Mega Man: Upon a Star

Mega Man: Upon a Star, known as Rockman: Hoshi ni Negai wo (ロックマン 星に願いを) in Japan, is a 3-episode OVA made by Ashi Productions and Capcom in 1993. The episodes were released on DVD in Japan by Capcom in 2002, and in North America by ADV Films on January 4, 2005. The Mega Man characters are from the "game world", and they can appear in the "real world". Dr. Wily manages to exit the game world and tries to conquer the real world, and Mega Man has to stop him, learning about Japan while searching for Wily.

Episodes

 * Episode 1: Appearance in Japan
 * Episode 2: Wish Upon a Star
 * Episode 3: Future Beware

Japanese culture
This OVA contains educational content about Japan, including places and events.

Episode 1

 * Bullet trains.
 * Mentions to samurai and ninja.
 * A little about the education in Japan.
 * Mount Fuji: Wily attacks from here.

Episode 2

 * New Year's Day (31 December to 1 January): Akane calls Yuuta downstairs to commemorate, but Yuuta is playing Mega Man 6 and gives trouble to go. Akane and Yuuta argue and hit the NES. Mega Man gets booted to the real world, and he gets to commemorate with them. He learns about otoshigama - money given to children in envelopes - and that they commemorate on New Years' to make the new year a great year.
 * Setsubun (3 February): This is a holiday to scare off oni. This also celebrates the arrival of Spring. Mega Man, Yuuta, and Akane are watching TV, and they learn that an Oni Robot has been seen attacking.
 * Hinamatsuri (3 March): Roll and Akane celebrate this festival with friends. Also known as "Girls' Day".
 * Children's Day (5 May): Also known as "Boys' Day", Yuuta and Akane celebrate this festival with Mega Man, Roll, Proto Man, and their friends. This festival involves Koi Ponds.
 * Tanabata (7 July): Citizens traditionally wish upon stars. Yuuta, Akane, and Roll celebrate this event.

Episode 3

 * Japanese festival: This festival is where Mega Man and Roll get taken to by Yuuta and Akane. This festival contains fancy dresses called yukatas, toys, shops, dancing, rides, food, a parade, games and a fireworks display.
 * Otsukimi: Moon viewing event.
 * A school athletic meeting.
 * Shichi-Go-San: At the Japanese festival, Roll makes a promise with Akane that she will wear a kimono on this event.
 * Christmas: Christmas is also celebrated in the annual "Otaka Megamanshotsu!!!" Christmas specials.

Trivia

 * While the American Mega Man animated series is considered to be the first Mega Man cartoon, Mega Man: Upon a Star was technically first. These shows were produced in 1993, a year before the American episodes were aired.
 * These three shows may have been pseudo pilots for what would become the 1994 Mega Man series, as there are similarities between them.
 * The producers of the American series also served as the U.S. production consultants on these episodes, which would certainly add more credibility to the above theory.
 * Terry Klassen is credited as "Telly Klassen" in the opening credits of Appearance in Japan.
 * The credits in Appearance in Japan are entirely in English, while the credits to the other two episodes are entirely in Japanese.
 * One of Mega Man's buster shot poses in the third episode has a striking resemblance to the one constantly shown in the Ruby-Spears cartoon.
 * Scott McNeil and Jim Byrnes (who voiced Dr. Wily and Dr. Light on the American series) also provide their voices in this series.
 * While Dr. Light sounds the same, Dr. Wily's voice is different. He does not have a German accent. Scott also voiced Beat, who sounded like Eddie does in the American series.
 * Terry Klassen (who voiced Cut Man in the American series) actually voices Rush in the first episode.
 * Kathleen Barr (who voiced Roll in the American series) does not voice as Roll, because Roll is much younger here. However, Kathleen did supply the voice of Yuuta and Akane's mom in the first episode.