Mega Man | |
---|---|
Genre | Science fiction Action/Adventure Superhero |
Based on | Mega Man by Capcom |
Developed by | Joe Ruby Ken Spears |
Written by | Jeffrey Scott (season 1) Michael Maurer (season 2) Richard Merwin (seasons 1-2) |
Directed by | Katsumi Minokuchi (chief) |
Creative director | Cesar De Castro |
Voices of | Ian James Corlett Scott McNeil Jim Byrnes Terry Klassen Robyn Ross Garry Chalk |
Composers | Tom Keenlyside John Mitchell |
Country of origin | United States Japan |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 27 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Kenzo Tsujimoto Toshihiko Sato Joe Ruby Ken Spears |
Producers | Akio Sakai Jun Aida Eiichi Takahashi Daniel Kletzky |
Cinematography | Mitsuru Sugiura |
Editors | Craig Paulsen Toshio Henmi |
Running time | 24 minutes |
Production companies | Ruby-Spears Productions Ashi Productions Capcom |
Original release | |
Network | Syndication |
Release | September 11, 1994 – January 19, 1996 |
Related | |
Mega Man: Fully Charged |
Mega Man is a science fiction superhero animated television series co-produced by Ruby-Spears Productions and Ashi Productions, and based on the video game series of the same name by Capcom. [1] It aired from September 11, 1994 to January 19, 1996, lasting two seasons. A spin-off based on Mega Man X was planned, but did not go through. [2]
The rights to the series are currently owned by Shochiku.
Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were brilliant scientists in the field of robotics and coworkers at a laboratory. One day, they finished an extremely advanced prototype, but shortly after being activated, it began destroying the laboratory. Dr. Light believed that the prototype's guidance system, which Dr. Wily had personally programmed, was the source of the problem. Dr. Wily attempted to steal the plans later that night, but Dr. Light catches him. Despite this, Wily is able to steal the plans and uses them to construct Proto Man.
Later, Dr. Light builds Rock and Roll, advanced robots with personalities, along with Ice Man, Guts Man, and Cut Man. Dr. Wily and Proto Man steal Ice Man, Guts Man, and Cut Man, reprogramming them to be henchmen. Dr. Wily attempts to reprogram Rock and Roll, but Rock tricks Dr. Wily by telling him that Dr. Light also built "super warrior robots", and that if Rock and Roll are let go, he will tell him how to defeat the robots. Since Dr. Wily believes robots cannot lie, Rock uses this lie to cause a distraction and escape with Roll. Dr. Light decides to reprogram and reoutfit Rock into Mega Man, who from then on protects the world.
Various Robot Masters from the first five classic Mega Man games appear throughout the series, including Snake Man from Mega Man 3 , Elec Man from the original Mega Man, and Pharaoh Man from Mega Man 4 . None of the Robot Masters from Mega Man 6 made appearances, despite the show's first episode airing a year after the game's release.
Mega Man starred in a Saturday-morning style cartoon that premiered in 1994. Ruby-Spears, one of the producers of the show, redesigned the characters from the Mega Man video games to varying degrees. The show had a budget of 300,000 dollars per episode. [3] It was originally designed in an art style matching the games' artwork. "Appearance in Japan", the first episode of Mega Man: Upon a Star , was made as test footage and intended to be a special episode of the series, as it had the same animation and used the same voice actors as the cartoon in production. However, it was a big budget, and so the animation style had to change.[ citation needed ] The new art style was based on redesigns of the characters Keiji Inafune had done in his spare time.[ citation needed ] "Appearance in Japan" still aired on TV in 1994, as an after school special on various TV stations and in Japan on TV Tokyo. If the series' art style had not changed, it would've aired alongside two similarly cancelled shows: an English dub of Magic Knight Rayearth starring Venus Terzo as Luce, and an American adaptation of Sailor Moon utilizing live-action and animation with Adrienne Barbeau as Queen Beryl and Queen Serenity.
