Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)

Mega Man is an animated television series multi-produced by Capcom, Ruby-Spears, Ashi Productions, and Ocean Productions that ran from 1994 to 1996, debuting in most markets on Saturday morning, September 11, 1994.

Episodes

Season One

Episode 1: The Beginning
Episode 2: Electric Nightmare
Episode 3: The Big Shake
Episode 4: Mega-Pinocchio
Episode 5: The Incredible Shrinking Mega Man
Episode 6: Bot Transfer
Episode 7: Ice Age
Episode 8: Cold Steel
Episode 9: Future Shock
Episode 10: Robosaur Park
Episode 11: The Strange Island Of Doctor Wily
Episode 12: The Mega Man In The Moon
Episode 13: 20,000 leaks Under The Sea

Season Two

Episode 14: Campus Commandos
Episode 15: The Day The Moon Fell
Episode 16: Showdown At Red Gulch
Episode 17: Terror of The Seven Seas
Episode 18: Mega Dreams
Episode 19: Robo Spider
Episode 20: Master of Disaster
Episode 21: Night of The Living Monster Bots
Episode 22: Curse of The Lion Men
Episode 23: Brain Bots
Episode 24: Bro Bots
Episode 25: Bad Day At Peril Park
Episode 26: Mega X

Season Three

Episode 27: Crime of The Century (Special episode)

Cast

Ian James Corlett - Mega Man, Rush, Snake Man, Metal Man, Mr. Zero, Karate Bot, Chef Bot, Bobby's father (ep. 25), Rudy, Officer (ep. 1), Security Guard (ep. 2), Robo Officers (ep. 2), Officers (ep. 6), Chief (ep. 7), Security Chief (ep. 18), Robo Waiter (ep. 19)
Scott McNeil - Proto Man, Dr. Wily, Eddie, Drill Man, Mayor (ep. 14), Insepector Hedley, Chauffeur Bot (ep. 5), Guard (ep. 7), Driver (ep. 8), Robo Guards (ep. 9), Guards (ep. 10), Civil Defense Bot (ep. 10), Worker (ep. 12), Station Commander (ep. 12), Security Bot 1 (ep. 15), Guard Bot (ep. 17), Security Commander (ep. 18), Conductor Bot (ep. 19), Brainwashed adult (ep. 25), Security Guard (ep. 27)
Jim Byrnes - Dr. Light, Quick Man, Gravity Man, Top Man, Gyro Man (in disguise), Sigma, Mayor (ep. 18), Captain Lee, Secretary of Defense, Tina's father, Mr. Farage, Admiral Hayley, Mitchell Deacon, Governor (ep. 2), Tackle Bots 5 and 8 (ep. 14), Actor (ep. 16)
Terry Klassen - Cut Man, Bomb Man, Pharaoh Man, Elec Man, Ice Man, Air Man, Crash Man, Magnet Man, Shadow Man, Drill Man, Toad Man, Hard Man, Dive Man, Dust Man, Crystal Man, Star Man, Wave Man, Dr. Petto, Otto Raptor, Professor Hanson, Tarr, Brain Bot, Hotel Manager (ep. 6), Male Tourist (ep. 6), Computer (ep. 7, 16, 19), Scientist 1 (ep. 9), Construction workers (ep. 11), Painter Bot (ep. 14), Student Bot (ep. 14), Head Scientist (ep. 16), Security Bot 2 (ep. 15), Astronaut 2 (ep. 18), Civilian (ep. 20), Judge (ep. 25) (also dialogue director)
Robyn Ross - Roll, Bree Ricotta, Evelyn Ray, Herbert's wife, Female Tourist (ep. 6), Cheer Bots (ep. 14), Woman (ep. 27)
Garry Chalk - Guts Man, Bright Man, Dark Man, Ring Man, Gyro Man, Spark Man (later in episode), Needle Man, Heat Man, Stone Man, Mayor (ep. 1, 4, 27), Captain Evans, Morris, Mr. Rozenko, General Hawthorne, Lotos, Franken Bot, Robo Officers (ep. 2), Officer (ep. 3), Cop Bot (ep. 9), MCC Commander (ep. 12), Tackle Bots 2, 4 and 7 (ep. 14), Sheriff (ep. 16), Captain (ep. 17), Driver (ep. 21), Astronaut 1 (ep. 18), Newscaster (ep. 22), University Professor (ep. 23)
Cathy Weseluck - Doris, Robobeautician (ep. 2)
Kathleen Barr - Bobby (ep. 7)
Richard Newman - Wood Man, Spark Mandrill
Tony Sampson - Gemini Man, Spark Man (earlier in episode)
Louise Valance - Janet, Mary's mother
Phil Hayes
Marcus Turner - Ramon
Shirley Milliner - Ms. Lapierre, Ms. Pendergast, Principal (ep. 7)
Kaitlyn Stewart - Annie
Michael Donovan - Mega Man X, Uncle Jet, Scientist 2 (ep. 9)
Jay Brazeau - Eugene Fister
Crystaleen O'Bray - Tina
Christopher Turner - Bobby (ep. 25, uncredited)
Venus Terzo - Funworld employee, Female park patrons (ep. 25, uncredited)
Lee Tockar - Vile (uncredited)

(*Note: there is some speculation as to which voice actress played Roll and it is not 100% confirmed which episodes -if any - which Robyn Ross voiced Roll. Some fans have noticed a slight change to Roll's voice over the course of the show.^{[Citation needed]}

Promo

A promotional video of the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon in its early stages shows the cartoon with aesthetics faithful to the art direction of the games, similar to Mega Man: Upon a Star. However, after the show was green-lit into production, Ruby-Spears gave it a complete overhaul, "Americanizing" the cartoon.^[1]
- One clip from the cartoon promo was used by Capcom of Japan in the Mega Man 7 commercial.

