Mega Man (animation)



"MEGA MAN, THE SUPER HERO OF THE 21ST CENTURY! Super Fighting Robot, MEGA MAN!"

An animated adaptation of Capcom's beloved Mascot...more specifically, the classic version. Created by Ruby-Spears Productions, this series ran from 1994 to 1995.

The overall plot of the cartoon is pretty much like the video games it was based on, with Mega Man having to foil the schemes of Mad Scientist Dr. Wily, who wants nothing more than to Take Over the World. It is somewhat like the American Street Fighter cartoon in that the plots of the individual episodes would tend to get kinda screwy, but was nonetheless good for a usually unintentional laugh. The voice work was provided by The Ocean Group who would later dub Mega Man Powered Up.

In a strange move, despite the cartoon getting fairly solid ratings, it was canceled before a third season could get off the ground. An interview with Joe Ruby has shed light on production of the show. Concept art has also resurfaced.

A-I
"Protoman: What's the world coming to when you can't trust your own brother?"
 * The Abridged Series: It has one on YouTube, which is approaching the finale.
 * Action Girl: Roll. Despite being a housekeeping Robot Master model, she was able to incapacitate Cutman. With a toaster gun that shot out delicious toasted bread.
 * Action-Hogging Opening
 * Actor Allusion: Ian Corlett voices both Mega Man and Snake Man. Pretty useful that one episode has them switch bodies.
 * Adaptational Attractiveness: While rather tame compared to other female characters like that in the show, Roll had a body of a fairly curvy young woman rather than the little girl she normally is in the franchise.
 * There's also Mega Man himself.
 * Adaptational Villainy: Proto Man has a Heel Face Turn and becomes a frequent ally to Mega Man in the games, if still aloof at times. In the series, he is more of a villain with fewer redeeming qualities.
 * Adorable Evil Minions: The Battontons. And the Pipis in the opening.
 * Agony Beam: Wily used one in "20,000 Leaks Under The Sea" to incapacitate Roll, Rush, and, oddly, Dr. Light.
 * American Mega Man Is Hardcore
 * Amusement Park of Doom: Fun World in "Bad Day at Peril Park."
 * Animated Adaptation
 * Animation Bump: The first and last episodes had very good animation, as did some scenes in other episodes; even 'Night of the Living Monster Bots' had good use of light and shadow.
 * Animesque: The series was co-animated by a Japanese company and thus, has moments of this.
 * Some of the Wild Takes the characters (mostly the Robot Masters) sometimes do.
 * Sometimes the characters' eyes, particularly Roll's, take on an anime look.
 * In "Crime of the Century", the rich women at the party look very animesque.
 * More than one publication has even mistaken the show for an anime. This included the PlayStation 2 version of Anniversary Collection.
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Mega sees Roll as this at times.
 * Artistic Age: Mega Man looks 21 and (for the most part) acts like it, but a good deal of promotional material gives the impression that he's only 15 or so. (Whether or not this material is canon depends) X needs no help on this matter—best estimate is either "somewhere in his thirties" or "early forties".
 * Ascended Extra: Dark Man, the robot posing as Proto Man in 5, gets two major parts in two episodes, a pretty cool voice, an awesome power, and he's even competent to boot!
 * Ascended Fanboy: The Karate Bot from "Campus Commandos" admires Mega Man and wants to be a fighter like him. Despite hindering Mega at times, he manages to take down Cutman.
 * Annie from "Future Shock" is a human, female example.
 * Auction of Evil: "The Incredible Shrinking Mega Man" had Dr. Wily shrink entire American cities - specifically, New York, Washington, and Chicago - and then encase them in glass before auctioning them off to the highest bidder. One scene of the Robot Masters driving around in their van also had Guts Man mention that Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Los Angeles were next on the list.
 * Ax Crazy: Both Protoman and Wily show signs of this.
 * Back to School: Roll attends Light's robot college; Mega's there too, but just to keep an eye on things if Wily's around.
 * Bad Bad Acting: Seen on two separate occasions when Mega and Roll try to fool Wily. (You can also tell which of Roll's voice actresses voices her by this—Robyn Ross doesn't do this, while Kathleen Barr does.)
 * Bad Future: The one in "Future Shock", in which Wily has nearly taken over the entire world in the span of thirty or so years.
 * In a sense, X's appearance implies that the future of the Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero games still comes to pass, meaning the world is in for quite a bit of fighting until things settle down for a bit with Mega Man ZX.
 * Badass: Pharaoh Man had a great design compared to many robotmasters in the series, had a badass voice, no puns and punched Megaman in the face after having his weapon stolen.
 * Badass Cape: Pharaoh Man sports one.
 * In the one VHS cover that Protoman is on, his scarf looks more like one of these.
 * Badass Damsel: Roll gets captured a couple times, but usually manages to make trouble for her captors—and she's an Action Girl in combat.
 * Beam Me Up, Scotty: Mega only exclaimed "Now I've got your power!" twice at most, yet a lot of people think it's his main catchphrase.
 * Berserk Button: Don't hurt Roll or Rush, lest you want Mega to ventilate you.
 * Don't give Roll a bad facial or haircut. She will destroy you.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Mega Man obviously qualifies for this, but Roll does too, especially when she
 * One time Gutsman kicked Rush into the ocean, so Mega shot him about 6 times in a row. Normally in the show it only takes 1 or 2 shots to down a Robot Master.
 * Big Brother Bully: Protoman is this quite a bit...
 * Big Brother Instinct: ...though occasionally he does help Mega, unintentionally or not.
 * Big Dam Plot: Wily used this in "Mega X", with assistance from Vile and Spark Mandrill, to flood a plasma plant.
 * The Big Guy: X is about a foot taller than Mega—and almost every other character in that episode, for that matter.
 * Tar of the Lion Men's pretty tall, too.
 * Bishonen: Mega Man, sort of.
 * Proto Man qualifies too.
 * Bittersweet Ending: The ending of "Bro Bots". Wily's plan was foiled and everyone was saved, but Protoman was faking his Heel Face Turn. He left to rejoin Wily, leaving Mega alone.
 * Blood Knight: Proto Man, so very much. Helps that he might be insane.
 * Bond Villain Stupidity: Dr. Wily's had his moments. One that comes to mind was in "20,000 Leaks Under the Sea". After pulling off a clever Xanatos Gambit, he managed to trap our heroes in a fake laboratory building that was in fact an enormous robot which then took them underwater. We later find out that he had a self-destruct for the building that he could've just used right at the start and kill them all before they even realized anything was wrong. Instead, he trapped them in an Agony Beam while gloating about his plan, eventually leaving them to their fate, enabing them to make their escape. Not only that, but he apparently left some tools behind that Dr. Light was able to use to help them escape.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Proto Man seems to do this in "Bot Transfer" where he asks the audience:

"Mega Man: She's pretty! Dr. Light: (quickly) And you can think of her as your sister."
 * Brief Accent Imitation: Mega does this while under Wily's control in "Mega-Pinocchio".
 * In a meta example, Protoman's disguise in "Bot Transfer" sounds like he's doing his best impersonation of Dr. Wily. They both had the same voice actor.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Sounds like it in the pilot. Rarely again, however.

