Mega Man Megamix

Cut Man: I don't have any data on you... WHO ARE YOU?!

???: Me...? My name is Rock... But I'm also Mega Man!
—Mega Man Megamix, Volume 1: "The Birth of Mega Man"

The fan favorite and oft celebrated adaptation of the classic Mega Man series by Hitoshi Ariga. Well known inside the fandom but never released in the west, it was originally known only to Japanese and the few western fans that could afford to import it. Scans and translations of the original stories were available, but only of the first few chapters. A well known petition circulated for years, trying to get someone to pick up the series, but it seemed it was to no avail...

... That is, until recently, when publisher UDON announced that they would be bringing the series to the west. All three volumes have already been released, with the latter two including bonus content. For example: Volume 2 includes supplementary materials, like interviews with Kenji Inafune, Robot Master profiles, and comic strips based on the Soccer game (which are much less serious than the actual Megamix manga).

Megamix is known for its excellent storytelling, which also captures the feel of the Classic series while also telling it with a bit more depth and maturity. The theme of robot and human interaction is a big part of the story, and it can be heartwarming as well as action-packed.

Due to the success of Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, the series is getting a re-release in Japan as Rockman Gigamix, which collects the original volumes while also adding new material by Ariga. UDON has licensed Gigamix, and published all three of the new volumes as of November 2011.


Tropes used in Mega Man Megamix include:
  • A Boy and His X: A Boy And His Dog, a Boy And His Bird, a Boy and His Cat, a Boy and His Rocket Powered Sled...
    • And of course, Bass and Treble.
  • Action Girl: One of the one-page comic strips has Dr. Wily getting the bright idea of sending his robot masters to kidnap Roll. The next panel shows her looking at a pile of beaten-up robot masters with an annoyed expression and a frying pan. Sadly averted in the main story (most of the time) since she's not armored and doesn't have a built-in weapon. Her participation in Battle & Chase is caused by her feelings about this.
  • Actually a Doombot: Near the beginning of the The Greatest Enemy in History story arc, after Copy Mega Man foils Dr. Wily's plans, he shoots him in the forehead, only for the head to start bouncing on a spring, revealing it be a robot fake. The real Wily observed the event from his Wily Capsule, shocked at how Mega Man would shoot a human.
  • Adaptation Expansion: This, in SPADES. The series does an excellent job of building on a series not known for in-depth plots. From the way Ariga justifies the robot masters' abilities and weaknesses to expanding the personalities of characters who previously had NONE, Megamix is chock full of detail that makes the classic series feel much more alive.
  • Affably Evil: Dr. Wily fluctuates between this and actually being intimidating, particularly in the third story of volume 1, Metal Heart. The same goes for the third and fifth armies, in stark contrast to their predecessors from Mega Man 2.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Extensively played with to the point of Reconstruction.
    • Averted by Rock & Roll Light. Rock plays it straight in one storyline but it turns to be Copy-Rock, who subverts the trope because he's basically doing what he was programmed to do. May count as a Double Subversion. Alternatively, Rock becoming a hero is a subversion.
    • Subverted by the Yellow Devil Mk. II who just wants to be reunited with his mother and when Proto Man does a Batman Gambit. Proto Man may qualify as another Double Subversion, as he joined Wily willingly (playing it straight), left and now follows his own agenda, which often involves things like harming his siblings or provoking Bass to attack Rock. Also, the Cossackbots.
    • Justified for Bass and the reprogrammed Lightbots. Justified and Subverted by Skull Man via Death Equals Redemption.
    • Defied by the imposition of the three laws: enforced by the racism that exists because of public awareness of this trope.
    • Inverted by the Mega Man 5 Wilybots, who are fairly heroic in the amusement park chapter.
    • Deconstructed by the robot master rights issues and the fact the imposition of the three laws is responsible for the generator programming flaw Blues has, according to his bio. In other words, Proto Man is dying because Dr. Light was Wrong Genre Savvy and thought this trope might be played straight.
    • Zig Zagged by Bass.
    • Wily attempts to Exploit this with Copy-Rock, but Shadow Man is not able to kill Rock due to Proto Man's Batman Gambit.
    • Justified and invoked by both Light and Wily in Gigamix Vol. 2 at the very onset of robotic evolution as proven by a flashback to their initial partnership. By giving robots 'souls', they could adapt and achieve more than just simple programming and instruction could, fully aware of the problems this could result in.
