[Video Game] Megaman and Its Henshin Origins

[Hurricane Polymar]

Are there any particular tokusatsu and henshin shows that the original Megaman games borrowed from?

I figured, of all places, this would be a good site to ask that.

I already know about Tatsunoko's "Casshern" (1973) being one of the main inspirations for Megaman, but I also read somewhere that some obscure henshin show called "Rainbow Man" was another inspiration.

 

[Twisted_Edge]

Lifted from the wiki:

Although originally the names "Mighty Kid", "Knuckle Kid", and "Rainbow Man" were proposed, Capcom eventually settled on "Rockman" as Mega Man's Japanese moniker. The word "Rock" in Rockman is a reference to the music genre rock and roll, and is meant to work in tandem with his sister robot, Roll. However, Capcom Consumer Products Division president Joe Morici changed the name from Rockman to Mega Man because he felt "The title was horrible."[5] Such music-themed naming conventions are present in a number of Keiji Inafune's other character designs, such as Blues. In addition, the original Mega Man titles intentionally incorporated a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" gameplay mechanic into defeating certain enemies.

The pixel art for the character was created by the designer of the original game in the series, credited under the pseudonym "A.K", and later turned into a refined illustration by Keiji Inafune.

This is also listed on the Megaman Wiki. There are no influences from tokusatsu or anime mentioned.

 

[Gryphman]

Yeah, the only ones with any possible toku influence are the two ZX games, and that's really only the Metals working as henshin devices.

 

[KamenRiderShinzo]

Casshern must've been an influence in some way.

 

[Zander Yurami]

I dont see any connection to Casshern and Rockman other than them being robots

 

[Hurricane Polymar]

I dont see any connection to Casshern and Rockman other than them being robots

You can't be serious.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG2W05xJ76o"]"Neo-Human Casshern" (1973) - Opening - YouTube[/ame]

You may want to look at the character designs a bit more closely...

 

[Bigdog]

I dont see any connection to Casshern and Rockman other than them being robots

I don't see how you can't.

Zero is more like Casshern Sins/90s version as well. The whole franchise is like a homage to that anime and Astro Boy. Good old scientist revives/creates robot boy, evil genius makes other bad robots , hero gets a dog and chick sidekick who parallel Casshern's dog and girl character. The comics he has written HIMSELF , aka Rockman Remix ,parallels Casshern to a tee. Most are robots and increasingly, humans become irrelevant, like in X4. Beyond that in the stories , it goes into post apocalypse with Zero being the lead, paralleling Casshern Sins and perhaps Gatchaman a bit.

Kinda like saying Ben 10 isn't an anime/tokusatsu homage all its own.

 

[Hurricane Polymar]

I don't see how you can't.

Zero is more like Casshern Sins/90s version as well. The whole franchise is like a homage to that anime and Astro Boy. Good old scientist revives/creates robot boy, evil genius makes other bad robots , hero gets a dog and chick sidekick who parallel Casshern's dog and girl character. The comics he has written HIMSELF , aka Rockman Remix ,parallels Casshern to a tee. Most are robots and increasingly, humans become irrelevant, like in X4. Beyond that in the stories , it goes into post apocalypse with Zero being the lead, paralleling Casshern Sins and perhaps Gatchaman a bit.

Kinda like saying Ben 10 isn't an anime/tokusatsu homage all its own.

Not to mention the fact that in the original Casshern, Luna (his girlfriend) is a dead ringer for Roll in all the Megaman games.