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YMMV / Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)

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  • Anti-Climax Boss:
    • Quick Man from Mega Man 2 is generally considered one of the more dangerous Robot Masters, as you could probably tell by his namesake. In this series, he is quickly defeated when Roll drops a bust on him at a museum.
    • Elec Man gets stomped during every Action-Hogging Opening, as does Ice Man. Both can kill Mega Man in three hits in-game.
  • Base-Breaking Character: The show's incarnation of Roll usually gets criticism for her weaponry being household equipment that is part of her job. She gets defense, however, for the fact that she is far more ambitious and proactive than Roll from the games, who usually stands on the sidelines in the classic games, and when she does fight in Powered Up and the crossover fighters, it's with things like a broom and flowers.
  • Bizarro Episode: Despite the episodes being self-contained, "Curse of the Lion Men", "Master of Disaster", and "Night of the Living Monster Bots" are certainly... out there. Even worse is that all three of them aired back-to-back-to-back.
  • Broken Base: Fan reaction to the show is very varied. For some the show as a whole vary from good, So Okay, It's Average, or So Bad, It's Good. For others it depends from episode to episode. Generally-liked episodes include "The Beginning", "The Strange Island of Dr. Wily", "The Mega Man in the Moon", "Bro Bots", "Electric Nightmare" and "Mega X", while ones such as "Robosaur Park" and "Curse of the Lion Men" are generally disliked.
  • Can't Un-Hear It: In terms of voice acting, Scott McNeil's epically hammy and gleefully-evil performance as Dr. Wily has caused many to view him as the definitive voice of the character. He's the sole reason people generally give Wily a German accent in fanworks.
  • Cliché Storm: Quite a few plots are ones you've already seen before in other childrens' cartoons of the time.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Despite minimal screen-time (not even one minute combined), Pharaoh Man ended up as the most popular character in the cartoon for being competent, no-nonsense and all-around badass. To give you an idea? Just check out that one scene where he slugs Mega Man in the face in response to having his power stolen.
    • Crystal Man is popular for similar reasons to the aforementioned Pharaoh Man, being one of Wily's toughest and most competent Robot Masters seen in the show; with particular bonus points for him being the only other bot who actively tries to fight Mega Man even after having his power copied.
    • Top Man as well, for his smooth-talking charmer personality and taking a serious level in badass compared to his video game counterpart, to the point where he's able to casually beat back Mega Man in a fight.
    • And KUNG-FU CUTMAN!
    • Of the original characters, the cosmetics robot from "Electric Nightmare" is well-liked for her design and memorable battle with Roll.
    • Tar, leader of the Lion Men, is fairly well-known outside the cartoon's fandom for the episode he appeared in being completely off-the-wall, as well as his design (especially when he's in a business suit).
  • Fan Nickname:
    • "Kung-Fu Cut Man" is generally used to refer to this version of Cut Man, who nicknamed himself this as he prepared to fight Roll. This happened in the time travel episode, with a future version of Cutman using this name.
    • "Scooby Rush" for this interpration of Mega's robo-canine Rush, who acts a lot like Scooby-Doo.
  • Fanon: Apart from Ruby-Spears Bass, one of the most popular pieces of fanon is Wily treating Proto Man like absolute crap. Sad thing is, it's not implausible.
  • Fandom-Specific Plot:
    • Fans often have Proto Man leave Wily, usually by him creating Bass as a replacement.
    • Other common fic plots involve Wily treating Proto Man terribly, often leading to him defecting and assuming a role closer to his game counterpart.
  • Foe Yay Shipping:
    • Proto Man could get fairly possessive of his little brother...
    • Elec Man's awkward Pre-Asskicking One-Liner to Mega tend to come off as this. To wit:
    Elec Man: "I get a real charge out of beating you, Mega Man!"
    • In "Future Shock", Metal Man inexplicably refers to him as "Megababe." Granted, it was probably just to mock him, but still. This was some time after he pinned Mega under a pipe, then leaned on it in preparation to slice his head off.
