Splash Woman

"Why don't you go first..."

- Splash Woman

Splash Woman (スプラッシュウーマン) is a Robot Master modeled after a mermaid that Dr. Light created to rescue swimmers and ships lost at sea, being an expert swimmer but having poor land mobility. She possesses a beautiful voice and is fond of karaoke, but it is rumored that she has turned down numerous invitations to enter the world of show business, possibly having a dislike of large crowds. Splash Woman attacks by singing to call fish robots and using her Special Weapon, the Laser Trident, which can emit a laser capable of penetrating tough surfaces such as shields and the hulls of ships.

Mega Man 9
Splash Woman is one of the eight Robot Masters whose period of use had expired and was scheduled to be scrapped. Dr. Wily pretended to be concerned by offering to repair them, reprogramming the tricked robots to help him conquer the world.

In battle, Splash Woman will first call three groups of robot fishes to charge into the player that can be dodged by extended jumps. Then, when she is at the top of the area, she'll move around the room shooting the Laser Trident and finally try to tackle Mega Man with her trident.

Her weakness is the Hornet Chaser. The bees will fly around and can easily demolish the fish, and damage Splash Woman as she goes to the top of the screen. Take in count that after a bee kills fishes, it will continue until none is remaining and won't attack Splash Woman. However, they can still damage her if she is lured into them before they fly offscreen.

In the end credits picture, she is seen at the beach having a picture taken by Auto, having been rebuilt after the events of the game.

Damage Data Chart
Displays the amount of damage in units that Splash Woman will receive from each Special Weapon in Mega Man 9.


 * *For Proto Buster and Magma Bazooka, the first digit is the damage done when the weapon is fired normally; the second digit is damage done when the weapon is charged up.

Stage information
Splash Woman's stage has a vertical bubble puzzle similar to the one from Wave Man's stage in Mega Man 5, which involve deadly spikes and Trophishes. There are also some puzzles which include more spikes and temporary platforms moving horizontally in either direction.

Enemies:
 * Octone
 * Okosutobon
 * Sakrets
 * Tropish

Manga
Splash Woman appears in the short Mega Man Megamix manga story "For Whose Sake?", included in the booklet of Rockman 9 Arrange Soundtrack.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
Splash Woman appears in issue 19 of the Archie Mega Man comics, where Oil Man takes her with him to help Roll and Quake Woman rescue people from a shipwreck. According to the writers, the reason for her appearing much earlier was to have the audience know what she was like so her eventual descent into villainy in the Mega Man 9 chapter was more poignant. She also makes a brief appearance in issue 20 of the same series, where Mega Man and Bass are shifted forward in time to the events of Mega Man 9. In it, Splash Woman alludes to her fate of being "retired" due to an expiration date to Mega Man, when telling him that she will not go quietly to the scrap heap, to Mega Man's confusion. She later appears briefly in Issue 21 during the New Years festivities, feeling miserable due to being alone. She later appeared during the Worlds Collide crossover event in Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 250, where she and a massive army of Robot Masters appeared to stop Mega Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and their various allies from reaching the Wily Egg. Notably, she battles Amy Rose alongside other water-themed Robot Masters like Pump Man and Aqua Man.

Following the crossover, Splash Woman is one of the many Robot Masters shown to be knocked offline by the effects of Ra Moon's electromagnetic field spreading over the planet.

Trivia

 * Splash Woman, along with Roll, Kalinka and Plum are the only female main characters in the video games of the entire classic Mega Man series so far.


 * Splash Woman is the first-and thus far only-fightable female Robot Master.


 * During development, Hornet Man was set to be the female Robot Master, named Honey Woman, while Splash Woman was designed as a male Robot Master named Ocean Man (オーシャンマン).


 * Her interest in karaoke (the same as Guts Man) may be based off old stories that tell of sirens (often depicted as mermaid-like creatures in some folklore) singing so beautifully that young men would be lured to their doom.


 * Splash Woman, along with Quick Man, Break Man, Galaxy Man and Sheep Man, are the only Robot Masters whose design extended out of the stage select mugshot.


 * Her Laser Trident is the Special Weapon that deals the most damage to Mega Man in Mega Man 9.


 * Splash Woman is the only boss in Mega Man 9 that takes 2 bars of damage from the Mega Buster. Every other Robot Master in the game takes one. However, she does make up for this by remaining out of its range for most of the fight.


 * Splash Woman is one of two Robot Masters to have an attack that involves other enemies, Hornet Man being the other. Some fortress bosses, including Big Pets from Mega Man 5, also produce additional enemies to help them fight.


 * Splash Woman is one of the few Robot Masters to have non-humanoid legs. Some of the others include Centaur Man, who had 4 robotic hooves; Astro Man and Cloud Man, who hover in midair and did not have legs; Blizzard Man, who is attached to skis; and Napalm Man and Dark Man 1, who have caterpillar treads in place of feet.


 * Splash Woman is the fourth Robot Master to be based on a mythical creature (mermaid). The others include Centaur Man (centaur), Tengu Man (tengu), and Shade Man (vampire).


 * Her in-game sprites give her a vague resemblance to Leviathan (element, attacks, and tendency to flood the room to distort the player) and Pandora (costume, attacks and the fact she floats, although outside water).


 * Splash Woman's appearance and occupation make her very similar to the Rockman X manga's Marty, a mermaid-like reploid created as a rescue worker, who also wields a spear weapon.


 * Perhaps by coincidence, the fish that Splash Woman summon bear a striking resemblance to Flounder from the Disney movie The Little Mermaid which was also adapted into a NES game by Capcom.