Hello and welcome to another "Director" commentary of Mega Man Animated runs! My name is Red and I'll be your host. Let's begin! I believe this is the first thing I drew for this episode. Both the helmet and the logo. And still one of the best Mega Man songs. Here you have my select screen. With brief alternate images for all : Dr Croissant + Ruby Spears designs (Ring, Dive, Toad and Dust) + Skeletor (that looks like Papyrus) + YuGi the OG Pharaoh + Crash Man because Drill Man is basically a copy. Blink and you'll miss it. So disable this wall of CC text and enjoy it. I simply love these colors, Sprite and animation. So I had to include it. I was also worried that a joke would not be understood (more on that later), so I tried to be subtle about it, but "explain it". That being the fact that Pharaoh Man's (and Mega Man's) weapon is charged by the sun. Interestingly, Pharaoh's Stage is visited at night. So again, I made the change noticeable. The Sun goes down and Mega Man waits for the night. He's a little sneaky if you think about it. Oh, and this time, I made sure to visually get the item (since a LOT of people complained about Magnet Beam in MM1) The item box and acquiring sound are from the Metal Gear series, of course. And I always found it funny, that after acquiring this item, Mega simply teleported inside the "pyramid" stage... why didn't you in the first place? Pharaoh Man's intro is based on an illustration of the character from the [Mega Man & Mega Man X Official Complete Works] by Higurashi.. ..where Pharaoh Man is surrounded by an aura and flying, according to the image he had in his mind. Pot of Greed, Anubis from MM .EXE, Indiana Jones and Aladdin. All a reference to how Pharaoh hates tomb raiders. And here is the "joke" I was so worried about. He starts to charge his [Pharaoh Shot] attack. And you can see the night sky again.. (Mega Man simply watches.. what a jerk) This clearly fails. And as Mega Man points out, there is no sun!!! This is a reference to Dragon Ball, where Master Roshi destroys the Moon to turn Goku back into a child. Image composition is basically a copy of that moment from the 1st Budokai tournament (even used the original Japanese dialogue). I love those fights. Continuing the theme of Metal Gear, MM sneaks behind the apologizing Pharaoh Man and necks him. I remember laughing a little bit too much myself at how long Pharaoh's death is here, and the sound of crashing metal that goes on forever. Proceeds to use the "Balloon" item as Fulton recovery to tie-in the reference. According to the TAS, Pharaoh's weapon is as broken as Metal Man's Blade. So this is the reason why you only see MM recovering his body (although uses weapons from other Masters) As well as adding the famous Ruby Spears moment, where Pharaoh punishes MM for taking his power. If you move frame-by-frame, you can even see a Ruby Spears Mega Man in the background of this punch-moment. I also LOVE the Mega Man face I was able to make. It's quite cute and funny at the same time. Some stage progression in Drill Man's Stage. There are a FEW clips through out the game, and the general speed of Mega Man's movement is represented here. Specially with the Balloon. I recommend watching the TAS!! Now Drill Man is a jerk, and he can take as long as he wants underground during the actual fight of the game. But this version of Mega Man waits for no one.. and so, it becomes a race between the two. The Mario Kart jingle can be heard here. I even added a Lakitu to make it even more obvious. Gosh.. even though almost everything here is hand-drawn, I still hate how bad I am at backgrounds (lol). Anyway, Mega Man has so much strength, that he can grab the rotating drill in his opponent's head and rip it off. Drill Man's rotation is also quite powerful, which causes his face to rotate instead. Killing him in the process. I think this is one of the fights that more resemble the style of my previous animation. It's Brutal and quick. I quite enjoyed drawing this whole thing (had a Gurren Lagann idea that was scrapped). Ah, Bright Man's stage.. I hate these bulb enemies and the whole darkness theme, simply because I was terrible at it. Even after getting revenge, they still manage to annoy you. The sound clip is from that famous "OH MY GOSH, STOP!!!" meme, where the guy is having a bad time in Madden on TV. Personally, I think this fight is the most elaborate. From the tongue joke.. To a secret frame during Mega Man's transformation! "Made you look" Anyway, this is another reference to the Budokai Tournament in Dragon Ball. Where Tien Shinhan uses the Taiyou-Ken (Sun Technique). Which, being a solar-powered technique, over charges Pharaoh's Shot. Bright Man should not be Pharaoh's Weakness, instead, you should be punished for using it against him. In this Solar Meter, you go from Dark Man to the "God" Sunstar!! This is also a Scott Pilgrim (movie) reference, where he has a "Pee Meter". Aaaaaaan dead...
This whole white and disappear moment, is probably my favorite thing I drew in this animation. I can't remember where this fanfare came from.. Azumanga Daioh, perhaps? This introduction is inspired by the Marvel VS Capcom arcade game I love so much. The sound and general idea was taken from it. And the literal meaning of fighting Ring Man!! Punch Out has got to be one of the best games on the NES (or ever!). Also, Brass Knuckles are technically rings.. right? I don't think I have much to say about this fight.. except it took the longest to create. Like someone said in the comments.. "You didn't have to, but you did."
