CARTOONS

Mega Man was popular enough that he was actually featured in a few cartoon shows. Below are some brief descriptions. See the Buyer’s Guide for some information on where to find them.

Mega Man
Mega Man has a TV series to his name. Although the cartoons didn’t run for long, they were of decent quality. This series “American-ized” Mega Man, thus mangling him a bit, although many ideas from the games are here, including that of Mega Man swiping weapons from the Robot Masters. See the Cartoon Episode Guide for a full listing.

Mega Man NT Warrior
For those who can’t tell from the show’s title (which would be just about everyone...brilliant, whoever chose the title), this is a cartoon based off the Mega Man Battle Network series. This TV series originated in Japan as a “Rockman EXE” anime, and thus matches the games better than the Mega Shows. They still took a few liberties with the game material, but overall it’s relatively close—at least at the start. Sometime in the future I may post full episode summaries like I did for the Mega Shows; in the meantime, I can summarize the series by saying it’s made up of nice serious plot intermixed with completely ridiculous silliness.

Mega Man Star Force
Presently you can find this on Cartoon Network (e.g. Toonami) and probably it’ll soon be available from Viz. I’m a little surprised they translated it this quickly, but why can’t they find boys to do the voice acting for the elementary school boys’ voices like they do in other cartoons? Anyway, this show originated in Japan and was brought over here, like the NT Warrior shows. Thanks to Hoshikage for the screen shot.

Captain N — The Game Master
Mega Man was also featured on an older cartoon show known as Captain N. These shows brought together many worlds from many video games and had each one’s characters interact. What is ironic is just about everything the Mega Shows mangled, the Captain N shows got right, and vice versa. In Captain N, Mega Man is a short cyan dude with a weird voice, but his personality can be lots of fun. Dr. Wright (Dr. Light), Dr. Wily, and most of the Robot Masters from the first three games are also featured (sufficiently mangled, of course).

Upon a Star: Mega Man Anime DVD Special
This was an old 3-episode set of anime (“Appearance in Japan,” “Wish upon a Star,” and “Future Beware”) that Capcom had made back in 1993 or so but never released until 2002. Even then, it was initially only released in Japan (even though it had already been dubbed into English). Three years later it was finally imported to region 1 folks by ADV Films. This may have some remote connection to the Mega Shows, primarily before the drawing style was changed (see the Promo), but this is pure speculation, and the plot is new. (The plot is also rather...off the wall. Mega Man and Wily are from the “game world” and know it. Most of the characters are somewhat wacky. For example, Dr. Wily opens a window in a second or third story room and jumps out without looking down first, and leaves a Wily-shaped print on the pavement. And that’s just the beginning. Also, apparently this show was created in association with a group which wants to spread knowledge of Japanese culture, because there’s a lot of explanations about Japan tossed in along the way. (Apparently, Mega Man is American. =)))