SEGA Announces New Sonic 35th Anniversary Exhibition Featuring Unseen Dev Material and New Art
Sonic the Hedgehog’s 35-year history is set to be the focus of a major new exhibition that will offer fans a chance to see rare development materials, music, artwork, and merchandise from across SEGA’s long-running game series.
Tokyo’s “SONIC the Exhibition -ACROSS GENERATIONS-” will explore Sonic through five different areas of his history and development, covering games, characters, design, music and art, with several previously unseen materials set to be displayed publicly for the first time.
Sonic made his video game debut in 1991 and has since grown from SEGA’s flagship platforming mascot into a global entertainment franchise spanning games, movies, animation, music and an extensive range of merchandise.
SEGA has been celebrating the series’ 35th anniversary throughout 2026, with the milestone already producing a celebratory orchestral concert and the anniversary song “Speed Is My Life,” which later received a Japanese version performed by Hatsune Miku.
The new exhibition will take a more retrospective approach, tracing the development of Sonic across different eras through materials connected directly to the creation of the games.
Visitors will be able to see scripts, character and game setting documents, production materials and other archival items alongside displays dedicated to titles released throughout the series’ history.
Some of those materials have never previously been shown publicly, offering a closer look at how Sonic’s games and characters developed from early concepts into their finished forms.
Music will form another part of the exhibition, with sound sources and tracks from across the series joining the visual and development archives to explore another major part of Sonic’s identity.
The anniversary year has already placed a strong focus on the series’ music, with SEGA previously announcing a global series of live concerts featuring compositions from throughout Sonic’s history.
The art section will feature a collection of completely new Sonic works curated by creative studio R11R and produced by 16 artists with personal connections to the series.
Participating creators include Yusuke Nakamura, Taku Inoue, TSCR, HUKANZEN, Yuki Kikuchi, STUDY Yusaku, Aoi Neon and Ryosuke Takeuchi alongside several other illustrators and artists.
Each has created an original piece inspired by different versions and eras of Sonic, with some of the finished artworks also set to be offered for sale during the exhibition.
The exhibition is the latest example of SEGA using physical art and installations to mark Sonic’s 35th anniversary in Japan, following the life-size “SONIC THE HEDGEHOG DNA FIGURE,” which used synthesized DNA as part of a conceptual artwork displayed at SEGA STORE TOKYO earlier this year.
A range of exhibition merchandise and additional 35th anniversary goods will also be sold at the venue, including products based on the event’s key visual and designs inspired by the participating artists’ work.
Japanese porcelain brand YOYOYO will additionally give its new Sonic Arita ware piece, “Infinite Blue,” an advance release at the exhibition before its wider availability.
Sonic himself will make special greeting appearances at the venue on October 17, October 18, October 24, and October 25, with specific appearance times set to be announced separately.
Paid visitors will also receive one random sticker featuring artwork selected from popular Sonic games, while registered PARCO Members can claim an additional sticker using original artwork created for the exhibition.
“SONIC the Exhibition -ACROSS GENERATIONS-” will run at PARCO FACTORY on the seventh floor of Ikebukuro PARCO in Tokyo from October 9 through November 1, 2026, with the venue open from 11:00 AM until 9:00 PM on most days.
Admission is priced at ¥1,500 (approximately $10 / £7), while children of elementary-school age and younger can enter for free, and the opening three days will use a timed advance-ticket lottery to manage attendance.
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