  • All There in the Manual: One of the most famous things about the manga series is the level of depth placed into the Robot Master profiles and concept art at the end of the main manga, combined with some Adaptation Expansion, such as Cut and Metal having specially made hands designed to grip and catch their Absurdly Sharp Blade projectiles. Hell, Air Man's Tornado Arm works on Bernouli's Principle.
  • Aloof Big Brother: Proto Man to Mega Man.
  • Always Second Best: The reason for Wily's hatred of Dr. Light and his attempt to take over the world is that he's jealous of all the praise Dr. Light receives. The profiles at the end of volume 1 actually state that Wily is smarter than Dr. Light, but he was never able to fully realize his talent due to their teachers always fawning over Light and never really giving him a chance.
  • And the Adventure Continues...: The Stardroids are defeated... so here's Wily on his eighth attempt to conquer the world!
  • Anti-Hero: Proto Man does more than just fight Rock in this. Probably a type III.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Used for characterization in chapter three, where Rock is surprised Shadowman didn't already know what a yellow devil's weakness was. It becomes a plot point in Asteroid Blues, where it's Justified when Dr. Light reveals that he couldn't bring himself to trust Dr. Wily, so he deliberately built Gamma with a weak spot, just in case.
  • Apocalypse How: The Stardroids are fans of the Class 6 scenario, though it's heavily hinted that Sunstar can go all the way to Class X.
  • Art Evolution: While Ariga's early Megamix artwork is good and highly detailed, it looks a bit sketchy and hesitant at times, especially in comedic or filler arcs where characters often look Off-Model, and seldom uses shading in so it tends to look flat. His Gigamix art, however, is astonishingly gorgeous, with cleaner lines, more consistent character designs, shading, dramatic lighting, visual effects, and even greater detail, even in silly moments.
  • Axe Crazy: Bass. More so than usual, especially when he takes in the Hyper Energy Crystals and is overcome with their power. The Stardroids, who exist only to destroy. Blues does a very good impression. Heat Man is pretty nuts as well.
  • Badass: This version of Quick Man. Powerful, cool, collected, and able to use his powers in such a way to disable his rival, Flash Man, with ease.
    • No mention of Bass/Forte, Proto Man/Blues, Rock, or Elec Man?
  • Badass Longcoat: Blues wears a black one when he's passing for human.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: The Battle & Chase race. Also a bit of Throw the Dog a Bone. Didn't work out too well in the end, though.
  • Batman Gambit: Blues' modus operandi.
  • Berserk Button: A storyline in the second volume hinges on Blues hitting-running Bass', who then finds and hits Rock's in order to get Rock to fight him seriously.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Roll and the other Lightbots are Rock's younger siblings. There's also Blues.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The original Robot Masters in chapter 1, and then again in chapter 2. Blues, when he doesn't make things worse.
  • Big Damn Villains: The third army try to do this in volume three. Shadow Man succeeds, but at the cost of killing the toy robot AI that only wanted to see its mother.
    • In Shadow Man's defense, he might not have known that last part.
    • Also, Skull Man.
  • Black Cloak: The Mega Man 2 Robot Masters show up wearing hoods and cloaks at the end of the first chapter. They still have them when making their re-entrance a chapter later.
  • Black Eyes of Crazy: The Stardroids. Whoo boy, the Stardroids.
  • Blood From the Mouth: Proto Man coughs up blood at one point while fighting Mars, despite being a robot.
  • Blood Knight: Bass, who has no purpose in existence besides fighting to prove he's the strongest.
  • Blood Sport: Dr. Light disapproves of Battle and Chase because of this, and all Rock can say is that at least it's not as bad as the tournament in Mega Man 6. Dr. Light was supposed to give some sort of a speech for the WRO during it: at the end of the chapter we find out that he missed the whole thing because he couldn't find his ties. While Battle & Chase is a less serious chapter than many of the others, he was probably grateful for the excuse.
    • This is also why Rock is so worried about Roll's participation even before he finds out about the bomb. He resorts to things like lying and barricading a door to keep Dr. Light from finding out, knowing he'd be upset.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: The original Robot Masters, as in the original game.
  • Brought Down to Normal: The only possible purpose of Napalm Man is to blow up and burn down stuff, hence his name. So what does he do when all the Mega Man 5 Robot Masters are assigned by Dr. Wily to work at an amusement park to earn extra money? He's a receptionist. With grenades on his shoulders and missiles for arms.
    • This could be applied to all the robots working at the amusement park, but it's less pronounced because Napalm Man is a killing machine working a desk job, while Wave Man scrubbing floors makes a bit more sense.
  • Butt Monkey: Cut Man fills this role for the original team of Robot Masters.
