While designing the character that became Sonic, Oshima said the idea was to make something striking that could also be drawn by children.
He eventually married an author of children’s books, and one of her books is the story of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game.
In retrospect the pair said that the design of Sonic was freighted with concerns about what a “mascot” for Sega should be.
“Now that you know a little bit about the story we wrote in coming up with Sonic, I think you can see why the Sonic emblem [on the title screen of the original game] looks the way it does,” added Yasuhara.