    • On the girls' side of things, the cosmetics robot in "Electric Nightmare" seemed a little too eager to deal with Roll. She also disliked Mega Man intruding.
    • Also Roll and Top Man which almost worked out for Wily until Roll finds out the truth and curb-stomps him.
  • Fountain of Memes: This is probably one of the most quotable cartoons of the 90's.
  • Growing the Beard: The episode "Bro Bots" is regarded as one of the better season 2 episodes, and even non-fans tend to like it for having Proto Man in a heroic role before the ruse is revealed.
  • Ham and Cheese: Scott McNeil as Dr. Wily.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • In "Robosaur Park", Mega Man and Roll are de-evolving into cavebots, and Dr. Light only has enough antidote for one of them. Roll says Mega should take it; he refuses at first, but she says he's the one with the best chance of stopping Wily. He agrees and takes it, and is able to save the day. In 10, a similar scene played out, only sadder. It was even the tenth episode.
    • In "Mega X", X takes a liking to Mega Man, saying he's the most optimistic robot he's ever met. When you remember what happens in the X series, and how Zero is X's only friend, it gets pretty sad.
    • Everything about "The Big Shake" in lieu of the Japanese earthquake of 2011.
    • "Mega-Pinocchio" has Mega Man lead a robot rebellion after having his mind tampered with. The concept of a robot built by Dr. Light doing this later cropped up in the fangame Rock Force, but without Wily being behind it.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Proto Man's abrasive personality in general and attitude against Mega Man would later be very reminiscent of Bass, who wouldn't appear in the main series until after the show's run.
    • In "Showdown at Red Gulch", Wily uses energy from a meteor to power up his robots; soon it leaves them drained and weak, but Mega Man must use the meteor to match their newfound strength in the meantime. In Mega Man 8, Wily uses evil energy from a meteor to power up his robots, and in Mega Man 11 Wily's Double Gear system powers up his robots but takes a toll on their body, and Mega Man must match them by using it himself.
      • Mega Man X: Command Mission would also end up having a similar plot, with energy from a meteor being used to power up Reploids. You can even have X use it himself.
    • In "Mega-Pinocchio", Wily decides to make Light a Hero with Bad Publicity so he reprograms his robots and sends them on a rampage, so Light is blamed for the attacks. In 9, he did essentially the same thing, though amplified by making himself a Villain with Good Publicity. Both scenarios even had a female reporter who was quick to blame Light for the misdeeds.
    • In separate episodes, a Dracula-based robot and a quarterback robot appear, respectively, Shade Man has a vampire motif, much like Dracubot, while the quarterback robot bears a big resemblance to GridMan.EXE from Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel and Team ProtoMan. Strike Man from 10 could easily pass for the baseball equivalent of the aforementioned quarterbot.
    • In "Ice Age", both Ice Man and Air Man will not die. They're finally defeated in the last 2 minutes after defeating Mega Man, Roll, and Rush in every other encounter.
    • In "Mega X", Dr. Cain, rather than looking like his game self, looks like Gordon Freeman.
    • In "Future Shock", Wily has taken over the city in a span of thirty years and exiled Light and Roll because Mega Man wasn't around to stop him. In The Protomen, Wily takes over the city and exiles Light in about thirty years because there isn't a Mega Man to stop him.
    • In "Electric Nightmare", Mega Man stops an out-of-control soda machine by kicking it. In Mega Man Legends, kicking soda machines could get you free drinks and sometimes money.
    • In "Future Shock", the robot police have wolf-like robo-dogs with a purple color scheme. This was before 6 and 7 came out, the latter of which had the first appearance of Treble, Bass's purple robot wolf.
    • In "Mega Dreams", Proto Man refers to Wily as "Lord Wily" when they're in a medieval-related dream. In Battle Network, Wily's counterpart is called Lord Wily.
    • In "Electric Nightmare", Mega offers Roll a broom when she offers to go out fighting; she karate chops it in half rather than use it. In both Mega Man Powered Up and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, classic Roll uses a broom as a weapon.
