Mega Man Megamix

"Cut Man: I don't have any data on you... WHO ARE YOU?!

???: Me...? My name is Rock... But I'm also Mega Man!"

- Mega Man Megamix, Volume 1: "The Birth of Mega Man"

The fan favorite and oft celebrated adaptation of the classic Mega Man series by Hitoshi Ariga. Well known inside the fandom but never released in the west, it was originally known only to Japanese and the few western fans that could afford to import it. Scans and translations of the original stories were available, but only of the first few chapters. A well known petition circulated for years, trying to get someone to pick up the series, but it seemed it was to no avail...

... That is, until recently, when publisher UDON announced that they would be bringing the series to the west. All three volumes have already been released, with the latter two including bonus content. For example: Volume 2 includes supplementary materials, like interviews with Kenji Inafune, Robot Master profiles, and comic strips based on the Soccer game (which are much less serious than the actual Megamix manga).

Megamix is known for its excellent storytelling, which also captures the feel of the Classic series while also telling it with a bit more depth and maturity. The theme of robot and human interaction is a big part of the story, and it can be heartwarming as well as action-packed.

Due to the success of Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, the series is getting a re-release in Japan as Rockman Gigamix, which collects the original volumes while also adding new material by Ariga. UDON has licensed Gigamix, and published all three of the new volumes as of November 2011.

