This is one of my favorite 25th anniversary tribute images published in R20+5.
The art stands pretty well on its own, but to catch all the jokes and innuendo some translation may be required.
SENSEI Presents…
STEEL ILLUSTRATED
ROCKMAN X EDITION
“Hello everybody!! Thanks so much for all your love and support of the Rockman series!!”
“This time they gave me one whole page to fill up with whatever I wanted! (As if I wasn’t busy enough already…)”
The Hero
X
He’s got dem sexy hips!
“I will defeat Sigma!!”
It’s always best said with dramatic emphasis like that.1
The Cool Guy
ZERO
Bento? What’s that supposed to mean…2
“Mission complete.”
Zero’s so cool he gets his own dramatic backlighting.
Hawt & Sexy
Miss ALIA
“I’m Alia! How do you do, everyone?”
IRIS
*stare*
“Alia’s so big! No fair!!”5
Hey, why shouldn’t I get to draw a gag face once in a while?
The Witch
BERKANA
“I’m so delighted to see you boys again!”
Seems like something she’d say.
“It’s simply a crime that I only had one official art image!”3
“Yes of course I have legs underneath my skirt!”4
That’s all for now. See you again someday!!
-SENSEI
1. Literally, he’s saying that he thinks X is best suited to using “Ore” written in katakana as his first person Japanese pronoun. It’s more masculine, trendy, emphatic, passionate… just has more “cool” factor.
2. If you haven’t run across this Japanese Rockman meme, now is the time!
3. Yes it is, which is why I’m really happy to see you also, Berkana!
4. Don’t tell me you never wondered about this.
5. Poor Iris. The imaginary rivalry for the title of “X Series Heroine” rages on…
Sensei definitely has a place in my heart for his work on the X series. His flavor of art just really takes me back. Coincidentally, it feels like his art style became prominent around the time I started enjoying the X series more for the characters than for the amount of fun I actually had playing the games. Very nice to see more art of Berkana, especially since the game she starred in had an important (though ultimately trivial) influence on this very blog. If this is the Rockman X Edition, I wonder if there aren’t more Steel Illustrated cartoons out there…
Wow, poor Iris… she deserves more attention in the series.
Despite the fact that she likes Zero, anyway good job! Fellow
That IS a nice picture.
This is definitely my favorite art style for the X series by a good shot, and it’s great to see more of it.
Gotta agree. This IS a very nice pic. 🙂
2. I’ve heard of it from E-Can, but I had no idea it was that much popular. (at least comparing to Bit’s Xmas and Can’t Beat Airman. And “dunn dunnn”)
3. Agree!
Yep, I agree~ with it. What Berkana said was really weird… When I saw the official art I thought she had no legs, but when I read this comic, It shocks me that she revealed that she says “of course I have legs”…
Always loved Sensei’s stuff; it seems so… I don’t know, animated. Unfortunately, X7’s art lost a bit of that…
Sensei’s artwork brings a lot of attention to the action of the series when it comes to action of those games…
Never heard of Steel Sensei…
Need to do some research on him