Meganize Me!
"What makes a hero? Someone who defends the helpless. Someone who fights for unity. Someone who stands for justice. Someone who defends humans and robots alike. Someone like... Mega Man!"
— Aki Light/Mega Man
Mega Man: Fully Charged is the second American animated series based on Capcom's beloved mascot. More specifically, it is the second Mega Man animated series overall to be based on the classic incarnation, following the 1994-95 Ruby-Spears show. Fully Charged was developed by Man of Action Studios and premiered on Cartoon Network on August 5th, 2018 as a part of the franchise's 30th anniversary.
The series follows Aki Light (Vincent Tong), a seemingly-human robot boy living in the futuristic Silicon City with his "father" Dr. Light (Gary Chalk) and his sister Suna Light. When Sgt. Night sets his sinister plans in motion, he must transform into the heroic Mega Man and fight off the villain's robot army with the help of his family, his robot dog Rush and his Robot Buddy Mega Mini. The series reimagines various aspects of the classic franchise and its characters by giving them a new twist or interpretation.
Has an official YouTube channel here
(though some contents can be only viewed in some countries), and the trailer can be seen here.
In 2020, long after the show had finished airing, a six issue comic adaptation was announced by Boom! Studios that takes place after the events of the series, in which Mega Man will battle a new set of Robot Masters and an enigmatic scientist called Dr. Wily while unlocking long forgotten memories of his past.
Mega Man: Fully Charged is charged with examples of:
- Adapted Out: The roles of Roll and Proto Man have been replaced by Suna Light and Namagem, respectively. There is evidence, however, that Roll, at least, does exist in this continuity, as evidenced by a poster in Aki's room suggesting that Roll is a rock star in this universe (Rockin' Roll, get it?).
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Dr. Light has generally been an advocate for peaceful resolution in the games, but in this series had partaken in a human and robot war, the gravity of the situation of which convinced him the folly in that conflict.
- Adaptation Name Change: Instead of Rock — or even Mega — Mega Man's real name is Aki. Interestingly, one of its meanings includes "bright", which works very well with his surname of Light.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Mega Man in the games is thoughtful and humble, and while he's easily fooled at times it's due to being too trusting. Aki is cocky, overeager, and not good at strategies or studying.
- Adaptation Origin Connection: Inverted. The Robot Masters created by Dr. Light in the canon games (Fire Man, Ice Man, Elec Man, Guts Man and Cut Man) have had their connection to him stricken.
- It is also inverted in the case of the Robot Masters originally made by Dr. Wily (Air Man, Wood Man, Junk Man and Wave Man), who are also not related to this universe’s version of him.
- And as there is no version of Dr. Cossack, Drill Man has an entirely different creator who makes no physical appearance. The same also applies to Skull Man when he appears in the comics.
- All-CGI Cartoon: With the exception of the pixelated Art Shift, the series is completely CGI.
- Alternate History: The Earth as shown in "To Air is Robot" doesn't match what Earth as the viewer knows it looks like, suggesting that this trope is in effect.
- Alternate Continuity: This series is set in its own continuity separate from the games. To be specific, the show takes place years after a global human-robot war, Dr. Light is a veteran of said war and has a human daughter named Suna, Roll is reduced to a few Freeze-Frame Bonus cameos, Mega Man is Aki's secret superhero identity, and aside from Bert (Aki and Suna's human friend) sharing his name, Dr. Wily was nowhere to be found in the show.
- Dr. Wily (FINALLY) makes his appearance in the comics and it revealed that he's Bert grandfather.
- Ambiguously Brown: Dr. Light is Caucasian, but Suna has a significantly darker skin tone, implying that she's either adopted or mixed-race.
- Art Shift: Fully Charged shifts from CGI to sprite animations during flashbacks and some fight scenes, emulating the feeling of playing retro-styled video games.
- Ascended Meme: Among the artworks at the museum Blasto Woman tries to rob is a photo of Guts Man's ass.
- Attack Drone: Suna can control her Sunacopter drones with a tablet, which can crash into things or swipe weapons.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: "A Bot and his Dog" has Mega Man wish for something more challenging than house calls, only to have Hypno Woman grant his wish.
- Big Damn Heroes: Hypno Woman has Mega Man in a tight spot in her first appearance, but then Suna's remote-controlled drone attacks her from behind and enables him to defeat her.
- Bottle Episode: "Hard Times in Silicon City" entirely takes place in a room of a museum.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: "Drill of the Hunt" revolves around Mega Man using Hypno Woman's powers to try and rehabilitate Drill Man. He also brainwashes Suna to leave him alone and help people. It doesn't end well.