"Wily: I've got to turn up the power...Wait, what am I worrying about? There's no way Mega Man can stop my Robo-Spider! Wily: I'm not taking any chances. *turns up power*"
 * Brother-Sister Team: Mega Man and Roll.
 * Butt Monkey: Cut Man, considering he's almost always the first one to be defeated, or to take the most pain in the episode.
 * Taken to ridiculous heights here! You really feel sorry for the guy.
 * By the Lights of Their Eyes: Cut Man, Guts Man, and Proto Man as hooded figures in "Mega Dreams" (in Proto Man's case, it's the reflection of his sunglasses).
 * Cain and Abel: Proto Man and Mega Man. Proto's only "Cain" half of the time.
 * Can Not Tell a Lie: Dr. Wily thinks this in the first episode, but Rock proves him wrong. In other episodes, Roll's capable of lying as well.
 * Canon Foreigner: The humans besides Light and Wily, and the cartoon-exclusive robots.
 * The Lion Men and Lotos the Genie, too.
 * Canon Immigrant: Fake Man, the police robot from 9, is pretty clearly based off of the cartoon police-bots.
 * Captain Obvious: Wood Man.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Wily becomes this, ironically having plans that are somewhat more original than the games. Somewhat.
 * Catch Phrase: Mega's "Sizzling circuits!"
 * Cut Man had "I'll cut you down to size" and "I'm on the cutting edge".
 * One other semi-common one "I'm going to make paper dolls out of you."
 * Cat Fight: In Electric Nightmare, when Roll is fighting with the cosmetics bot, there's a quick cut to Mega Man, staring with an... interested look on his face.
 * Catfolk: The Lion Men.
 * Cats Are Mean: The Lion Men.
 * Chained to a Railway: Happened to Mega on at least two occasions, though he was electrified to it rather than tied.
 * Character Development: Mega and Dr. Light became more approving of Roll going into battle after awhile. In turn, Roll focused less on wanting to prove herself to them.
 * In fact, Roll seems to have had the most character development out of everyone on the show. She started off as more of a Faux Action Girl, always going out to try to prove herself in battle to Mega Man and Dr. Light, who just wanted her to Stay in the Kitchen, but more often than not ended up getting captured or otherwise requiring Mega Man to go out of his way to save her. By the end of the first season, however, she's evolved into a full-fledged Action Girl, and is more than capable of holding her own against several of Wily's robot masters.
 * The Cheerleader: Averted with the Cheerbots in "Campus Commandos", all of whom are nice. A specific one befriends Roll, and helps out when Wily invades the campus.
 * The Chessmaster: Wily took this role in "The Big Shake" thanks to a microtransmitter; Dr. Light noted how he was always one step ahead of them.
 * It could be said he took this role in "Mega X", coming up with the plan to flood the plasma plant and have the Mavericks do the work, and getting to use the lightanium rods before Vile and Spark Mandrill tried to bring them to the future.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Expect any Enemy Mine situation to have Wily betraying the heroes.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Mega Man. Guess it's that strong sense of justice.
 * Co-Dragons: When Tar of the Lion Men took over, Wily and Light briefly became his dragons.
 * Concept Art: Among other things, Protoman had a belt, Roll's shirt and pants were red and white, and Rush's muzzle was white.
 * Conqueror From the Future: Vile and Spark Mandrill, though they weren't around to stay, instead intending to obtain a valuable resource from the past and take it back to Sigma. Destroying that era's protectors was just a bonus.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Proto has a moment of this near the end of "Terror of the Seven Seas"; he and Mega engage in what's supposed to be a straight fistfight. Once it's apparent that he's going to lose, he changes his mind about not using his arm cannon and shoots Mega. All this earns him is a running punch to the head.
 * In "Robo-Spider", he attacks from below, uses Gutsman as a shield, and damages Mega's blaster while he's off-guard.
 * In "Campus Commandos", he shoots Mega's Arm Cannon while he was distracted, breaking it for about half the episode.
 * Continuity Nod: During an Enemy Mine situation, Wily comments on how nice it is that he and Dr. Light are working together again. This happened in both the games' backstory and the first episode of the show.
 * Mega fails to break open the bathroom door in "Electric Nightmare" and the gigantic Robo-Spider in "Robot Spider". Both are explicitly stated to be constructed out of titanium.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "Electric Nightmare", Roll is strapped to a chair and receives... a bad facial.
 * Cool Little Sis: Roll definitely qualifies for this.
 * Cool Old Guy: Played straight with Dr. Light, but averted hard with Dr. Wily.
 * Cool Shades: Protoman wears these. They're also the preferred method of stopping Bright Man's attacks.
 * Creepy Monotone: Protoman engages in this in "Curse of the Lion Men" when Tar reprograms him and the other robots.
 * Cultural Translation: Generally what people tend to think about this series. As this show was mostly a western production, the character designers would go with the style what was the it thing in other western cartoons of its time: muscles. This had the side effect of making Mega Man/Rock and his "sister" Roll look more like teenagers, as opposed to their child-esque appearances in the games. Other than that, most of the characters resembled their video game counterparts, only on 'roids, with the exception being a completely redesigned Roll.
 * The action was also firmly grounded in the United States (most of the time), with one episode featuring Mega Man taking a plasma shot from Proto Man to protect the statue of President Lincoln.
 * In another episode, Wily proclaims that New York City is his, presumably talking about "the city" that most episodes take place in.
 * Cute Bruiser: Roll.
 * Cut Lex Luthor a Check: It's mentioned sometimes that Wily (and Sigma, in the Mega Man X crossover episode) needs funding to continue his evil schemes. So naturally he sends the robots out to steal stuff.
 * Cut Short: Thanks a lot, Bandai and Capcom of America.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: In "The Big Shake", Wily discovered Light and Mega Man were 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, or at the very least wreck the machine.
 * In "Campus Commandos", Protoman shot Mega's Arm Cannon while he was distracted, breaking it for about half the episode.
 * In "Future Shock", Wily is aware that if Mega Man makes it to the time machine, his conquest of the future will end. So he orders Protoman to rig it to explode.
 * Pharaoh Man doesn't stand around when he's getting his power taken, while Mega Man's doing what he does best, and after he spouts his catchphrase, Pharaoh Man punches him.
 * A couple of Wily's death traps were fairly genre-savvy; the robots have attempted to kill Mega while he's weakened or unconscious, and in "Brain Bots" Mega Man was handcuffed to the floor as a spiked ceiling descended on him.
 * This occurrence in "Robo-Spider":
 * pause*