The theme and background music was composed and produced by John Lee Mitchell and Tom Keenlyside at Anitunes Music. An official soundtrack was also released in 1996 with songs by artists such as Sugar Ray, Machines of Loving Grace, Skid Row, Junior M.A.F.I.A., CIV, Mr. Big, The Bucketheads, and Inner Circle. [4] The cover of the soundtrack is from an early promotional image. Nearly all of the show's background music was reused in the early 2000s Westwood Media/Ocean Productions dub of Dragon Ball Z , which was the second dub of the series to feature the Ocean Productions cast, and which covered episodes 108 to 276. The recycled music from Mega Man replaced another soundtrack by Saban Entertainment, that was used on the earlier Ocean-voiced dub of episodes 1 to 53 (episodes 54 to 107 were never dubbed by the Ocean cast). [5]
# | Title | Written by | Airdate | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "The Beginning" | Mark Jones | September 11, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily can attacks the Kennedy Airport and Mega Man is crushed by a falling object, leaving him in need of repair. While Mega Man is being fixed, Dr. Light reveals his past history working with Dr. Wily and how it led to the events that happened that day. | ||||
2 | "Electric Nightmare" | Jeffrey Scott | September 18, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily takes over the power grid with a device that allows him to control machines through electricity. He then proceeds to attempt to take over the city with things like rampaging soda machines and runaway monorail cars and only Mega Man can stop his plans. | ||||
3 | "Mega-Pinocchio" | Michael Maurer | September 25, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily cons Mega Man into trying to become human, which he then uses to his advantage to reprogram the Blue Bomber. | ||||
4 | "The Big Shake" | Richard Merwin | October 2, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily has found a way to create earthquakes and demands the city surrender or be destroyed. Mega Man must go out in search of his new machine, while Dr. Light attempts to find a way to counteract Dr. Wily's earthquakes. | ||||
5 | "Robosaur Park" | Jeffrey Scott | October 9, 1994 | |
A devolution serum that only affects on robots is released. Now Dr. Light has to find an antidote so he can change back Mega Man and the other robots, before they destroy the city. | ||||
6 | "The Mega Man in the Moon" | Jeffrey Scott | October 16, 1994 | |
Mega Man goes after Dr. Wily, who wants to gain control of a giant laser on the Moon. | ||||
7 | "20,000 Leaks Under the Sea" | Martin Pasko | October 23, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily attacks an underwater mining operation, then tries to get rid of Dr. Light and Mega Man with a fake laboratory that turns out to be a mobile prison. | ||||
8 | "Incredible Shrinking Mega Man" | Gary Greenfield | October 30, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily steals three gems from a museum and uses them to shrink major cities and Mega Man with them. | ||||
9 | "Bot Transfer" | Richard Merwin | November 6, 1994 | |
Dr. Light, Mega Man, Roll, and Rush fly to a conference and encounter Dr. Wily’s robots on the airplane along the way. Turns out Wily has built transport chambers capable of somehow transferring circuits from one robot to another. Mega Man gets swapped into Snake Man’s body and has to save the world in that form. | ||||
10 | "Ice Age" | Jeffrey Scott | November 13, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily steals a super freeze technology from Zero Refrigeration Company to create a giant glacier and freeze cities, drive out their leaders, and replace them with his robots (and that’s in his words). Ice Man, however, decides he’s being replaced by Air Man and double-crosses the evil scientist. | ||||
11 | "Cold Steel" | Michael Maurer & Matt Uitz | November 20, 1994 | |
Dr. Wily's robots disguise themselves like a rock band to unleash a mind controlling music. Only Mega Man, Roll, and a young deaf girl remain unaffected. | ||||
12 | "Future Shock" | Michael Maurer | November 27, 1994 | |
Mega Man is accidentally booted to the future by Dr. Light’s new time machine, where he discovers that because he was not in the past to stop Dr. Wily, the evil scientist has taken over the planet. Mega Man must find his way back to his own time so that he can reverse this horrible future. | ||||
13 | "The Strange Island of Dr. Wily" | Richard Merwin | December 4, 1994 | |
Due to a malfunction in Dr. Wily’s newest invention, the scientist and his bots get stranded on an island with none other than Dr. Light, Mega Man, and Roll. With no other alternative, the good guys and the bad guys team up in an attempt to get off the island alive. Of course, Dr. Wily is using the truce as a way to get his invention back. |