I really wanted to do it, so I spent extra time looking at the game's original sprites to make it like it. The whole idea of the Mega Man games being a boxing-like fight with different bosses.. that's something I would play. Also, you can see Pac-Man, don Flamingo, Sonic and even Geno during this fight. It's the one place where I put in that many things (which I don't really like doing). And little details like Ring Man's head-ring rotating (like a headband?) when punched.. these kind of things make me smile. Of course, in the original game, when a Boss steps back, little Mac can't do anything about it.. Mega Man on the other hand.. Pants him and decks him. Fight over. Now.. no referee would take that, so he considers shooting Ring Man in the face cheating. But Mega Man is not here for a title, but for world dominati- ..saving the world. And a little reference to the Super Mario tv show. That song is adorable. Eddie was introduced in MM4. And sometimes.. just sometiiiimes.. he gives you garbage and wastes your time when you wait for him.. Oh Eddie, never change. Ah, Dust Man! Designed and submitted by Manga artists Yusuke Murata. Love his stuff. This whole fight was inspired by Dust Man's hate of RATS, and that was the original idea. To have a swarm of rats steal a ring from Mega Man and store it inside Dust Man, killing him. But it evolved into a different kind of pest, and a nod to Murata-sensei's [Gokiburi Busters] One-Shot Manga. If you can, I would recommend that you find it and read it! It's quite fun for a short story of cockroach exterminators. Also, fun fact. Dust Man has a cannon/buster in his hand that he never uses. And now that he finally does, he destroys himself. And this Mega Man face. Love it.
I got lucky while drawing these, I think. Mega Man finally learns why Dust Man was afraid of it.. and accidentally kills himself as well. I like to think Robots have a fault in their programming when it comes to cockroaches.. or something. This is Mega Man's taunt from the Marvel VS Capcom arcade game (again). Last time I used Jin's! Rush Jet allows for some dull moments in stage progression. In the TAS, there is a clip here, entering the stage from the wall. Catching Skull Man watching one of the horror movies he likes so much. I'm not very fond of Skull Man's design, but drawing his back side was fun. In the end, this ended up being my favorite fight. I wanted to include Rush somewhere, and this seemed the best place for it. It's quick, it's brutal and it's "smart".. Using Dust Man's Dust Crusher (weapon that compacts garbage into a projectile) is Skull Man's weakness. So I translated it to putting Skull in the trash. Yikes, this Mega Man has no mercy.. And this was my attempt at showing what [Flash Stopper] looks like to enemies. Weapon that is overused in this stage. Uh.. Was that Crystal Snail from Mega Man X2?? This one I cannot explain. Toad Man's fight is known to be one of the (if not THE) easiest of all Robot Masters. And I really like Battletoads!! Love the game as a child (although I never finished it). In general, the things I animate are things I would like to see or draw.. and I wanted to make this combo. It was a combination of the NES game and Super Battletoads. And of course.. ..also a reference to the very 1st Boss in the NES game (that turns the screen red and seems to have drill-like cannons on the side). And the famous expression in Rash's face was something I wanted to draw too!! The explosion is something I'm particularly proud off as well :V Dive Man's stage isn't as interesting, but there is a moment in the TAS where a "Moby" (whale) enemy spawns. Mega Man shoots it SO FAST, he doesn't even appear on screen. I can only imagine the button-mashing a human would have to make to accomplish that. Dive Man is one of my favorite Robot Master designs. He is so different from the rest! Like Hard and Guts Man, a real man's man. His weakness is the Skull Barrier.. which I cannot imagine what that would look like in reality.. Floating skulls? Anyway, I took the change to draw Marvel's Red Skull and Ghost Rider, Berserk's Skull Knight and Terminator. I can imagine that would be scary enough. And of course, Dive Man's documented problem.. motion sickness. It seems to be a fault, but Dr Croissant really messed this one up. Specially since Dive Man's tackle attack seems to ALSO be a fault. Finally, as I needed a "funny" puke sound to wrap up this fight, my brother suggested the sound of Van Halen's Poundcake song. The fact that this ended up "too weird" and dumb made me laugh quite a bit, so I left it in. Specially with ROCK Man enjoying the song. Oh God, it's SO dumb!!! And now the big bad of the game.. Dr Cossack. The video was already reaching the 4 minute mark, and I didn't want it to be too long (specially since the previous one was only 3 minutes long) So I decided to wrap it up..
Also the fact that Cossack's mini-bosses aren't too interesting (Wily's are even worse). Here you can see what it would look like in reality. Mega Man would simply go straight for Cossack with Rush Jet. This still makes me laugh! After watching this video SO MANY times, I hardly laugh at it.. but there's something about this song and moment. Vengaboys - Boom Boom Proto Man comes in to deliver the kidnapped Kalinka to a speed-y Mega Man that has long finished the fight. Nobody sees it, so you can't say Mega Man broke the rules of robotics!!! I know I skipped Dr Wily's Castle and Boss re-fights (there's a GREAT skip for those in the TAS), but WHY would Wily teleport to Cossack's room by himself?? I think that's a DUMB move, specially since he is surrounded by people that dislike him capable of stopping him.....
Thanks for watching!!
