Astro and Mega Man, leave Mega alone

[Dr. Jerk]

Right, I am very fed up and feel like I have to post this.

What is the first thing that comes in mind when someone mentions Mega Man, or as I personally prefer to call him, Rockman? You all think of Astro Boy, and then there comes all of the assumptions and theories that Mega Man was a direct 'rip-off' of Tetsuwan Atom.

And to be honestly, I hate hearing this. I really do. It actually kinda upsets me sometimes, given that I am a diehard fan of both and am very willing to defend both should I see fit.

Of course, I cannot ignore the reasons why people think that the Mega Man franchise is some 'copy-cat', however what many people fail to realize is that these are rather similarities, which aren't all that strong really, and not a direct copy. The most obvious of similarities is the fact that both are young robot boys, (Rockman's canon Fixed A.I. Age is 9, but he's often depicted as a teenager.) and that both often fight evil, and live in a futuristic world.

...Okay, and? That is pretty much the only real similarities there are. Astro is a robot capable of flight who has several weapons under his arsenal right from the get-go. Rockman cannot fly (unless he has Rush Jet or Rush Adapter, both of which are provided by his robot dog Rush), and Rockman can only use his 'arm buster' and has to get other weapons by defeating Robot Masters.

Speaking of arm buster, Mega Man's arm buster came first, not Astro's arm cannon.

And finally, Astro runs around in nothing but a speedo and red boots whereas Rock wears blue armor and a blue helmet. These may be considered small, but appearance and function-wise, they certainly aren't that similar.

As for the story. Astro mostly deals with a criminal/monster/robot/alien-of-the-day. Rockman is the sworn enemy of Dr. Albert Wily, who constantly sends robots after him to kill him which Rock has to stop to prevent Wily from either destroying or taking over the world. This plot is however more similar to Tatsunoko Production's Casshern.

Speaking of which again, Dr. Thomas Light could be seen as parallel to Dr. Ochanomizu, whereas Dr. Wily could be seen as somewhat of a parallel to Tenma, but not quite a lot. You could even say that Rock's robot sister, Roll, is parallel to Uran.

But really, that is just it. Rockman's history of development is a foggy one, but most people will safely say that many different franchises had helped inspire it.

That's the thing, it's called inspiration, NOT being a direct copy-cat. Copying would be having Rock be half naked and shoot bullets out of his butt, but he doesn't. Rather many things and many factors had merely inspired them, which last time I checked, was no crime. Rockman and Astro Boy are both original in their own right, and every time I hear 'copy' when placed next to both, I do get quite angry and frustrated about this.

If anything, Jetter Mars is more of a 'rip-off' that Rockman will ever be, but none of you actually consider it to be a 'rip-off' merely because Tezuka also created it.

... Please. Just leave Mega Man alone, I don't want to hear this sort of thing anymore. I am a fan of both, have even been working on a Mega Man comic of my own in addition to an AB one, and well...

Well if there were to ever be a Tezuka VS Capcom, I would want AB and Classic series Rockman to both be in it. You may not understand what that means, but I respect both. A lot.

...That is all.

[F-Man]

You may have a hard time winning this one. I personally think Mega Man's design is almost exactly like Astro. Just switch the colors around and it's all the same. The boots, the underwear, the helmet with spike down the forehead slash Astro's hair also with spike, the sometimes visible door in the chest. And a chubby white-haired scientist and a sister?

Both are great though, and I don't have any problem with the fact they copied the idea of Astro Boy and went in different directions with it. Let's face it, video games about Astro don't make all that much sense; he's supposed to be pacifist, so what's with beating the crap out of other robots?

[Dr. Jerk]

Omega Factor showed that he 'merely disabled them', at least with the 'Greatest Robots'. And Rockman was, at times, not shown to be that 'violent boy' that some fans make him out to be.

And the appearance may be similar, in some ways, I still do not believe it is a blatant copy. Rather it is something called parallel, and it pretty much exists in every single series and franchise when you look at them close enough. I've already detailed my thoughts and views, I don't think I should repeat them.

[Astro Boy2866]

I completely agree with F-man, Rockman and Astro are very similar, but not completely.

