I grew up on the classic Mega Man games. They were bright and colorful, and they were just simple platformers where you would run around as a little guy with a gun, taking on cartoonish enemies. There is nothing complicated about it and while later iterations of Mega Man would certainly get more intense with their storytelling, that original classic series was always primarily seen as the simpler time. We don't think about what happens after the robot masters are taken out or what would happen if Dr. Wily just stopped creating monsters of the week for Mega Man to take down like the next set of bowling pins at the bowling alley. This manga explores that territory, asking what would happen if the fighting stopped and Mega Man was allowed to live in this world with a more complicated worldview.

A lot of civil unrest is happening in the world of Mr. Mega Man. The manga makes constant references to what appear to be civil uprisings by other robot factions in the background except this time, Dr. Wily is retired. There's no cartoonishly evil bad guy pulling the strings or making these robots do anything. Rather, it appears to be a political commentary on how robots, despite their general acceptance and usefulness by everyday society, still aren't fully satisfied with how they are treated. This idea is set up throughout the entire book and while it's commented on the most overly by the end, there isn't any real payoff and more set up for later. On that front, the book is disappointing because there's no real climax to leave you on.

What does this book leave you with when all of that is mostly in the background? Have you ever gone out drinking with friends? Maybe you'll sit down and hear them vent about their job or how they don't feel like their life is going anywhere so you have to play the therapist to hype them up and give them ideas on how to get a new outlook on life. That scenario is eighty percent of this book as almost every chapter has the same setup. Mega Man will go out for drinks, chill with one of the former Robot Masters or bosses he had fought in a previous game, and listen to them vent their troubles away over large pints of beer.

Some of the advice gets a little bit samey but it feels very genuine. You can tell that Mega Man is trying his best to be there for robots trying to turn their lives around and the obstacles they run into are similar to what adults deal with today. These robots have adjusted in some obvious and not-so-obvious ways but even the ones that see success are scared. There's this underlying fear of no longer having a place in the world and I never expected something based on classic Mega Man to get as deep as this.

The art style can get a bit uncanny as Mega Man, his sister, and returning human characters from the franchise appear noticeably older with a distinctly sharp anime aesthetic. But all the robot masters are lovingly re-created with more exaggerated proportions and features from the original games. It's an aesthetic that I don't think works well but I appreciate the little attention to detail. If you're a longtime Mega Man fan then you'll see a lot of references here that are sure to tickle the nostalgia bone. If you didn't play a lot of Mega Man growing up, there's still enough here to feel relatable.

This book was a genuine surprise. I'm not always a fan of stories that try to take something goofy and put a more grounded spin on them, especially when the cartoony nature of Mega Man was a main part of its identity. This book deals with the cartoony nature of the franchise and even retains a lot of the comedy of those earlier games in surprisingly inventive ways. There's a lot of respect and reverence here and as a Mega Man fan, I greatly appreciate it. While the book leaves things unsatisfyingly, I think it is worth your time.