ISBN #: 978-4-904293-87-7
Artist: Hitoshi Ariga
Publisher: Wedge Holdings
Release Date: Saturday, February 27th, 2010
Retail Price: 1,143 Yen
Pages: 224Now that Gonzo has received her copy of the manga from me, I can go ahead and post this and spoil the goodies for the rest of you.
Unlike the first volume of Gigamix, and actually most of Megamix, Volume 2 is more of a consistent, flowing story, rather than a couple different tales broken up. The book still contains 5 separate chapters for this tale. It includes two special pieces of artwork to begin the book. The first page is a monochrome sketch that includes Rockman, Roll, Blues and Shadow Man. The second is a color, oil-based painting-like portrait bust of Dr. Wily. There are some allusions to incidents in Volume 1, but for the most part it is it's own new story.
The book starts out taking us back to the asteroid from Vol. 1, where we see the remains of the Gamma battle. Namely his head. A few panels later, the asteroid has beams of light shooting out of it, like something is about to make it explode. Back on Earth, Blues is tinkering with his buster. Suddenly he grabs at his chest and collapses on the ground in severe pain. Tango leaps to see what's wrong. Back in space, the asteroid does explode, and a comet-like figure shoots out of it. We see an ominous robot in from of Rock, who is then blown up right in front of a screaming Roll!
As we turn the page, thankfully, Roll was just having a bad dream. However, she looks outside to see Rock staring up into space as something comes crashing to the Earth. The object from space collides with a familiar skull-shaped island. Forte and the RM7 RMs are the first on the scene. Out of a cloud of smoke, the same robot from Roll's dream emerges.
The RM3 RMs also arrive to help, but on the next page, Skull Castle is in flames. Wily tries to watch the battle on his monitor, when it suddenly explodes. The alien bot is ready to attack Wily, who is being protected by Shadow Man.
The RM2 RMs are the next wave to battle, while Shadow Man takes Wily to a giant Hogale Whale airship to escape. Shade Man is waiting there for them. Unfortunately for Wily, the alien is still after him. It busts through the wall, tracking the old man everywhere he goes. Quick Man follows, and tries blocking all the bot's attacks with his Quick Boomerang. The alien bot kicks it up a notch by firing off a good dozen lazers. About time Quick gets a taste of his own stage! LOL He moves in for a powerful attack, but his Quick Boomerang and right hand shatter and break apart from the impact. This is definitely no ordinary robot. Suddenly it charges it's power up and releases explosive energy, blowing up the entire island. Wily's airship, piloted by Shade Man, barely flies out of the plume of smoke.
The alien trails the ship, so Shade releases a wave of minibosses, including Giant Met, Van Pookin, Hannya NED². They all go boom immediately. And so does the ship. Poor Wily is done for! But wait...his head has a spring on it. It was all a decoy! Or at least they were able to escape inside of Gamerizer when the Hogale crashed into the ocean. Somehow they seem to have ditched the alien robot, and they arrive in the city to find Rock and the Light bots waiting for them. Shadow Man gets on his knees and seems to beg Dr. Light and his creations to help Wily. The old man doesn't really seem to want their help, and Roll ends up tying him up with some rope as they go back to stately Light manor.
But of course, we all knew it wouldn't be that easy. Mr. Persistant is at it again and blows his way into Light's house. Shadow Man's attacks do nothing, but at least he stayed together better than Quick. Rock tells him to stand back, and gets ready to fight. But again, the alien bot would rather go kamikaze and blow himself up again. As he charges up and his hand glows with an awesome power, telling him to defeat Rockman, Ice Man fires off his Ice Slasher attack and freezes the alien's arm. Guts Man and Fire Man grab on to the alien, holding him down and allowing Rock to fuse with Rush, turning into Super Adaptor mode. Bomb Man lands a bomb to it's chest, while Rock fires off his rocket fist. The alien is ready to block it, but Rock's fist flies up and over it, turns around, and lands a clean punch to the back of the alien's head. It's body starts to crack, so things look good for our heroes! But what's that...
A huge hand is coming out of the alien's body! And one turns into 6, 6 into 14. *Gulp* The alien body explodes, sending a huge fist flying into Cossack's heli-transport vehicle, which is flying onto the scene. After the dust settles, we see the silhouettes of 9 different figures laughing maniacally and with evil grins on their faces. The Stardroids have emerged from the alien robot body.