  • Canon Foreigner: Not quite this example, but Shadow Man's portrayal in Megamix had a considerable affect on Battle Network's portrayal of the character, from his role as an assassin to his ability to move through shadows.
    • Though there was one in the original game (kind of), the portrayal of Copy Mega Man influenced and led to his inclusion in Mega Man Powered Up.
  • Catch a Falling Star: After destroying two Stardroids with the heat of atmospheric reentry, Shadow Man is saved from a high-altitude fall by Quick Man and his Mecha Dragon.
  • Ceiling Cling: Shadow Man first appears standing upside-down on the ceiling. His Scarf of Asskicking manages to defy gravity right along with him, "hanging" up to coil around his feet on the surface of the ceiling.
  • Character Development: Rock. The first Gigamix volume does a great job demonstrating this, since the stories it contains are pretty far apart in the timeline.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Wily never did get around to launching those last three, space-worthy Skull Satellites...
  • Cloning Blues: Sniper Joes are inferior copies of Blues, as well as the Darkmen. They're intellectually inferior and he tends to destroy them on sight. A more typical example would be Copy Mega Man.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Most teams have at least one, but Star Man takes the cake.
  • Composite Character: Sort of, more along the lines of a particular detail being recursively added in. The White Giant first emerges from an Asteroid. The original Duo flew around in space under his own power. The Duo of Battle Network, however, used a meteor to travel the universe.
  • Continuity Cameo: Ribitta and Sunayama appear as staff covering the Battle and Chase. Charlie is also seen as a TV announcer multiple times.
  • Continuity Nod: Within the series itself. Wily equips Proto Man with an alien power crystal found in the Asteroid Alpha ruins. When Terra of the Stardroids roams around the city, he detects that same crystal and recognizes it as "one of [their] own."
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Blues, when he just wants to get people out of his way, and Bass vs. Rock, until Rock got serious.
    • Almost every single battle in Gigamix Vol. 2 counts.
  • Darker and Edgier: In spades. Some have compared it to The Protomen.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Shadow Man and Shade Man.
  • Dead Ex Machina: In Gigamix Vol. 3, a vision of Skull Man appears to terrify Pluto and give Ring Man the fortitude and moral support to defeat his enemy.
  • Determinator: Every single Lightbot refuses to back down against the Stardroids, even if they're missing a limb or two.
  • Development Gag: In Gigamix Vol. 2 and 3, Duo is rebuilt by Dr. Cossack. Duo was originally going to be one of Dr. Cossack's robots in the games, but this was changed, and he came from space.
  • Damsel in Distress: When Darkmen attempt to kidnap Roll, Bass saves her... but then decides they had a pretty good idea, actually, and uses her as bait to get Mega Man to fight him. It's actually Blues that rescues her from the crane she's tied to. Also, in the Skull Man storyline, Kalinka is kidnapped along with Roll, and in danger of freezing to death. In order to buy her time, Roll deliberately overheats. Kalinka gets this a lot: justified since as a young human she's too fragile to be an Action Girl and Wily, and others, are aware of what a valuable hostage she makes. In one storyline, Blues takes advantage of this.
  • Driven to Heroic Sacrifice: Copy Mega Man. By Blues.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: If you look closely at the backgrounds, most of the Stardroids show up in the background as engravings on the Asteroid Alpha ruins during "Asteroid Blues."
    • Duo and the Eighth Numbers show up in bonus gag comics during the Megamix series, even though they don't have any plot appearances until Gigamix.
  • Enemy Mine: In chapter three, Wily and Dr. Light's forces team up to stop the rampaging Yellow Devil.
    • And again in Gigamix Vol. 2 under the threat of the Stardroids.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Dr. Wily had Shadow Man remove the bomb from Roll's car because of this.
  • Evil Knockoff: Copy Mega Man, meaning the Mega Man the player was controlling in Mega Man 6 was this. Technically, also Bass. The idea behind the all-Roll soccer team in the soccer strips, but it takes Dr. Wily a lot of work to make them anything resembling evil.
  • Evil Laugh: Bass and Wily, of course, and Blues' is good enough too, let alone Roll.
  • Explosive Overclocking: Proto Man, armed with a customized buster that uses an alien crystal power source, supercharges a blast in order to prevent a spaceship with Dr. Light on it from crashing on an asteroid. The custom buster blows in half afterward, but he can still use it to some capacity.
  • Eye Scream: Terra rips out and EATS Saturn's eye in Gigamix Vol. 3.
  • Fake Defector: Elec Man pulls this on Dr. Wily.