If there's one thing I hate, it's when people say that Astro Boy was a rip-off of Mega Man because that clearly shows that they don't know $#!+.

In the movie, I thought that Astro's arm cannons and Rockman's buster cannon were pretty similar, but that's the only thing that might have come from Mega Man.

Let's face it, video games about Astro don't make all that much sense; he's supposed to be pacifist, so what's with beating the crap out of other robots?

Trust me, in Tap Tap Rush, he sucks at beating the crap out of robots. I find myself running away more than fighting, because it seems like he's too weak to handle all the robots attacking him. He's even worse when it comes to fighting girl robots. Remember that one robot from "Human Faced Rock" that could turn into a ball of fire?(I forgot her name) Well, she was the first boss and I had a harder time beating her than I did trying to beat Pluto who is supposedly much much stronger I died at least 25 times trying to beat her, whereas Pluto only killed me 3 times.

[Dr. Jerk]

If there's one thing I hate, it's when people say that Astro Boy was a rip-off of Mega Man because that clearly show that they don't know $#!+.

If there's one thing I hate, it's when people say that Mega Man was a rip-off of Astro Boy merely because of the buster arm, when in fact the Mega Buster debuted in 1987, whereas Astro's Arm Cannon debuted in 2003. Because that clearly shows that people don't know $#!+.

...Apparently F-Man was right when he said that I would have a difficult time 'winning' this. People fail to see how upsetting this was to me, and now I feel worse that I cannot make a good point with any of this, regardless of what I try to say in regards to 'inspiration' and 'parallel'.

I was thinking about showing my MM comic here whenever it was put up. But since my drawing style in it is reminiscent of Tezuka's (Shigeto Ikehara's actually, but he too had a similar style to Tezuka), then this whole crap will just start again.

Not to sound like major fangirl or jerk but, I feel like leaving the forums now.

[F-Man]

The thing is I haven't really seen people that called Mega Man a rip-off of Astro Boy, or at least in a bad/mean way. If I had seen some, I would agree with you that it's uncalled for. As I said, I have no problem with Capcom having used Astro as inspiration. It was a good thing! Inspiration is always good. Some people just want to be jerks because it makes them sound more knowledgeable and superior.

[Dr. Jerk]

The thing is I haven't really seen people that called Mega Man a rip-off of Astro Boy, or at least in a bad/mean way. If I had seen some, I would agree with you that it's uncalled for. As I said, I have no problem with them having used Astro as inspiration. It was a good thing! Inspirations is always good.

I've seen my fair share. Some not here, but today was really pushing it for me. I was literally shaking as I was typing that post.

Inspirations is what I was trying to say! I cannot ignore the fact that Astro and Mega both have similarities and parallels, which are completely different from being a flat-out copy. It's what I have been trying to explain in the first post. Yet no one seems to understand this, or otherwise chooses to not listen.

[F-Man]

There is something else that's quite similar to Astro Boy: the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

While Mega Man is more similar to Astro in look, A.I. is similar in its back story. The robot in A.I. was created in the image of a scientist's dead son and is given the ability to love. He gets adopted by a couple but abandoned when no longer needed.

It was written by Stanley Kubrick before he died, and Kubrick liked Astro Boy. While A.I. reminds me less of Astro Boy than Mega Man does (I pick up more easily visual similarities), I still greatly admire A.I. Why wouldn't I? If I love Astro Boy, then surely I'll love things that are similar. I call it a copycat sometimes, but I don't say it as a bad thing.

[Shirubie]

Let's not forget Astro, Mega Man and A.I.'s inspiration can be traced back to the original "artificial boy" story: Pinochio.

On my part, I love Astro and Megaman equally. They may have similarities on the surface, but dig deeper and you find the differences in their storylines. And I'm dying to see a good Astro/MM crossover fanfic.

And if you're a Megaman fan, I suggest reading this series of fanfics. They're just awesome.

[Kabuitsu]

While I haven't played Rockman (none of the games. But the second one seems so good it makes me desire a NES. Screw the Wii.) I do find anyoning when people claim he's a rip-off of Atom. And vice-versa.

I have to admit, they're very similar in certain aspects. I actually believe Rockman was BASED off Atom (not ripped-off, copied or bootlegged -BAAAASEEEED.)