"Proto Man: (in response to a lame pun on electricity) Yeah. Whatever turns you on, Doc."
 * Upon discovering Dr. Light made an antidote to his retrograde virus in "Robosaur Park", Wily immediately decides to destroy it. After Mega intervenes and they play keep-away with the antidote, it ends up back in Wily's hands. Wily then hops in the Skullker to fly away from the heroes, and destroy the antidote someplace where they can't interfere.
 * Tar of the Lion Men avoided an Evil vs. Evil scenario by frisking Wily for his reprogramming device and brainwashing the Robot Masters, Roll, and Protoman with it.
 * A Day At the Bizarro: 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.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Protoman, and Vile in "Mega X".
 * Death Trap:
 * "Campus Commandos" has Mega, Roll and Rush tied to clock tower gears to be crushed between them.
 * In "Brain Bots", Wily places Mega Man in a Death Trap consisting of a Descending Ceiling with spikes. Mega was bound to the floor as it descended.
 * Another episode has Mega's legs trapped as a rocket is wheeled over him, the point being to fry him when the rocket lifts off.
 * Demoted to Extra: Fanfiction example: Remember Bass? Nine times out of ten, he's been demoted to a plot device with which to make Protoman call it quits. After that's taken care of, he promptly vanishes. And yet, the fans seem to want him to be a major character...
 * In-universe, Crash Man had only seven seconds of screen time.
 * Designated Girl Fight: "Electric Nightmare" had Roll attacked by a female cosmetics robot who gave her a bad facial. Mega Man gave the robot an equally bad facial with a tube of makeup, and offered to fight her, but Roll insisted she handle it.
 * Destructive Savior: Mega Man X.
 * Disability Immunity: Mary, a hearing-impaired girl, is immune to Wily's mind-control music.
 * Disability Superpower: Mary's reading of Dr. Light's lips told Roll and Rush where Wily's base was. And made sense of Rush's yammering for her to tell Roll that Mega Man was hurt and at the bottom of the sea.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: In "Electric Nightmare", Roll was attacked by a female cosmetics robot that strapped her to a chair and gave her a bad facial. Mega Man's response was to throw a tube of makeup at the robot, giving her an equally bad facial. Roll's response when freed was to cut her in half, then vacuum her face off.
 * May not be so disproportionate; see Fridge Horror.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: So this cosmetics bot is under Dr. Wily's control, and straps Roll to a chair. Roll tells the robot to let her go, but Wily gives her a creepy look and goes "Not before I give you the beauty treatment!" Then the robot produces an oversized powderpuff from her chest area (really) and tries to smush it in Roll's face. Roll acts like this is the worst thing in the world that could happen to her.
 * And let's not forget the final fight scene in "Bro Bots".
 * Door Judo: Mega Man pulls this off in "Terror of the Seven Seas" with a pursuing Guts Man. While running down a hallway, he sets it up by closing several doors in Guts Man's face before opening the final door that leads to a maintenance shaft.
 * Dramatic Irony: Protoman and Wily reveal the former's faking being good about three minutes into "Bro Bots", but Mega and company don't find out until much later.
 * Drill Tank: Dr. Wily used one to help create earthquakes in the episode "The Big Shake".
 * Dumb Muscle: Guts Man, who is so incompetent in battle against Mega Man that one of the few times he is able to actually hit Mega could be considered an accomplishment.
 * Earthquake Machine: Wily used one in "The Big Shake".
 * Effortless Amazonian Lift: Roll carries Dr. Light and the governor this way in "Bro Bots", one in each arm.
 * Elite Mook: Dark Man was pretty competent for a regular Robot Master.
 * Enemy Mine: "The Strange Island of Dr. Wily" had Wily and the heroes call a truce to escape Stone Bots.
 * Escort Mission: Mega Man and Roll had to escort Brain Bot to California. Wily got in the way.
 * "Everybody Laughs" Ending/Once Per Episode: Most episodes ended with Rush doing something silly a la Scooby Doo and the good guys, well, laughing.
 * Everyone Loves Blondes: Top Man for Roll,
 * Everything Is Online: Seen in "Electric Nightmare", even with things that weren't electronic at all.
 * Evil-Detecting Dog: Occasionally, Rush's ears would hear the villains up to no good.
 * Evil Is Not a Toy: Wily thought he could use Tar to help him conquer the world. He was wrong.
 * Evil Laugh: Although this is a general trait of practically every version of Dr. Wily, the laugh possessed by this incarnation is notably awesome thanks to the vocal talents of Scott McNeil.
 * Expy: The cop bots in "Future Shock" seem to be based off of Sniper Joes, and a different kind seem based off of Dark Man.
 * Rush is obviously based off of Scooby Doo in this incarnation.
 * Actually, according to this article, Rush was supposed to be as different from him as possible, but he still wound up that way.
 * Eye Beams: The Lion Men used these to turn humans into lions.
 * Eyecatch: In the syndicated run before and after commercial breaks, with one of the characters announcing something to the effect of "Mega Man will be right back after these messages" or "And now back to Mega Man!" Images used during these bumps include Mega Man in a dynamic action pose, Roll throwing a mean karate kick, and Roll giving Rush a Battery Biscuit while Mega watches in amusement.
 * Fake-Out Opening: In the beginning of the episode "Electric Nightmare", Mega Man is battling Wily's robots and winning. Then electrical cables get wrapped around him and fry him. Mega Man dead. Or not; in an interesting variation of the trope, it was Wily doing a runthrough of his latest scheme with action figures.
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: Zig-Zagged depending on the episode. At the very least, the guns looked realistic.
 * Family-Unfriendly Violence: Since the characters were mostly robots, the writers/animators could get away with dismembering or otherwise mutilating them.
 * However, in "Crime of the Century", Protoman fired into a room of humans. And they didn't move afterward...
 * Fandom Specific Plot: Plots with Ruby-Spears Bass or Proto leaving Wily for another reason are fairly common, as are stories where Wily treats Proto terribly.
 * Fauxshadowing: In "Master of Disaster", the professor comments how in the legend, Lotos was banished by tricking the rajah into wishing he'd never found the golden chest. Mega apparently plans to try the same thing on Wily, but ends up just defeating Lotos (albeit by tricking him into becoming a more vulnerable dragon).
 * Four Bad Band
 * The Big Bad/Evil Genius: Dr. Wily
 * The Dragon: Protoman
 * The Brute: Guts Man
 * And Cut Man
 * For the Evulz: Wily's motivation seems to be this.
 * The pilot episode plays with this a bit. During the flashback, Wily appears to be bitter that Dr. Light seemed to be blaming him for the failure of of their robot prototype and felt that he simply wanted to take all of the credit for their work. Later we see him constructing Protoman while spouting off a Humans Are Flawed Motive Rant complete with Freudian Excuse. All of this is dropped after this episode, however, and is never brought up again in the series. A later episode even shows that Wily had double-crossed Light as far back as when they were in college, so indeed For the Evulz seems to be the more likely motive here.
 * Fragile Speedster: Quickman.
 * Freaky Friday Flip: A villainous example in "Bot Transfer"; Wily's goons force Mega Man to switch bodies with Snakeman, with an appropriate reaction from the former (panic).
 * Voices Are Mental: Averted, although maybe not coincidentally— the two were voiced by the same person.
 * Freudian Excuse: Subverted. In "The Beginning", Wily mentions having a hard childhood, not even having toys like the other kids—then goes right on to working on Protoman, expounding on a different subject. The show never brings it up again, implying that Wily's bid to take over the world is simply For the Evulz.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Roll did all her modifications to her Utility Arm herself. This includes, among other things, a vacuum, a circular saw, a blender, and a baking sensor that detects earthquakes.
 * Genius Bruiser: Pharaoh Man.
 * Genius Ditz: Dr. Light has his moments, such as when he wonders aloud "why anyone would bar the outside of a bathroom door" before realizing something bad is brewing.
 * Not to mention just standing there as Dr. Wily welded a door shut, and once he left, trying to punch his way out.
 * One-shot character Brain Bot counts as well; he tampers with everything tamperable, oblivious as to whether or not it actually needs to be "fixed" (such as the jet).
 * Get Into Jail Free: Mega Man decided the best way to get to Dr. Light and Roll in the Wily-run future was to get himself arrested, so he hit a copbot over the head with a lamppost. It worked.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Say what you will about some other incidences, but there is no way in hell that Ruby-spears couldn't have known what they were doing with this line:

"Proto Man: Ha! I knew you'd risk yourself to save Mr. Lincoln!"
 * In "Robosaur Park", Mega Man and Roll are de-evolving into cavebots. Dr. Light opens them up to see if there's anything he can do to fix them. The panel he opens on Roll? Her breasts. And it's not hollow inside.
 * I swear, Roll calls Wily "Dr. Dickhead" in the first episode. It's over the sound of a drill, but I can't think of anything else she could be saying.
 * 'Diskhead' or 'Deadhead'. Hard to tell.
 * 'Dinghead' was what I thought I heard, but it's hard to make out properly.
 * In "Mega-Pinocchio," unless you read the episode description from another source, you would think Dr. Petto was Dr. Pedo.
 * For many the reference to Geppetto just whizzed right by their heads; who ever had their thinking caps on watching UPN 46 at 6:30am in the morning?
 * Giant Spider: The titular "Robo-Spider". Its webs could drain electricity from the city, and Mega Man could copy the webs' power like a Robot Master.
 * Giggling Villain: Cutman, and Snakeman in Mega Man's body.
 * Glass Cannon: Elecman. He can floor Mega Man with one hit, but so can Mega. And Roll.
 * Also Cut Man.
 * Gone to the Future: Mega Man in "Future Shock".
 * Gratuitous Japanese: The Bubble Bats are referred to as "Battontons", their original name—which is admittedly less ridiculous.
 * Hairstyle Malfunction: Happened to a one-off crook in "The Incredible Shrinking Megaman".
 * Hartman Hips: Depending on how small their waists are drawn, Mega Man, Roll, and Proto Man.
 * Heel Face Mole: Protoman in "Bro Bots".
 * Heroic BSOD: Mega briefly loses it after switching bodies with Snakeman; he gets it together just long enough to distract the police chasing him.
 * He suffers a more protracted one in "Mega-Pinocchio."
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Non-fatal example; Rush let Mega borrow some of his energy to save the day in "Robo-Spider".
 * Mega Man himself has had his share;


 * Hilarity Ensues: Some of the episodes delved into this.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Wily and his robots stopped the Lion Men from being defeated by Mega Man...and were later mind controlled by them.
 * Megaman will often defeat a robot master with his own weapon if he didn't do so before copying it.
 * Hollywood Hacking: The episode "Electric Nightmare".
 * Hot Paint Job: Fire Man has a flame pattern on his blasters.
 * How We Got Here: The first episode "The Beginning," which explores Rock's origins and his conversion into Mega Man through flashbacks.
 * Hurricane of Puns: There isn't a minute in a battle scene where epic punnage isn't being dropped between the good and evil characters.
 * I Can Still Fight: Mega Man does this in "Bro Bots". Despite suffering from an unknown (to him) condition that shocks him, he still goes to protect everyone when he sees Wily's robots on the news.
 * If I Do Not Return: In "Campus Commandos," Roll hopes Dr. Light will remember to recycle her should they not escape Wily's trap.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Roll uses household appliances both in and out of combat.
 * The cosmetics robot from "Electric Nightmare" used a hairdryer and oversized razor as weapons.
 * In the same episode, Mega Man even manages to break the spy-bot into parts by twirling a broom.
 * Incredible Shrinking Man: The episode imaginatively named "The Incredible Shrinking Mega Man." In it, Wily's world domination scheme of the week involves using jewel-powered shrinking rays to shrink cities (Hyperstone Heist, anyone?). As you would expect by looking at the title, Mega Man is a victim of the shrinking ray.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: All over the place.
 * Invisibility Cloak: Mega Man's Stealth Suit, though sometimes it malfunctioned.
 * Irony: Mega Man is voiced by Ian James Corlett, who voiced Dr. Wily in Captain N: The Game Master.
 * In "Mega-Pinocchio", Roll spends the entirety of the episode wanting to fight Wily's bots. Instead she had to fight a mental battle against her own brother.
 * It's All About Me: Tar, leader of the Lion Men, insists on being the only one to rule the world.

