The Reploid Research Lavatory

Several new sample pages from the Rockman Classics Collection Limited Edition pocket planner went up on e-Capcom today.

Quick facts for the book:

• Dimensional size A6, 464 pages total
• mini calendar for 2016 and 2017 (1 page each)
• monthly planner section for February 2016 to April 2017 (2 pages per month)
• daily diary/notes (2 days on a page for February 2016, 1 entire page for each remaining day through March 31, 2017)
• contacts pages for friends’ email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, etc.
• Rockman art, dot/sprites and trivia interspersed throughout (short story synopses by game, character data, development “secrets”)

The sample pages contain a good idea of what you’ll find in the pocket book, including several sections of Dr. Right’s Research Journal, all of which are translated below.

Be warned, your opinion of Dr. Right could change based on some of these.

Tuesday, March 1
It was another great day today with Rock and Roll cheerfully assisting me with my research. It’s not the case that they have been ordered to carry out these duties, but rather they are expressing their own self-intentioned desires to get along together with humankind. In order to achieve my ideal, “a world where robots can truly coexist alongside humans”, it is absolutely essential for everyday robots to be commonly accepted as having their own thoughts, their own wills and behavior. I genuinely believe that these two will set forth the foundation of that coming age.

Monday, June 13
Well, I’ve finally settled upon my next projects. DRN.006 will be a robot with an integrated function for producing and refining explosives for the purpose of fracturing bedrock. I envision him working closely with Gutsman, though with the latter’s quick-temperedness I anticipate I’ll need to perform some fine-tuning on the A.I.

At the same time, I’ll begin concurrent development on DRN.007, a super high-temperature flame emitting robot to specialize in industrial waste disposal. Rock has opposed my plan to co-produce these robots, citing that working on explosives and flames in close proximity is extremely dangerous… Bah, even if we do risk a little combustion, I won’t be worried as long as Iceman is around!

Friday, June 24
Since when did I become surrounded by worrywarts…? Just 2 or 3 little flash fires, and everyone loses their minds! I certainly didn’t expect Iceman to run off like that, stuttering something or other about how he detests a sauna…

Tuesday, August 9
Starting today the six completed robots enter into their safety evaluation period. Rock has even volunteered to oversee their preparation. I’ve built my DRN series upon the firmly held foundation that in order to truly benefit humanity, a robot must be able to peacefully coexist among humans. These six whom I’ve taken to calling my Numbers have been crafted to embody all of my love, hope, aspirations, and goodwill.

That’s right, looks like it’s going to be a mix of waxing philosophical and “are these guys insane?” jokey-joke antics. Lighthearted comedic anecdotes can certainly mesh with the bubbly, colorful cartoonish tone of the classic series, but the humor looks to be coming at the expense of Dr. Right’s good character and common sense. At times he comes across as a clear idealist and visionary… And at other times he’s a criminally irresponsible scientist, a terribly negligent father figure, and quite possibly every bit as eccentric as his nemesis for putting his own ambitions blindly before all else. It may be difficult for some fans who prefer a stoic philosophical “father of X” image of Right to reconcile this silly reckless side with the archetypal good guy/role model scientist. Or it may be a little validation for anyone who’s ever criticized Right’s robo-parenting, joked about “this is the guy who built BOMBMAN”, or speculated on the nature that Right is their universe’s true mad scientist villain. Like the CD database says, even the respected legendary father of robotics can be a bit “douchie”.

Elsewhere, on yet another sample page dated June 26, there is a trivia section at the footer called “Rockman Secret File 14” which hints that Rush the robodog’s name was based on Patrasche from A Dog of Flanders. I wrote about this back in May; that bit of trivia was first published in the Rockman Character Collection. The same Rockman Character Collection where Right’s Journal also appeared. Seems the RCC was a major influence over the bonus materials in the planner. Other sample pages show that some of the character data included will be the boss weapon weaknesses and “likes/dislikes/good point/bad point” from the aforementioned Rockman & Forte CD Database. This makes me wonder if most of the info and trivia in the notebook will be recycled from previous sources. Even though that would disappoint me a little, I do think that there’s a lot of old, nearly forgotten source material out there that it would be great to see getting republished after so many years.

My takeaways:

• Judging from the samples, more than half (perhaps all?) of the Right’s journal entries will be pre-Rockman 1 events.
• Based on the above, I doubt there will be any connection to the X series, beyond vague allusions to Dr. Right’s dream of robot/human coexistence.
• I am still hopeful there will be some additional Blues backstory, and Right/Wily relationship history. Perhaps in February’s entries?
• If occurring at regular intervals, there could be about 3-4 “Right’s Journal” and “Rockman Secret Files” per month, totaling around 40-50 of each.
• I might also be grossly overestimating those numbers.
• I still don’t regret preordering.

Thanks to @Protodude for sending word of these my way.