The Animation of Mega Man

How has one of Capcom's 30 year old flagship video game character's animation evolved throughout its franchise? Watch to find out!

📚 Chapters 📚

0:00 - Introduction
0:56 - Mega Man 1
7:45 - Mega Man 2-6
11:19 - Miscellaneous Games
13:08 - Mega Man 7
18:03 - Mega Man The Power Fighters
19:46 - Mega Man 8
28:05 - Mega Man & Bass
28:45 - Marvel v Capcom
31:40 - Mega Man Powered Up
37:30 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate
41:41 - Mega Man 11
46:49 - Fangames, Cancelled Games and Cameos
52:14 - Why no 3D?
54:37 - What Have We Learned?
57:49 - Outro and special ending

🎹 Music 🎹

0.00- Mega Man Network Transmission ~Kaze Wo Tsukinukete~
0.06 - Rockman Complete Works OST - Yellow Devil
0.56 - Mega Man Powered Up - Intro Stage
4.35 - Mega Man Powered Up - Cut Man
7.45 - Mega Man 8 - Astro Man
11.19 - The Wily Wars - Buster Rod G
13.08 - Mega Man 7 - Cloud Man
14.51 - Mega Man 7 - Spring Man
16.58 - Mega Man 7 - Burst Man
18.03 - Mega Man Power Fighters - Stone Man
19.29 - Power Fighters NeoGeo - Stage Select
19.46 - Mega Man 8 Beta - Stage Select
20.25 - Mega Man 8 - Intro Stage
23.05 - Mega Man Network Transmission - Internet Area
26.05 - Mega Man 8 - Tengu Man
28.05 - Mega Man & Bass - Museum Arranged (by Haizel)
28.45 - Mega Man 9 - We're the Robots (by DjKlzonez)
31.40 - Mega Man & Bass - Pirate Man (by 40Nix)
34.17 - Mega Man Powered Up - Stage Editor
37.30 - Mega Man 11 - Shop
38.02 - Bomb Man (Smash Bros Remix)
41.44 - Mega Man & Bass - Tengu Man
44.10 - Mega Man Battle & Chase - Cavern Course
44.59 - Rockman Complete Works - Toad Man
46.26 - Mega Man & Bass - CD Database
46.49 - Mega Man: Rise of Mr.X - Staff Roll
47.20 - Mega Man's Soccer - Fire Field
47.57 - Mega Man & Bass 2 - Ending
48.53 - Mega Man Network Transmission - Relaxation
50.05 - Mega Man Shattered Diamond - Breeze Man
52.14 - Mega Man Battle & Chase - Ice Man Ending
54.46 - Rockman Complete Works OST - Yellow Devil
57.47 - Mega Man Battle & Chase - Staff Roll 2

📀 Resources 📀

This video was partly funded by Patrons to help improve the quality of research, editing, footage capture, animation and overall production.

Thanks for watching!

#MegaMan #VideogameAnimation

Mega Man Taisen, Rockman Match, Rockman Taisen, mega man match, Mega Man Battle Network Collection,

[thomasmeldrum]

So coming from a runner, it looks like when Mega Man runs in 7, it looks like he stretches his legs out in front of him to strike the ground with his heel, where as in the NES games his legs seem to come down directly under his center of gravity, which would be consistent with more of a fore or midfoot strike. From a running standpoint, the fore/midfoot strike is currently considered to be a better, more efficient, less injury prone form than the heel stike. I think the legs swinging forward heel strike motion looks a little goofy to me and less natural. This is possibly due to that form theoretically resulting from modern day running shoes with thick padded heels, while the motion from MM 1-6, with his feet seeming to hit the ground underneath his body, looks more natural to me, being theoretically more similar to how people run in bare feet. From a gameplay standpoint, while I have not played 7 or beyond, it looks like, in that game, it would be harder to tell when his feet are reaching the end of a platform. As an admirer of animation, rather than a practitioner, perhaps it would be useful for animators to study great runners’ forms, such as that of Eliud Kipchoge, or those of the “pose” method of running. Forgive me it’s that’s something you all already do.

[trayhl]

What' is with this strange trend of "Dan"s talking about the animation History of a Blue Character for an hour?

[NickNitro]

mega man is my favorite game series thanks dude!

[OmegaJX]

Im so glad im a Mega Man fan.
THAT EXTRA CONVO WITH YOUR KID WAS PRECIOUS I CANT

[Pyco_]

Great, now I can’t unsee that exclamation mark.

[The-Zerth-Law]

Also, to note, Mega Man & Bass IS internally called 8.5 and is a more direct sequel to 8 (it's even brought up in the ending of 9 when Mega Man retells the times Wily swore to never try to take the world again)

[danikvelocity]

I really want you to cover Mega Man X and Zero. This was SO GOOD.

[ntu]

Seeing this on my feed is like a gift from animation jesus

[tahamohammad]

Did I just get a movie in my sub box? I’m not complaining. In all seriousness, nice job, haven’t even seen the video yet, it’s that the time is impressive on its own.

[WeaponAlphaDev]

I did the frames talked about for MMSD. I pushed to redo the animations when SD was initially going to use unedited recolored wily wars sprites. I'm glad the extra polish to the run cycle was appreciated!

[TheTrrrMask]

MegaMans almost like a genre in itself thanks to how they stuck to their formulas and graphical style. I honestly love the consistency of Mega Man.

[carlcouture]

In case it hasn't been said in the comments already: Henshin means "transform". A henshin pose would be the pose the character makes to start their transformation. The poses the robot masters make are just poses, no special name. Ultraman started the whole stock henshin sequence thing. Kamen Rider started the signature pose thing. They're unique to the character and supposed to showcase the personality or unique traits of the character. It's not so much to summon their power as they are to flex on their enemy and introduce themselves just before battle. Generally only the heroes get these, not the villains, so Mega Man actually went against the trend by giving poses to the robot masters instead of the hero.

[rishy]

Thank you so much for shouting out MegaMan Slide in your video! I really enjoyed your analyses of the differences in animation throughout the games and can't wait for some more great content from your channel!

[Minihood]

If I had a pound for every hour long video dissecting the animation of a decades old video game franchise made by someone called Dan, I would have £2.

It's not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[KarlDaKrab]

An hour long video solely dedicated to the Blue Bomber himself? Sign me up!

[TazTheYellow]

Just for the record, "henshin" is more-or-less the Japanese word for "transform(ation)". While it therefore doesn't literally apply to many such poses throughout the series (the robot masters in particular), admittedly I wouldn't know a better way to describe the *inspiration* of where such poses came from.

[RockEsper]

It's crazy to see how much thought has gone into this little blue boy's movements, spanning decades. Seeing how new artists show love to the previous iterations while adding their own style/ideas is something I love about creative works in general, so it's especially enchanting when analyzing my favorite video game character. I really appreciate the thorough work here, awesome content as always!

[FloatingSunfish]

One thing that always bothered me about the Mega Man titles right after the NES was that Mega Man's bigger sprite played its animation too fast for the small distance it was traveling.
Thankfully, the later titles fixed this and made his walking animation feel right again. ☺️👌

[crismanbelmont]

Love to see that you tackled fangame animation as well, there's so many great looking megaman fangames out there, so it's always lovely to see them get the spotlight. Big thankies from another fellow (megaman) animator!

[The-Zerth-Law]

About the "Naruto Run"... Found something older than that: Arale Norimaki from Dr Slump. Perhaps a number of running animation sequences through Toriyama's creations. Another one is Goku in the OG Dragon Ball outrunning the Red Ribbon ninja.