# | # | Title | Written by | Airdate | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 | 1 | "Showdown at Red Gulch" | Micheal O'Mahony | September 10, 1995 | |
Dr. Wily finds a meteor with crystals that can super-power his robots. However, the crystals also have a nasty side effect of overloading the circuits of the robots using them after a random period of time. | |||||
15 | 2 | "Terror of the Seven Seas" | Matt Uitz | September 17, 1995 | |
Dr. Wily labors to create a sea fort, stealing navy battleships for parts. His plan works for a while but when Mega Man comes to investigate he soon learns of Dr. Wily's plot and puts a stop to it. | |||||
16 | 3 | "Mega Dreams" | Richard Merwin & Cheryl Biggs | September 24, 1995 | |
After seeing his new device can transfer his robots into dreams and then hypnotize humans in their sleep, Dr. Wily plots to use it to take control of the planet. | |||||
17 | 4 | "Robo-Spider" | Michael Maurer | October 1, 1995 | |
Dr. Light creates a supercomputer that can defend military bases. Dr. Wily wants to destroy the supercomputer and take over the military bases. He uses a robot spider to drain the city of all its energy, to destroy the supercomputer. | |||||
18 | 5 | "Master of Disaster" | Matt Uitz | October 8, 1995 | |
Dr. Wily frees a genie, trying to use his magic for world domination. Mega Man goes after Wily and tries to steal the magic chest, eventually having to fight the genie to stop Wily. | |||||
19 | 6 | "Night of the Living Monster Bots" | Doug Molitor | October 15, 1995 | |
Dr. Wily unleashes horror movie monster robots, which attack everything in sight. He films it as a threat to come if people do not pay to watch. Mega Man has to fight these monster robots and even his family and friends under their curse. | |||||
20 | 7 | "Curse of the Lion Men" | Gary Greenfield | October 22, 1995 | |
Dr. Wily's robots discover humanoid lion creatures who use their strange powers to turn people into lions and make robots obey them. Both Dr. Light and Dr. Wily are transformed and it's up to Mega Man to change them back. | |||||
21 | 8 | "The Day the Moon Fell" | Richard Merwin | October 29, 1995 | |
Dr. Wily has pulled the moon out of its orbit and closer to Earth, creating widespread disasters. Dr. Light now has to figure out a way to put the moon back into its correct orbit, while Mega Man must destroy Dr. Wily's device. | |||||
22 | 9 | "Campus Commandos" | Michael Maurer | November 5, 1995 | |
Light creates a college to school robots in various subjects, not the least of which is how to build his newest invention: an anti-gravity device. Dr. Wily on the other hand decides he wants the device for himself and attacks the school to get it, reprogramming many of the students to help him accomplish this task. | |||||
23 | 10 | "Brain Bots" | Mark Jones | November 12, 1995 | |
Mega Man must prevent Dr. Wily from stealing Dr. Light's new robot, Brain Bot. He is too late and Dr. Wily gets his hands on the robot, but thanks to Mega Man he does not have time to make any adjustments and the robot ends up helping Mega Man. | |||||
24 | 11 | "Bro Bots" | Evelyn Gabai | November 19, 1995 | |
Proto Man supposedly switches sides and Dr. Wily plots to replace city officials with robots. Mega Man is wary of Proto Man and has him watched at all times. He then overhears Proto Man talking to Dr. Wily about his plot and stops the whole thing. | |||||
25 | 12 | "Bad Day at Peril Park" | Michael Maurer | November 26, 1995 | |
Dr. Wily's amusement park, Fun World, is really a front to hypnotize the visitors into robots. | |||||
26 | 13 | "Mega X" | Michael Maurer & Richard Merwin | December 3, 1995 | |
The evil Mavericks, Vile and Spark Mandrill have arrived from the future and the two of them quickly prove far too powerful even for Mega Man. He is saved by Mega Man X who's in hot pursuit of the two Mavericks. Mega Man does not know what to make of everything but helps X anyway. They work together to stop both Dr. Wily and the Mavericks. | |||||
27 | 14 | "Crime of the Century" | Craig Ruby | January 19, 1996 | |
The twenty-seventh and final Episode of Mega Man. Dr. Wily reprograms a bunch of dolls and other toys to perform robberies all over the city. However, it's all just a diversion so Wily can get his hands on something much more valuable: a giant black pearl. Mega Man has to figure out his plan and stop Wily's final plot, once and for all. | |||||
Mega Man entered first-run syndication in the United States on September 17, 1994, [6] and aired new episodes through January 1996. It was rerun on Fox Family Channel (now Freeform) between 1999 and 2001.
Episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder beginning in January 1995. [7]
The entire series was released on 2 DVD sets by ADV Films in 2003. Both sets are now out-of-print. In 2009, ADV Films re-released the 1st half of the series, but was shut down in 2009. Discotek Media released the entire series on September 30, 2014. [8] [9]
At one time, Mega Man was placed as the number one weekly syndicated children's show in the Nielsen ratings. [10]
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