The Men Who Made Rockman Part 2 Now Available in English

Hitoshi Ariga's The Men Who Made Rockman manga received its first ever English fan-translation in October. And as of today, the second part is available to read too! (courtesy of Azure Wind Productions)

Part 2 kicks things off with Keiji Inafune (alias: Kenji Izumi) and Akira Kitamura (alias: Shinmei) coming up with a Boss Character Design Contest for a hypothetical Rockman 2. However, they can't begin developing the game in earnest just yet. Shinmei has to convince his boss - a tough-as-nails suit wary of Rockman 1's tepid sales -- to greenlight the sequel. 

After some back and forth, Shinmei gets the O.K... but there's a tiny a caveat! Shinmei and co., who are already scheduled to work on a completely different project, have to finish Rockman 2 in half the time it would take to normally develop an action game. Oh dear!

Yeah; you already know the outcome to this story. There'd be no Mega Man today if they weren't successful. But The Men Who Made Rockman is a fun read. Ariga's passion for the blue bomber practically leaps off every page. You can tell just how thrilled he was to tell this story back in 1995.

Check out part 2 here and if you're just joining us, hit up the first part here!

"The Men Who Made Rockman" Manga Available for the First Time in English

Originally published in Comic BomBom as a two-part manga in 1995, "The Men Who Made Rockman: Rockman Birth Legend" tells the story of how the first two Rockman games were made.

The manga was kept inside the pages of Comic BomBom for almost 15 years with no other way to read it but that changed when Wedge Holdings reprinted Rockman Megamix in 2009 with additional content where the story surfaced once more.

The first part of the manga covers the trials and tribulations of Akira Kitamura (Shinmei), Keiji Inafune (Kenji Izumi), Nobuyuki Matsushima (Honda) and Manami Matsumae (Momonai) developing the first game in the series. Highlights include Kitamura's first meeting trying to get the game development approved, the untold story of Robot Master Bond Man, and the team's advocacy for Rockman 2 despite Rockman 1's lukewarm reception.

 

Thanks to the efforts of Windii Gitlord and Speeps, we can read the first part of the manga in English! Part 2 isn't available yet, though. In the meantime, I recommend checking out the lengthy interview between Akira Kitamura and Hitoshi Ariga for more stories on the first two games' development. That piece was published in Rockman Maniax in 2011.

 

Enjoy!