J-R

 * Just a Machine: Wily seems to hold this view of robots, except for Protoman.
 * At the beginning of "Ice Age", the kids that Mega Man is tasked with supervising say that he can't help them, since all of his actions are pre-programmed (except they're not).
 * Just a Stupid Accent: This incarnation of Dr. Wily has what sounds like a German accent, although it's never elaborated on where he's from.
 * Doris the robo-maid seemed to have a Russian accent.
 * Karma Houdini: In 'Bad Day At Peril Park', the corrupt park attendant is never even found out as working for Wily, and isn't defeated or punished.
 * Kick the Dog: Wily yelling at his own robots. Among other things, he's called them "nothing but heaps of useless chips!" And Protoman was one of the 'bots he was yelling at.
 * In "Mega-Pinocchio", his plan was to con Mega into believing he was human so he could plant a chip in him, controlling his mind. However, rather than act on it right away, he spent time toying with Mega Man's mind and giving him existential crises before exerting full control.
 * Iceman does this literally in "Ice Age", kicking Rush and breaking him into pieces.
 * Gutsman also kicks Rush away from him in "Bad Day at Peril Park" when he kidnaps Bobby.
 * And again in "Terror of the Seven Seas", this time getting a pummeling by Mega for his efforts.
 * In "Robo-Spider," Dr. Wily's Robo-Spider kicks both Mega Man and Rush into a building.
 * Rush went to pieces again in "Mega X". Mega, Roll and Rush head out to confront "two weird bots" - and run straight into a blast from Vile's shoulder cannon. Mega and Roll are perfectly fine, Rush is in many pieces and inoperative.
 * Knight Templar: X. He shows little, if any regard to the collateral damage he causes while fighting Vile and Spark Mandrill, and he outright states that he doesn't care if he brings Vile back dead or alive. A far cry from the Reluctant Warrior/Technical Pacifist we know from the games.
 * Large Ham: Dr. Wily. Period.
 * The mayor of the city is one too, though to a lesser extent.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Appropriately, Elec Man.
 * Also Quick Man.
 * Literal Surveillance Bug: One of Wily's miniature robot spiders.
 * Literally Shattered Lives: Wily threatens Light with this in "The Beginning", saying that if he tried anything, Iceman would freeze him and Cutman would slice him up. They demonstrated with a chemistry table.
 * Losing Your Head: At the beginning of "The Incredible Shrinking Mega Man", Mega says "don't lose your head" to a disassembled Roll.
 * Made of Plasticine: Doris the robo-maid, who was torn to pieces by a wooden broom.
 * Mass Hypnosis: Used in "Cold Steel" and "Bad Day At Peril Park", with Wily hypnotizing the masses to act as robots.
 * Mega Man and Proto Man Are About to Shoot You: In the intro, although it does happen a few times in the series proper.
 * Mega Manning: Different from the video game version in that Mega Man doesn't have to defeat a Robot Master to duplicate their powers. All that is required is for Mega to concentrate for a few seconds while touching a Robot Master. This cartoon-exclusive loophole was played with in an episode where after Mega copies Pharaoh Man's powers and spouts his catchphrase, Pharaoh knocks him away with a punch to the face.
 * He was also able to analyze the schematics of Wily's giant robot spider, an Agony Beam, and a bomb.
 * Merchandise-Driven: This series had a respectable amount of merchandising for a syndicated children's cartoon, such as a soundtrack album (featuring songs that were crammed into the end credits, but none of the score) and a potential deal with Marvel to adapt the cartoon into a comic (which fell through), but at the center of the merch was the toyline from Bandai. As a nod to his mimicry ability, the Mega Man figure's Mega Buster could be switched with other weapons. Bandai apparently had some creative input on the series, such as by having the producers introduce a vehicle for Mega (the Land Blazer) so they could make a toy out of it. But with sales below expectations, Bandai got fussy with Capcom, and as a result, Capcom canceled both the toyline and the series. Of the action figures, the Bomb Man figure is the rarest as it was pulled out of stores shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing. Due to its rarity, you can expect it to be very expensive if you find it anywhere.
 * Mighty Glacier: Hardman. Also Gutsman to a slightly lesser extent.
 * Military Mashup Machine: Dr. Wily's initial goal in "Terror of the Seven Seas" was to steal enough ships, so that he could assemble them into one of these.
 * Mind Control Device: Wily has a handheld reprogrammer that can also turn off robots. This gets a Call Back in a later episode when Tar of the Lion Men uses it to reprogram Protoman, Roll, and the rest of Wily's robots to serve him.
 * Mind Screw: The ending of "Night of the Living Monster Bots" implies that.
 * Mister Muffykins: Ms. Lapierre, a criminal affiliated with Wily, had a poodle named Fluffy.
 * A robo-poodle named Lady Silicon appeared briefly in "Bad Day At Peril Park". Rush tried to impress her.
 * The Mole:  in "Electric Nightmare", Top Man in "Campus Commandos", and Protoman in "Bro Bots".
 * Mondegreen: Roll's lines when yelling at Wily in the first episode and a cosmetic robot in the second episodes are hard to make out as they're over the sound of a drill/oversized powder puff. The latter line is commonly misheard as "Go powder your own snatch," when she said "snout", and the former has no apparent correct version.
 * Monster Mash: The whole point of "Night of the Living Monster-Bots". Dr. Wily creates a bunch of classic horror movie-inspired robots to terrorize the English countryside; a Mummy, a Werewolf, a Vampire, and a Frankenstein-esque monster.
 * Mood Whiplash: "Mega-Pinocchio", odd premise aside, was one of the most serious episodes of the show, involving Wily besmirching Dr. Light's name, Mega Man having existential crises, and an attack on the White House. It ends with Rush doing something silly.
 * "Bro Bots" likewise, though it could be argued that it was to cheer Mega (and the audience) up.
 * Moon Drop: One of Wily's ingenious schemes involved using a contraption to pull the moon out of orbit and ram it into Earth, which would apparently make the rest of the Earth's citizens get down on their knees and beg Wily to fix the planet following the devastation.
 * Not quite. Wily's plan wasn't to crash the Moon into the Earth, it was to bring the Moon close enough to the Earth that the resulting gravitational shift would send the Earth's climate into chaos. The human race would still be wiped out, save for maybe a few survivors—who, Wily hoped, would submit to his power after that.
 * More Dakka: In "Terror of the Seven Seas", Wily uses every gun, missile launcher, and laser-shooting satellite dish on several battleships to try and destroy Mega. They all miss.
 * Motor Mouth: Quick Man, who also sounds a little like a stereotypical 50's movie mobster.
 * Never Recycle Your Schemes: Dr. Wily never repeats a plan. Sometimes Justified Trope by Dr. Light coming up with a counter to whatever he had tried.
 * In "Cold Steel" he tried to recover his device so he could start the plan over later, but Mega Man stopped him.
 * No Backwards Compatibility in the Future: Averted. X is able to copy Snakeman's weapon just fine. It would've been interesting to see what would happen if Mega Man had tried to copy Vile or Spark Mandrill. Would it simply fail, or would the process take so long that he'd get clobbered before it was finished?
 * Most likely he would have failed, since Vile and Mandrill were so advanced. For X, copying Snake Man's power was a piece of cake because Wily's tech is a lot simpler.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Cutman's voice is an impression of Peter Lorre.
 * Evelyn Ray was likely a Shout-Out to Fay Wray.
 * No Name Given: The mayor. Especially jarring when oneshot and recurring characters get names.
 * Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: X, in his own continuity? Roughly even with Mega Man. Back in the original's time? Superpowered. Ditto the villains.
 * No Sell: Vile and Spark Mandrill are completely unaffected by the present-day tech.
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Protoman to Mega Man, especially when pretending to be good.