And they immediately begin attacking the Light robots and the city. Jupiter attacks first with a few bolts of lightning, which slice off both of Cut Man's arms. And of course for some perfect symmetry, Pluto then leaps to slice off one of Elec Man's arms. The Stardroids are hovering farther away in the sky, so Rock hops on Item 2 and Cut rides on Rush. The trio focus their attacks on Terra, only to have Uranus jump in front to crush the Rolling Cutter and Saturn absorb the Elec Beam through his Black Hole. Terra then fires off a Spark Chaser that sends the three crashing back to Earth. Before the chapter closes, the remaining Light bots search through the rubble helping the injured humans and searching for their brothers.
The next chapter opens up with some really cool scenes. The Stardroids take their battles across the world, and what better Robot Masters to fight around the world than the RM6 RMs. Uranus tackles Flame Man, while Neptune's Salt Water erodes Knight Man's best defenses. Saturn's Black Hole pulls Centaur Man apart, while Wind Man finds Jupiter too shocking. Tomahawk Man succumbs to Pluto's Break Dash and Plant Man wilts after getting blown up by Venus' Bubble Bomb. Mars obliterates Blizzard Man. Mercury has fun toying with Yamato Man, both by watching the warrior fail at stabbing his gooey body and then using his Grab Buster to sap away his life. His scene ends with a gruesome silhouette of Mercury crushing Yamato's body with his foot and laughing like mad.
Back on the rescue front, things aren't going too well. Auto is found, but despite their best attempts, neither Fire Man or Shadow Man get any response from his body. Guts Man stands guard over the injured Light and Wily, although Light soon gets up. Bomb Man finds Item 2 and Roll does her best to be cheerful and optimistic, but Ice Man still cries. Then Wily gets up and seems to have something to say about Terra. Then our throwaway character battle royale begins and ends after 6 pages of Terra wiping the floor with a good 100 or so fan-made entries. Wily seems to have struck a nerve with Light, and Light actually grabs his old partner by the shirt and the two get nose to nose in a shouting match.
Their argument is soon broken up when Guts Man is hit by Bubble Bombs. Venus and Jupiter arrive back on the scene to fight.
Meanwhile, Rock is deep underground in a sewer/subway system. Rush, Cut and Elec are safely with him. Elec actually has a few E-Tanks on hand and tosses one to Rock. As they are drinking, Rock hears someone coming and looks freaked out. But no need to be afraid, it's just the RM5 RM's wandering around! Sparkly Ginyu Force Pose time!! I'm pretty sure they're really the ones who had the spare E-Tanks. Gravity Man goes around handing out severed limbs he found lying around and the robots attempt to start surgery, while Gyro Man delivers the news of the RM6 RMs to Rock.
Soon the ceiling of the underground cavern starts to shake, and it seems Gravity Man is the one doing it! What the...he starts convulsing and...ewww... Mercury oozes out of Gravity's body! Uranus pops out of nowhere and impales Stone Man. The others know they need to help save Rock and the injured Light bots, so Star Man places the three in a special Star Barrier. Wave Man's Water Wave pushes them into Charge Man's care, and Mr. Choo Choo chugs at full speed with them in a car attached to him. He's going at full speed, while Rock is forced to watch Wave, Star, Gyro, Crystal and Napalm easily destroyed by Uranus. Charge hits the end of the line rather quickly, as well, and the trio goes flying.
Charge gets sucked into a Black Hole, where Saturn stands on his carcass of a head. Seeing the scrap parts of the locomotive enrages Rock, and everyone fires away at Saturn, Mercury and Uranus.
We then flashback to Blues for a little, who is still in pain on the ground. He dreams of Dr. Light, and a phonograph machine playing a particular tune. Then a silhouette of Wily is seen, along with memories of waking up with his Break Man buster, and previous Gigamix Vol. 1 fight with Rock. A crystal is also on that page. On the next page, he sees the Light bots, Shadow, Rock, Forte, Gemini, Skull and Reggae, and then finally Dr. Light's face on that crystal. The crystal starts to break, and we see Blues' own silhouette on it.
