The world of ZX is known for its trendy fashion and incredible hairstyles. After all, where would the game be without Serpent’s luscious soul ‘fro?* Therefore it’s only natural that all this series’ topics from The Answer have to do with how people look and what they’re wearing. (All two of them.)
*Soul ‘fro not included in actual game.
Q03: You know those dark blue sections on Vent and Aile’s arms and legs that almost look like tights or some kind of fabric? I’ve been wondering what’s underneath–is it just their skin, or a covering for machinery?
Yabe: Vent and Aile’s tights-like portions are the outside surface of their machine bodies. You may notice that some of the townspeople have more flesh colored sections–some of these are people who kept their flesh and blood skin, while there are others who for reasons of fashion have their machine bodies take on the appearance of skin-color.
Q06: Can you tell us the reason why from the time going between ZX and ZXA, Vent and Aile grew out their hair long?
Yabe: Since the world Grey and Ashe in habit takes place several years after ZX, when it came for having the former protagonists appear, we wanted their appearance to give off a sense that time had passed, and we also wanted to change their silhouettes to keep them distinct from Grey’s group so they could be easily told apart. Perhaps Vent and Aile have also grown emotionally, giving off a sense of maturity akin to Girouette.
The second image is labeled Q09, but this is a typo in the book. There are only 6 questions to the Zero/ZX/ZXA section. It’s also spread across two columns which I stitched together, which is why I drew that ugly black line in there.
I’m glad that it’s confirmed that those navy sections are machine body parts. In that case, Aile appears to be mostly machine. Ashe, too.
No wonder repliroids and humans are regarded as basically the same species.
Kind of a shame there weren’t more ZX questions answered, and at that the hair question was already answered adequately in the Japanese Rockman ZX blog and other places… Still, these questions have (mostly) clear answers, at least. At this point, I’ll take what I can get when it comes to ZX.
Looking at the NPCs from the first ZX, Q03’s principle seems consistent. The characters too young for machine bodies are never shown with dark-blue arms, except when said character might be a Reploid (red triangle obscured by hair).
One has to wonder how it applies to Ciel, though. Her design exhibits distinct mechanical details at the neck and ankles. She is easily confused for a Reploid, unlike the other humans from Z4.
On Ciel’s case, she is wearing black tights. There is a Vile’s Incident illustration depicting her without it (scroll down):
http://bbs1.ruliweb.daum.net/gaia/do/ruliweb/default/105/read?bbsId=G001&articleId=2327271&itemId=261
It makes sense that Ciel’s body is organic when you consider the warm coat she needed to wear in the Zero 3 opening. But it’s certainly possible that she acquired a machine body after Legion was established.
That first evidence would be more convincing if it did not also contain many examples of Reploids who exchanged their dark-blue ‘skin’ for a more human tone. This kind of mutability is what allows the people of ZX to keep up with the ever changing fashion-trends.
Ciel’s coat, however, is indeed a good example of why her body must be more organic than machine (prior to ZX). Likewise, she cannot see Cyber Elves without an external device.
The equality laws are really my main reason for considering Ciel with a partial machine body throughout the ZERO-series. Since they were instated not long after Neo Arcadia’s collapse, the technology of human machine bodies may have been tested on select individuals by the previous regime. At the very least, Weil’s rejuvenating armor and the increased humanization of Reploids sets a strong precedence for such tech to exist.
Eeeeeeehh…consistency or not, I prefer “tights”.
As a fan of Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita, I’m quite fond of the machine bodies in the ZX series and I’m glad Q03 confirms a theory I’ve had for some time. The light clothing and black parts look like an odd combination, but it works when you think of it as their “skin”.
Also, Serpent is totally Sigma in disguise.
I love that picture of Ashe. 🙂
You know, I never considered that the black / dark blue body parts would be anything else than skin-tight suits. I just figured that these would be in fashion or convenient by the time that the ZX era rolls around. That kind of make sense, but I think I’ll side with RADIX and keep thinking of these as tights!
Wait, whaaaat? From what I remember from the series, people born as humans didn’t get a machine body until they “came of age.” I had assumed Vent/Aile were still too young and thus still fully human. I don’t know if the specific age was ever defined though, and I mean, I guess by Japanese standards of being “of age”…
Incidentally, ever notice that like a third of these questions are from CAP Kobun? Think there was some favoritism, or did they just not get a lot of questions?
Albert gave chosen humans machine bodies with his genetic data embedded inside. A full human would never be able of using a live metal like they did
Likewise, Ashe (who is 15 and of Albert’s human lineage) clearly acquired a full machine body. She can survive lethal falls and transform her whole physique into a robot rodent much smaller than herself.
I’d have to dig it up to be certain, but I specifically remember background info coming out that it was a law that humans, at a certain age, had to have their organic bodies replaced, whereas manufactured Reploids are given a set lifespan, for the sake of creating equality among humans and Reploids. Also, manufactured Reploids have to be made with a red triangle on their head to indicate their lineage, which is hardly equal. And for whatever reason, the discarded human bodies are being reserved somewhere… for some reason.
Yeah it’s a lot of silly anime nonsense, which is why I didn’t get much into ZX. But I swear I didn’t just conjure it all up on my own.
Sounds like you’re thinking of the details explained in the Rockman ZX Official Complete Guide. Might have shown up in the ZX Tunes albums’ liners too.
If I recall, bionic enhancements are regarded as something natural in the Legends series (Volnutt had nearly his whole body replaced, didn’t he?), so as part of the transition to Legends, the humans of ZX might share that mentality; after all, the Sage Trinity set the example by taking on bionic bodies themselves and the practice exists for centuries by Vent and Aile’s time.
Those details are correct. I’d just assume ‘at a certain age’ is 13/14+.
Could consider Vent and Aile’s surviving being blasted off a cliff without much of a scratch on them at the beginning of the first game as a similar sign, but characters in video games and animes have close calls so often it’s easy not to think much of it.
They also explode when they die in gameplay.
I think they had around 200-300 questions and requests, with some being really general or repeats. There might have been some favoritism going on, but in fairness I think CAPKobun probably did ask the most out of any individual, and when he asked basically the same thing as somebody else did, seems like they took the other person’s question instead. His special situation unfortunately didn’t get them to fulfill what was probably his most wanted request either–for them to publish the original form of Rockman Trigger art. 🙁
“GO!” asked a lot of questions too, but I think many of those were answered in the general course of the artist interviews.
Some of the questions people submitted are still viewable
here and there.
I just stumbled upon someone’s translation of two of the drama tracks from ZX Gigamix:
http://eternalhorizon.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/zx-gigamix-_-track-6-translation/
http://eternalhorizon.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/zx-gigamix-_-track-13-translation/
Track 13, Girls Bravo!!, gives us some peculiar information about Aile’s bionic body. Ariga renders her with normal human hands, while the script implicates a cut in her finger can be treated instantly with a special cream.
Waiiit a minute, if the tights-like portions are basically their “skin”, and Ashe only has a jacket and belt (alongside gloves, boots and bandanna), does that mean… o///O
This is *exactly* what I just realized and came to post about. Wow.
Reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2iMES08D44&playnext=1&list=PL7C5A212B63CE4766&t=0235