  • Fantastic Racism: Kalinka Cossack. Though to be fair, maybe she was still traumatized by the events of the 4th game. She's also just had her father kidnapped by a robot and is very overwrought: she tends to regret the things she says to Roll as soon as she says them.
    • It's implied that this is a common attitude towards robot masters. Dr. Cossack writing a book saying they should be seen as friends and equals prompted the Skull Man storyline.
  • Fatherly Scientist: Drs. Light & Cossack except Dr. Cossack can't stand the sight of Skull Man, who was built on Dr. Wily's orders and according to the character profile Dr. Cossack sees his existence as Nightmare Fuel, the opposite of everything he'd intended. Dr. Cossack does eventually see him as part of the family, but Skullman dies soon after.
    • Wily, of all people, can be this toward the Wilybots...in a manner of speaking. Wily demands he be there to fight with his creations after the 'White Giant' destroys almost all of them. Shade Man reveals in Gigamix Vol. 2 that the reason he's so quick to retreat and abandon them against Rock is that Rock and Light are fundamentally decent opponents. Against a real, truly antagonistic threat, he shows how much pride he has in his own 'children'.
  • Feathered Fiend: Reggae's first act is to attack Rush, and continues to torment him at every opportunity. He's also a spy for Wily's new Robot Masters.
  • Feuding Families: According to Airman, anyway.
  • Flawed Prototype: Double Subverted. Proto Man doesn't have the flaw in his power system that will probably kill him someday because it was a prototype, it's there because Dr. Light tried to install a buggy version of the three laws in order to control him and it messed up his power systems. No wonder he's paranoid about Dr. Light taking his free will away if given the opportunity and won't let Dr. Light 'fix' him: Proto Man is dying because Dr. Light already tried to do that. On top of the fact he can't trust Dr. Light, it's possible that the power system programming flaw can't be fixed without fixing the three laws programming, in which case he really would lose his free will if he was fixed. Of course, this universe's robot masters aren't very "Three Laws"-Compliant. Roll and Rock would be happy to show him how it's done.
  • Frictionless Reentry: Shadow Man pushes Neptune and Mercury ahead of him and plunges back into the atmosphere from low Earth orbit. While Mercury melts himself down to hide and protect himself from the heat, Shadow Man is spared because Neptune's bulk protects him from the worst of the damage. Too bad for Neptune that there was nothing protecting him...
  • Gatling Good: Needle Man is portrayed with belt-fed arm cannons.
  • Genre Savvy: Rock has his moments, especially in the Battle and Chase story.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Blues is morally questionable and often times a flat-out jerk, but rarely will he do anything that isn't pushing toward good ends.
  • Guile Hero / Manipulative Bastard: Blues, who has Rock and Bass' best interests at heart but has no problem manipulating Bass into attacking an injured Rock, for example. Even worse is the time he basically set Copy-Mega Man up to commit suicide.
  • Hannibal Has a Point: When the Stardoids all but demolish the Light Numbers, Dr. Light refuses to repair his own "children" as long as they intend to return to battle (and possibly be destroyed permanently.) After Wily offers to repair them instead, and Light gets pissed at him for it, Wily goes on an epic tirade about how hypocritical it is for Light to deny his creations the power of choice.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Duo in the Bonus Strips from Megamix is an absurdly strict, hypercritical, hair-triggered Knight Templar. This is played for laughs. Come the 'White Giant' in Gigamix Vol. 2. He's an absurdly strict, hypercritical, hair-triggered Knight Templar...who utterly decimates Wily's forces almost down to the last bot, and was willing to destroy all the Light Bots too just for being in the way. This is not played for laughs.
  • Heroic RROD: Taking in a Hyper Energy Crystal can overload your circuits and send you into an uncontrollable battle frenzy.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Roll overheats in order to keep Kalinka from freezing to death. Fortunately, they're found in time. Copy Mega Man does this: not only does he save Mega Man, but he was there in the first place to die on camera to clear Mega Man's name.
    • In Gigamix Vol. 2.....whoo boy, where to start? The Wily Numbers Third and Seventh group (the Robot Masters from those games) all assault the rampaging 'White Giant' after Wily, knowing they'll fail. Shade Man offers to be a decoy, knowing full well he won't stand up to it either, just so Shadow Man can escape to get Wily healed up. The Fifths attempt to do this as well to rescue Rock, Cut Man, and Elec Man, to no avail. Not to mention the tournament robots from the sixth game and A THOUSAND FIGHTING ROBOTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD assaulting Terra at once to protect the humans despite knowing its a futile fight.