Blues then wakes up, and Tango nudges an E-Tank to him. But the kitty hears something and pounces. It's Terra, walking sideways down the wall of a building. The fights continue both underground and on the surface, but Terra just hovers over the Earth. Suddenly the Stardroids all stop and look up to the sky. Terra begins summoning a black noise-like ball out of his hand.
It grows and grows and envelops the town in darkness. People look up to the sky in fear. And then an eye opens. Dark Moon has awakened. Yes, Ariga's version of Dark Moon looks more like Ra Moon, with both Ra Moon's markings under the eye, and his always round shape, but Terra does call it by name as Dark Moon. It glares down at the Statue of Liberty. It emits some kind of noise that sends people running from the L'arc de Triumph. Camels go insane in the Middle East, it envelops the Great Wall of China and causes more people in Hawaii, London, etc., to go mad. While the Stardroids are distracted and practically the whole world is in chaos, Rock and Elec team an attack that strikes Saturn. Cut Man leaps in the air with Rush and...YES! Cut Rush Adaptor!!
With Rolling Cutter Fist of Doom!! But slicing through Mercury does nothing. Then we're quickly treated to a three-page flashback of young Light and Wily.
Back in the present, Roll stands in front of Light and Wily to protect them. But Venus leaps in and has his buster right in her face. Right before his Bubble Bomb is released from it, a giant hand shields her from it's explosion. The fist then punches Venus right in the gut. But it wasn't Guts Man to the rescue. It's...DUO!!!
Venus has been destroyed! Everyone looks up in surprise. And on the final page, we see parts of the city in shambles, Blues back on the ground unable to move, and Dark Moon hovering over the city ominously.
TO BE CONTINUED IN GIGAMIX VOLUME 3.
To conclude the book, there is a simple 2-page comic from Ariga with him and a tiny Heat Man. There is also a short afterward by Shigeto Ikehara with his drawings of Eddie, Wily, Roll and a chibi Rockman. Following that, there is one page from Koji Izuki that has an angry Duo ready to grab Wily, who is trying to run away as fast as possible. And then finally the preview for Volume 3 shows Rockman, Blues and Forte (in Gospel Boost mode) with the Earth behind them, and Dark Moon on the opposing page.
Overall, this book was very entertaining, filled with surprises. Ariga definitely went with a unique take on connecting the Stardroids and the MM8 scenario. The darker, grittier tone definitely shined, and it was actually pretty fun to see how overpowering the Stardroids were. Of course Ariga's artwork continues to become more refined and detailed, and this book will easily please fans of his style, on top of garnering him even more supporters. A lot of fans are no doubt excited and pleased to see he included so many entries from his "throwaway character" contest in some form; a whopping 100 of them were shown in the book! Even if they didn't get much page time, he did a great job of drawing so many of these fan-made characters, without really altering any of their designs.
It will be interesting to see how much of Volume 3 focuses on Duo and perhaps some form of evil energy, which the Stardroids totally seem drugged up on. And I'm sure many fans are eagerly anticipating the introduction of Rockman 8's Robot Masters, or perhaps even some storyline that uses 9 or 10's. Hopefully by this summer we'll know more. In any case, yet another wonderful manga, which hopefully will be translated by UDON at some point in the future. Go out and grab this version if you can! Especially if your character made it in!