"Roll: You attacked Elec Man and the others!
 * A Boy and His X: A Boy And His Dog, a Boy And His Bird, a Boy and His Cat, a Boy and His Rocket Powered Sled...
 * And of course, Bass and Treble.
 * Action Girl: One of the one-page comic strips has Dr. Wily getting the bright idea of sending his robot masters to kidnap Roll. The next panel shows her looking at a pile of beaten-up robot masters with an annoyed expression and a frying pan. Sadly averted in the main story (most of the time) since she's not armored and doesn't have a built-in weapon. Her participation in Battle & Chase is caused by her feelings about this.
 * Actually a Doombot: Near the beginning of the The Greatest Enemy in History story arc, after Mega Man foils Dr. Wily's plans, he shoots him in the forehead, only for the head to start bouncing on a spring, revealing it be a robot fake. The real Wily observed the event from his Wily Capsule, shocked at how Mega Man would shoot a human.
 * Adaptation Expansion: This, in SPADES. The series does an excellent job of building on a series not known for in-depth plots. From the way Ariga justifies the robot masters' abilities and weaknesses to expanding the personalities of characters who previously had NONE, Megamix is chock full of detail that makes the classic series feel much more alive.
 * Affably Evil: Dr. Wily fluctuates between this and actually being intimidating, particularly in the third story of volume 1, Metal Heart. The same goes for the third and fifth armies, in stark contrast to their predecessors from Mega Man 2.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: Extensively played with to the point of Reconstruction.
 * Averted by Rock & Roll Light. Rock plays it straight in one storyline Alternatively, Rock becoming a hero is a subversion.
 * Subverted by the Yellow Devil Mk. II and when Proto Man does a Batman Gambit. Proto Man may qualify as another Double Subversion, as he joined Wily willingly (playing it straight), left and now follows his own agenda, which often involves things like harming his siblings or provoking Bass to attack Rock. Also, the Cossackbots.
 * Justified for Bass and the reprogrammed Lightbots. Justified and Subverted by Skull Man
 * Defied by the imposition of the three laws: enforced by the racism that exists because of public awareness of this trope.
 * Inverted by the Mega Man 5 Wilybots, who are fairly heroic in the amusement park chapter.
 * Deconstructed by the robot master rights issues and the fact the imposition of the three laws is responsible for the generator programming flaw Blues has, according to his bio. In other words, Proto Man is dying because Dr. Light was Wrong Genre Savvy and thought this trope might be played straight.
 * Zig Zagged by Bass.
 * Wily attempts to Exploit this with
 * Justified and invoked by both Light and Wily in Gigamix Vol. 2
 * All There in the Manual: One of the most famous things about the manga series is the level of depth placed into the Robot Master profiles and concept art at the end of the main manga, combined with some Adaptation Expansion, such as Cut and Metal having specially made hands designed to grip and catch their Absurdly Sharp Blade projectiles. Hell, Air Man's Tornado Arm works on Bernouli's Principle.
 * Aloof Big Brother: Proto Man to Mega Man.
 * Always Second Best: The reason for Wily's hatred of Dr. Light and his attempt to take over the world is that he's jealous of all the praise Dr. Light receives. The profiles at the end of volume 1 actually state that Wily is smarter than Dr. Light, but he was never able to fully realize his talent due to their teachers always fawning over Light and never really giving him a chance.
 * And the Adventure Continues:
 * Anti-Hero: Proto Man does more than just fight Rock in this. Probably a type III.
 * Attack Its Weak Point: Used for characterization in chapter three, where Rock is surprised Shadowman didn't already know what a yellow devil's weakness was. It becomes a plot point in Asteroid Blues, where it's Justified when Dr. Light reveals that just in case.
 * Apocalypse How: The Stardroids are fans of the Class 6 scenario, though it's heavily hinted that can go all the way to Class X.
 * Art Evolution: While Ariga's early Megamix artwork is good and highly detailed, it looks a bit sketchy and hesitant at times, especially in comedic or filler arcs where characters often look Off-Model, and seldom uses shading in so it tends to look flat. His Gigamix art, however, is astonishingly gorgeous, with cleaner lines, more consistent character designs, shading, dramatic lighting, visual effects, and even greater detail, even in silly moments.
 * Axe Crazy: Bass. More so than usual, especially . The Stardroids, who exist only to destroy. Blues does a very good impression. Heat Man is pretty nuts as well.
 * Badass: This version of Quick Man. Powerful, cool, collected, and able to use his powers in such a way to disable his rival, Flash Man, with ease.
 * No mention of Bass/Forte, Proto Man/Blues, Rock, or Elec Man?
 * Badass Longcoat: Blues wears a black one when he's passing for human.
 * Ring Man wears a trenchcoat, being chief of the Robot Police. Anybody reminded of Inspector Gadget?
 * With a touch of Inspector Zenigata, yeah...
 * The Bad Guy Wins: . Also a bit of Throw the Dog A Bone. Didn't work out too well in the end, though.
 * Batman Gambit: Blues' modus operandi.