 * No Waterproofing in the Future: In the games, Mega Man sank in water (except for 8, where he could swim for some reason), but had no problem staying under, being a robot. In the series, Mega Man experiences rapid loss of energy when underwater.
 * Bonus ouch points: It's apparently limited to him.
 * Not quite; Mega Man defeats Elec Man by spraying him with a fire hose in "Terror of the Seven Seas". As water and electricity don't mix, that one might make more sense though.
 * Not Blood Siblings: Proto, to Mega and Roll—maybe. In the pilot, Wily tells Proto that he "built" him, but later on (in a flashback), Proto tells Rock that the two of them were built from the same plans. For some reason, a lot of fans are more inclined to believe Wily.
 * That's probably because Wily is shown in "The Beginning" leaving Light's lab with just the blueprints, and is later shown working on Protoman. But it gets even more complicated in "Bro Bots", where Dr. Light mentioned that he used the same ethical program in Proto that he used in Mega. There seems to be a bit of a disagreement going on here...
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Mega Man has an inexplicable Canadian accent. (To be fair to Mr. Corlett, Canadian and American accents are hard to distinguish)
 * Not-So-Harmless Villain: Bright Man had a rare moment of competence when he decided to first blind Mega Man, then run him over with a tank.
 * Obviously Evil: Wily, in both the present day and his college-aged self.
 * Off-Model: A promotional image for the cartoon featuring Mega and Rush looking like they're ready to kick some Robot Master ass; what is supposed to be Mega's abs instead looks like a lumpy Eldritch Abomination on his stomach.
 * Almost everyone in 'Curse of the Lion Men' was this.
 * Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Played with. A number of episodes revolve around Wily attempting to acquire money to finance his plans or stealing technology or resources, but he still has the resources to build his usual Wily Machine style mechs.
 * Vile and Spark Mandrill also avert this in their appearance, as they came back to steal Lightanium rods for Sigma, which are worth a ton in the future.
 * One-Episode Wonder: Quite a few Robot Masters.
 * Especially Pharaoh Man in Electric Nightmare, who retaliated after having his weapon stolen during the climax.
 * 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 Fireman, Stoneman, Crashman, Pharaohman, and many others. See Fridge Horror for a possible explanation...
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Only Protoman is allowed to defeat Mega Man, and he'll gladly remind you of this fact if you try to simply shoot Mega.
 * In a meta example, nobody but Mega Man could defeat Protoman—when Roll encountered him, she was always defeated.
 * Protoman seems to have gone back and forth on this, ultimately straying from this over time. In the first season he would often directly disobey Wily playing this trope straight. By the second season he didn't do this as often, and was more willing to go along with Wily's plots, whether Mega Man dies by his hand or not.
 * Only Sane Man: In a way, Protoman was the most sane out of Wily's robots; he was a Blood Knight, but even he demonstrates better decision-making than the Big Bad.
 * The Other Darrin: Roll's voice actresses alternated between Robyn Ross and Kathleen Barr in the first season. The second settled on Kathleen.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Dracubot in "Night of the Living Monster Bots" can hypnotize people into turning into vampire robots and shoot lightning from his fangs.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Wolfbot only transforms under a full moon and is a butler otherwise, and can shoot his claws to turn people into werewolves.
 * Outside Context Villain: The Lion Men.
 * Overclocking Attack: In "Robo-Spider", Wily attempts to use this to fry Dr. Light's supercomputer by flooding it with stored electrical current.
 * Percussive Therapy: At the end of "Campus Commandos", Wily starts smashing his control panels in a rage when he realizes Mega's saving City Hall. This causes the Skullker to lose control and fly everywhere.
 * Pet the Dog: The episode "Bro Bots." In it, Protoman fakes going straight to implant an inhibitor chip into Mega to keep him from stopping Wily's scheme of the week. Even though he was faking it, he is genuinely surprised when Mega says that he "always wanted a real brother relationship" with him.
 * In "Brain Bots", he compliments Mega's shooting skills even as Wily's vehicle goes down.
 * Pinocchio Syndrome: The plot of "Mega-Pinocchio," where an eccentric scientist named Dr. Petto offers to turn Mega into a human, which Mega for some reason wants to become. Unsurprisingly, Petto is actually a robot created by Wily, and instead of turning Mega human, he instead implants a mind-controlling device to make Mega do his bidding.
 * Play-Along Prisoner: In "Future Shock", Mega Man decides that the best way to get into prison to rescue Roll and Dr. Light is to get himself arrested. He promptly does so, and soon breaks out to free them.
 * Plot-Driven Breakdown: Quite a few episodes have these. In "Bro Bots", to name one example, Proto Man implants a chip into Mega Man that causes him to suffer these.
 * In "Campus Commandos", Protoman shot Mega's arm cannon, leaving it broken for about half the episode.
 * If the episode takes place near or in water, expect Mega Man to suddenly run out of power at a critical moment.
 * Police Are Useless: This goes for the human police and the robots.
 * Political Correctness Gone Mad: Certain broadcasts of the series would edit out instances of "'bot" being used in place of "butt" (ie "'bot-heads", "kick some 'bot", etc.), replacing them with silence instead.
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: "Mega X," which was an obvious launching pad for a Mega Man X cartoon, but it never came into fruition.
 * Portrait Peephole: Seen in "Night of the Living Monster Bots."
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: While the show has its fair share of detractors its often considered to be one of the better Video Game based animated shows around. At least when it came to the 3 90's animated shows based off of Capcom Video games, the Mega Man series is usually considered to be the best one of the 3 here.
 * Keiji Inafune helped work on the show a few times, which probably helps.
 * There was also the decision to change Proto Man from Mega Man's Aloof Big Brother Mysterious Ally to his Worthy Opponent on Wily's side. Given that Dark Man, Proto's impersonator from the fifth game, shows up in the series, it's more likely this was a conscious decision in order to give Mega Man an appropriate rival (Bass from the seventh game didn't exist yet) than Did Not Do the Research.
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang: Several robot masters; Cutman (Depending on the Writer), Metalman, Quickman (only in "The Day the Moon Fell"), Shadowman, and Ringman.
 * Projectile Toast: One of Roll's Utility Arm attachments was a toaster gun that did this.
 * Psycho Prototype: Protoman. He's almost always smirking, and isn't happy unless he's destroying things or fighting Mega Man. In fact, in "Future Shock", he didn't want Wily to finish conquering the world because it would mean less opportunities to kill people.
 * Rapid-Fire Typing: Wily and Light engage in it occasionally.
 * Reset Button: In "Future Shock", the reason the future turned out badly is because Mega Man wasn't around to stop Dr. Wily in the past. Both he and Wily are aware that if he makes it to the time machine, Wily's conquest of the future will end. Sure enough, Mega Man makes it and the Bad Future is erased.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Doc the Metool and Eddie. Rush, too, in his cuter moments.
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots: Just about every robot on the show.
 * Robot Maid: One was featured in "Electric Nightmare", with a Meido uniform even. At one point, she rips off her uniform to reveal herself as a Ninja Maid. Not to mention Roll was originally designed for household chores.
 * Robot Master of the Week: Most of the robot masters worked in this manner, except for Cutman and Gutsman. Some, like Snakeman and Brightman, would be brought back multiple times, others would never be seen again.
 * Running Gag: Rush biting Gutsman's leg, and usually being kicked off of him.
 * Running Gag: Rush biting Gutsman's leg, and usually being kicked off of him.

