Mega Man Star Force (anime)

Mega Man Star Force, known as Ryuusei no Rockman (流星のロックマン) in the Japan, is an anime series based on the video game of the same name.

The anime first premiered in Japan on October 7, 2006, two months before the game's Japanese release, and concluded March 29, 2008. The anime was licensed by Viz Media and first premiered in English on the online streaming video service Toonami Jetstream on July 23, 2007. On August 25, the series made its television premiere on Cartoon Network with a 2-hour special. The series only ran for 13 episodes before being cancelled, however, because each English dubbed episode combined two of the Japanese episodes, which were roughly 10 minutes long, nearly half of the series was aired.

It’s opening theme in the Japanese version is Heart Wave, sung in the series by Misora Hibiki.

Plot


The year is 220X. Technology has advanced rapidly since the age of the Internet, leading to the creation of new and more efficient modes of transportation, as well as the construction of futuristic cities, all linked together by three satellites orbiting the Earth—Pegasus, Leo, and Dragon. The satellites accomplish this by maintaining a network of EM Waves around the planet's atmosphere, thereby powering the invisible EM Wave World. The human population carries portable devices called Transers to interface with the EM Wave World and other electronic devices. Problems caused by criminals and EM Wave viruses manipulating the EM Wave World are commonly dealt with by the Satella Police. Geo Stelar has a device that can help him see EM Wave beings.

Themes
The title sequences of each series are sung by Misato Fukuen as Misora Hibiki. In the original series, the song is entitled "Heart Wave" and in Ryuusei no Rockman Tribe, the song is entitled "Kizuna Wave".

Episodes
The original Japanese episodes are roughly 10 minutes long, with the English version combining two episodes together to fill a single 30-minute time-slot. Although most of the plots in the Japanese version are already split between two 10-minute episodes, a few one-part and three-part plots disrupt what would otherwise be a seamless combination of episodes. Thus, many English-dubbed episodes begin with the conclusion of the previous episode and end with a cliffhanger. Either way, this is problematic, as the series ends on an odd number of episodes. In order to compensate, Viz has combined Japanese episode 25 with ten minutes of recycled footage from the previous 25 episodes. This footage acts as a recap of the story up to that point and is accompanied with narration by Geo Stelar.

The series loosely follows the events of the first Nintendo DS Megaman Star Force video game. However, the storyline makes an obvious shift at Japanese episode 32 using many concepts not featured in the games, specifically, the FM-ians' quest to gather "minus energy" and their ability to transform into doppelgänger forms of the humans they once possessed. This implied that the series was in a state of filler plot-lines until the second video game was released.

Home media
The Star Force series saw neither an American or Japanese home media release. However a U.K. collection of the 13 English dubbed episodes was released in 2008.