Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)

Mega Man is an animated television series created by Ruby-Spears that ran from 1994 to 1996, debuting in most markets on Saturday morning, September 11th, 1994.

Season One

 * Episode 1: The Beginning
 * Episode 2: Electric Nightmare
 * Episode 3: The Big Shake
 * Episode 4: Mega-Pinocchio
 * Episode 5: The Incredible Shrinking Mega Man
 * Episode 6: Bot Transfer
 * Episode 7: Ice Age
 * Episode 8: Cold Steel
 * Episode 9: Future Shock
 * Episode 10: Robosaur Park
 * Episode 11: The Strange Island Of Doctor Wily
 * Episode 12: The Mega Man In The Moon
 * Episode 13: 20,000 leaks Under The Sea

Season Two

 * Episode 14: Campus Commandos
 * Episode 15: The Day The Moon Fell
 * Episode 16: Showdown At Red Gulch
 * Episode 17: Terror of The Seven Seas
 * Episode 18: Mega Dreams
 * Episode 19: Robo Spider
 * Episode 20: Master of Disaster
 * Episode 21: Night of The Living Monster Bots
 * Episode 22: Curse of The Lion Men
 * Episode 23: Brain Bots
 * Episode 24: Bro Bots
 * Episode 25: Bad Day At Peril Park
 * Episode 26: Mega X

Extra episode

 * Episode 27: Crime of The Century

Cast

 * Mega Man: Ian James Corlett
 * Proto Man: Scott McNeil
 * Dr. Wily: Scott McNeil
 * Roll: *Robyn Ross (Seasons 1 & 2) *Kathleen Barr (Remainder of Series)
 * Dr. Light: Jim Byrnes
 * Rush: Ian James Corlett
 * Cut Man: Terry Klassen
 * GutsMan: Garry Chalk
 * Bright Man: Jay Brazeau
 * Snake Man: Ian James Corlett
 * Eddie (Flip Top): Scott McNeil
 * Various Other Female Voices seasons 1 & 2: Robyn Ross

(*Note: there is some speculation as to which voice actress played Roll and it is not 100% confirmed which episodes -if any - which Robyn Ross voiced Roll. Some fans have noticed a slight change to Roll's voice over the course of the show..

Tony Sampson (of Ed, Edd & Eddy) also supplied voices on this show. Terry Klassen also served as Dialogue director.

Promo

 * A promotional video of the the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon in its early stages, shows the cartoon with aesthetics faithful to the art direction of the games, similar to Mega Man: Upon a Star. However after the show was green-lit into production Ruby-Spears gave it a complete overhaul, "Americanizing" the cartoon.
 * One clip from the cartoon promo was used by Capcom of Japan in the Mega Man 7 commercial.

Canceled Projects

 * Reportedly, Marvel Comics had picked up the rights to produce a monthly series based on the Mega Man shows. However, the deal fell through when the show was canceled by Capcom. This was reported on the popular fan site mmhp.net Mega Man Home Page, but the reference to the canceled series has since been removed. The truth is still not known for sure.
 * Ruby-Spears once planned on doing a Mega Man X spin-off cartoon, but this never came to be due to the main show cancellation.

Music

 * The composers of the music heard on the Mega Man show and its main theme are from John Mitchell and Tom Keenlyside.
 * Mega Man's Background music was subsequently use in Dragon Ball Z in Ocean Studio's dub.

Differences from the games

 * Unlike in the games, when Mega Man uses and gains a new weapon, he does not change colors. Instead, it shows him downloading the weapon.
 * In the cartoon Proto Man acts differently from his video game counterpart cause in the cartoon he is a full fledged member of Dr. Wily's robots, and is bitter rivals with Mega Man. And he's also cocky, arrogant, and not so mysterious like he was in the games. Common perception is that the creators of the show did not complete MM3 or 4; however, it is more likely that they simply needed an appropriate rival for Mega Man, as Bass was not created until after the show went into production.

Reruns/Releases

 * Some time after the show no longer aired on television, the reruns were picked up by the Fox Family channel (which has since been taken over by ABC). Some episodes were heavily edited for content. The show's intro, which featured a city under attack, and later in ruins, were edited and scenes where Roll was attacked by a male robot was removed. The unedited episodes are now available on DVD in box sets by ADV video. The first season set is titled A Hero is Born. The second season set (which includes the lone third season episode) is titled Battle for the Future.
 * The Playstation 2 version of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection contains "The Beginning", which is made available by the defeat of Astro Man in Mega Man 8

Trivia

 * A majority of the voice actors from the series also did regular work on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Some specific ones include:
 * Ian James Corlett - Coconuts
 * Kathleen Barr - Katella
 * Scott McNeil - MacHopper
 * Terry Klassen - Dr. Quark
 * Garry Chalk - Grounder and Captain Rescue (Dr. Robotnik in Sonic Underground)
 * The Emerald Spears group in Archie Comics' Mega Man series was named after Ruby Spears.
 * One of the reasons for the show's cancellation is that Bandai had cut several toy lines because they were not meeting sales expectations and had supposedly been putting merchandising pressure on Capcom. Despite having great ratings, the show was cancelled before a third season could be fully planned. There were more toys that were in production and they were scrapped as a result.
 * No Robot Masters from Mega Man 6 or Mega Man 7 ever appeared in the series, though both games were released while the cartoon was still on the air.
 * All Robot Masters from Mega Man and Mega Man 3 appeared in the series. Of the first five games, the ones who didn't make it into the show include:
 * Bubble Man and Flash Man from Mega Man 2.
 * Skull Man from Mega Man 4
 * Charge Man from Mega Man 5 Though Napalm Man didn't appear in any episodes, he appeared in the opening theme.
 * The Battontons from Mega Man 4 appear on a few episodes of this series.

Videos
Below is a rare television commercial for the show on the website YouTube.com. This ad contains some of the animated sequences from the original promo reel mentioned above in the trivia section. Also, here is a video of Scott McNeil doing Proto Man's, Dr. Wily's and Eddie's voices for some fans at a convention.

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