New Mega Man cartoon to premiere, Japanese fans understandably apprehensive

22:13 cherishe 0 Comments

Come on guys, it’s not like they’re going to make Mega Man a hoarse chubby baby with a speaking disorder…twice.

In all of video-gamedom there is hardly a character as endearing as Mega Man (or Rockman in Japanese), a simple-to-control blue robot boy with an ever-growing array of special abilities who traverses a seemingly endless universe of colorful robotic fantasy lands inhabited by evil yet cute mechanical foes.

Despite the technical limitations at the time, the game seemed destined to become a multimedia hit spawning a successful animated series as well. Who wouldn’t tune in each week to see Mega Man explore a brand new world?

His chance finally came when he was added to the ensemble cast of Captain N: The Game Master alongside other popular Nintendo characters like Kid Icarus. In this version, the vibrant blue-bomber was inexplicably turned to a dull olive green and that was the least of his problems.

Mega Man’s back-story was relatively intact, in that he was a robot boy constructed by Dr. Light, but it was never explained why a robot would be intentionally made to be dumpy and have a voice like DMX on helium.

Mega Man also had the mega-annoying mega-habit of saying “mega” in front of every-mega-thing. As a youngster I made it tolerable by imagining Mega Man was just too raw for broadcast television and was really saying “f*%king” only to have it be altered to “mega” by the censors.

Needless to say, Mega Man mega-sucked through the entire run of Captain N, but the potential was still there.

So, in the 90s Mega Man returned in a self-titled Japanese-American co-production. Although it corrected all of the mistakes of Captain N‘s Mega Man, it kind of went too far the other way and made him look like poorly dressed G.I. Joe character…not that G.I. Joe was at the forefront of fashion to begin with.

▼ There’s also something strangely erotic about this Mega Man and all his rippling musculature

It got to the point where the games themselves started adding anime style cut-scenes as if to say, “Can’t anybody out there produce this right? Look, it’s easy.”

▼ The extremely well done anime segments of the video game Mega Man 8

At the turn of the century the character returned to TV screens in MegaMan NT Warrior.

Although much more aesthetically pleasing than previous televised attempts, the series wasn’t really in keeping with the original games. Rather it focused more on the card-playing tactics of the Battle Network games.

Now, however, it has been announced that Mega Man will return once again in Mega Man: Fully Charged. The show will air on the Cartoon Network in the U.S. from this autumn and is produced by Man of Action Studios known for the Ben 10 series and many other Marvel based animated shows.

A first glimpse of Mega Man: Fully Charged can be had at the San Diego Comic-Con on 20 July. However, most Japanese netizens remain highly skeptical it will work this time around.

“If it’s in America, I guess Mega Man will be all yolked out again.”
“It ought to be done in Japan.”
“He looks kind of gross.”
“So, how about that Mega Man 11 anyway?”
“I don’t know what, but it feels like something is missing.”
“That studio is pretty good, so I’d like to see it.”

Part of the less than enthusiastic response may be partly due to Japanese media labeling it as a Mega Man “aimed at western audiences.” However, word from Man of Action appears to be the opposite with the visual style described as similar to Japan’s Gigantor and Speed Racer and the stories promising to be fun and upbeat to appeal to as many people as possible.

The look overall is pretty close to the original, but with noticeable changes that leave one to wonder if they were necessary to begin with. It isn’t fair to judge until we see him in action though, and it’s still easily light years better than what has come before it.

Hopefully they can hit all the right notes and Mega Man can finally earn his rightful place in the hearts and minds of both gaming and non-gaming kids alike. It’s just a mega-shame it took 30 mega-years to mega-make it happen. Seriously, what the meg?

Sources: Otakomu, Hachima Kiko, Game Spark, Nerdist
Top image: Dentsu
Featured image: YouTube/Cero Couy



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