S-Z
"Roll: Talk about sweet. I could throw up!"
 * Science Fantasy: In episodes with fantastical elements, such as Lotos the genie.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The Lion Men, Lotos the Genie, and the Stone Bots.
 * Self-Parody: Keiji Inafune, the most famous person associated with Mega Man, helped make some of the episodes, possibly evoking this Trope.
 * Self-Restraint: One episode had Mega Man get arrested by humans who, thanks to Wily, thought he was behind the evil scheme of the week. As he didn't want to harm the humans he let himself be handcuffed. Soon after his name was cleared, he snapped the cuffs like they were nothing.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Brain Bot.
 * Shout-Out:
 * In 'Future Shock', Roll calls enemy robots Blaster Masters.
 * Rush is a robotic expy of Scooby Doo.
 * The mobile prison in "20,000 Leaks Under the Sea" bears a resemblance to an AT-AT Walker.
 * In Cold Steel, Mega called Spark Man Sparkster.
 * In "Mega Dreams", Roll walks out of a theater advertising The Last Dragon, which is an actual movie. She even comments how she loves kung-fu movies, which it is.
 * The revival of the classic series have their own shout-outs to the animated series:
 * 9 references the plot of "Mega Pinocchio", with Wily reprogramming Dr. Light's robots in an effort to tarnish his name. Also, the design of Fakeman was clearly influenced by the police-bots that are common in the series.
 * 10 makes a clear reference to "Robosaur Park". Specifically, Mega Man and Roll are both infected with The Virus, Roll is offered the (experimental) vaccine first, but she declines, saying that Mega Man is the only one who can stop Wily, so he should take it instead.
 * Probably a coincidence, but Command Mission's plot involving supra force metal is quite similar to the episode "Showdown at Red Gulch".
 * Shown Their Work: While the show isn't accurate by today's standards, Ruby Spears included several Robot Masters from the games with designs mostly unscathed. While there are exceptions (Air Man, Roll), overall the looks are usually accurate.
 * A rather odd example. Look at 00:09 in this video, specifically Annie's hand. She's clearly doing the Mega Man hand thing. Ruby-Spears clearly paid great attention to the artwork, at the very least.
 * The Battontons? Yeah, that's their original Japanese names.
 * Before he became Mega Man, his name was Rock.
 * Mega Man uses a holographic projector in "The Day the Moon Fell" that looks similar to the Wily alien holographic projector in Mega Man 2.
 * The writers watched the subbed OVA to get a feel for Wily's vocal characterizations, citing that in the raw footage Wily spoke Japanese with a German accent.
 * In "Mega Dreams", Roll walks out of a theater advertising The Last Dragon, which is an actual movie. She even comments on how she loves kung-fu movies, which it is.
 * Sinister Shades: Protoman wears these. A couple times, Mega Man is reflected in them when Proto's about to take him by surprise.
 * Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: Napalm Man appears for a split-second during the opening credits, but never appeared in any episode.
 * Smoke Out: Eddie does one in "Robosaur Park", letting Mega and Dr. Light get to safety.
 * Smug Snake: Wily a fair amount of times, and Tar of the Lion Men. Vile might also count too.
 * Souvenir Land: Fun World, which has the standard rides and even offers souvenir rings..
 * Speech-Impaired Animal: Rush, much like you know who.
 * Spring Coil: The cosmetics robot in "Electric Nightmare" had springs built into her ankles.
 * Sssssnaketalk: Snakeman, natch. And it's evidently programmed in, rather than something he does out of habit; see "Bot Transfer".
 * Standard Female Grab Area: Averted with Roll. When she was captured, she was usually grabbed by her waist. In one instance when the 'bots were on the moon, she was lifted by her shoulder.
 * Played straight, oddly, with Protoman. While he wasn't rendered helpless, Wily's hand on his upper arm was enough to stop him from going after Mega Man.
 * Status Quo Is God: The Pet the Dog moments in "Bro Bots" are simply that, as by the end of the episode, after being found out, Protoman is back to being Wily's dragon.
 * Stay in the Kitchen: Despite Roll being a more than capable fighter, Mega insists on her staying at Dr. Light's lab. To be fair, this only happens in early episodes, and she still goes out to fight in spite of it.
 * Stock Footage: Mega Man's Mega Manning sequence, which begins with a close-up of Mega's face while a wire frame of the ability's chip appears for a few seconds, and ends with Mega feeling rather satisfied as he looks at his Arm Cannon. In fact, the first shot of the sequence is the image on the page for Mega Manning.
 * There's another bit of stock footage where Mega Man jumps back and fires a weapon. If you see Speed Stripes instead of a proper background behind Mega Man as he looks at his Arm Cannon during his Mega Manning sequence, you'll know this particular one is about to occur.
 * The Stoic: X. With the Mavericks he has to hunt down, it's no wonder. (So what was with all that screaming at the end?)
 * Pharaoh Man, Shadow Man, and Crystal Man, for the baddies' side.
 * Stop Helping Me!: Brain Bot's "help" ranges from merely annoying (trying to give Rush wheels, elaborately stating the obvious) to life-threatening (trying to adjust a jet's gyro-stabilizer in mid flight so that it could operate at peak efficiency). About the third time he tries to "help", Mega Man briefly snaps and yells at him to not touch anything.
 * Strapped to An Operating Table: Dr. Wily does this to Rock (not yet Mega) and Roll in the first episode.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: The intro features a swarm of Killer Bullets flying into skyscrapers and blowing them up. This scene was edited out of post 9/11 broadcasts of the series because people thought it would be in bad taste, but it can be found on the DVD-sets.
 * Surfer Dude: Ringman was like this.
 * Surrounded by Idiots: Wily holds this opinion about all of his robots, to be fair, who wouldn't say this? Protoman ocassionally says so as well.
 * Swiss Army Appendage: Roll's Utility Arm.
 * Tagalong Kid: Several humans, notably Bobby and Annie.
 * Take Over the City: If Wily can't Take Over the World, he settles for this.
 * Take Over the World: Wily's primary goal.
 * Tastes Like Diabetes: In-universe. Roll has this reaction to a park attendant's overly sugary demeanor and voice.