- Brick Joke: In the pilot episode, Mega Man suggests Fire Man try yoga. His next appearance shows he took him up on the advice.
- Canon Foreigner: New characters are included, the most prominent being Sgt. Night, Mega Mini, Suna Light, Namagem, Hypno Woman, Blasto Woman, Chemistry Man, and Chaotique.
- Chained Heat:
- Happens to Mega Man and Suna when Ice Man freezes them together. Mega Man's first solution is to activate Fire Man's power and use his unfrozen arm to melt the ice, only to find that he can't activate it without the intense heat burning Suna in the process.
- Drill Man and his father get glued together in "This Is Not A Drill" so they can talk it out, but instead decide to team up against Dr. Light and Mega Man, who are also glued together.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Hypno Woman's projectiles are color-coded depending on who's using them. Hypno Woman uses purple, Mega Man uses blue, and Namagem uses yellow.
- Composite Character:
- The show runners have described Dr. Light as a former adventurer, which sounds very much like Barrel Caskett.
- Many Robot Masters in the series have traits from other Robot Masters in the games, such as Wood Man being a composite of himself and Shadow Man, and Guts Man becoming like Dust Man.
- Bert Wily's character resembles that of Alan from the Dreamwave comics; the well meaning best friend of Aki, but combined with the ingenuity of his namesake.
- Namagem is a combination of Bass and Proto Man, sharing the personality and armored black-and-yellow design of the former and the backstory of the latter.
- The show runners have described
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Several episodes' plots could have been resolved or made much easier if Aki had simply listened to Suna from the start, which Suna is quick to point out.
- Discard and Draw: Mega Man must offload a weapon to copy a new one if he has 3 onboard. Fortunately, the process is faster with the schematics chips that Rush carries.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Mega Man was given a hard limit on how many weapons he can hold in "Lightfall", with "S.W.I.S.H." confirming he can only hold three at a time, and his schematic selection screen reflects this. Prior episodes, however, had his schematic selection screen have all of the schematics he'd accumulated up to that point, although he had generally only used one weapon in specific episodes.
- Evolving Credits: The end credits cut between three pixelated pictures, the last of which is a shot of Mega Man and Rush. Starting with "Lightfall Part 2", this shot is changed to show Rush with the armor he gained at the end of that episode.
- Expy: Blasto Woman is a primarily yellow, stocky robot, and most of the times she appears, she's in it to steal something valuable, all traits common with Wario.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Sgt. Night believes unity between mankind and robotkind can't happen, and that humans are superior to robots by virtue of having created them. If he had gotten his hands on the Mega Key, he would be completely willing to erase the personalities of the Robot Masters that worked for him so they could become the "tools" he believes robots to be.
- Fire Man believes humans are weak and inferior compared to robots, something he loudly declares whenever he appears.
- The Farmer and the Viper:
- In "Enemy of My Enemy", Fire Man and Namagem are locked in a grudge match. Mega Man ultimately teams up with the former to stop the latter, and as Fire Man prepares to finish Namagem off while he's weakened, Mega Man convinces him to spare him. Namagem repays Fire Man for this with a heavily-damaging charged blast to the back while his guard is down, then makes his getaway while Mega Man is occupied with Fire Man's well-being, leading Mega Man to stop him by any means necessary the next time they meet.
- Chaotique is damaged during her attack on the Lighthouse and is restored with the Mega Key, but she repays the Lights by selling it out to Lord Obsidian.
- Ghost in the Machine: Mega Mini lives inside Mega Man's head, occasionally popping out to wisecrack or give advice, and is responsible for triggering Aki's transformation into Mega Man, as well as monitoring and repairing his circuitry.
- Great Offscreen War: Dr. Light took part in a human-robot war in the past, that took place in "the Hard Age". Sgt. Night wants to start it up again.
- Heroic Wannabe: "This Man, This Man Man" introduces Man Man, a human DIY Mega Man wannabe.
- High School AU: The show is this to the Mega Man (Classic) series, though not the first, second or even third time in the franchise to tackle this premise. Like the Dreamwave comics, this is not directly created by Capcom and has no game it's tying into or adapting from.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Aki uses his experience from playing Deli Dodgers to dodge Hypno Woman's drones in episode 4.
- In Name Only: This series has almost nothing in common with the source material; Dr. Light's backstory is significantly changed, Roll and Protoman are replaced with new, slightly different characters, Rock is now Aki Light and has a smaller robot living in his head, the main antagonist of every single mainline game is written out completely, ect.
