"A new battle begins... in the real world!
Published online on April 28 2021, Rockman-san is a Darker and Edgier manga adaptation of the Mega Man series.
The manga takes place after the retirement of Dr. Light following Dr. Wily's abandonment of his evil ways, leaving Rockman and Roll to grow as adults running a dentistry together while the other Robot Masters begin to take up their intended jobs or other avenues. However, robotkind starts to clash against the humans following conflicts over the industry and workforce, and a new threat begins to crack the new age of peace...
Currently, no official English translations are available outside of fan translations. It, alongside its Lighter and Softer sister series Rockman-chan can be officially read online in Japanese here
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Tropes associated with Rockman-san are:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Rockman and Roll certainly qualify as adults, but special mention goes to Enker, who despite looking exactly the same as his main appearance while wearing his helmet, he's actually very handsome after taking it off.
- Almighty Janitor: A disarmed Rockman works as a humble dentist (although keeping toned down versions of past weapons for use with his job). However, he's still capable of kicking ass like a normal human despite Dr. Light putting a limiter on his Buster, and eventually gets the limiter removed and his armor back when the tensions and threats rise.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Gemini Man naturally does this with himself at a resort as a comedy act, with one shooting the other with his Gemini Laser while calling him an idiot.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: After the Big Bad seizes the modern military tech via a flaw in a very popular processor used in modern machinery, the heroes resort to using the old cartoony mooks as their muscle.
- Costume Evolution: Rock's old armor later gets an overhaul when a mysterious antagonist wages war against humans and the heroes need Mega Man back. Justified since the old components were made for a child-age Rock and he doesn't like the idea of openly fighting in tight spandex anymore. The end result is a much more modern and bulkier upgrade which does use a bodysuit as a base, but is much less of a focus.
- Deconstruction: While there are some funnier aspects, the series show what could happen if Rockman ever wins and thwarts Dr. Wily permanently. The primary result is that now the Robot Masters have to find their place in normal human society. Some are lucky to find a successful career while some other are finding themselves becoming increasingly obsolete with advancing techs, resulting in ennui and depression.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Many of the disarmed Robot Masters intended for combat feel this way when trying to find work as well as the workforce Robot Masters due to the changing industry.
- Air Man still feels depressed since he's still essentially a walking heavy-duty fan with a face when his employers could just use a regular fan. Even the snowblower he’s been seen on is fully-automated; him holding the joystick control is just for show and all he has to do is sit there and blow snow. Rock points out to him that his employers specificially request him instead of just using more conventional methods, proving that they still care about him.
- Bomb Man keeps losing jobs after the current demolition industry no longer needs his destructive tendencies in favour of more delicate operations and ended up destroying a mine after he threw a bomb he was supposed to gently set. He also got banned from a bowling alley for wrecking the lane and got fired from training a dodgeball team after sending them to the hospital. He eventually finds a job smashing pottery.
- Enker feels this way after being defeated by Mega Man several times, but was left on his own after being revived shortly before Wily gave up on villainy. He then sought to fight in underground robot matches, but was left unsatisfied after being the unbeatable champion and declares that his sole existence is to finally destroy Mega Man.
- Didn't Think This Through: After getting some encouragement from Rockman to look for more trendy avenues, Top Man shows up to a Slayblades tournament and ends up getting escorted out by security after accidentally smashing all of the toys in the tournament.
- Drunk on Milk: Every Robot Master Rockman meets at the 8-bit Bar come to discuss their problems with him over "adult E-Tanks" and "strong oil" rather than regular E-Tanks, which are pretty much the robot equivalent of soft drinks here.
- Fan Disservice: The Cyborg is a very attractive young woman, except half of her original body is missing and her organic side is slowly dying.
- Flying Postman: Gyro Man has opened a delivery service whose main selling point is that he alongside other flying robots will deliver straight to the windows of their clients, but he's run into several issues such as being tricked into delivering illegal goods, being mistaken for a burglar while delivering to a residential area and due to not setting delivery boundaries, he ended up crossing into foreign airspace and got chased by their aerial defense as a result.
- Friendly Enemy: The Robot Masters have become this to Rockman, who usually go to him for advice over drinks.
- Ghost Town: Aurora Town was an attempt to create a truly peaceful human and robot coexistence society, only for a tragic incident reduced it to a wasteland. It's revealed that a criminal organisation managed start a war to loot the civilians, which devolved into a full destruction of Aurora Town when the criminal moles implanted into the company who provided the robots hacked all of the security robots into randomly destroying everything.