"Wily: The world called me mad! Insane, Proto! Protoman: Sounds right to me."
 * Team Rocket Wins: While his primary goal wasn't achieved, Wily made off with the money from robbing the citizens in "Crime of the Century" and the money from selling a shrunken Washington D.C. in "The Incredible Shrinking Mega Man". If you want to get technical, he also got all the money from selling Fun World tickets.
 * Tear Off Your Face: Roll does this to a cosmetics robot in "Electric Nightmare".
 * Theme Naming: Mega Man's original name was Rock and his sister's name is Roll.
 * There Is Only One Bed: Mega and Brain Bot end up briefly sharing a bed (Roll took the other one), in rather close proximity.
 * They Called Me Mad: Dr. Wily says this a couple times. Once, it's followed up by a snarky comment from Protoman.

"Mega: This isn't some video game!"
 * Third Person Person: Eddie. He's also incapable of saving Mega Man in a dignified manner.
 * This Is Reality: Said when Mega Man is angered at some delinquent kids who were just standing around as Wily attacked.


 * Those Two Bad Guys: Gutsman and Cutman are rarely seen apart. Bombman and Elecman frequently team up, as well.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Mega Man leaping in front of a shot meant for... a statue of President Lincoln. Then again, the repercussions of just standing there and not trying to neutralize the shot somehow wouldn't be pleasant.
 * Otto Raptor from "Robosaur Park" believes mankind should've gone extinct, not the dinosaurs. Otto's a human.
 * But, dinosaurs went extinct 61 millions years before the first ancestor of humans even appeared...
 * Presumably, he meant that the dinos should've stayed around long enough to pick off the humans. That bit of idiocy does fit him, however.
 * Is he a human? Look at him closely and you can see he has claws and what looks like scaly skin. He seems like some kind of lizard-man who believes Humans Are the Real Monsters. Maybe if the series explored his character more...
 * Tina McIntyre stowed away on a space shuttle to see her astronaut dad. While that was silly at best, she crosses into this when seeing her father threatened by Wily and the Robot Masters for a password...and she runs out and is promptly held hostage.
 * What really brings this scene into Idiot Ball territory was the fact that Mega Man was winning against Wily's robots when she ran out and became a hostage.
 * Too Powerful to Live: Vile and Spark Mandrill, who having come back from the future are presented as being invincible against everything but X, who also fits the trope.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Top Man went from being an easy boss with an oft-mocked acquired weapon to a smooth-talking womanizer capable of defeating Mega Man unaided.
 * Pharaoh Man somehow became even more awesome, punching out Mega Man after his power had been copied.
 * Ice Man defeated Mega Man about 3 times in one episode. And broke Rush. Then again, in the games he could kill you in 3 hits.
 * Metal Man was always awesome, but in the cartoon he had a spectacularly hardcore moment. After pinning Mega Man under a metal pipe, he tried to saw his head off.
 * Woodman's Leaf Shield became somewhat practical by being an actual shield. He used it to defend Protoman from attack, and was one of the few Robot Masters to threaten Dr. Light.
 * Took a Level In Dumbass: A lot of Wily's Robot Masters in which this had its fair share of Lampshade Hanging (usually from Proto Man).
 * Totally Radical: Usually averted; when the trope did happen, Roll was the usual offender. Ring Man engaged in this, too, though he may have been a parody of it.
 * Toxic Phlebotinum: The meteor fragments in "Showdown at Red Gulch" increase the power of their users tenfold, but will soon overload said users. Mega Man uses one anyway, since it's the only way to stand up to Wily's superpowered robots. It ends badly.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Battery Biscuits for Rush.
 * Uncanny Valley Makeup: The cosmetics robot in "Electric Nightmare."
 * The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer: The Lion Men grasp technology fairly well, despite thinking planes are giant silver birds.
 * Unwilling Roboticisation: "Bad Day at Peril Park". Subverted Trope in that the humans are only brainwashed to think like robots.
 * Vanilla Edition: The DVDs of the show have all the episodes... and nothing else. No concept art, interviews, or anything.
 * Oddly enough, Ruby-Spears concept art was featured in Novas Aventuras de Mega Man.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Wily suffers one at the ends of "Cold Steel" and "Campus Commandos".
 * Villainous Crossdresser: Ice Man in the opening of "Ice Age".
 * Villainous Widow's Peak: Wily had one in his college days.
 * Washington DC Invasion: Wily does this in "Mega-Pinocchio".
 * Wave Motion Gun: Wily spends "Mega X" trying to build this.
 * Weaponized Landmark: The Statue of Liberty in "Master of Disaster".
 * We Can Rule Together: Proto Man really wants Mega Man to defect to Wily.
 * Weird Moon: Used twice; once with Wily taking control of a laser on a moon base, and the second with him pulling the moon out of its orbit.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Doc the Metool only appeared in the first episode, as a helper to Roll.
 * Odd single-episode example: After Proto takes a Hard Knuckle to the chest in "Bad Day at Peril Park", he isn't seen or heard from for the rest of the episode.
 * In the same episode, the corrupt park attendant is never even found out, much less defeated or punished.
 * When Trees Attack: Magically animated trees attack in "Master of Disaster".
 * Who Writes This Crap?: Evelyn Ray describes Wily's plot in "Night of the Living Monster Bots" as the worst movie she's ever heard. This episode is generally regarded as having one of the worst plots.
 * Yes-Man: Wily in his college days.
 * You Fight Like a Cow: Very frequently.
 * You Shall Not Pass: Mega and Roll try this on Brightman to let Rush Bring News Back in "Robo-Spider". Though since he was about to run them over with a tank while they were blinded, it was more trying not to die.
 * Zeerust: In the future, the robots are the only ones not mired in the 1990s.