Now this is a manga that I wish had kept on going for a very long time. It tackles a ton of very interesting topics and took a very different approach from the usual Mega Man product. There was a ton of potential here so it was a shame to see it end so quickly. Either people didn’t resonate with it quite as much as I would have expected or the author just didn’t want to continue. Either way I had a really good time with this one. It’s a story that I shall not forget any time soon!

The story starts off in a world that has already lived through all of the Mega Man adventures. The robots all work different jobs in the city and Wily no longer actively threatens the planet. Mega Man doesn’t even have his combat suit on much anymore as he just patrols the world as a normal citizen. The thing is, a lot of robots don’t really feel like they have a purpose in the world anymore. What are they to do now that there are no more battles to be fought? Some of them actively fight depression while others did find a new calling. Things threaten to be changed forever though when a conspiracy appears about a town that was wiped off the face of the Earth. It looks like the divide between robots and humans is about to grow ever larger and Mega Man will be forced to choose a side. Will he aid the humans, or the robots?

You might not be surprised by this but I didn’t really support the humans much at all in this one. I found them to be incredibly unreasonable and downright annoying at times. They were looking out for themselves the whole time and not the robots. In fact, the humans were still making the case that robots were disposable and at one point they decide to melt them all. Naturally a lot of the robots rebel against this. They’re already being treated as second class citizens but this is taking things a step even further.

It represents a permanent mindset that can’t really be fixed in the Mega Man series. No matter how much personality some of the robots get, they continue to be treated poorly and thought of as just machines the whole time. It’s really unfortunate because a lot of the robots have tried really hard to fit in. The whole first half of the series is about showing us how hard the robots are working and all of the mental tolls it has taken on them. The humans just ignore this to try and wipe them all out which is absolutely crazy.

Naturally two wrongs don’t make a right so you still don’t want the robots to be murdering anyone. Thing is, they aren’t. They rebel by blowing up the facilities and freeing other robots from their controlled states but that’s it. Perhaps that would change in time but at least for the moment, they were not doing anything wrong even while the humans were still causing problems. Right up to the end, the robots are trying to leave the planet and find a new home and the humans are still trying to blow them up.

I feel like the writer was on the robots side here and didn’t like Dr. Light. It’s pure speculation on my part but Dr. Light looks awful in the series so it tracks. He just allow the government to do whatever they want and he barely talks against it. He’s the exact guy that you would not want to have in your corner. You know that you would quickly be sold out at any point. Even if he just does nothing, that’s still a net negative because you are counting on him to help you. Both Dr. Wily and Dr. Cossack look considerably better than Light in their brief cameos. They at least try to inform the world of the incoming threats and everything.

Again this is not an action series first and foremost though. In most cases Mega Man tries to resolve things with words. It’s only when there is no other course of action that he dons the Mega Buster. In some ways it is disappointing to see him ally with the humans but that’s just the way he has always been. He is also just trying to make sure that nobody gets hurt and figures the humans need to be protected. The main problem is it implies that a part of him also doesn’t feel like the robots are sentient or else he would be helping them too right? That’s a topic that comes up several times here.

I don’t give Mega Man much grief here because he was clearly trying his best to find the optimal answer here. He wasn’t giving up or being passive here. He just kept on trying to get more information the whole time so that he could make an informed decision. Even for robots he tried not to hurt anyone. So yeah he’s a really good hero even if his instincts aren’t always right. Additionally he gets to look fantastic in the fight scenes. When he actually does fight, he tends to blow his opponents away. They just don’t stand a chance and that’s against a heavily suppressed Mega Man who is rusty in terms of combat.

This is fully deserved though. I am glad to see Mega Man being portrayed as the ultimate robotic fighter that he is. There should not be any fighter who can stand up to him at this point. Only exceptions would be Proto Man or Bass but they don’t appear in this story. Instead Mega Man’s rival is a guy named Enker. His role initially is to try and destroy Mega Man but then for most of the series his mission is to protect Dr. Light. He has a lot of good comedic moments but also looks good when it comes time to be serious. He’s a solid character and I like how his arc played out. He definitely ended up being one of the more memorable characters.

The ending to the series isn’t quite as satisfying though. It’s really abrupt with everything still going on. I’m always up for a good cliffhanger of course but it felt less like a cliffhanger and more like a complete loss for robot kind. I feel like the Earth is about to get a whole lot worse now. If the humans decide to go after Mega Man we already know that Dr. Light won’t do anything and what is even worse is that Mega Man may not decide to stop them. Taking a punishment that you don’t deserve is no good.

The artwork is pretty great as you would expect. There is a lot of detail in the series and all of the character designs are on point. They did a good job with Mega Man’s new design as well. It’s one that makes sense with the character and ties in well with his attempts to be more human. When we do get some action scenes, they really pop out. The artist would clearly do extremely well in a full on action based series. It really helps to enhance the manga as well.

While the first half may be a little bit on the slow side, I do like the mystery that kept on building up towards the climax about the villains making their move. I was like Detective Conan where you would get one nugget every few chapters. It’s kind of like that but for less time of course since the series isn’t all that long. It makes the stand alone chapters work well but additionally I was liking them anyway because it was interesting to see what each robot master was up to. This is the kind of series that worked really well as a slice of life title and then it also worked really well as a more serious plot based one. So they were really covering all of the bases on this one.

Now lets go on a final tally on which side I was in for each of the debates. The humans ordered all robots to be disarmed and then hunted down the ones that did not comply. Naturally I’m with the robots on this one. If you disarm them all they will be completely defenseless for when the humans get up to trouble and that always happens at some point. I already talked about the humans orders for them to all be melted down so that position is rather obvious I would think.

Then when the robots are trying to leave the humans want to blow them up to make sure they are not a threat later on. As you can surely guess, I was not a fan of that either. So no matter how you slice it, the humans were wrong in every single case. I think the dangerous thing is how a lot of their laws were going through with no real opposition. Mega Man didn’t even realize the robots were losing so many rights. More specifically he didn’t see it as a kind of oppression and was just on board with it from the start. He saw nothing wrong with it and basically had to be informed by the robots.

This is all before the whole conspiracy even appears which makes things even worse. The whole story serves as a cautionary tale of the classic corrupt government story. It’s good to be a hero and all but you have to be careful who you’re fighting for. Ultimately Mega Man has no regrets in saving the world so many times which is a good thing but for sure things are going in a rather dangerous place right now and he has to adapt. This manga should have been stretched to 100 chapters and you really could have done a deep dive into the topics.

Overall, Rockman-San is a great manga and a very interesting title in general. I feel like we’ll never see anything quite like this one again even though it is super interesting. I want to see more of this era from after the battles. Of course there are still a lot of fights going on with different factions being chosen. The series does transition into more of a battle manga for the second half and this balance really could have been kept for a long time. It asks you to really think carefully about the issues and see how you would respond. I don’t think Mega Man responded particularly well but maybe you will agree with him. It’s not a straight forward yes or no depending on how you view the situation. I would definitely recommend checking it out though. Even if you’re not a Mega Man fan, it plays out like Pluto where you can understand the themes well enough and weigh in on the debate. In fact Pluto is the best comparison to make, if you liked Pluto then you’ll enjoy this one. Rockman-san is not nearly as dark or as intense but does tackle a lot of the same themes of robots and humans.

Overall 8/10