 * Berserk Button: A storyline in the second volume hinges on Blues hitting-running Bass', who then finds and hits Rock's in order to get Rock to fight him seriously.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Roll and the other Lightbots are Rock's younger siblings. There's also Blues.
 * Big Damn Heroes: The original Robot Masters in chapter 1, and then again in chapter 2. Blues, when he doesn't make things worse.
 * Big Damn Villains: The third army try to do this in volume three. Shadow Man succeeds, but
 * In Shadow Man's defense, he might not have known that last part.
 * Also,
 * Black Cloak: The Mega Man 2 Robot Masters show up wearing hoods and cloaks at the end of the first chapter. They still have them when making their re-entrance a chapter later.
 * Black Eyes of Crazy:
 * Blood Knight: Bass, who has no purpose in existence besides fighting to prove he's the strongest.
 * Blood Sport: Dr. Light disapproves of Battle and Chase because of this, and all Rock can say is that at least it's not as bad as the tournament in Mega Man 6. Dr. Light was supposed to give some sort of a speech for the WRO during it: at the end of the chapter we find out that he missed the whole thing because he couldn't find his ties. While Battle & Chase is a less serious chapter than many of the others, he was probably grateful for the excuse.
 * This is also why Rock is so worried about Roll's participation He resorts to things like lying and barricading a door to keep Dr. Light from finding out, knowing he'd be upset.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: The original Robot Masters, as in the original game.
 * Brought Down to Normal: The only possible purpose of Napalm Man is to blow up and burn down stuff, hence his name. So what does he do when all the Mega Man 5 Robot Masters are assigned by Dr. Wily to work at an amusement park to earn extra money? He's a receptionist. With grenades on his shoulders and missiles for arms.
 * This could be applied to all the robots working at the amusement park, but it's less pronounced because Napalm Man is a killing machine working a desk job, while Wave Man scrubbing floors makes a bit more sense.
 * Butt Monkey: Cut Man fills this role for the original team of Robot Masters.
 * Canon Foreigner: Not quite this example, but Shadow Man's portrayal in Megamix had a considerable affect on Battle Network's portrayal of the character, from his role as an assassin to his ability to move through shadows.
 * Though there was one in the original game (kind of), the portrayal of  influenced and led to his inclusion in Mega Man Powered Up.
 * Catch a Falling Star:.
 * Ceiling Cling: Shadow Man first appears standing upside-down on the ceiling. His Scarf of Asskicking manages to defy gravity right along with him, "hanging" up to coil around his feet on the surface of the ceiling.
 * Character Development: Rock. The first Gigamix volume does a great job demonstrating this, since the stories it contains are pretty far apart in the timeline.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Wily never did get around to launching ...
 * Cloning Blues: Sniper Joes are inferior copies of Blues, as well as the Darkmen. They're intellectually inferior and he tends to destroy them on sight. A more typical example would be.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Most teams have at least one, but Star Man takes the cake.
 * Composite Character: Sort of, more along the lines of a particular detail being recursively added in.
 * Continuity Cameo: Ribitta and Sunayama appear as staff covering the Battle and Chase. Charlie is also seen as a TV announcer multiple times.
 * In Asteroid Blues, you can see Speedy Dave, Terry Jomon, Princess Pride, Mary Towa, Chaud, Shuko Kido and Mr. Match watching a news report on Wily's jail sentence. The judge ruling on Wily is apparently Glacier Le'Cactank in human form. Robots send to investigate the asteroid look like the Normal Navis and the guardian robots on the asteroid are the first boss from the first Legends game.
 * During Terra'a one on one battle with Rock, some of the spectators around the world include Raika, Ivan Chillski, Raoul and Dingo.
 * Continuity Nod: Within the series itself. Wily equips Proto Man with . When Terra of the Stardroids roams around the city, he detects
 * During "Warrior's Day Off," Dr. Light is busy training in a karate outfit for a "legacy for the future."
 * In "Asteroid Blues", some of the robots on the asteroid strongly resemble Reaverbots.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Blues, when he just wants to get people out of his way, and Rock got serious.
 * Almost every single battle in Gigamix Vol. 2 counts.
 * Darker and Edgier: In spades. Some have compared it to The Protomen.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Shadow Man and Shade Man.
 * Dead Ex Machina: In Gigamix Vol. 3,.
 * Determinator:
 * Development Gag:
 * Distressed Damsel: When Darkmen attempt to kidnap Roll, Bass saves her... but then It's actually  Also, in the Skull Man storyline,  Kalinka gets this a lot: justified since as a young human she's too fragile to be an Action Girl and Wily, and others, are aware of what a valuable hostage she makes.
 * Driven to Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Early Bird Cameo: If you look closely at the backgrounds, show up in the background as engravings on the Asteroid Alpha ruins during "Asteroid Blues."
