Monday, August 30, 2010

FanExpo 2010 Report: Ariga Sketches, Photos And More

Mega Man Megamix author Hitoshi Ariga stopped by FanExpo this past weekend, and while I wasn't there to indulge in the festivities, readers Saber Chan and Joshua were, scoring some nifty sketches from the man himself. The illustrations consist of characters from Mega Man himself to a helmetless Bass! Scope them out below.


helmetless Bass, center image, bottom right

Additionally, here's a few photos of the event itself which played host to a Q&A panel between Ariga and fans and a launch party for Megamix vol. 2 (due out September 8th):




Finally, some interesting tidbits about Ariga that came out of the Q&A panel, provided by Joshua:
  • His favorite Mega Man games are Mega Man 2, X1, Battle Network 3, and Mega Man Legends.
  • His favorite classic series character is Cut Man; his favorite Battle Network character is Heat Man.EXE.
  • Least favorite, most hated character is Auto.
  • If he ever got the chance, Ariga would love to produce a Mega Man Legends comic.
  • Ariga revealed he's a big fan of the Pokemon series and was even trading with fans on Saturday and Sunday, giving away Mudkip and a Misdreavus.

Seems like a pretty cool guy, Ariga. Did you attend the event? Let us know how it went in the comments! Once more, thanks for the pics and info, Saber Chan and Joshua.

37 comments:

  1. Slicked back hair, just like mine!

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  2. Yay! Helmetless Bass! :3

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  3. So Ariga, I herd u liek mudkipz!


    Interesting article. Hooray for Ariga! :)

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  4. I wonder how many people are gonna BAWWWWWW at the fact that there's more EXE/SSR/DASH merchandise on the desk than X. XD

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  5. From Hitoshi Ariga drawing Zero and Helmetless Bass, to stating that his favorite robot master is Cut Man, to being a fan of Pokemon, and to saying that he'd love to make a Mega Man Legends comic if he ever got the chance, I have to say that everything about this blog post is pure awesomeness!

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  6. @ Saito: At least someone will, now that you've brought it up. :p

    Helmet-less Forte is pretty interesting. Was he ever known to have hair before this?

    /inb4 mudkipz fad
    /inb4 Heat Man

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  7. On that note, helmetless Classic Rockman looks almost like helmetless Rockman.EXE as well.

    Almost.

    And crap, I just realized that I came way too late for the mudkipz thing. >_>

    I'll do this instead.

    /inb4 kotipeltox's Pokemon/EXE hatred

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  8. I am so happy that he is a Legends fan.

    And I would love it if he made a Legends comic.

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  9. Posted about this last night too. It was a great panel and Ariga was a really nice guy.

    May I add it was none other than myself who asked him to give us his take on a helmetless Bass?

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  10. @Gauntlet

    Ohey, I was the guy behind you.

    I asked quite a lot of questions on Thursday too lol.

    Yeah that was an epic call on your part. Glad to see you weren't the only one who wanted to make Ariga's weekend something to remember~ Saber-Chan and I drew some fanart and bought him a classic roll figure as a thank you gift. Also, most embarrassing thing for me and him (but also made him laugh non-stop) was when I had my first and second volumes signed on Thursday. I pointed randomly at the pin-up inside and all of a sudden he started freaking out going "C-C-Crotch-desu?!?!" when I realized he thought I was asking him to sign Megaman's crotch, it was corrected but he decided to autograph the crotch for shits and giggles anyway, many laughs were had~

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  11. And now BRATilatias is using that "inb4", wow indeed.

    Regarding Ariga, he´s just an EXE-whore, even when he have wrote a lot of rockman megamix mangas.

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  12. We shoulda had a who's who of online personalities at that ...

    He never did answer what Bass' hair color would be, though. I wanted to ask him, but I had to dash off and when I came back he was leaving and I felt it'd be rude to stop him just for that.

    To think, he didn't think anyone would know him at this con.

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  13. @kotipeltox

    That's a big ego you've got right there.

    insulting Ariga because he's an EXE fan? Despite not knowing his history that was touched upon at the con AND his event?

    You're in no position to make that statement at all.

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  14. Geez, Kotieplox, what the heck is your problem? I can't believe you're saying something so rude about a man that's so influential and important in the world of Mega Man. Did you ever think that maybe he just likes that series quite a bit? He was a fan of Mega Man before he ever got into Mega Man on a business level, afterall, so I doubt he'd shamelessly lie about something like that (especially at a time when that series is no longer as relevant).

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  15. So THAT'S what Bass looks like under his helmet, I like Ice mans diamond head (much like I do for another diamond headed Robot Master)

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  16. he shares the exact same favourites ;)

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  17. That explains the Pokemon pictures in his site

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  18. I love A & C Games. Great store. :)

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  19. @Alilatias Do you really need to keep on feeding him? You already had something to say about him before he even got in here. You're part of the problem.