    • "Robo-Spider" has a robot museum with figures of the heroes, Cut Man, Guts Man, and Proto Man. In 7, a robot museum was featured with the real Guts Man, who was then stolen by Wily.
    • "Mega X" has Wily teaming up with Vile, and by proxy, Sigma. He teams up with Sigma definitively in Mega Man X5 and Rockman Xover.
    • "Bad Day at Peril Park" involved Dr. Light being concerned that Dr. Wily had discovered some way to transform humans into robots. Many years later, the comic book version of Dr. Wily teamed up with Dr. Eggman, a guy who had the technology to do just that.
    • "The Day the Moon Fell" has Wily use a device he and Light collaborated on in college to cause mayhem. In Mega Man 11 the Double Gear System Wily uses was something Wily and Light worked on in college.
    • Proto Man's characterization in this series is eerily similar to that of Bass, a year before Mega Man 7 was released.
    • In "Ice Age", Dr Wily and his robots kidnap a scientist studying freeze technology, and force him to build an ice-making machine to freeze the whole city. When he asks what will happen if he refuses, Guts Man's response is, "Then we'll make a popsicle out of you!" Mega Man 8 would introduce Frost Man, a similarily dim-witted Robot Master who is infamous for threatening Mega Man with this (in the English dub of the game, anyway).
  • Ho Yay
    • Guts Man and Cut Man pretend to be a couple in the mayor's nightmare.
    • Mega Man and Brain Bot inexplicably share a bed.
    • Proto Man, while pretending to be a good guy, never freaking stops touching Mega Man.
  • I Am Not Shazam: The amusement park in "Bad Day at Peril Park" is called Fun World, not Peril Park.
  • Jerkass Woobie
    • Bomb Man and Cut Man considering how many times they are destroyed.
    • The Robot Masters in "The Day the Moon Fell" come off as this, as even they think Wily's plan to bring the entire planet to the brink of a full-scale apocalypse is completely bat-shit insane. Unfortunately, being Wily's robots, they're programmed to help him succeed and there's nothing they can do about it.
  • Les Yay: In "Bad Day At Peril Park" two human women are never seen apart and try on Fun World rings, go on rides together, get scared together with one of the women clinging to the other, and get turned into robots together, making it easy for fans to see them as a couple.
  • Magnificent Bastard: "Curse of the Lion Men": Tar is the leader of the Lion Men, former humans cursed to change others into lions with eye beams. When he's inadvertently freed by Dr. Wily, Tar seeks to continue his conquest of the world by turning the humans of Hawaii into lion creatures under his command. Seeing that his beams don't work on Mega Man and other robots, Tar forms an alliance with Wily before turning him and Dr. Light into lions and placing the Robot Masters and Roll under his control. Tar's plan to use aircrafts to spread the curse to the mainland is only narrowly foiled by an anti-curse device Light had built before being transformed, and he keeps Mega Man on the run for a majority of the episode.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Pharaoh Man wears a cape and punches Mega out of his Power Copying. Well done, Pharaoh. If you search "Pharaoh Man" on Youtube, one of, if not the first videos, is called "Pharaoh Man is Awesome".
    • "KUNG-FU CUTMAN" in all of his glory counts for this.
  • Memetic Loser: Cut Man. Case in point. The villains were probably better off WITHOUT him!
  • Memetic Molester: Dr. Petto, whose name is often misheard as "Dr. Pedo."
  • Memetic Mutation
  • Moral Event Horizon
    • Wily was willing to move the moon out of its orbit, threatening the WORLD, to prove he was better than Dr. Light. His robots questioned this; they went along with it, but they questioned this act as well. Later, even Proto Man was concerned about how close the moon is getting, pointing out that if he keeps this up there won't be much left of the world to take over. Wily's response was to laugh in his face and ask if he was getting nervous.