- Ironic Echo Cut: "Make the Cut" has Suna tell Aki that he needs to take a break from being Mega Man so that he doesn't burn himself out fighting Lord Obsidian's minions:Suna: I doubt Lord Obsidian is sending another minion out right this minute.
(cut to Lord Obsidian's lair)
Lord Obsidian: I'm sending you out right this minute, Cut Man. - Literal-Minded: "Nice On Ice" starts with Mega Man chasing down a rogue lawnmower robot... Who hadn't even intended on going rogue. As Dr. Light explains, the robot took a command to its most literal extreme, not realizing what he was doing due to being an older model. Shortly after, Aki runs to get back to school before lunch ends, and gets distracted by Sgt. Night holding a rally against robots. Aki interrupts and gives a big speech about how humans and robots should be inseparable. Ice Man, inspired by Aki's speech, goes to make humans and robots inseparable - by freezing them together.
- Lone Wolf Boss: Hypno Woman, Wood Man, and Ice Man aren't directly affiliated with Sgt. Night, and thus never team up with him or other Robot Masters.
- MacGuffin: The latter half of the series focuses on Sgt. Night seeking the Mega Key, which can control all robots.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: "Lightfall" has Mega Man mastering the Quick Shift, which lets him use multiple powers in quick succession, while Rush is given red armor that makes him look closer to the games' version.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Replicating a Robot Master's power also means Aki gains a facet of their personality or bodily functions. For example, while using Fire Man's weapon, he's more aggressive and quick to anger, while Drill Man's drills literally leave him spinning.
- Mythology Gag: The fact that the show is aired as a part of the franchise's 30th anniversary means that a lot of easter eggs and references from all throughout the game's history will be featured Once an Episode.
- The soundtrack uses direct remixes or covers of music from the games, usually relevant to the characters onscreen.
- Mega Man's design makes him look like his classic self with X's overall armor aesthetics.
- One of the panels in Mega Mini's console during the first episode's Freeze-Frame Bonus looks like the "Stage Select" screen. A similar stage select also appears in "Bored to be Wild."
- Mega Man assuming a different color and design scheme whenever he's using his enemy's weapon is similar to his classic self in Mega Man 11.
- One of the supporting characters, Bert Wily, wears a shirt with a stylized "W" that looks very similar to Dr. Wily's symbol from the games. His botched haircut in "Drilling Deep" is also Dr. Wily's standard hairstyle.
- When Aki and Suna visit a museum in "Hard Times in Silicon City," they're staring at a painting featuring a white-armored hero that is pretty much straight from the Mega Man X box art. In the background a few scenes later, there's portraits of Zero and Iris, Roll in a business suit, Zero in his Mega Man Zero form, and Guts Man's butt from the Ruby-Spears cartoon. Episode 25 features another poster of Roll with an electric guitar.
- When recruiting Guts Man, Sgt. Night says that if he works with him, he'll be a "Robot Master," the title of the eight boss robots (and Mega Man himself) in the Classic games.
- In "Rush to Greatness," Aki and Suna decide to create a robot for Rush to fight named Junk Man.
- Man Man resembles the infamous Mega Man cover art, AKA Bad Box Art Mega Man.
- Namagem is able to stack Robot Master abilities on top of each other, something that Mega Man was shown to be able to do in the 1994 Ruby Spears adaptation in the episode "Cold Steel".
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Fire Man lets it slip in "Opposites Attract" that he and Wave Man are working for someone else. Up to that point, Mega Man thought he was just dealing with yet another isolated incident.
- Noir Episode: "A Guilded Cage" opens with the kids watching a noir movie. Despite the lead character being a loner in an uncaring, bitter world, Aki and Mini really get into it and want an actual mystery of their own to solve. They get their wish when the Good Guild is hypnotized into destroying public property and attacking Mega Man. The episode occasionally utilizes Deliberately Monochrome, Private Eye Monologue, and Mini on saxophone, as Mega Man tries to solve the case and look for the most obvious suspect. But Hypno Woman's actually the Red Herring; it's really Namagem, who copied her power as part of a plan to get the Mega Key from Dr. Light.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Background robots tend to eschew the Classic series robot designs, looking much more boxy with Noodle People arms and legs, and rectangular eyes.
- Not Me This Time: "A Guilded Cage" has Mega Man suspect Hypno Woman of hypnotizing the Good Guild, but it turns out to be Namagem behind the trouble.
