This was part 3 of Koji Izuki’s Thank You Rockman mini-series that was published at the end of Rockman & Forte volume 2. By the way, this month Rockman Tanjou has begun uploading translated chapters from that manga. Might be fun to check that out later.

Merry Christmas, internet.

Here’s a special Rock & Rush 4 koma by Sakura from Rockman’s 10th anniversary, featured in CAP! volume 4. Thought I’d try out a different ways to format the translation, so mouse over the text bubbles to read the English.

At the beginning of 2011, I was so excited to be a Mega Man fan. At the end of 2011… I feel like Rush in the last panel. But, there’s good years and there’s bad years for anything. Let’s see what the big 25 brings.

That was me back on Halloween of 1990. I know, it’s not exactly the best Mega Man kids’ costume ever made, but considering our circumstances back then, it was pretty amazing and as far as I’m concerned I have the best mom ever for making it for me.

In my typical “let’s wait until the last minute” fashion, I didn’t decide on my costume idea that year until the very week of Halloween, leaving my poor mother essentially two days to pull everything together. And let’s remember that this was still just before Mega Man 3 was set to be released, and the only solid images she had to base the design on was the art on these two delightful items:

Trying to reason a common design between these two is no easy task. She even analyzed the game sprite from the NES and a commercial for Captain N the Game Master that happened to come on tv to act as tie-breakers.

As you can see, we ultimately wound up with a turquoise sweat shirt and sweat pants combo with blue jogging shorts over top and a tall dark pair of boots. Yes, that’s a blue squirt gun I’m wielding, since the majority of the references used agreed that Mega Man carried a gun. I have no complaints, since I loved that my weapon could be used to to “zap” things (with freezing cold water). The helmet, the most intricate part of the design, was made by putting cloth over my father’s old leather rugby helmet, adding ears and some padding for the “stripe”. Last but not least, she made a plastic visor cut from a 7-Up bottle and fit it into place along the inside of the mask (the plastic wasn’t long enough to fit from ear to ear). I’m also wearing a glow in the dark button of some kind there, but I think that was something to do with rampant fears at the time that sending your kids out in costumes that were “too dark” would result in them being mowed down by a car. This did not happen, but I suppose I can’t prove it wasn’t thanks to that button. Thanks for everything, mom.

To all my readers: may all your Halloween memories be as just as incredible.

Interesting nomenclature they’re using for the names of the characters. Roll and Barrell “Gaskett”, the “Bonne”s (instead of the often used “Born” or “Bone” that you see a lot more of in Japan), and even “Servbots” instead of “Kobuns”. They matched the English names pretty well (reasoning that “Gaskett” was used in the English game’s credits, even though it was “Caskett” everywhere else in the game), but they did remember to use “Rock” Volnutt instead of “MegaMan”.

First, while I expect that anyone who frequents my blog already knows about these things, I added some links towards reinstating the Legends 3 Project in my sidebar menu over to the right, just in case. I’ve been positively impressed by the fan outpouring and the support the title has received since cancellation… I can’t help but wonder whether if this sort of intervention had happened sooner, the game would still be under production. Sites like the Mega Man Network, Protodude’s Rockman Corner and Mega Man Legends Station have poured on their support since the very start, but never seemed to achieve such high numbers or notoriety as has been done in these past few days. I doubt many of us fans really suspected how fragile the situation was before the cancellation happened. I know I didn’t realize (or just couldn’t let myself believe it). Will any of it be enough to save Legends 3? I don’t know the answer, but in the meantime just joining the cause eases one’s sense of hopelessness.

There’s been a lot of rumors flying around the Mega Man community these past few days, like Capcom supposedly throwing Mega Man fans out of Comic Con, and the musical group the Protomen getting a Cease & Desist order from Capcom lawyers. Though both have rung strongly false, it seems these things are more prone to being believable when the fan community is already agitated like it is. I urge people to be cautious about believing everything they hear, so that they don’t wind up being the ones getting trolled.