 * Duo show up in bonus gag comics during the Megamix series, even though they don't have any plot appearances until Gigamix.
 * Enemy Mine: In chapter three, Wily and Dr. Light's forces team up to stop the rampaging Yellow Devil.
 * And again in Gigamix Vol. 2.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Dr. Wily had Shadow Man because of this.
 * Evil Knockoff: . Technically, also Bass. The idea behind the all-Roll soccer team in the soccer strips, but it takes Dr. Wily a lot of work to make them anything resembling evil.
 * Evil Laugh: Bass and Wily, of course, and Blues' is good enough too, let alone Roll.
 * Explosive Overclocking: Proto Man, armed with a customized buster that uses, supercharges a blast in order to prevent a spaceship with Dr. Light on it from crashing on an asteroid. The custom buster blows in half afterward, but he can still use it to some capacity.
 * Fake Defector:
 * Fantastic Racism: Kalinka Cossack. Though to be fair, maybe she was still traumatized by the events of the 4th game. She's also just had her father kidnapped by a robot and is very overwrought: she tends to regret the things she says to Roll as soon as she says them.
 * It's implied that this is a common attitude towards robot masters. Dr. Cossack writing a book saying they should be seen as friends and equals prompted the Skull Man storyline.
 * Fatherly Scientist: Drs. Light & Cossack
 * Wily, of all people, can be this toward the Wilybots...in a manner of speaking.
 * Feathered Fiend: Reggae's first act is to attack Rush, and continues to torment him at every opportunity.
 * Feuding Families: According to Airman, anyway.
 * Flawed Prototype: Double Subverted. Proto Man doesn't have the flaw in his power system that will probably kill him someday because it was a prototype, it's there because Dr. Light tried to install a buggy version of the three laws in order to control him and it messed up his power systems. No wonder he's paranoid about Dr. Light taking his free will away if given the opportunity and won't let Dr. Light 'fix' him: Proto Man is dying because Dr. Light already tried to do that. On top of the fact he can't trust Dr. Light, it's possible that the power system programming flaw can't be fixed without fixing the three laws programming, in which case he really would lose his free will if he was fixed. Of course, this universe's robot masters aren't very Three Laws Compliant. Roll and Rock would be happy to show him how it's done.
 * Frictionless Reentry: ...
 * Gatling Good: Needle Man is portrayed with belt-fed arm cannons.
 * Genre Savvy: Rock has his moments, especially in the Battle and Chase story.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Blues is morally questionable and often times a flat-out jerk, but rarely will he do anything that isn't pushing toward good ends.
 * Guile Hero / Manipulative Bastard: Blues, who has Rock and Bass' best interests at heart but has no problem manipulating Bass into attacking an injured Rock, for example. Even worse is the time he
 * Hannibal Has a Point: When the Stardoids all but demolish the Light Numbers, Dr. Light refuses to repair his own "children" as long as they intend to return to battle (and possibly be destroyed permanently.) After Wily offers to repair them instead, and Light gets pissed at him for it, Wily goes on an epic tirade about how hypocritical it is for Light to deny his creations the power of choice.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: Duo in the Bonus Strips from Megamix is an absurdly strict, hypercritical, hair-triggered Knight Templar. This is played for laughs. This is not played for laughs.
 * Heroic RROD: Taking in a can overload your circuits and send you into an uncontrollable battle frenzy.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Roll   does this: not only does he save Mega Man, but he was there in the first place to
 * In Gigamix Vol. 2.....whoo boy, where to start?
 * In Gigamix Vol. 3, Later,.
 * Hope Spot: Twice in Gigamix Vol. 3:
 * Hover Board: Both Item 2 and Rush's Rush Jet form.
 * Humongous Mecha: Gamma is finally seen in his full glory, and he's gigantic. The "White Giant," while smaller, positively towers over all other robots.
 * Implacable Man:
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In the Mega Man Soccer comics, Wily installs his Evil Chips on the Copy-Rolls to defeat Mega Man at soccer. She spectacularly fails to become any sort of evil --though she does neglect to separate the recycling from the trash.
 * Instant Armor: How the very human-looking Rock becomes the armored, Arm Cannon-equipped Mega Man.
 * Interrupted Cooldown Hug: In "Metal Heart", it seems that the Yellow Devil is finally going to reach, only for
 * It Was His Sled: The series doesn't even try to tease at who Proto Man is, as the third game gets barely a page of summation in chapter three. On the other hand, Blues' identity may not be very well known in-universe. No one except Dr. Light recognizes him when he first shows up dressed like a human, and Elec Man can't connect the dots even after hearing Dr. Light ask the person who just defeated all of them without even using a weapon (clearly not human strength) if his power source was alright (which implied that Dr. Light had worked on him at some point). Of course, given the fact the original robot masters were nearly destroyed for going rogue while reprogrammed, they're not going to want to tell the world about a robot that went rogue because it felt like it. Especially interesting since the chapter clearly takes place after the fifth game, since the robot masters from it have been around for awhile, same with the Darkmen.
