Title: Mr. Mega Man Vol. 1
Author: Yushi Kawata, Yukito
Publisher: Udon Entertainment
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 194
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: January 28, 2025
The Story
The days of Dr. Wily’s schemes are over. He and Dr. Light have retired and the world has come to know peace at last. All of the robot masters have found their place in society but thanks to their cognitive chips, they worry and question their places amongst the humans. Mega Man has put down his Mega Buster and picked up a drill… a dental drill! He runs a dentistry alongside his sister Roll; however, he’s spending more and more time away from the office and catching up with the robot masters to lend them an ear as they tell him their troubles.
Thus begins an episodic adventure until about halfway through the book. We learn that even with peace, there is still discord. Dr. Light learns that some of the newer model robots are causing chaos and going haywire despite the limiter chips placed within them. This could only mean that Dr. Wily is up to his old schemes again… or so they thought. Wily is retired and under constant surveillance. There is no way he could be behind it. A new mysterious foe has appeared with the same intentions as Wily but before a decision can be made, an old nemesis shows up in Enker!
Enker, one the of Mega Man Killers alongside Punk and Ballade, seeks to fight Mega Man once again; however, he realizes that the world is plunging into peril once more. He decides to help Mega Man not out of a sense of duty or justice… but because he knows that without a battle with Mega Man, his life would have no meaning and therefore he wants to eradicate all threats to Mega Man to preserve him so that he can fulfill his purpose… to hunt and kill Mega Man and he will do whatever it takes… even if it means standing by his sword enemy’s side!
Characters
The character work in this series is rather interesting. Despite Mega Man being the central character, he doesn’t have much of a role outside of being an ear for other troubled robot masters to spill their woes to. Then again, Mega Man wished he could be a pacifist at times and this newfound “caregiver” attitude suits that ideal just fine.
Throughout the book, we dive deep into some of the stories with one of the recurring jokes because Guts Man and Stone Man hopping from bar to bar and getting drunk off of oil. Guts Man is worried about the newer models because they are stronger than he is while only being half the size. It’s funny to see robots experiencing an existential crisis but their cognitive chips allow them to have those feelings versus the mindless robots they are slowly being replaced with!
We also got to see others like Top Man and Air Man trying to find their respective places within the entertainment history, Flame Man and Pharoah Man opening a Chinese restaurant (and leaving poor Wind Man out of it), and other stories involving some of your favorites like Bubble Man, Star Man, and so many others!
Even Dr. Cosssack and Kalinka make an appearance but this is after the U.N. Chief requests assistance with the new peril that threatens the world. A new suit is to be created for Mega Man and Dr. Light calls upon Dr. Cossack who is prepared to fight and even mentions that he began doing upgrades to Ring Man. There is a lot to cover here but I’m sure during the lighter moments, you’ll smile when you see what some of your favorite robot masters are up to!
Final Thoughts
This was certainly quite different. After seeing the comedic approach Little Mega Man took and that this series is by the same creators, I thought we were in for more comedy (and to be fair, we did get plenty of that). What we got was a nice blend of exploring the feelings of robots as if they were humans, Mega Man playing the role of peacekeeper in an entirely different way while showing that even in a world of peace, evil still exists and it may be time for Mega Man to fight once again.
One thing that puzzled me (which the manga did answer) was that Mega Man was much older-looking. At first, it was confusing to see because how can a robot “grow up?” Well, Dr. Light does explain his new appearance and it makes complete and total sense! In fact, the answer was quite simple, to be fair.
With that mystery out of the way, this felt like an epilogue to the game series that we never got but, at the same time, the beginning of something brand new! While it may not be the true bridge between the classic and the X series a lot of us would expect, it attempts to do just that… although… there is no mention of Zero so his being Wily’s last creation was never touched upon and since he was depicted being an old man who seems to be bedridden, there’s no telling if he will make an appearance or if Mega Man X4’s huge revelation will go unmentioned in this series.
Either way, this was a fun read! I’m not sure if we’ll get more episodic tales or if we will turn this into a full-blown action series next time around but I’m keenly interested to see where this goes!
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This item was purchased for review.