    • In Gigamix Vol. 3, Mega Man's brain unit has been fatally damaged by Terra. Realizing he is the same model as Rock, Cut Man offers his own hardware to help fix his brother, even at the cost of his own personality. Later, Wily and Light reveal that they backed him up in Roll's unused memory sectors.
  • Hope Spot: Twice in Gigamix Vol. 3:
    • Duo's here to save the day! ...until Saturn's black hole warps him into an ambush with all the Stardroids, leaving everyone on Earth vulnerable to Terra's assault.
    • Mega Man goes down with a blast through the head... which was faked by Wily, who deliberately disabled (but not destroyed) Mega Man's brain circuitry so that Terra wouldn't stick around to destroy him irreparably. Mega Man will be okay! But then Wily and Light notice that Terra did in fact discover the ruse and delivered his own small, but fatal, blow, hidden by Wily's blast.
  • Hover Board: Both Item 2 and Rush's Rush Jet form.
  • Humongous Mecha: Gamma is finally seen in his full glory, and he's gigantic. The "White Giant," while smaller, positively towers over all other robots.
  • Implacable Man: The 'White Giant', an alien robot that erupted from the asteroid used in "Asteroid Blues", demands that all evil in the universe be purged. Did we mention he can tear through Wilybots like they were paper mache and refuses to compromise or slow down? At all?
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In the Mega Man Soccer comics, Wily installs his Evil Chips on the Copy-Rolls to defeat Mega Man at soccer. She spectacularly fails to become any sort of evil --though she does neglect to separate the recycling from the trash.
  • Instant Armor: How the very human-looking Rock becomes the armored, Arm Cannon-equipped Mega Man.
  • Interrupted Cooldown Hug: In "Metal Heart", it seems that the Yellow Devil is finally going to reach its mother, the Mother Computer, only for Shadow Man to impale the Yellow Devil's weakpoint and cause critical damage to both it and the Mother Computer.
  • It Was His Sled: The series doesn't even try to tease at who Proto Man is, as the third game gets barely a page of summation in chapter three. On the other hand, Blues' identity may not be very well known in-universe. No one except Dr. Light recognizes him when he first shows up dressed like a human, and Elec Man can't connect the dots even after hearing Dr. Light ask the person who just defeated all of them without even using a weapon (clearly not human strength) if his power source was alright (which implied that Dr. Light had worked on him at some point). Of course, given the fact the original robot masters were nearly destroyed for going rogue while reprogrammed, they're not going to want to tell the world about a robot that went rogue because it felt like it. Especially interesting since the chapter clearly takes place after the fifth game, since the robot masters from it have been around for awhile, same with the Darkmen.
  • Kick the Dog: Blues has several of these moments, like dismembering his siblings to keep them and Dr. Light from going to help Rock.
  • Killed Off for Real: No matter how badly damaged they are, Robot Masters are eventually repaired and put back on their feet after every battle with Mega Man. Not so for Skull Man, who was laid to rest for good.
  • Kill'Em All: By volume 2 of Gigamix, every Robot Master except the ones from the first game, the fourth game and Shadow Man are killed by either the "White Giant" or the Stardroids.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: A way to interpret Blues, although he'll cheerfully maim them or allow them to be placed in danger.
  • Les Yay: Kalinka and Roll. In the story where they battle Skull Man, they have to huddle together to avoid Kalinka freezing, with Roll nearly overheating herself in order to save her life.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: Rock's initial upgrading into Mega Man. Lampshaded by Bass, who realizes that he needs to hurt or threaten others to unlock Mega Man's true power, but instead of attacking Roll he bombs a city. Rock is shocked when he sees Blues annihilating some sniper joes, which implies that he was holding back when he fought Rock before.
  • Light Is Not Good: No, not Dr. Light. The 'White Giant' from Gigamix Vol. 2 plays with this, being an uncompromising Knight Templar seeking to destroy all evil in the universe, but with a severely low threshold for what counts as 'evil'. See also Good Is Not Nice above.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: Played straight for the reader but inverted in-universe for Blues and Kalinka during the Copy Mega Man storyline. They think he would, but he wouldn't.
  • Lost in Translation: A part of the end of Asteroid Blues only makes sense if the reader is already aware that Proto Man's Japanese name is Blues.
  • Made of Ceramic Titanium: Rock refuses to go down easy no matter what opponent he's facing. As the Lightbots prove against the Stardroids, this seems to be a family trait.
  • Mad Scientist: Wily, of course, but Auto is pretty out there himself.
