonic identical to the one in Mie Prefecture.

Sega Worlds was a long-running international chain of arcades and entertainment centers created by SEGA. The machines were operated by the company's own coins and were often located in purpose-built buildings, as well as in shopping malls, bowling alleys, department stores, and theme parks. Many of these locations were designed specifically to appeal to families, although their primary focus was on video game enthusiasts.

A new discovery was that Sega World Kadoma was closed and no one knew the whereabouts of its items, including the mysterious statue, that everyone wanted to know more about its history. Now the detectives had another part of the puzzle to unravel. Where did it go, who was the current owner, and why had he placed the statue in that forest?

After another fan visited the site, they noticed that Sonic had suffered more damage. Since the first photo in 2009, it was almost intact, and the photo from 2015 already showed signs of wear and tear. However, on this visit in January 2019, it was in a much more precarious condition, filthy, and it was getting worse every day. Fearing that the statue would break and disappear, the search intensified.

Fans continued their research and, at the same time, checked whether it would be possible to restore the statue that had been there for over a decade, exposed to the sun and climate change. Because it was close to the trees, it had begun to degrade more quickly, suffering from intense heat and cold. There was moss at the base of the snowboard, the statue was already showing more cracks, the support that held it there could give way, its color was more faded than before and there was great fear that this valuable item would disappear, since everyone had already grown fond of it.

There was also a bigger problem: even if they could find someone to restore it, they still didn't know who owned it. For this reason, they couldn't touch it, as it was someone's property and nothing could be done without the proper permissions.

YouTube channel Badnik Mechanic (real name Dave Luty) made a series of videos about the history of the mysterious statue. Dave was part of the fan base that knew about its location, and his idea with the videos was to try to find any information about its owner.

Despite the videos and the fans' appeal, the hedgehog's owner never showed up, which left everyone frustrated and even sadder to see the SEGA mascot deteriorating over time. Dave made one last video of the statue and noticed more wear and tear and, most alarmingly, according to a restorer's opinion, the statue would be recoverable, but it only had 5 to 7 years left, which was a little less than the fans' previous estimate of 5 to 10 years.

Dave's video attracted a lot of attention, and many people showed interest in visiting Sonic. Since they couldn't find the owner, Dave and his fan base decided to reveal the exact location to everyone, in the hopes that someone could help find the owner and try to restore it.

Now, the story had taken on gigantic proportions, and with the location being made public, a great commotion erupted, and the statue became a major attraction for the public. Many people began to go to the mountains to visit it and take photos with the giant hedgehog.

Until then, people had no idea of ​​the size of the statue, but when they got there, they were able to contemplate the splendor of Sonic. It’s two meters tall, and its snowboard is three meters long. The item attracts a lot of attention and everyone could understand how important it was for fans to have it restored.

The place ended up being called “The Mysterious Sonic Statue” on Google Street View and even became a PokéStop in the game Pokémon Go. And even the creators of the first Sonic game, Hirokazu Yasuhara and Yuji Naka, showed interest in the statue, wanting to visit it in person.

With the news spreading across the internet, a local newspaper began to investigate some local residents to find information about Sonic’s possible owner.

After a collective effort and a lot of research with the locals, they found a hotel in the area. Its owner revealed that the hedgehog did, in fact, have an owner: his name was Mr. Yuji Kotera, but unfortunately, he had passed away a few years ago, and that when he was alive, he had lived in a village in the forest behind the statue.

Even with the sad news of the hedgehog's owner's death, they now had a name in hand and were able to contact Mr. Kotera's family for more information.

Mr. Kotera's family was already aware of all the commotion in the news and on the internet about their patriarch's statue. The children explained that Mr. Yuji Kotera worked with Sega World Kadoma and after the place closed, the statue ended up with him.

Kotera moved to a house in the mountains near Mie Prefecture, in the forest, but whenever anyone came to visit him, they couldn't find the entrance to the village where he lived and ended up getting lost. So he decided to use the hedgehog on the snowboard as a landmark so that his family and acquaintances could know the exact entrance to the village where he lived, which was next to the statue.

Mr. Kotera would tell everyone who came to visit him: "To find me, just find Sonic, I'm right behind him!"

The family mentioned that the villagers were used to saying that Mr. Kotera was known for taking care of the statue, that he invited everyone to an inauguration, that he liked to bring people together and that everyone liked his idea, as it became a point of reference for everyone who lived there.

The family members were deeply grateful to know that this fact ended up becoming so popular and being recognized like this throughout the world, and they were happy with how much the hedgehog of the family patriarch was loved.

With the mystery solved, everyone thought the story had come to an end. Although the restoration had not been carried out, the outcome of the story was resolved.

So the statue remained there as a tourist attraction for visitors, but the fear still remained that its days were on a countdown, as it would not last much longer in those conditions with the damage caused by time.

In August 2020, a Twitter user named “Yuuken81” posted a new image of the statue getting a fresh coat of paint. Two days later, the restoration was complete, and a user named “Sagara7791” posted another image of the statue in its new state. Finally, the blue hedgehog in the forest near Mie Prefecture had been restored!

Once again, the internet was in an uproar to find out who had done this good deed, leaving the statue in perfect condition again. Now it was beautiful, shiny, perfect, and with its nose back in place! A job well done, literally!

But another mystery had taken hold of fans. “Who was responsible for restoring the statue?”

Several theories began to circulate on the internet, with some even naming SEGA as the culprit.

After Mr. Kotera's family became aware of all the commotion and saw how much the statue was loved, they realized from the photos that the poor hedgehog was already in poor condition and was almost at the end of its rope, and they began reading the fans' plea to restore it.

Then, Masahiro Kotera, Mr. Kotera's son, requested a complete restoration, he said, "Although the statue has become a popular subject, it was actually in a very poor condition. Now it’s so beautiful that you can hardly recognize it, I think everyone is happy."

At first, Kotera made it a landmark for family and friends, but later his statue would become a tourist attraction and a landmark for the world. I hope he will always be there, surfing on his snowboard, contemplating and being contemplated.

In August 2024, the statue was preserved in its current state through photogrammetry. The 3D model was created by Sketchfab user Trey Brown.