"Mega Man" will be getting a Mega-new Mega-animated series!

[mr3urious]

It will be produced by Man of Action Entertainment, the same guys behind Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble on Disney XD, and will be set to release in 2017, the year of the franchise's 30th anniversary. Going by those former shows, I'm guessing it will utilize traditional animation with a lot of conspicuous CG.

http://deadline.com/2015/06/mega-man-video-game-tv-animated-series-1201435971/

I'd say it's about time for a new cartoon to come out. The last time the classic Mega Man got one was back in the '90s, and that was just okay beyond the "Guts Man's @@@" meme. Now the only thing left is for Nintendo to license out a new Mario cartoon.

 

[Drtooth]

1) Love how video games from every single company besides Nintendo are being produced again. Seriously... Nintendo, get that stick out of your warp pipe and give us a Mario cartoon again.

2) Gotta love how Man of Action, Nintendo, and Archie care more about the character and franchise than Capcom (to be fair, Cap is licensing the character out).

And 3) There really should be more video game cartoon redos like this one, as cartoon producers actually have played these games to the point of overreference in other cartoons.

Considering this isn't going to get a release until 2 years from now, I wonder how this effects the Archie series and what influence either has on each other. Mega Man classic universe has been animated three times, Captain N (which frankly gets a LOT more hate than it deserves, Mega Man sounding like Peepeye aside), the Ruby Spears series (which also gets the business when it isn't terrible, at the very least Scott McNeil hams the heck up in it), and the weird anime for Japan teaching Japanese children about Japan (which I still don't get) that essentially uses the same plotline as the Ganbare Goemon series (the game characters coming into the "real world" in an attempt to relate to Japanese school children). As extremely excited as I am about this, I kinda wish there was a way they'd just skip to a Mega Man X series instead, as that only had one OVA and that weird appearance in the Ruby Spears series.

But overall, it's a shame that Mega Man's biggest hit in animation wasn't even classic universe. Just that Rockman.exe series that was Americanized as freaking heck over here and only imported so they could market it as something Pokemon-y. Not that there weren't some great voice talents behind it, but the dub was..well...off. I especially hated how they had to deal with takoyaki in one episode by adding lame dialogue about how disgusting "octopus puffs" (or something equally stupid) were. Especially since the animation on them looked so freaking happy to eat something that's essentially as normal as a corn dog is over here.

I just hope this time the toy company doesn't throw them under a bus even if the ratings are good.

 

[mr3urious]

As extremely excited as I am about this, I kinda wish there was a way they'd just skip to a Mega Man X series instead, as that only had one OVA and that weird appearance in the Ruby Spears series.

Maybe an episode or an arc where the classic characters meet the X series characters? That I'd like to see.

 

[Drtooth]

Gonna happen in this comics crossover event. Hopefully the animated counterpart will be closer to this than the last time. Which is really a shame because they did have some interesting concepts that would have worked wonders in animated form. But Ban-Dai's crummy toy line didn't sell, so...

(what's worse is the fact the same cruddy toy line no one bought back in 96 are going for top freaking dollar online).

But I have to admit, as dumb as Peepeye Mega Man was, they certainly got some great concepts for Wily in Captain N. I don't see why that never gets the attention it deserved. I loved his role as essentially a well behaved Starscream-ish character that thought Mother Brain was a nitwit and plotted against her behind her back. Too bad that never really went anywhere, but I really liked how he was treated in the series. May have got some essential things either wrong or off, but Wily was dead on. Even managed to give him the Germanic accent before Scott did. Plus, all things considered, their Mega Man 1 and 3 adaptions were pretty close. Other than that weird bit where all the Robot Masters were in Cut Man's stage (and even then, that was only due to a bad line of dialogue), and the fact they got the language mixed up in the 3 adaption (the Doku Robot/Doc Robot mistranslation, which everyone at Nintendo's American branch screwed up anyway).

 

[The Count]

So long as the voicework sounds correct and the action/story's good, plus featuring the total wealth of Robot Masters then I'll check it out when it airs in two years time.

The Ruby Spears version was the one I grew up with during the last years of good sight I had... The one thing that made that the version I cling to after all these years is the RM's were finally full human height the way they should all be. Though the one thing I criticize is the overuse of certain RM's. Which is why I hope all ten games from the classic series plus the two Mega Man & Bass games are included in this.