  • Mama Bear / Housewife / Wrench Wench: It's made clear from her first appearance that Roll is in charge of the Light household, quite willing to order Dr. Light around and hit her younger brothers with a screwdriver to make them hold still to be repaired.
  • Mayincatec: The ruins of Asteroid Alpha.
  • McNinja: Shadow Man. Interestingly, done more accurately than most depictions of ninja. While Shadow Man sees himself as a tool and will use dirty tactics to carry out Dr. Wily's orders, his main duty is apparently that of bodyguard and he's extremely honorable in the old Japanese sense (best shown in Gigamix Vol. 2). It's because he's an honorable character because of (instead of in spite of) being a ninja that his What the Hell, Hero? towards Blues is so effective, especially since that story arc is the one time he goes against Dr. Wily's orders, violating that honor code in order to help someone. The contrast is effective.
  • Mirror Match: Mega Man vs. Copy Mega Man: even they don't know which is the real one. Other robot masters were about to get involved when Blues stepped in.
  • Mister Exposition: Shadow Man is often used in order to get things across to the audience. In his first appearance in Megamix, he was used as something of a Foil Character for Rock, to help the reader understand Rock better as Shadow Man studied him. Then, in the final story of Megamix, he's the one that explains what is going on to Copy Mega Man, and his angry confrontation with Blues near the end explains the other half of the plot. At the end of Battle and Chase, he and Shade Man's conversation also reveals a few important facts. In a bit of Hypocritical Humor, Shade Man talking about what another character is really like annoys Shadow Man, since it reminds him of Blues, who fills this role (in a Manipulative Bastard way) in the story centered around Forte & Rock, and also told a few things to Copy Rock very cruelly.
  • Most Definitely Not a Villain: Darkman #4 in Battle & Chase is very insistent on the fact that he is Proto Man. And why wouldn't he? He's Proto Man after all!

Roll: You attacked Elec Man and the others!
Darkman #4: Yes... that's me. I'm Proto Man. I did those things.
Kalinka: WE TOLD YOU, WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!
Darkman #4: Eh??... but I'm Proto Man!

  • Mysterious Protector: Blues to Rock: the amusement park battle is the best example.
  • Never Found the Body: At the end of Gigamix Vol. 3, all that has ever been found of Proto Man is his broken helmet.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fatally damaging the "White Giant" results in the Stardroids breaking free from their confinement. But then, considering the kind of Knight Templar it is, it was always a lose-lose situation at best.
  • Noble Demon: Shade Man and Shadow Man, who are fiercely loyal to Wily but also work towards actual good.
  • Not So Above It All: Elec Man in the amusement park chapter.
  • Oh, Cisco: The first chapter ends with everyone laughing at Cut Man's hijinks.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Mega Man's battle with Bass once he gets serious. However, it went badly for Bass.
  • Older and Wiser: During the team-up with Wily's robot masters to fight the yellow devil, it's very clear that Rock is the most experienced one, down to sweatdropping at Snake Man's immaturity. Shadow Man not knowing something Rock thought everyone knew already results in a Crowning Moment of Funny.
    • This really shows in the first volume of Gigamix, which has two stories separated by a number of years. In the first, he's entirely taken in by Dr. Wily. In the second, he knows an anagram when he hears one, among other demonstrations of skill, so he's quite Genre Savvy.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: The Stardroids. They even say as much that their purpose is to destroy everything.
  • Omniscient Morality License: Blues, who is finally called out on it by Shadow Man in Vol. 3.
  • Only One: The manga actually shows why Rock is this: robot masters vs. conventional military forces is a Curb Stomp Battle. It's a discussed trope, since it's why he volunteered to be upgraded into a fighting robot in order to rescue his brothers. Of course: technically there were Only Two, since Dr. Wily hadn't stolen Roll, either.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: This is how Quick Man thinks of himself and Mega Man. When Flash Man tried to usurp this role (going as far as to save Mega Man's life from Quick Man's fatal strike) Quick Man immediately turned on him so he could have an uninterrupted duel with Mega Man.
  • Papa Wolf: Dr. Light is quite willing to put himself into danger for the sake of his children. Dr. Wily in Gigamix Vol. 2, where, seeing that the "White Giant" is not the merciful foe Mega Man is, he's so determined to stand by his robots that Shademan has to knock him out to get him to retreat.
  • Pet the Dog: Wily and Reggae, played straight and then subverted with the Yellow Devil. The revelation that Blues was the one who sent the imprisoned Dr. Light footage of what was going on in The Greatest Enemy is one, although he has several Kick the Dog moments in that story. Shadow Man rescuing Copy-Mega Man is this: it's something of a Hope Spot for the poor robot, since he immediately goes and throws his life away.
