The crazy part ain't dreaming, wishing on a falling star
It's been a while since I've done a pointless trivia, so how about another one on Mega Man? Covering the whole franchise, or at least as much of it as I can think of interesting things to say about.
The whole reason for Mega Man's predominantly blue colour scheme is that the NES colour palette has a slightly larger selection of shades of blue than any other colour, and Capcom wanted the most detailed sprite possible for the character.
Many of the characters in the games have names related to music in some way. Mega Man's Japanese name is Rockman, which combines with the main female character Roll to make rock and roll. Bass and Treble refer to the two clefs in music, and their Japanese names, Forte and Gospel, are also music references ("forte" means "loud" in Italian and is a notation meaning "play this loudly", while "gospel" is a style of music). Proto Man's Japanese name is Blues, another style of music. His English name doesn't have a musical reference in it, but refers to the fact he is the "prototype" of Mega Man. Blues music is also often considered a precursor to rock and roll.
Dr. Thomas Light and Dr. Albert Wily are named after and physically resemble Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein respectively.
For a long time, people were confused over whether Thomas's surname was Light or Right, and some games even called him Dr. Wright. For every game in the series, the Japanese translations consistently called him Dr. Right, while the English translations mostly went with Dr. Light. In reference to this, the main character's grandfather in the Mega Man Battle Network games (known as Rockman.EXE in Japan) is named Tadashii Hikari, which is Japanese for "Right Light". Tadashii also bears a striking resemblance to Dr. Light, and his name, if partially translated, could be abbreviated as "T. Light", which is how Dr. Light signs his name at the end of the intro to Mega Man X.
According to the creators, Mega Man Battle Network takes place in an alternate universe where online technology flourished over robotics.
The Battle Network series eschews the music puns (mostly) in favour of computer and internet puns. The male protagonist's name, Lan, references LAN or Local Area Network, a form of computer network. The female protagonist's name, Mayl, is a pun on "mail", as in "email". In Japan, Lan is named Netto, the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "net", as in "internet", and Mayl is named Meiru, which is both the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "mail" and a Japanese loanword meaning "email". The English dub of the anime, Mega Man NT Warrior, slightly ruined the pun, as it had to call her "Maylu" to fit the mouth flaps.
The two main characters of Mega Man X both have names that resemble unknowns or infinite possibilities. X's name references the "Let X Be the Unknown" trope, which relates to how the letter x is used in mathematics to denote an unknown number. Zero's name references the number 0, which is also often said to hold infinite possibilities. Zero's name could also refer to the fact that he was the original carrier of the Maverick Virus - in other words, Patient Zero.
In fact, Zero was actually the original design for the main character of the Mega Man X games. However, Capcom thought he looked too different from the classic Mega Man, and asked Keiji Inafune, series creator, to design a new character with a more similar appearance. Inafune would finally get his wish to have Zero as the main character when the spin-off series Mega Man Zero was released.
A few of the NetNavis' names were changed in the English translations of the Mega Man Battle Network games and anime for various reasons. ColouredMan became WackoMan, possibly because the name "coloured man" has racist connotations in English. PlantMan became VineMan, BeastMan became SavageMan, YamatoMan became JapanMan (Yamato is an old name for the country of Japan), FootMan became GridMan, and others.
The whole reason for Mega Man's predominantly blue colour scheme is that the NES colour palette has a slightly larger selection of shades of blue than any other colour, and Capcom wanted the most detailed sprite possible for the character.
Many of the characters in the games have names related to music in some way. Mega Man's Japanese name is Rockman, which combines with the main female character Roll to make rock and roll. Bass and Treble refer to the two clefs in music, and their Japanese names, Forte and Gospel, are also music references ("forte" means "loud" in Italian and is a notation meaning "play this loudly", while "gospel" is a style of music). Proto Man's Japanese name is Blues, another style of music. His English name doesn't have a musical reference in it, but refers to the fact he is the "prototype" of Mega Man. Blues music is also often considered a precursor to rock and roll.
Dr. Thomas Light and Dr. Albert Wily are named after and physically resemble Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein respectively.
For a long time, people were confused over whether Thomas's surname was Light or Right, and some games even called him Dr. Wright. For every game in the series, the Japanese translations consistently called him Dr. Right, while the English translations mostly went with Dr. Light. In reference to this, the main character's grandfather in the Mega Man Battle Network games (known as Rockman.EXE in Japan) is named Tadashii Hikari, which is Japanese for "Right Light". Tadashii also bears a striking resemblance to Dr. Light, and his name, if partially translated, could be abbreviated as "T. Light", which is how Dr. Light signs his name at the end of the intro to Mega Man X.
According to the creators, Mega Man Battle Network takes place in an alternate universe where online technology flourished over robotics.
The Battle Network series eschews the music puns (mostly) in favour of computer and internet puns. The male protagonist's name, Lan, references LAN or Local Area Network, a form of computer network. The female protagonist's name, Mayl, is a pun on "mail", as in "email". In Japan, Lan is named Netto, the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "net", as in "internet", and Mayl is named Meiru, which is both the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "mail" and a Japanese loanword meaning "email". The English dub of the anime, Mega Man NT Warrior, slightly ruined the pun, as it had to call her "Maylu" to fit the mouth flaps.
The two main characters of Mega Man X both have names that resemble unknowns or infinite possibilities. X's name references the "Let X Be the Unknown" trope, which relates to how the letter x is used in mathematics to denote an unknown number. Zero's name references the number 0, which is also often said to hold infinite possibilities. Zero's name could also refer to the fact that he was the original carrier of the Maverick Virus - in other words, Patient Zero.
In fact, Zero was actually the original design for the main character of the Mega Man X games. However, Capcom thought he looked too different from the classic Mega Man, and asked Keiji Inafune, series creator, to design a new character with a more similar appearance. Inafune would finally get his wish to have Zero as the main character when the spin-off series Mega Man Zero was released.
A few of the NetNavis' names were changed in the English translations of the Mega Man Battle Network games and anime for various reasons. ColouredMan became WackoMan, possibly because the name "coloured man" has racist connotations in English. PlantMan became VineMan, BeastMan became SavageMan, YamatoMan became JapanMan (Yamato is an old name for the country of Japan), FootMan became GridMan, and others.
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