    • In "The Big Shake", he created earthquakes to force cities to surrender...and threatened to destroy them if they didn't. Later in the episode, Wily discovered Light was working on a device to stop his earthquake machine. His response was to direct a maximum-powered earthquake directly at Light's lab in an attempt to kill them all. And after the deed was done, with Wily believing Mega, Roll, and Light dead? He stops celebrating in about two seconds and goes on to threaten the mayor.
    • In "Bro Bots", his plan involving Proto Man as The Mole crosses the line. While Proto Man enacted the plan, it was Wily's idea, and when Proto Man gave a hint to Mega Man about the scrambler chip, Wily ordered Proto Man to destroy Mega Man.
  • Narm Charm:
    • In "Bro Bots", a lot of the lines are overacted and the Robot Masters are defeated rather anti-climatically, but thanks to the emotional interactions between Mega Man and Proto Man after the latter's betrayal, how are you feeling by the time the episode ends? Sad.
    • Scott McNeil's performance as Dr Wily. It's hard not to love how cheesy it is because you can tell he had an absolute blast with the role. Similarly, his portrayal of Proto Man is absolutely dripping with campy charisma.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Many of the Robot Masters make only a brief appearance or two in a single episode and are never seen again, such as Fire Man, Stone Man, Crash Man, Pharaoh Man, Heat Man, and many others.
  • Popular with Furries: Despite its infamous reputation as the most unanimously-hated episode in the series — bad animation, Ridiculous plot for the series, so on — "Curse of the Lion Men" has grabbed the interest of the Furry Fandom, especially with Tar and his Lion Men army being very buff hunk-like baddies, along with pretty much any hot dude — the surfers, the frisbee players — turned into a Lion Man, as well as the women in swimsuits turned into hot Lioness Ladies. Granted, this episode would have fit much better with Street Sharks or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), but they still portrayed the Lion Men rather well in design.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: If not for this cartoon, Top Man would only have been known as an easy boss with a ridiculous weapon to many fans.
  • So Bad, It's Good: The show itself verges into So Okay, It's Average territory or being genuinely liked, but if there's a part of it the fans agree is laughably bad, it's all those puns that are being thrown to hell and back during fights.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Most of Wily's Robot Masters only make an appearance in one episode and are never seen or mentioned ever again. These guys stand out in particular:
    • Crash Man is only shown destroying a skyscraper in "Mega-Pinocchio", and is the only one of Wily's robots that featured in the show and didn't fight Mega Man.
    • Gemini Man in his one appearance is taken down so quickly that he fails to use his powers or really contribute to the episode as a whole.
    • Pharaoh Man, who was incredibly competent compared to the other Robot Masters, only appears near the end of "Electric Nightmare", and could have served as a recurring, challenging enemy (alongside Proto Man). Crystal Man was also similarly competent, but at least he was featured in the entirety of his episode.
    • Napalm Man, who only appeared for a brief second in the intro and never in an episode proper.
    • Heat Man and Needle Man appeared with Elec Man in "Bro Bots," only to be taken down quickly at the beginning and end of the episode, and never showed up again. Two for the price of one.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It's shown that Mega Man can stack his powers in "Cold Steel", and the first episode demonstrates that Proto Man has the ability to steal powers, too. Proto Man having a number of Robot Master powers to fight Mega Man would have made for a potentially interesting episode. Amusingly, Mega Man: Fully Charged would feature a villain, Namagem, who stacks the abilities of the other Robot Masters, making him a deadly threat.
  • Villain Decay: Wily really hits a low during "Curse of the Lion Men," where his attempt to team up with Tar backfires completely, and the Robot Masters are also much weaker than usual. Same goes for him being completely terrified of and subservient to Vile and Spark Mandrill in "Mega X", although it's much more justified there due to him trying (albeit with zero success) to fight the much, much stronger Mavericks first.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: Some of the episodes were very well animated.
    • The plasma shots are done very well, usually adding shading if there isn't any already.
  • The Woobie:
    • Mega Man in "Bro Bots" and "Mega-Pinocchio."
    • Also Roll when she finds out that Top Man has been using her and proceeds to knock him into next week.

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