  • Playing Soccer With Wilybots: Ariga's Mega Man Soccer bonus strips. The Amusement Park visit counts as well (at least pre-Bass 'visit'). The original trope name would fit during the Battle & Chase chapter.before Wily's ego and desire for fame and money turns it into a Deadly Game instead, not to mention the antagonists hiding their identities in the beginning.
  • The Pollyanna: Rock's behavior towards Wily at the beginning of Asteroid Blues is unusually optimistic and friendly considering their recent history together. He goes so far as to express gratitude for getting to see Wily at work as an engineer.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: A somewhat more benevolent variation occurs when Dr. Wily uses a broken down toy robot as the brain of his new Yellow Devil. It's benevolent in that he took pity on and wanted to help a discarded machine... but it becomes morally ambiguous when you realize he turned it into a war machine and then ordered his robots to capture it or destroy it if they couldn't even when its revealed that all it wants to do is reach its original creator.
  • Punch Clock Villain: The fifth game's Robot Masters take this to an absurdly literal level, taking pride in being the 'Part-Timer' Squad due to their side jobs at the Amusement Park, and generally non-antagonistic behavior toward Rock.
  • Psycho Prototype: While Blues is generally well-intentioned, some of his tactics do make the reader wonder... as well as the other characters. He uses this to his advantage at least once. The attempt to avert this is what's killing him.
    • An alien civilization first created the Stardroids in order to harness the power of the Hyper Energy Crystals, which were unknown even to them.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: The portrayal of the third game's Robot Masters during "Metal Heart" (but a lot less quirky in their first chronological appearance, "Asteroid Blues.") The second game's robots, on the other hand, weren't quirky in the least.
    • The Fifth Numb-- that is, the Hourly-Pay Squad Part-Timers!! (Galaxy, Star, Napalm, Gyro, Crystal, Charge, and Stone) take this trope and run away with it.
  • Reluctant Warrior: Rock. Ariga makes an effort to draw him in human clothes as much as possible to point out that he was built to be a lab assistant, not a warrior: he doesn't fight because he wants to, he fights because he feels he has to.
  • Rescue Romance: Subverted by Bass' 'rescue' of Roll. Roll/Kalinka would qualify as this. Brutally subverted by Blues and Kalinka
  • Right Makes Might: Discussed Trope. Bass asks Blues what the source of Mega Man's power is. Blues says that it's a combination of the desire to protect everyone's future and The Determinator.

Blues: Don't you see...? He preserved your future today, too.

  • Robo-Family: Three of them. Four if you count the Yellow Devil and his mother.
  • Robot War: Some of Dr. Wily's robots want to 'make this a robot's world," as Metal Man says in the chapter where the original robot masters were ordered killed by the government even though they'd been unbrainwashed. Different robot masters seem to have different motivations for serving Dr. Wily, such as a code of obedience (Shadow Man), familial loyalty and, of course, being Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • Running Gag: Everyone except Mega Man calls Bass "that idiot" at least once. Even Roll.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: And how.
  • Sealed Evil In A Robot-Shaped Can: The 'White Giant', the uncompromising Implacable Robot from space that destroys nearly all the Wilybots to destroy evil in the universe is a living prison for 9 of the greatest evils in the universe: the Stardoids.
  • Sempai-Kohai: Freeze Man sees this as his relationship with Ice Man due to the latter being an older, more experienced "ice-type"- even though Ice Man is around half his height.
  • Shield Surf: When Proto Man decides to fly off into outer space to battle the Stardroids, he activates the hidden rocket boosters in his shield and rides it all the way to orbit.
  • Ship Tease: Bass and Roll, starting with the Rescue Romance that wasn't.
  • Shown Their Work: In spades, both in regards to all the detail and the references to both familiar and obscure moments from the games that Ariga throws in. A particularly notable one is in chapter 2, where Heat Man scarfs down on Crash Bombs - a nod to the fact that those weapons healed him when used against him in Mega Man 2.
    • He even included Tango, who showed up in only one game from the obscure Gameboy series.
      • Hell, he included the Stardroids from the same game as Tango.
  • Single Clean Cut Battle: Quick Man's specialty.
  • Single-Target Sexuality: YMMV as to whether Ice Man is this to Freeze Man, since there's little other evidence of romantic prospects.
  • Single Tear: Shadow Man in Gigamix Vol. 2.
  • Stealth Mentor: Surprisingly, the manga just briefly mentions Blues' time as this towards Rock.
  • The Stoic: Quick Man.