- Obliviously Evil: Ice Man thinks of himself as a hero helping to bring humans and robots closer together. He does this by literally freezing humans and robots together in blocks of ice.
- On Patrol Montage: "Power Cycle" has a montage of an increasingly exhausted Mega Man putting away Robot Masters while Sergeant Night watches. This happens a second time in "Make the Cut", only without Night watching it.
- Orcus on His Throne: Sgt. Night does do recruiting a few times as the series goes on, like with Chemistry Man and Guts Man, but for the most part he spends season 1 cooped up in his fortress watching Mega Man and his minions. Fire Man even calls him out on this in "Lightfall Part 1". As a result, he takes the role of Lord Obsidian.
- Police Are Useless: The Good Guild is Silicon City's peacekeeping force, but they never do anything useful.
- Power Copying:
- Wouldn't be a Mega Man series without having this trope in effect. Much like his Ruby-Spears counterpart, he can copy the powers of his opponents through his Variable Weapon System, but instead of touching a Robot Master to replicate their power, Aki can use his Mega Buster to slowly gather enough data to replicate not only that Robot Master's weapon, but also a cosmetic change. However, he can only store three schematics at a time, and he can't shoot with the Mega Buster during the process, leaving him vulnerable.
- Namagem also has this power, with the bonus of being able to store more than three weapons at a time.
- Pragmatic Adaptation:
- A number of the Robot Masters often borrow traits from other ones, likely to add more diversity to their ability sets, avoid redundant villains, and to circumvent the limitations of the amount of characters usable in a CGI cartoon.
- Namagem is effectively a combination of Proto Man and Bass, taking the backstory of the former but a majority of the personality traits and design from the latter, which was likely done to create a single, interesting rival character for Aki.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Blasto Woman is fairly careful to avoid damaging any artifacts from the Hard Age, because it would decrease their value if she sold them damaged. She even takes the time to grab Mega Man, who she had punched across the room, mid-flight, specifically to ask if a painting on the wall is valuable. When told that it isn't especially valuable, she considers that a go-ahead to throw Mega Man at it.
- Pungeon Master: Mega Man is quick with puns when facing down a villain.Mega Man: You need to chill out Fire Man. Maybe try some yoga.
Mega Mini: Hot yoga!
Mega Man: Burn! - Punny Name: The Light residence is named the Lighthouse.
- Race Lift: Suna, Roll's counterpart in this series, is Ambiguously Brown.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Generally speaking, Aki/Mega Man is impulsive and headstrong, while Suna is logical and collected.
- "Opposites Attract" runs with it. Not only do Mega Man and Suna have to work together while feuding, but Fire Man and Wave Man team-up for a job, despite their conflicting personalities and powers. Fire Man keeps barking orders and being angry, while Wave Man handles the specifics of the mission and is relaxed around his supposed friend. Deconstructed in that Fire Man repeatedly insults and abuses Wave Man, so it doesn't take much to convince Wave Man to assert himself.
- Remake Cameo: Gary Chalk, who voices Dr. Light in Fully Charged, was the voice of Guts Man in the Ruby-Spears cartoon. Kathleen Barr also worked on the earlier cartoon (having voiced a one-off character named Bobby, and shared the role of Roll with Robyn Ross in the first season), and here voices Hypno Woman and Blasto Woman. Also, the voice director Terry Klassen previously voiced Cutman in the Ruby Spears cartoon and Rush in the OVA anime Wish Upon A Star.
- Retired Badass: Dr. Light participated in a war but is still in pretty decent shape.
- Retraux Flashback: The wartime flashback in "Enter the Wood Man" looks like a classic game.
- Rogues Gallery: Like his Ruby-Spears self, Mega Man has a rotating cast of baddies to fight.
- Run the Gauntlet: The final two episodes have Lord Obsidian bringing every Robot Master to attack the Lighthouse.
- Running Gag: The blond background kid who drops his ice cream in many episodes. May also be a Shout-Out to the fat man who has the same thing happen to him in the Lilo & Stitch franchise.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Namagem is Mega Man backwards.
- Shout-Out:
- Wood Man's debut episode is titled "Enter the Wood Man," a play on Enter the Dragon.
- "This Man, This Man Man" is a shout-out to the Fantastic Four story "This Man, This Monster."
- It's Chemistry, Man! has several references to Star Wars, with Ashley saying, "Hurry Mega Man, you're our only hope!" and Mega Man getting turned to Platinum with Mini in a similar pose to Han when he was frozen.