 * Kick the Dog: Blues has several of these moments, like dismembering his siblings to keep them and Dr. Light from going to help Rock.
 * Killed Off for Real: No matter how badly damaged they are, Robot Masters are eventually repaired and put back on their feet after every battle with Mega Man. Not so for, who was laid to rest for good.
 * Kill'Em All:
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: A way to interpret Blues, although he'll cheerfully maim them or allow them to be placed in danger.
 * Les Yay: Kalinka and Roll.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Rock's initial upgrading into Mega Man. Lampshaded by Bass, who realizes that he needs to hurt or threaten others to unlock Mega Man's true power, but instead of attacking Roll he Rock is shocked when he sees Blues annihilating some sniper joes, which implies that he was holding back when he fought Rock before.
 * Light Is Not Good: No, not Dr. Light.
 * Like You Would Really Do It: Played straight for the reader but inverted in-universe
 * Lost in Translation: A part of the end of Asteroid Blues only makes sense if the reader is already aware that Proto Man's Japanese name is Blues.
 * Made of Ceramic Titanium: Rock refuses to go down easy no matter what opponent he's facing.
 * Mad Scientist: Wily, of course, but Auto is pretty out there himself.
 * Mama Bear / Housewife / Wrench Wench: It's made clear from her first appearance that Roll is in charge of the Light household, quite willing to order Dr. Light around and hit her younger brothers with a screwdriver to make them hold still to be repaired.
 * Mayincatec: The ruins of Asteroid Alpha.
 * McNinja: Shadow Man. Interestingly, done more accurately than most depictions of ninja. While Shadow Man sees himself as a tool and will use dirty tactics to carry out Dr. Wily's orders, his main duty is apparently that of bodyguard and he's extremely honorable in the old Japanese sense (best shown in Gigamix Vol. 2). It's because he's an honorable character because of (instead of in spite of) being a ninja that his What the Hell, Hero? towards is so effective, especially since that story arc is the one time he goes against Dr. Wily's orders, violating that honor code in order to help someone. The contrast is effective.
 * Mirror Match: Other robot masters were about to get involved when Blues stepped in.
 * Mister Exposition: Shadow Man is often used in order to get things across to the audience. In his first appearance in Megamix, he was used as something of a Foil Character for Rock, to help the reader understand Rock better as Shadow Man studied him. Then, in the final story of Megamix, he's the one that explains what is going on to, and his angry confrontation with near the end explains the other half of the plot. At the end of Battle and Chase, he and Shade Man's conversation also reveals a few important facts. In a bit of Hypocritical Humor, Shade Man talking about what another character is really like annoys Shadow Man, since it reminds him of Blues, who fills this role (in a Manipulative Bastard way) in the story centered around Forte & Rock, and also told a few things to  very cruelly.
 * Most Definitely Not a Villain: in Battle & Chase is very insistent on the fact that he is Proto Man. And why wouldn't he? He's Proto Man after all!
 * Mayincatec: The ruins of Asteroid Alpha.
 * McNinja: Shadow Man. Interestingly, done more accurately than most depictions of ninja. While Shadow Man sees himself as a tool and will use dirty tactics to carry out Dr. Wily's orders, his main duty is apparently that of bodyguard and he's extremely honorable in the old Japanese sense (best shown in Gigamix Vol. 2). It's because he's an honorable character because of (instead of in spite of) being a ninja that his What the Hell, Hero? towards is so effective, especially since that story arc is the one time he goes against Dr. Wily's orders, violating that honor code in order to help someone. The contrast is effective.
 * Mirror Match: Other robot masters were about to get involved when Blues stepped in.
 * Mister Exposition: Shadow Man is often used in order to get things across to the audience. In his first appearance in Megamix, he was used as something of a Foil Character for Rock, to help the reader understand Rock better as Shadow Man studied him. Then, in the final story of Megamix, he's the one that explains what is going on to, and his angry confrontation with near the end explains the other half of the plot. At the end of Battle and Chase, he and Shade Man's conversation also reveals a few important facts. In a bit of Hypocritical Humor, Shade Man talking about what another character is really like annoys Shadow Man, since it reminds him of Blues, who fills this role (in a Manipulative Bastard way) in the story centered around Forte & Rock, and also told a few things to  very cruelly.
 * Most Definitely Not a Villain: in Battle & Chase is very insistent on the fact that he is Proto Man. And why wouldn't he? He's Proto Man after all!