  • Super Prototype: Blues, although he wasn't originally constructed as a warbot. Can defeat several other robot masters at once, in seconds. The fact he's a Combat Pragmatist helps.
  • Tailor-Made Prison: In Asteroid Blues, Wily is sentenced to 2,000 years in solitary confinement, in a cell 100 meters underground. Six months into his sentence, he hasn't seen a single human face, and has managed to cover every available surface of his cell in equations and figures. Skull Man is angry because something analogous was done to him.
  • The Aesthetics of Technology: Both embraced and averted. There's the amazing robotics technology of 20XX, but it doesn't look that different from the modern era. Justified since it technically is the modern era: we're living in 20XX right now.
  • The Chessmaster: Blues. He tends to control every storyline he appears in, and will take measures to control where various pieces are on the field.
    • Shade Man shows his own expertise in Gigamix Vol. 3, regrouping the Wily Numbers, providing resources, and thinking up battle plans while everyone else was at a loss to what to do.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Bass, as is his usual role in this franchise. Elec Man tries to get in on this, but then he becomes good again.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: What Blues says when asked why he won't let anyone help Rock.
  • "Three Laws"-Compliant: Present, but not effective. They explicitly do more harm than good. Roll is able to disobey a direct order from Dr. Wily offhand (she may have invoked the first law to to so, but still), Rock will put himself in danger, the way he did to help the yellow devil, without human lives on the line (violation of the third law), and it seems easy enough for Dr. Wily to remove them from the robots he reprograms, or never install them in the first place. If he did program his robots with a set of laws focused on him, they're clearly not any more effective than the conventional laws. According to Blues' backstory, they were added in later by Dr. Light, and are buggy enough to interfere with the programming of his fusion generator (how he was meant to self-destruct if he violated them?) and cause the flaw that may one day kill him. Since they're that easy to get around, Rock probably could kill Dr. Wily.
    • In the story based on the sixth game, Wily begs for forgiveness and then pulls a (failed) sneak attack when Copy Mega Man turns around. He then gets shot in the face for his efforts. Turns out it was a robot double Wily left, but he was still shocked that Mega Man fired.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Mega Man and Copy Mega Man duke it out, with Mega Man getting the upper hand in spite of Copy's Mega Manning. Then, Copy starts to burn up as parts of him fall apart, revealing Dr. Wily's Evil Chip, leaving Copy to deny the fact until he looks at a window reflection.
  • Trickster Mentor: Blues to Rock.
  • Villainous Crossdresser: Quick Man in the Mega Man Soccer comics.
  • Villains Out Shopping: In one chapter, the Light family goes to an amusement park, only to find the Mega Man 5 Wilybots working there as part of a Broke Episode. They help protect the park against Bass. Also the soccer 4-koma strips included in Volume 2.
  • Weird Moon: The Stardroids' Dark Moon. It can be seen everywhere on Earth at once. Lampshaded by Wily, who infuriates Roll by telling her that it doesn't take a genius to notice there's something odd about that.
    • Bad Moon Rising: It's also growing, feeding on the rage and despair of the people (or robots) nearby.
    • That's No Moon: It's actually the cocoon for the planet-killing robot, Sunstar.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A common theme, particularly touched on in chapter 2, Skull Man's story, Wily and Light's reason for teaming up during their youth, and then again in the adaptation of Mega Man 9.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Blues gets this from several people.
    • Dr. Cossack gets this from Dr. Wily of all people because of Skull Man.
    • Wily gets to do this again to Dr. Light, of all people, after Light refuses to fix up the Lightbots if they continue to fight, out of fear of them being destroyed.
    • Shade Man to Shadow Man in Gigamix 2, since Shadow Man wants to stay and die alongside his brothers when it's his job to get Dr. Wily to safety. Earlier in Megamix, Shadow Man to Blues.
  • The Worf Effect: Several examples. Quick Man against Elec Man, Bass and Blues at different points vs the Light Bots. In Gigamix, the "White Giant" against the second, third and seventh numbers. The Stardroids against pretty much any character still standing, including Blues and the 5th and 6th games robot masters.
    • Especially notable is Terra, who effortlessly slaughters a thousand robots. Ariga hosted open submissions specifically to find robots for him to curbstomp.
    • Then there's Duo who within 5 panels of his introduction effortlessly defeats one of the Stardroids in one blow
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Once, Wily shows up on Dr. Light's doorstep and Rock ties him up without listening to Wily's lies or evil plans... except this takes place in the Mega Man Soccer comic strips/4koma and he was only there to invite Rock to a soccer game.
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