Jade Rambles: Megaman - The Ruby-Spears Cartoon

[JadePharaoh]

- This has to be a very interesting episode plot-wise...
- So not only does this episode have some political intrigue, but Protoman appears to pull a heel>face turn to help Megaman!!
- One strange thing, however. Dr. Light says (regarding Protoman), "I used the same ethical circuit for him that I used in you, Mega...". But the first episode demonstrated that Dr. Light did not build Protoman; Dr. Wily appeared to do so on his own. I feels like a bit of a plothole...
- Of course, Protoman's defection turned out to be a ploy, anyway...
- Lots of robot masters of the week this time!! Elecman, Heatman, Needleman, and Brightman. What's noteworthy is that Heatman and Needleman look SPOT-ON with their original artwork while Elecman and Brightman still have their off-model appearances so they seem to clash quite a bit...
- Megaman: "I've always wanted a real brother relationship with you."
Protoman: "Y... you do...?!"
I rather like that exchange. While yeah, it's revealed early on that Protoman is faking in order to infiltrate the good guys, this line feels a lot more sincere...
- Once again, the second season introduced a couple of new series-exclusive suits/vehicles, and one that we see here is a flying suit for Megaman. Again, it's a little strange as there was already one in the games that involved him merging with Rush; again, I think this was purely for merchandising as there was a plan to introduce this to the toy line at the time.
- Wily's scheme this time; to replace all of the city's politicians and other important figures with his own robotic clones, body-snatchers style. Not half-bad, actually.
- Megaman and Protoman have another moment at the end here. A popular fan theory is that there was going to be an ACTUAL Protoman face-turn later on (with Bass taking Protoman's place as Wily's #2), but the cancellation of this series meant that we will never know for sure...

[JadePharaoh]

Another interesting episode overall, but also quite on the weird side of the spectrum...

- There was the Season 1 finale that was a little ambiguous, but this one more than ever seems to introduce magic into the sci-fi world of Megaman...
- Dr. Wily seeks the power of an ancient demon/genie named Lotos. At the time this series aired, the name always felt like a reference to Lavos from Chrono Trigger...
- Robot masters of the week are Drillman and Gravityman. Gravityman in particular I was especially liking since he was also drawn exactly like his original artwork, plus he was in top form in using his power to bring the ceiling down on everyone...
- ... Too bad he once again is blasted by Megaman unceremoniously and disappears for the rest of the episode and the series (he doesn't even copy his weapon).
- Still, I gotta hand it to Lotos; he came closer than any of Wily's robot masters to achieving a near-victory. He even brings the Statue of Liberty to life! Did he already play Zombie Nation?
- This episode introduces not one, but two other vehicles/suits they were planning on for the toy line; the first of which being the Land Blazer, a tank-like vehicle.
- The second is a Stealth Suit, a glider suit that also has cloaking capabilities.

[Jason]

Lemme just say.... I love these when you post them.

[JadePharaoh]

Now for what is widely regarded the worst episode in the series. Not only is the story pretty ridiculous, but the production value is the worst I have seen in this series so far.

I have my own theory here; the production crew was past the deadline on coming up with a new episode, they got drunk after watching The Lion King about ten times or so that night, and come up with their new episode that was tossed together and sent in at the very last minute...



- Robot masters of the week are Brightman and Starman. Shame this would be Starman's swan song, as this is his only episode...
- Like this last episode, this one is all about magic. The main villain, Taar, is a lion-person with the power to turn anyone else into furries as well, that are also under his control.
- As I said, this had total Lion King vibes; Taar not only looks a lot like a humanoid version of Scar, but the name itself sounds similar.
- Starman doesn't use the Star Crash as a shield; he just fires star-shaped projectiles from what I can tell.
- What is the point of a curse when it makes the subject of the curse even STRONGER than he was before?!?! I pointed this out with Imhotep in The Mummy (and I otherwise really like that series) and I point it out again now. Taar went from being a dick, to being a dick with the power to turn just about anyone into a lion-person bound to his will. That is a minus how, exactly???
- So the big turning point happens when Wily, who thought he had an ally in Taar, is turned into a lion-man as well as Dr. Light (seems Taar was not willing to share the top of the heap; who knew?). Taar then turns the robot masters to his side, along with Roll as well, thanks to a reprogramming device Wily had on him; the same device he used to reprogram Dr. Light's robot masters way back in the very first episode!! There's an interesting bit of continuity. Still, it's a little odd that Taar knew of the device and how it worked, just at the time he did.