 * Yes... that's me. I'm Proto Man. I did those things.

Kalinka: WE TOLD YOU, WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!


 * Eh??... but I'm Proto Man!"

"Blues: Don't you see...? He preserved your future today, too."
 * Mysterious Protector: Blues to Rock: the amusement park battle is the best example.
 * Never Found the Body: At the end of Gigamix Vol. 3,.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fatally damaging the "White Giant" results in . But then, considering the kind of Knight Templar it is, it was always a lose-lose situation at best.
 * Noble Demon: Shade Man and Shadow Man, who are fiercely loyal to Wily but also work towards actual good.
 * Not So Above It All: Elec Man in the amusement park chapter.
 * Oh, Cisco: The first chapter ends with everyone laughing at Cut Man's hijinks.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Mega Man's battle with Bass once he gets serious. However, it went badly for Bass.
 * Older and Wiser: During the team-up with Wily's robot masters to fight the yellow devil, it's very clear that Rock is the most experienced one, down to sweatdropping at Snake Man's immaturity. Shadow Man not knowing something Rock thought everyone knew already results in a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * This really shows in the first volume of Gigamix, which has two stories separated by a number of years. In the first, he's entirely taken in by Dr. Wily. In the second, so he's quite Genre Savvy.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: The Stardroids. They even say as much that their purpose is to destroy everything.
 * Omniscient Morality License: Blues, who is finally called out on it by Shadow Man in Vol. 3.
 * Only One: The manga actually shows why Rock is this: robot masters vs. conventional military forces is a Curb Stomp Battle. It's a discussed trope, since it's why he volunteered to be upgraded into a fighting robot in order to rescue his brothers. Of course: technically there were Only Two, since Dr. Wily hadn't stolen Roll, either.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: This is how Quick Man thinks of himself and Mega Man. When Flash Man tried to usurp this role (going as far as to save Mega Man's life from Quick Man's fatal strike) Quick Man immediately turned on him so he could have an uninterrupted duel with Mega Man.
 * Papa Wolf: Dr. Light is quite willing to put himself into danger for the sake of his children. Dr. Wily in Gigamix Vol. 2, where,
 * Pet the Dog: Wily and Reggae, played straight and then subverted with the Yellow Devil. The revelation that Blues was the one who in The Greatest Enemy is one, although he has several Kick the Dog moments in that story. Shadow Man rescuing  is this: it's something of a Hope Spot for the poor robot, since
 * Playing Soccer With Wilybots: Ariga's Mega Man Soccer bonus strips. The Amusement Park visit counts as well (at least pre-Bass 'visit'). The original trope name would fit during the Battle & Chase chapter.
 * The Pollyanna: Rock's behavior towards Wily at the beginning of Asteroid Blues is unusually optimistic and friendly considering their recent history together. He goes so far as to express gratitude for getting to see Wily at work as an engineer.
 * Powered By a Forsaken Child: A somewhat more benevolent variation occurs when Dr. Wily uses a broken down toy robot as the brain of his new Yellow Devil. It's benevolent in that he took pity on and wanted to help a discarded machine... but it becomes morally ambiguous when you realize he turned it into a war machine and then ordered his robots to capture it or destroy it if they couldn't
 * Punch Clock Villain: The fifth game's Robot Masters take this to an absurdly literal level, taking pride in being the 'Part-Timer' Squad due to their side jobs at the Amusement Park, and generally non-antagonistic behavior toward Rock.
 * Psycho Prototype: While Blues is generally well-intentioned, some of his tactics do make the reader wonder... as well as the other characters. He uses this to his advantage at least once. The attempt to avert this is what's killing him.
 * An alien civilization.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: The portrayal of the third game's Robot Masters during "Metal Heart" (but a lot less quirky in their first chronological appearance, "Asteroid Blues.") The second game's robots, on the other hand, weren't quirky in the least.
 * The Fifth Numb-- that is, the Hourly-Pay Squad Part-Timers!! (Galaxy, Star, Napalm, Gyro, Crystal, Charge, and Stone) take this trope and run away with it.
 * Reluctant Warrior: Rock. Ariga makes an effort to draw him in human clothes as much as possible to point out that he was built to be a lab assistant, not a warrior: he doesn't fight because he wants to, he fights because he feels he has to.
 * Rescue Romance: Subverted by Bass' 'rescue' of Roll. Roll/Kalinka would qualify as this. Brutally subverted by
 * Right Makes Might: Discussed Trope. Bass asks Blues what the source of Mega Man's power is. Blues says that it's a combination of the desire to protect everyone's future and The Determinator.