Canceled Projects

Reportedly, Marvel Comics had picked up the rights to produce a monthly series based on the Mega Man shows. However, the deal fell through when the show was canceled by Capcom. This was reported on the popular fan site mmhp.net Mega Man Home Page, but the reference to the canceled series has since been removed. The truth is still not known for sure.
Ruby-Spears once planned on doing a Mega Man X spin-off cartoon, but this never came to be due to the main show cancellation.^[2]

Music

The composers of the music heard on the Mega Man show and its main theme are from John Mitchell and Tom Keenlyside.
Mega Man's background music was subsequently used in Ocean Studio's dub for the Dragon Ball Z anime series.

Differences from the games

Unlike the games, when Mega Man gains or uses a new weapon, he does not change colors. Instead, it shows him downloading the weapon. The weapons do not always function as they do in games, such as defeating Gyro Man instead gave Mega Man the use of his back-mounted gyro, allowing him to fly.
Mega Man and Proto Man are only able to transform their left forearms into buster cannons, said forearms being decorated with rivited metal at the wrist, resulting in assymetrical designs.
Rush is able to talk in the cartoon, although in broken english similar to the voice of Scooby Doo.
Roll possesses a variety of household machines repurposed into weapons built into her left arm, the most common of which being a superpowered vacuum cleaner, whereas in any video game appearance she makes with a combat role, she instead uses external weaponry.
In the cartoon, Proto Man acts very differently from his video game counterpart. In the cartoon he is a full fledged member of Dr. Wily's robots, and is bitter rivals with Mega Man. He's also cocky, arrogant, and not as mysterious as his video game counterpart. Common perception is that the creators of the show did not complete MM3 or 4; however, it is more likely that they simply needed an appropriate rival for Mega Man, as Bass was not created until after the show went into production. This is further supplemented by the fact Dark Man 2 appeared alongside Proto Man in two episodes of the cartoon.

Reruns/Releases

Some time after the show was no longer airing on television, reruns were picked up by the Fox Family channel (which has since been taken over by ABC). Some episodes were heavily edited for content, such as the show's intro, which featured a city under attack, and later in ruins, were edited, and scenes where Roll was attacked by a male robot were removed. The unedited episodes are now available on DVD in box sets by ADV video. The first season set is titled A Hero is Born. The second season set (which includes the lone third season episode) is titled Battle for the Future.
The PlayStation 2 version of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection contains "The Beginning", which is made available by the defeat of Astro Man in Mega Man 8.

Videos

Below is a rare television commercial, which contains some of the animated sequences from the original promo reel mentioned above. Also below is a video of Scott McNeil doing Proto Man, Dr. Wily, and Eddie's voices at a convention.

Mega Man cartoon commercial

Scott McNeil as Dr Wily and Protoman

Trivia

A majority of the voice actors from the series also did regular work on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Some specific ones include:
- Ian James Corlett - Coconuts
- Kathleen Barr - Katella
- Scott McNeil - MacHopper
- Terry Klassen - Dr. Quark
- Garry Chalk - Grounder and Captain Rescue (Dr. Robotnik in Sonic Underground)
- Jay Brazeau - Spelunk
The Emerald Spears group in Archie Comics' Mega Man series is an allusion to Ruby Spears, the creators of the cartoon.^[3] The series also featured characters from this cartoon in its Short Circuits humor comics, notably having several of them appear in Issue 55.
One of the reasons for the show's cancellation is that Bandai had cut several toy lines because they were not meeting sales expectations and had supposedly been putting merchandising pressure on Capcom. Despite having great ratings, the show was cancelled before a third season could be fully planned. There were more toys that were in production that were also scrapped as a result.^[2]
No Robot Masters from Mega Man 6 or Mega Man 7 ever appeared in the series, though the former was released a year before the cartoon first aired and the latter immediately before the end of the first season.
All Robot Masters from Mega Man and Mega Man 3 appeared in the series. Of the first five games, the ones who didn't make it into the show are:
- Bubble Man and Flash Man from Mega Man 2.
- Skull Man from Mega Man 4 (possibly because producers thought his appearance was inappropriate for a children's show).
- Charge Man from Mega Man 5. Though Napalm Man didn't appear in any episodes, he appeared in the opening theme.
  - Despite their absences, it is shown on the IMDB page for this cartoon that Charge Man, Plant Man, and Knight Man had voice actors, hinting that the cartoon would also feature robots from Mega Man 6.
The Battontons from Mega Man 4 appear on a few episodes of this series.
One Met appears in the first episode, and acts as a medical bot to the Light family. This Met is referred to by others as "Doc", but he never appears again afterwards.

References

↑ Protodude's Rockman Corner: Original Mega Man Cartoon Pitch Unearthed.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Interview with Joe Ruby on the American Mega Man cartoon.
↑ Letter page of Mega Man #13.

[1] Protodude's Rockman Corner: Original Mega Man Cartoon Pitch Unearthed.

[Ruby-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Interview with Joe Ruby on the American Mega Man cartoon.

[3] Letter page of Mega Man #13.

[1]

[2]

[3]

MMKB