[JadePharaoh]

Another especially bizarre episode.

- So Dr. Light has founded a robot college? I suppose the most obvious question is, why the hell do robots need to go to school?? The only explanation I can think of is that Dr. Light wants to make them feel more human. Still, he explicitly says that the purpose of it all it to help build a gravity-controlling device he's working one, so the school seems a bit overkill...
-The best part of this episode, though? Topman. The fandom is always portraying him and his weapon as a complete and absolute joke in the series. Here, however, we see him sweep Roll off her feet, go toe-to-toe with Megaman and come very close to beating him on his own!
- The football robots feel to me like they were a blueprint for the baseball equivalent, Strikeman in MM10.
- So, Wily's whole scheme this time is to use Dr. Light's anti-gravity device to rip City Hall from its foundation, and somehow that will give control of the city to him? Thaaaaaat's politics...!?
- I wonder if the Kung-fu Bot was based on Ryu from Street Fighter; not only does he look kinda like him, but he beats Cutman with the trademark Tatsumaki Senpukyaku.
- The Stealth Suit makes a return in this episode, but Wily developed a counter this time in a pair of stealth-detecting goggles for Protoman. A nice little continuity nod there also.

[JadePharaoh]

Going right from some really absurd episodes to another of my favorites.

- Dr. Light has developed a new robot with a super-advanced AI. Naturally, Dr. Wily wants it and is trying to get his hands on him all episode. However, this episode has a definite air of silliness to it the entire time; a lot of this is due to the fact that "Brain Bot", while well-meaning, happens to be extremely obnoxious, both to the good guys and the bad guys.
- After the last couple of episodes looking kinda crud, this one looks really nice, and it even has some anime-esque visuals as well.
- One of the robot masters of the week is Darkman from Megaman 5. This is noteworthy because some people accused the writers of not having looked past the intro of MM5 when deciding to make Protoman one of the bad guys. However, if you know who Darkman is, then you should know that he was the robot that was framing Protoman in that game. Then again, this Darkman is clearly based on the second model that you fight in that game out of four...
- The Land Blazer tank makes a return in this one...
- Megaman gets put in a death-trap with his eternal nemesis; SPIKES. What stands out a bit is that Dr. Wily mentions that he has put his own robots in here that he decides are no longer useful. This results in a bit of fridge horror when you think of why some of his previous one-off robot masters have not appeared again in this series...
- Megaman: (after rebounding a shot to the console to shut down the death-trap): "Minnesota Fats, eat your heart out!"
I wonder how many viewers that joke was completely lost on (Minnesota Fats being a well-known billiards player).
- The flight suit from Bro Bots also comes back. However, I can't help but ask; WHAT was the logic behind installing a homing device that has its missiles target the USER???
- This is probably one of the best episodes of the bunch, though; again, Season 2 was a much more mixed bag that the first.

[JadePharaoh]

Here it is; the episode that brought us the "Gutsman's ass" meme!

- So the plot. It seems Dr. Wily has been taking a few pages out of Sat. AM Robotnik's playbook; it seems he's kidnapping humans and actually roboticizing them??! Not only that, he's using an unassuming amusement park as his front to collect unwilling victims.
- That evil robot dog was kinda creepy, actually... until it was defeated by a trashcan lid that is...
- Ringman makes a brief appearance as one of our robot masters of the week (Hardman being our other). Albeit very brief.
- And once again, the Gutsman's ass meme... kinda funny now that I think about it, how Megaman just knows 'dat ass when he sees it...
- So the reveal at the end is that Wily isn't really turning humans into robots; he's just brainwashing them into thinking they are; then equipping them with armor and blasters to compete the package. Still kinda clever...