 * Robo-Family: Three of them.
 * Robot War: Some of Dr. Wily's robots want to 'make this a robot's world," as Metal Man says in the chapter where the original robot masters were ordered killed by the government even though they'd been unbrainwashed. Different robot masters seem to have different motivations for serving Dr. Wily, such as a code of obedience (Shadow Man), familial loyalty and, of course, being Brainwashed and Crazy.
 * Running Gag: Everyone except Mega Man calls Bass "that idiot" at least once. Even Roll.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: And how.
 * Sealed Evil In A Robot-Shaped Can:
 * Sempai-Kohai: Freeze Man sees this as his relationship with Ice Man due to the latter being an older, more experienced "ice-type"- even though Ice Man is around half his height.
 * Shield Surf: When Proto Man decides to fly off into outer space to battle the Stardroids, he activates the hidden rocket boosters in his shield and rides it all the way to orbit.
 * Ship Tease: Bass and Roll, starting with the Rescue Romance that wasn't.
 * Shown Their Work: In spades, both in regards to all the detail and the references to both familiar and obscure moments from the games that Ariga throws in. A particularly notable one is in chapter 2, where Heat Man scarfs down on Crash Bombs - a nod to the fact that those weapons healed him when used against him in Mega Man 2.
 * He even included Tango, who showed up in only one game from the obscure Gameboy series.
 * Hell, he included the Stardroids from the same game as Tango.
 * Single Clean Cut Battle: Quick Man's specialty.
 * Single Target Sexuality: YMMV as to whether Ice Man is this to Freeze Man, since there's little other evidence of romantic prospects.
 * Single Tear: in Gigamix Vol. 2.
 * Stealth Mentor: Surprisingly, the manga just briefly mentions Blues' time as this towards Rock.
 * The Stoic: Quick Man.
 * Super Prototype: Blues, although he wasn't originally constructed as a warbot. Can defeat several other robot masters at once, in seconds. The fact he's a Combat Pragmatist helps.
 * Tailor-Made Prison: In Asteroid Blues, Wily is sentenced to 2,000 years in solitary confinement, in a cell 100 meters underground. Six months into his sentence, he hasn't seen a single human face, and has managed to cover every available surface of his cell in equations and figures. is angry because something analogous was done to him.
 * The Aesthetics of Technology: Both embraced and averted. There's the amazing robotics technology of 20XX, but it doesn't look that different from the modern era. Justified since it technically is the modern era: we're living in 20XX right now.
 * The Chessmaster: Blues. He tends to control every storyline he appears in, and will take measures to control where various pieces are on the field.
 * Shade Man shows his own expertise in Gigamix Vol. 3,.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Bass, as is his usual role in this franchise. Elec Man tries to get in on this, but then he becomes good again.
 * This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: What Blues says when asked why he won't let anyone help Rock.
 * Three Laws Compliant: Present, but not effective. They explicitly do more harm than good. Roll is able to disobey a direct order from Dr. Wily offhand (she may have invoked the first law to to so, but still), Rock will put himself in danger, the way he did to help the yellow devil, without human lives on the line (violation of the third law), and it seems easy enough for Dr. Wily to remove them from the robots he reprograms, or never install them in the first place. If he did program his robots with a set of laws focused on him, they're clearly not any more effective than the conventional laws. According to Blues' backstory, they were added in later by Dr. Light, and are buggy enough to interfere with the programming of his fusion generator (how he was meant to self-destruct if he violated them?) and cause the flaw that may one day kill him. Since they're that easy to get around, Rock probably could kill Dr. Wily.
 * In the story based on the sixth game, Wily begs for forgiveness and then pulls a (failed) sneak attack when  Mega Man turns around. He then gets shot in the face for his efforts.
 * Tomato in The Mirror: Mega Man and duke it out, with Mega Man getting the upper hand in spite of  Then,
 * Trickster Mentor: Blues to Rock.
 * Villainous Crossdresser: Quick Man in the Mega Man Soccer comics.
 * Villains Out Shopping: In one chapter, the Light family goes to an amusement park, only to find the Mega Man 5 Wilybots working there as part of a Broke Episode. Also the soccer 4-koma strips included in Volume 2.
 * Weird Moon: The Stardroids' Dark Moon. It can be seen everywhere on Earth at once. Lampshaded by Wily, who infuriates Roll by telling her that it doesn't take a genius to notice there's something odd about that.
 * Bad Moon Rising: It's also growing, feeding on the rage and despair of the people (or robots) nearby.
 * That's No Moon:.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A common theme, particularly touched on in chapter 2, Skull Man's story, Wily and Light's reason for teaming up during their youth, and then again in the adaptation of Mega Man 9.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Blues gets this from several people.
 * Dr. Cossack gets this from Dr. Wily of all people
 * Wily gets to do this again to Dr. Light, of all people,
 * Shade Man to Shadow Man in Gigamix 2, since Earlier in Megamix, Shadow Man to.
 * The Worf Effect: Several examples. Quick Man against Elec Man, Bass and Blues at different points vs the Light Bots. In Gigamix,
 * Especially notable is who effortlessly slaughters a thousand robots. Ariga hosted open submissions specifically to find robots for him to curbstomp.
 * Then there's  who within 5 panels of his introduction effortlessly defeats one of the Stardroids in one blow
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: Once, Wily shows up on Dr. Light's doorstep and Rock ties him up without listening to Wily's lies or evil plans... except this takes place in the Mega Man Soccer comic strips/4koma and he was only there to invite Rock to a soccer game.