Future Beware

Future Beware (未来が危ない) is the third and last of the three episodes from the anime OVA Mega Man: Upon a Star.

Summary
Mega Man is trying to save the day in the game world again. When he reaches the boss room, Roll appears and says that she wants to assist Mega Man against Dr. Wily, but he doesn't agree as the following stages are difficult to her. Proto Man appears and agrees with Mega Man, saying that's the part where they face each other to see who is the best. While they are talking, Mega Man and Roll get pulled out from the game world by Yuuta and Akane to join them in a big Japanese festival named the Bon Festival. Yuuta wears a blue yukata with a purple sash tied around it, and Akane wears a purple yukata with a yellow bow tied around it. Yuuta's outfit has white squares on it, while Akane's outfit has yellow flowers on it. Yuuta, at first, wears a happi with a white fan on a stick tied to his back.

The first thing Yuuta, Akane, Mega Man and Roll do at the festival is watch a parade. Yuuta and Mega carry an mikoshi as kids and adult men chant "Wasshoi, hora ga! Wasshoi, hora da!" Akane and Roll watch while holding fans, and they make a promise that Roll will wear a kimono on Shichi-Go-San, a traditional Japanese holiday in November. Yuuta tells Mega Man that people holding the omikoshi sweat and have a good time, but Mega Man says he can't sweat. He does say he can still have fun, and yells "Wasshoi! Wasshoi!"

At night time, the kids go to the shops. There're so many different shops, such as a mask shop selling an Optimus Prime mask. Yuuta explains that the festival is great, and at night, it's even better, and there's so much food to eat; such as noodles/yakisoba and cotton candy. Akane and Roll catch up with Mega Man and Yuuta; Akane is eating cotton candy, and Yuuta eats some of the cotton candy. Akane thinks Mega Man can eat some, but he says the only thing he can eat is life energy because he's a robot. Yuuta asks where Roll is, and Akane responds that she's playing a game. Roll is playing a Japanese Whac-A-Mole (Mogura Taiji) and shouting "Take that! And this! And that!" every time she hits a mole. Mega Man joins in, shouting "Take that! And that! And that! And that!" as well. Yuuta and Akane believe that it was a good idea to take Mega and Roll to the festival. A fireworks display starts. At the fireworks display, the kids admire in awe at the explosions of light.

In the game world, Dr. Wily sees an opening to the real world while everyone else is gone. As Wily approaches the portal to leave the game world, Proto Man appears and catches him, forbidding him from leaving. Proto Man says that he is waiting for Mega Man to challenge him and that Wily should wait as his turn is in a later stage. Wily tries to convince Proto Man to leave the game world with him to conquer Japan and create a robot kingdom, but as Proto Man disagrees, he uses a remote to attack Proto Man from behind with his updated Skullker and leaves the game world with it. Before he leaves, Proto Man grabs the flying machine and manages to leave alongside him, falling in Yuuta's room.

At the end of the fireworks display, Dr. Wily's face appears in the sky to warn Japan of his upcoming attack. Mega Man, Roll, Yuuta and Akane then return home and find Proto Man, who explains what happened, and Yuuta checks the game world, seeing that Dr. Light and the time machine are safe. Mega Man calls Rush to travel around Tokyo alongside Yuuta to see if they can find Wily, and after passing by the Rainbow Bridge, they believe that he may have already left the city and decide to return home to rest and search the whole country in the next day. Mega Man and Yuuta pass by several touristic points from Japan, but have no luck finding Wily. When they return home, Dr. Light informs that he finished repairing the time machine and that it can be used to figure out Wily's plan by seeing the future.

Mega Man and Roll use the time machine to jump ahead one year in time, going to May 8, 1995. In the future they discover that Wily has conquered Japan and raised the entire city of Tokyo high above the surface. Escaping from Wily's robots, Mega Man and Roll jump back to the past and decide to travel one month at a time (seeing the Otsukimi and a school athletic meet on Sports Day), discovering that a typhoon is responsible for what happened in the future. But, it is not an ordinary typhoon, this is the work of Dr. Wily and his new Typhoon Robot. Dr. Light creates a special fan weapon to Mega Man so he can stop the typhoon, saving the day. In the end Mega Man forces Wily to go out with him to distribute presents on Christmas to make up for the trouble he caused.

Trivia

 * Despite Crystal Man being among the first to attack Mega Man when he arrives on the floating robot city and being shot down, he reappears in Wily's fortress moments later.
 * The Japanese culture learned today are the Bon Festival, yukata, Shichi-Go-San, omikoshi, shops and food, cotton candy/fairy floss, Mogura Taiji, fireworks, geography and topography, Tsukimi, Sports Day, tsunamis, and Japanese Christmas.
 * There are many similarities to this particular episode and the American Mega Man cartoon series:
 * 1) Roll is more headstrong in this episode and wants to help her brother in battle (just like her taller American counterpart).
 * 2) Proto Man refers to Mega Man as "Little Brother."
 * 3) Dr. Wily's vehicle is referred to as "The Skullker" and is similar to the Wily Machine 1.
 * 4) When Mega Man prepares his Mega Buster when he goes against the typhoon, his movement in the animation is matched frame for frame with the animation used in the American show after Mega Man copies a robot's weapon. Here are the main movements in the animation: Mega's left arm held in front of him, looking at it, he throws his arm behind his head, he aims the buster straight at the "camera".
 * The only non-Mega Man 5 Robot Master in the mini-series (Elec Man) appears shortly in this episode.
 * When Wily's face appears at the end of the Bon Festival Fireworks, his laugh sounds almost exactly like his American counterpart's in the Ruby-Spears cartoon.
 * Mega Man's use of the time machine has caused a few time paradoxes to occur. For example, when the typhoon appears at the athletic competition, Mega Man goes to Dr. Light who manages to create a fan for Mega Man to use. Mega Man then uses the time machine to go back in time to before the typhoon arrived and stopped it. This would've prevented present Mega Man (who in theory is still at the athletic competition) from grabbing Yuuta's fan and having it modified by Dr. Light, which would in turn cause future Mega Man and Roll (the ones that stopped the typhoon) to disappear, and present Mega Man would have never received the fan. Also, it is unknown what happened to the Mega and Roll who were at the festival.
 * The scene where Mega and Yuuta carry the omikoshi at the O-Bon Matsuri, mainly the "WASSHOI HORA GA! WASSHOI HORA DA!", was used in the Reimu Series (a popular Touhou fanfiction), where it was used in moments of celebration, and thus has become an Internet meme.
 * The soundbyte has also been used in the song "愛の広間" by futureウェイヴ(wave).
 * The beginning of this episode takes place on May 7, 1994.
 * One of the shops at the festival sells an Optimus Prime mask.