- Show Within a Show: Deli Dodgers is Aki's favorite video game, where a chef collects sandwich ingredients in a maze while dodging impatient customers. Aki uses his experience from playing the game to dodge Hypno Woman's drones in episode 4.
- Some Kind Of Forcefield: S.W.I.S.H. is a device that can project forcefields, helping Mega Man defeat Namagem in battle.
- Stinky Flower: "Flower Power" revolves around an incredibly foul-smelling plant called the "Corpse Flower" Although this is ultimately inverted at the end when Wood Man plants it in a certain spot in the forest, causing it to bloom and create a pleasant scent.
- Subverted Suspicion Aesop: Aki is suspicious of Guts Man based on his instincts, and turns out to be right when he attacks the Lighthouse.
- Surrounded by Smart People: Aki is the only one in both his family and friend group who isn't a robotics whiz.
- Taking the Bullet: In "Lightfall Part 2", Rush jumps in front of an energy blast from Lord Obsidian's gun to shield Mega Man from it, leaving him badly damaged; fortunately, Dr. Light and Suna repair him later, and he gets some shiny new battle armor to go with it.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Mega Man convinces Cut Man to stand down this way.
- A Taste of Defeat: The first part of "Lightfall" has Mega Man decisively beaten in combat, with him defeating his opponent the following episode.
- This Is My Side: In "More More More" Sgt. Night puts a wall around the city to forcibly separate humans and robots.
- Transformation Sequence: Any time Aki says "Meganize me!", you can expect a sequence of him transforming into Mega Man that lasts around a quarter of a minute, though it's slightly shortened later in the series, and sometimes he transforms off-screen, bypassing the sequence entirely.
- Treacherous Quest Giver:
- Blasto Woman enlists Mega Man's help to get a dangerous EMP in "Blast Resort," only to betray him and use it on him.
- In "Change the Charge," Elec Man enlists Mega Man to put power converters all around the city, supposedly to turn over a new leaf, only for it to be a ruse so Namagem and Lord Obsidian can hypnotize all the robots remotely. This happening again is lampshaded when Obsidian is surprised it actually worked.
- Tron Lines: Mega Man's new design features an abundance of these, and with the way they and his armor are laid out, they give him a look halfway between his regular classic self and Mega Man X. Several Robot Masters also have these.
- Truer to the Text: In some respects, it's more faithful to the Classic series than the 1994 Ruby Spears cartoon- though it’s still very wrong to say that it’s completely accurate.
- Mega Man is designed more along the lines of a pre-teen, rather than looking like a teen or adult.
- Mega Man keeps the weapons he's copied, albeit with the caveat of being unable to keep all of them at one time.
- Two-Person Love Triangle: Aki is stated to have a crush on his and Suna's friend Ashley in an official synopsis for her debut episode, something that is made clear in Watt's Happening?!; meanwhile, by the same episode, Ashley has developed a bit of a crush on Mega Man herself without realizing that he and her friend Aki are one in the same.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Most of the robots Mega Man fights escape after he defeats them.
- Visible Odor: The Corpse Flower in "Flower Power" is so stinky it emits a visible green odor.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Mega Man is Aki Light, a junior high school student who moonlights as a crime fighting robot whenever there's danger.
- Wham Episode: The "Lightfall" two-parter shakes up the status quo, including Sgt. Night's combat form being revealed, Rush getting armor that makes him look more like his game self, and the first appearance of Mega Man's twin brother Namagem.
- Wham Line:
- "SWISH": after Aki admits to Dr. Light he'll only be ready to enter the lab when the time is right, the latter says to himself, "That might be sooner than you might think." This indicates he's more aware of what's been going on than he's let on.
- "Change the Charge": Lord Obsidian looks at two very different photos, while talking about how Mega Man won't stop him from getting the Mega Key.Lord Obsidian: Hello, Aki.
- White-and-Grey Morality: The heroes are generally clear-cut, but most of the Robot Masters themselves aren't evil, but lashing out because of their own issues (Fire Man and Guts Man losing their jobs, Drill Man due to his lost dreams, and Wood Man due to not knowing the war was over) or just not knowing any better (Ice Man's naivete).
- You Don't Look Like You: Like the Ruby-Spears Mega Man, the Robot Masters have different designs from their video game counterparts. Ice Man, for example, has white-ish skin.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: In "Big Bad Dreams", Namagem uses Hypno Woman's powers to get into Mega Man's dreams, causing him fear and loss of sleep. To make matters worse, any damage he sustains in these dreams carries over to reality.
