Mega Man (Hitoshi Ariga)

Mega Man is the titular protagonist of the Mega Man Megamix manga series and its spin-offs published by Udon Entertainment.

Rock and his sister Roll were created by world-renowned robotics engineer Dr. Light as his lab assistants, but quickly came to be regarded by Dr. Light as his children as well. Unfortunately, Dr. Light's old colleague Dr. Wily became jealous of Dr. Light's successes and reprogrammed the Robot Masters for his own efforts in taking over the world. With no one else capable of stopping Dr. Wily, Rock agreed to be modified into a combat robot in order to stop the renegade Robot Masters, and thus became the heroic Mega Man. He would go on to challenge Dr. Wily and other threats, and gain new allies along the way.

Appearance
In his civilian form, Mega Man resembles a young human boy with black hair, peach skin and blue eyes. Upon transforming for battle, he gains light blue armor around his waist, a blue helmet with light blue squares on it that leaves his face exposed, and blue gauntlets and gloves. He can also transform his forearms into his signature weapon, the Mega Buster. His armor usually changes colors when he equips the weapons of other Robot Masters.

The Birth of Mega Man
In 20XX, Dr. Light created Rock, in a world where humans were living peacefully with robots, to help aid their labors and work. When it was revealed that the original line of Robot Masters, with no one else capable of stopping Dr. Wily, Rock volunteered to be modified into a combat robot in order to stop the renegade Robot Masters. After defeating Cut Man, he takes his Rolling Cutter ability. One by one, he successfully defeats each Robot Master, figuring out their weaknesses. When Mega Man reaches Elec Man, he successfully defeats him, but an announcement in the tank says the power of it was beginning to become unstable, and would cause a large explosion if not stopped. Elec Man reluctantly reveals he had to keep its energy balanced, and Mega Man could probably find something to stop it in the control room. As he accesses the room, he is caught by the Yellow Devil, and Dr. Wily reveals himself. However, Mega Man breaks free of the Yellow Devil's grasp, and tries to attack Dr. Wily, but his arm is sliced off by a mysterious robot covered in a robe. Seven other robots, all in robes appear, and Dr. Wily explains he didn't intentionally plan to use Light's robots to take over the world, but simply use them as a distraction to plan for his robots. He gets away, and the tank is about to explode. But then, Dr. Light shows up, and shows him he managed to get the Robot Masters under his control again, and they manage to stop the unstable power, preventing the explosion. Rock is seen thanking Elec Man and the other Robot Masters, and they all laugh as Cut Man was being "repaired" by Roll.

Asteroid Blues
Mega Man joined Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, who was assisting Dr. Light in retrieving the Energy Elements needed to power a new giant peacekeeping robot named “Gamma”. Accompanying him on his new adventure was his new robotic canine companion “Rush” and was also given a pet bird named “Reggae", created by Dr. Wily. Unfortunately, Dr. Wily planned an escape and used eight new Robot Masters to attack the ship while he teleports to Earth and uses Doc Robots to steal the Energy Element.

While fighting against the Robot Masters, a mysterious robot named “Break Man” appeared and challenged Mega Man a one on one fight, making the robots leave. During their battle, Dr. Light appears on a screen to contact Mega Man, and Break Man is distracted when he sees Light, being hit in the face. Dr. Light tells Mega Man that Rush is able to transform to help him, and he must use him to fly outside and stop the ship, as it is going to collide with the asteroid. As Break Man's mask falls, Light recognizes him as Proto Man, and Mega Man wonders if Dr. Light knows the red robot. Mega Man goes out and attempts to avoid the crash, but it is too much for him. Fortunately, Proto Man goes out and helps him by firing a powerful charge shot to change the ship's angle, and it slides roughly in the ground. This alerts the alien robots protecting the asteroid, many of them appearing to attack the ship and forcing Mega Man, Rush, and Dr. Light (in a space suit) to run away and hide. Gamma comes out from the ship and destroys the guardians, and Dr. Wily appears to tell Dr. Light about his plan, teleporting away with his robots, leaving Gamma to do the job. Without a choice, Mega Man tries to stop Gamma, and Dr. Light tells him that he left a weak point on Gamma because he didn't completely trust on Dr. Wily. Despite knowing its weakness, Mega Man and Rush have trouble against the giant robot, but manages to defeat it with Proto Man's help. After repairing the spaceship, Dr. Light and Mega Man return home with Mega Man wondering who Proto Man truly is and hopes to see him again.

Power Battle
Mega Man finds out that Bass has Roll taken hostage from a message from a damaged Auto. He proceeded to use Item-2 to go to the combined location, a scrapyard. There, he encounters Bass, who proceeds to challenge him to a duel and the two start fighting.

For Whose Sake?
As thousands of robots expire and soon discarded every day due to new laws, the town suddenly broke out with eight Robot Masters. All eight were found to be Dr. Light's robots, and he’s taken to police. At that time, Dr. Light told to Rock, "Do not fight." But Mega Man promises to fight to prove his innocence and expose Dr. Wily's true intentions.

At the end of the story, Dr. Cossack tells Mega Man that he’s tuned up Beat for him and tells him that he too doesn’t want to see him fighting. Mega Man says that despite that, it his duty to stop them because he is Mega Man.

Personality
The most important trait of Mega Man is the one that urged to become Mega Man in the first place. His strong sense of justice. Despite being programmed as a lab assistant, he managed to see the damage caused by Dr. Wily and understood that he needed to be stopped.

Becoming Mega Man only bolstered Rock’s sense of justice to become stronger than ever. Regularly defending the weak, stopping crimes, and saving the world. All without putting his own well-being ahead of protecting others. This is the crux of Mega Man’s personality and what makes him so beloved by the world he looks after.

Despite being incredibly human-like, Rock does not truly have free will; the depth of his artificial humanity is limited by his programming, and he is unable to act outside of that. He, like many other robots, are also unable to break the Three Laws of Robotics. One such law prevents robots from harming humans, unless it is to protect other humans.

Power and abilities
Mega Man, as one of the Robot Masters, commands a number of powerful abilities. His armor is also incredibly resilient to damage. He is also capable of teleportation, a skill shared by various other robots created by Dr. Light. When donning his Mega Man persona, Rock can change his appearance at will, giving him the outfit he wears as Mega Man, along with his "Mega Man" abilities.

Perhaps Mega Man's most potent feature is his ability to copy the abilities of other Robot Masters through touch. This changes the color of his armor, but he can only use one ability at a time. In Mega Man Gigamix, he is capable of transforming into "Super Mega Man" by merging with Rush, and can not only fly, but can also attack with the "Hyper Rocket Buster".

Mega Buster
Mega Man's signature weapon is his Mega Buster, which fires powerful pellets of highly-compressed solar energy or be charged for more powerful blasts.

Trivia

 * During development of Mega Man 11, one of the pieces of concept art for Mega Man's redesigned proportions bears a striking resemblance to Hitoshi Ariga's rendition of Mega Man.