Other news, the Mega Man Network and a few of its long-time affiliates are planning to host another panel at Otakon this weekend. Even though it’s being held practically in my backyard, it looks like I won’t be able to attend yet again. But, for those who can, you’ll find some useful information here. It sounds like a lot of fun, so I’d recommend getting in on it if you can.

E-Can Factory, my latest affiliate, just got done moving to a new host. It’s full of thoughtful trivia and interesting things from the Japanese side of Rockman fandom. Check it out if you haven’t already. If you like this blog, I’ll bet you’ll enjoy that one too.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to have some more substantial updates here soon. Thanks for reading.

Here’s a little something from CAP! Vol. 11. Legends‘ own Data and Street Fighter‘s Cammy are there to kick butt and chew bubble gum at the bottom corner of page 17.

I hope these two get to hang out together again someday.

To those of you who are hurt and deeply saddened by the news, I am with you. To those of you who are feeling angry and betrayed, I am right beside you. For all those of you who are disappointed by Mega Man’s overall outcomes this year and unsure of his future, I hear you loud and clear.

If you have a Capcom-Unity account, please, let Capcom and your fellow fans hear you over here. Then head over to Capcom’s suggestion box and upvote anything reasonably to do with bringing back Legends 3 here.

Don’t stop there. If you have a printer and a stamp, please do this. If you have a facebook account, rally here. Feel like signing a petition? Here’s a few right over here.

Write. Draw. Tweet. Sing. Make flash games or youtube videos. Whatever you can. Anything. Show your support.

Capcom has already given up on Mega Man Legends twice over. The fans have kept it alive all this time.

It’s not over until we give up.

From the Rockman X Ultra Encyclopedia pages 46-47:

The ultimate arch-nemesis!!
Record of Sigma’s Power Upgrades

Sigma, the Special A class repliroid who possessed an ingenious intellect and highest combat capabilities in the world had ever seen.

In the year 21XX A.D. Sigma, who was the Commander of the Irregular Hunter 17th Unit, orchestrated a sudden rebellion that urged repliroids to bring about the downfall of mankind.

At the time of this first rebellion, Sigma was felled by X, and Sigma’s bid for world domination ended in failure. However, Sigma has since returned countless times, continuing his war against humanity.

Evil’s own symbol, the mark of Sigma!

First Model
Created by Dr. Cain, this body was the doctor’s greatest masterpiece. [1]

Transformation!

Sigma Second Form
A truly enormous wolf-type body, its limbs were yet unfinished. [1]

Power Up 1

Second Model
With claws equipped on his arms, his attack power skyrockets! [2]

Power Up 2

Third Model
This third body conceals the most formidable power! [3]
Maximum Power: 19000 rp.
Highest Speed: 19000 rp.

Transformation 1

Kaizer Sigma
Dr. Doppler constructed this, the strongest battle body in history! [3]
Maximum Power: 32000 rp.
Highest Speed: 20000 rp.

Transformation 2

Sigma Virus
The true form of Sigma. Possessing other repliroids, he is able to take over their bodies. [3]

Sigma’s Pet
Velguader
Sigma designed this ferocious wolf-type repliroid to prey upon those who would dare to cross him. [1]

During their first battle, after X destroyed his body, Sigma took on the form of a virus (malicious data), and all his personal memories and faculties were preserved!

Sigma is a pathogenic plague of evil upon our future computer-based society!

Pardon the deep-end red-scale of these pages, they aren’t the work of a haywire scanner but rather the way the book itself was made. I don’t know why so many Japanese books cut corners by restricting the yellow/green ink printing. I think it’s an awful practice, but Kodansha does it a ton. I prefer artwork to be in its full original color, thank you!

Since this book’s collected information reflected only the first three Rockman X games, the great mystery tying of Sigma and Zero’s pasts and how Sigma first came into his virus powers had yet to be revealed. They also skipped mentioning Sigma’s second “Neo Sigma” form in X2, perhaps for its essential similarity to the Sigma Virus form that appeared in the finale of X3. I have a soft spot for the CX4 chip’s wire-framed polygon rendition of the Sigma virus, but I must admit it looses a little of its “oomph” in the rare 2D representation seen here.

That’s it for now. Happy belated Day of Sigma, everyone!