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  20. This sounded like it was really fun for you guys! He really does seem like a good guy, modesty is always a good quality.

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  21. Awesome!! finally Helmetless Bass!!!

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  22. Ariga's helmetless Forte is the first helmetless Forte I hae seen. But Capcom has had a hoodless Iceman before, and he had a different hair style. Although Ariga's is interesting too.

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  23. Just a thought, feelin' like that is helmetless protoman.

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  24. @ Kotipeltox: No. He's only...

    THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD.

    *is hunted down by an angry mob for ruining the joke*

    @ Anon who responded to me: Gotta be the instigator once in a while, considering he picks fights with everyone in other EXE-related articles regardless. After this, I'm going to fill up my troll quota for the year, it seems.

    Best advice for myself? Poke some fun once in a while. With college starting, last thing I need is to be "SRS BUISNESS".

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  25. Logan:

    Dude with glasses is helmetless Proto Man (nothing new there), but the fellow next to him is helmetless Bass, whose never appeared helemtless before.

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  26. I have not looked at his site yet, but I am a BIIIIIIIIG fan of Pokemon

    @kotipeltox SHUT THE HELL UP, EXE IS AWESOME!!!!!

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  27. @Saito

    Why do you keep making rude and offisve jokes?

    Everytime time there's a new post, you bring up BN/SF/Legends as they are much better than the Classic, X and Zero series. People are really getting sick of you saying that BN/SF/Legends are better than Classic, X and Zero.

    Seriously, shut the hell up.

    I like Battle Network, Star Force and Legends, but me and some people don't like it when they tried to make them superior to the other series.

    Honestyly, Saito, you need to grow up... -_-

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  28. I hate being the guy to say this, but that's not necessarily canon. Ariga is just a fan artist, and his drawing of a helmetless Forte is no more canon than if I drew a helmetless Forte. It's great that he did it (I'd love some sketches by Ariga myself) but some of you guys are treating it like some mystery has been solved.

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  29. Ariga pretty much is official, these days. He works VERY closely to Capcom and is always there go-to guy when it comes to comic adaptions of MM games.

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  30. @Khorosho

    Haha..wow fail.

    Ariga isn't just a fan artist, his depiction of helmetless Forte IS official and is the closest we'll get to an official depiction. You can't say otherwise. If you drew a helmetless Forte and posted it up on the internet and deemed it "official" you would be lying because you don't work with capcom at all, nor do you work on the official manga.

    In short. Ariga's depiction is official whether you accept it or not.

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  31. @Khorosho:

    Hitoshi Ariga is a little more than just a "fan artist". He does a little thing called "Mega Man Megamix", which is an officially licensed Mega Man comic. Perhaps the highest profile comic ever, as Keiji Inafune himself seems to approve of it. Heck, Ariga even created some official backstory for the events that led up to Mega Man 9, and Capcom seems to consider it official.

    Bottom line is, whether this version of helmetless Bass is what Keiji Inafune envisions or not, it's the closest official depiction we'll ever get until he makes one. I'd say that, yes, that's how high up Hitoshi Ariga is to the importance of the Mega Man mythos. First it's Keiji Inafune (obviously), but Ariga would come right after him.

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  32. just because he works with Capcom it doesn't mean that his version of Forte is official. it's a sketch, and saying "that's as close as we're going to get" sounds really pathetic.

    his comics are licensed by Capcom but they are not accepted as canon. he's said this himself.

    deal w/ it

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  33. The American Megaman Cartoon is licensed by Capcom - does that make that canon too?

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  34. Alright, then if nothing more, it's canon to the Megamix universe. Is that better? I'd say it's still official, even if it's not the game universe.

    Though, this does make me wonder what to make of the comic that came with the Mega Man 9 Arranged Album. Is it part of Megamix or is it actually the backstory to the Mega Man 9 game?

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  35. i don't think it's canon to anything, since it's a sketch he did in about 10 seconds

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  36. @Khorosho

    Actually he was thinking a lot when he made the helmetless Forte. It took him pretty long to even remotely figure out how to draw it.
    Tt's as close to as official as we're gonna get, drawn by the manga artist, so stop the negativity because honestly, it's not getting you anywhere.

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  37. @Josh
    I'm not sure how I'm being negative by saying it's not canonical, but oh well!! it's just kind of dumb that people are treating a quick drawing he did as a holy grail

    Look at it this way; the Ruby Spears cartoon, the Dreamwave comics, some large-scale 4koma, and the overseas Chinese games (forgetting the name on this) were all "official" and licensed by Capcom. Does that make them canonical? of course not, and the contents of Megamix and Gigamix aren't canonical either.

    it's frankly embarrassing to see people acting like this HEH

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