The Battle Network series, that was titled Mega Man NT Warrior, and then changed to Access.
Yeah, NT? You seriously have to follow the over-shortening words for "net" to "NT"?

There was also the Star Force series, which CN aired on a Saturday night and then promptly dumped off. Kinda like what happened with Robots in Disguise. C'mon CN, you can fill your Saturday afternoon/evening hours with the shows you're killing off in the ubber-annoying sunrise hours.

As for the toyline... I happen to own the PVC figures of the characters from Mega Man 1: Dr. Light, Proto, Mega, Cut, Guts, Bomb, Fire Man, and Roll. I'm only missing the releases of Dr. Wily, Rush, and Ice and Elec Man (which the backing for some reason spelled as "Eleck" instead).
There's a small convention that takes place here in my home on or about the first Sunday of every three months, the next one is in two weeks. I went with my friend to the last one held in March. And hey, lo and behold, we found a few cool RM action figures! Of course, after the initial surprise, I lapsed into critic mode... The Guts Man figure's left arm cannon was missing the fist and instead had this cross-shaped plug, perhaps for plugging into the square boulder weapon accessory? The figure of Bass was missing his right arm's shoulder pad. And the Magnet Man figure was complete, but the magnet head helmet and large magnet shoulder pads were facing back away ffrom the body. Uh, shouldn't the one on the head helmet at least be pointing up so he can mimick jumping up to stick to the ceiling as part of his attack?
The reason I'm adding this explanation in my post is because I can't find any info on these figures at the MM Wiki, no manufacturer name nor year nor nothing. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mr3urious]

The Battle Network series, that was titled Mega Man NT Warrior, and then changed to Access.
Yeah, NT? You seriously have to follow the over-shortening words for "net" to "NT"?

It's short for Network Transmission.

 

[Drtooth]

The Ruby Spears version was the one I grew up with during the last years of good sight I had... The one thing that made that the version I cling to after all these years is the RM's were finally full human height the way they should all be. Though the one thing I criticize is the overuse of certain RM's. Which is why I hope all ten games from the classic series plus the two Mega Man & Bass games are included in this.

It really is a shame the show lasted only 2 seasons because they toyline was so sparse. Of course, I was never able to get more than the Wily/Mega Man set. I didn't even get any of the jazzwires figures because they were hard to find and I really didn't have any money at the time. I got the very first MM action figure they released and then almost got Retro-Roto Gutsman and never did. Did manage to get some NT warrior stuff on clearance. Strange because I'm only so so with that one. Though the Manga is decent.

Anyway, it really feels like the Robot Masters could have made the toy line better, but they only had a couple at a time. I know the figure set had all the MM1 masters, some that didn't even appear on the show much. Really with the second series came out. They planned the MM2 masters for that one. Like only 2 of those guys even showed up.

But the show had real potential. I love the comics, I must admit, but they're adapting games directly and the writer is doing his darndest to make these comics non-repetitive considering how formulaic the game plotlines are. And as a result, there's some great side stories and story arcs to make sure it doesn't get stale. As a result, for 2 years and they only just finished the MM3 adaption before the new Sonic/MMX/Capcom/Sega crossover, all the while setting up MM4 and 5 elements. The cartoon went the opposite direction. They sorta adapted the first game (much like Captain N), and trailed off into 1980's-90's cartoon action show. Which worked for that series. I'm just hoping that the new series finds a better compromise between adaption and going it's own way.

 

[mr3urious]

This could very well be the new logo for the series. A very insignificant thing, but at least we know that the show is still moving forward.

Not a bad interpretation of the classic Mega Man and Rockman logos. I do like the red outline especially.

 

[mr3urious]

Here's another sneak peek at the series.

http://www.rockman-corner.com/2016/05/new-mega-man-2017-animated-series.html

Seems like Mega Man is his real name from the start rather than Rock, and he'll be going under the alias Aki Light this time, flying in the face of the long-established continuity. Don't see why they have to be so drastic with his new design, either. He looks like MegaMan.EXE if he got stranded in Tron.

 

[Drtooth]

While when it comes to Mega Man, beggars cannot be choosers, but I'm slightly less enthused the way this came out. Not going to not watch it and give it the benefit of the doubt, but I'm a little bummed they couldn't keep things a little more traditional. As long as it isn't as meh as the .exe anime. True, the overly kiddy dub did hurt the show for me, but even then I never really cared about that part of the franchise.