- Heel–Face Turn: Nearly every Robot Master Rock had fought in the past underwent this in the past when Wily handed himself in and began seeking work, save for Junk Man and Snake Man, who are both working for the new main antagonist.
- Heroic RRoD: After Rock and Guts Man's near-disastrous attempt to subdue a robot rebel attack in Chapters 13 and 14, Rock's civilian body is heavily damaged internally due to Roll remotely downplaying his Power Limiter. Dr Light comments that it would be easier and quicker to repair Rock if he used the old combat parts from his Mega Man era as his modern components are harder to come by.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: After Rockman refuses to kill the Cyborg and lets her and Enker leave with their stolen space station to create their own society elsewhere, he becomes a pariah with human society for not apprehending the villains and gets his dentistry vandalised. The Robot Masters and the Light family are furious with this considering how many times Rock had saved humanity, only to get backstabbed over a moral decision he made.
- Hot Springs Episode: Chapter 11 has Rockman and Roll invited to a resort created exclusively for robots, with the facilities altered to accomodate robot bodies.
- Hotter and Sexier: Rockman and Roll are drawn more realistically as adults, and there's more adult themes such as the bunnygirl robots accompanying Magic Man during his show and Top Man using "waifu figures" during one of his videos. There's also Enker's helmetless design and Star Man's "human" design at the end of his chapter.
- Idol Singer: Splash Woman became one at an aquarium, along with her Laser Trident’s head replaced with a microphone.
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: Star Man’s chapter has him deal with this, as his flashy star design prevents him from moving easily since the star-shaped panels are all made of metal which make simply bending over an arduous task and often impales his head, but refuses to have the design changed on top of current robot laws preventing a complete overhaul. Eventually Dr. Light does a compromise which replaces the offending panel corners with visually-identical ones made of a more flexible but durable material.
- Machine Worship: Wood Man became revered as a guardian god at a temple as thanks for him stopping waste dumpers, alongside him replacing their fallen sacred tree which they used to make a new wooden shell for him.
- Mundane Utility: Most of the combat-oriented Robot Masters now use their weapons for mundane tasks such as Flame Man and Pharaoh Man using their fire-based weapons to run a successful restaurant and Air Man's essentially a walking fan for film productions and spreading fake snow. Rockman himself still uses some of his copied weapons at his dentistry.
- Power Limiter: Rock had one installed in him when he became a humble dentist, which prevents him from using his Mega Buster and damaging his civilian-grade frame from overuse. It can be remotely lowered in dire emergencies to give him minor Super-Strength.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Not particularly unusual for Mega Man, but it's taken to the next level. Robots can grow up, age, get into romantic relationships, even get drunk.
- Robosexual: Mentioned when Rockman wonders about robots getting into romantic relationships with humans, such as Strike Man who was purchased by and married to a wealthy baseball fan who also has a robot fetish, although it's noted that may be an exception since it's mostly an Arranged Marriage.
- Ruder and Cruder: Compared to the mostly lighthearted and family-friendly main series, it's shown that robots can get drunk and even vomit if they drink too much.
- Shout-Out:
- During Top Man's chapter, he mentions that kids are getting into "Slayblades" toys.
- Splash Woman's custom idol mic is shaped exactly like the Moon Stick with the mic in place of the Silver Crystal.
- Samus Is a Girl: The large masked Sigma-like antagonist is assumed to be male, until it reveals itself to be a female cyborg.
- Solid Gold Poop: Jewel Man keeps being mistaken for having the same crystal-producing powers as Crystal Man when his job is processing them, resulting in his frequent kidnappings and not being helped by his flashy design.
- Technology Marches On: In-Universe, as robots and machines are getting more advanced and stronger than even the Robot Masters, such as a heavy load robot at Guts Man's job which is stronger and faster than him. It's mentioned that older robots are obsolete to the point where their bodies can only be repaired with scraps or appliance parts, and they can’t just transfer to a newer body either due to laws stemming from fears that a state-of-the-art robot body with the advanced mental capability of a Robot Master would be dangerous. Rock and Roll are rare exceptions as they were gradually modified into adulthood before the law went into effect.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: It's revealed that Elec Man actually has this at all times and his his mask just made it look like he had half-lidded eyes.
- Tragic Villain: The Big Bad is revealed to be this, who was an ordinary girl that lived in Aurora Town, only to barely survive its destruction and the medical robot who saved her hastily grafted his parts onto her to save her life. Unfortunately due to being a Cyborg, she was treated as just a test subject until Shadow Man saved her and lived with Dr Wily who took her in as an apprentice and cared for her. Now her goal is to fulfil his dream of a future where robots are no longer tied to humans via using the resources and Wily Numbers she inherited.