[JadePharaoh]

Enough stalling; time to wrap this up!!



- Quickman, Shadowman, and Darkman are our robot masters of the week.
- A funny animation error I noticed; Protoman appeared in two places at once, both outside the facility with Cutman, Quickman, and Shadowman; and inside with Gutsman and Darkman.
- Quickman attacks differently from the last episode he was in. He just grabs the boomerang off his head and throws it, as opposed to using the launchers on his wrists. Shadowman attacked the same way here, as well as Ringman in the last episode.
- This is perhaps the craziest Dr. Wily has been yet! His entire plan is to build a gravitron device to pull the moon out of orbit. The imbalance of its gravity causes massive storms, tidal waves, and earthquakes to engulf the world, plunging it into the brink of a full-scale apocalypse!! Even HIS OWN ROBOTS seem to think he's completely bat-shit insane for doing this; but they're also programmed to help him succeed so its really pretty sad when you think about it that way...
- Ah, the good ol' School-bus-going-off-the-side-of-a-cliff trope... Despite it seeming to be in the middle of the night...
- Was Dr. Light's lab built on top of an active volcano?? Otherwise it seems odd that the earthquakes would open up a flow of magma in his basement...
- Now for the most ridiculous part of this episode. Dr. Light clearly had footage of Wily stealing the plans to the tachyon capacitor many many years ago... And he never actually watched it until now?? WTF... Light you are a Grade A Idiot...
- Oh, and also, the future still has 5 inch floppies
- Megaman's stealth suit makes another appearance...
- And it's pretty OP if it can keep the likes of Quickman, Shadowman, and more of Wily's robots at bay...
- And he can copy Darkman's power, so that's also something he couldn't do in-game.

[JadePharaoh]

- The Season 2 finale at last, and this one has a MMX crossover.
- We first see Wily's failed attack on Dr. Light's plasma plant. After that...
- Vile and Spark Mandrill show up through a portal from the future, forcing Wily and his bots to cooperate...
- Of course, Vile and Mandrill lay waste to Megaman and Roll.
- Megaman X shows up to even the odds, but he feels like a far cry from the X from most games...
- X appears far more zealous toward eliminating Vile and Mandrill, to the point where he flat-out says he must destroy them at all cost. Not at all like the usual X, who is far more reluctant to destroy Mavericks, except when he absolutely has to.
-Dr. Cain looks more like Dr. Cossack from MM4.
- And Sigma is spelled Cigma
- X once again comes off much more aggressive; when he tells Vile he doesn't care if he brings him back dead or alive.
- They've shown off the superiority of the MMX robots vs the original robots, but we really see it when X copies the Search Snake and destroys Wily's super weapon in one shot with it.
- I heard at one point this episode may have been intended to be an unofficial pilot for an actual MMX animated series that never got off the ground after the main series flopped; which is a story for the next episode, but it also reminded me of the Dreamworks comic, which has something similar.

[JadePharaoh]

Here we are at last; the final episode. I understand this was actually to be the first episode of Season 3, but there was some big falling out at this time between Capcom, Ruby-Spears, and Bandai (who was doing the merchandising) which caused the plug to be pulled on this show very abruptly at this point.



- Wily's whole plan this time is a device that brings toys to life to do his bidding. It seems kinda dumb overall, but that part at the beginning of the doll ripping Gutsman's head off and slam-dunking it is always hilarious.
- In spite of the ridiculous plot, this episode would see some of the best animation out of the whole series. It makes me sad to think of how it might have looked had the series been allowed to continue...
- Wily bringing toys to life made me think that maybe Springman or Clownman should have been robot master of the week; then I remember this was made well before their games came out, so we get Bombman instead.
- Gotta love the "oh, shit" face when Megaman sees that trip-wire...