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This was started at TMMN. I was working on identifying and linking to every "winner" of Ariga's throwaway character contest in Gigamix 2. I got a little help from one of the winning participants, zoniken, at translating a few of the names. Many of these I just translated through Google Translate or Babelfish, so if you notice any errors in their names or who drew them, feel free to let me know that, too. All entries can be found
HERE. I need to work on reformatting all the links to each original piece, because I unfortunately can't copy the BB code onto this forum (or at least haven't figured out how to import it correctly). And I'm redoing the keys tonight, so they will be accurate. First two key scans are credited to AWD!, but they will be replaced with my own as I redo them:
KEY: 
P 132Entry #14 Lobster Man by em
Entry #16 Adley Man by Yasha
Entry #19 Glacier Man by Muramo
Entry #28 Jet Man by Nautical
Entry #33 Babel Man by 5 Years Old
Entry #36 Aircraft Carrier Robo by Muramo
Entry #44 Robo Captain by Masanji Corner
Entry #50 Claw Man by Edged
Entry #49 Jelly Man by Elegance
Entry #66 Noise Man by Jason Howell
Entry #69 Comet Man by Tim Taylor (Sprited by Jason Howell)
Entry #73 Cthulhu Man by Crossbill
Entry #92 ?Upa Man? by Muramo
Entry #97 Fairy Man by Bear
Entry #98 Rocket Booster by +A
Entry #104 Return of the Space Cowboy by Keigo
Entry #113 Tetra Blocker by +A
Entry #22 Snatch Man (Froggy Toad Wannabe) by hamao
Entry #120 Whale Man by Y.K
Entry #129 Sky Man by Iron Circle
Entry #139 Parasol and Umbrella Man by rock_root
Entry #159 Rainbow Man by Y.K
Entry #156 Cleonera by Purple Peach
Entry #99 Sashimi Man by Mackeral Man
Entry #168 Wash Man by Inoue
Entry #176 Teruteru Man by Lutheran
Entry #180 Balloon Man by honix
Entry #184 Starfish Man by Keigo
Entry #182 SOS Man by nami
Entry #198 Barnacle Man by Daichi Yo
Entry #201 "Marina Boy" by koudai
Entry #210 Gar Man and Sea Killer by rou
Entry #208 Storm Man by zoniken
Entry #209 Neptune Anchor by OM Fire
Entry #223 Levia Man by Muramo
Entry #232 Tact Man by zoniken
Entry #242 Tsunami Man by Thin Man
Entry #254 Electric Jellyfish Man by seek
Entry #255 Octo Man by Pippuppa
Entry #261 Robo Samurai by Kenichi Kisaragi
Entry #260 Assault Man by Muramo
Entry #271 Split Man by koudai
Entry #274 Cross Judge Man by Mokke
Entry #286 Plesiosaur Man by Daichi Yo
Entry #287 Volant Man and Inky Blinder by Inoue
p 133Entry #17 Nomad Man by Hollyhock
Entry #31 Panpuman (Pumpkin Man?) by Daichi Yo
Entry #45 Solid Man by Labarthe
Entry #46 Weather Man (Big Chicken) by Muramo
Entry #65 Steam Man by Fanewgie
Entry #82 Volt Man by AWD!
Entry #108 Shelling Satellite Twins (Heat Man lookalikes) by 774
Entry #115 Decker by Maria Jose
Entry #121 Valkyrie Woman by wata
Entry #126 Shuttle Man by ?Hey Wrench?
Entry #134 Mach Man by honix
Entry #145 ????? by hare
Entry #152 Apollo Man by Nuko
Entry #167 Flyin' Car and Mob Mob by OMFire
Entry #171 Hawk Man by rico
Entry #172 Analysis Man by rico
Entry #190 Mantis Man by zoniken
Entry #191 Wing Man by zoniken
Entry #196 Curse Man by (Cover Me?)
Entry #194 Aerial transport robot by koudai
Entry #206 Ghost Man by zoniken
Entry #225 Space Man by Y.K
Entry #239 Absorber Man by sulfer
KEY: 
p 134Entry #21 Rocket Man by Ya
Entry #47 Locust Man by Inoue
Entry #111 Aero Man by CAPkobun
Entry #130 Tetris Man by Cursed Bluto
Entry #122 Snow Man by Destruction
Entry #128 Delta Man by sankaku
Entry #132 Fight Man by Repliroid 20XX
Entry #135 Hydro Man by R3
Entry #152 Second Character (Plane) ???? by Nuko
Entry #190 Mantis Man by zoniken *AGAIN*
Entry #197 Vice Man by em
Entry #205 Cannon Man by zoniken
Entry #212 Yoyo Man by (Orange Rhinocerous????)
Entry #217 Satellite Man by 666
Entry #259 Glide Man by Daichi Yo
Entry #290 Bamboo Man by coshamine
p 135Entry #37 Crab Man by KEI
Entry #78 W-Shark by Nicolas Marzano
Entry #88 Screw Man by St. John
Entry #219 Dolphin Woman by Akehi
Entry #227 Krak Man by Itimatsu Itizou
Entry #229 "Manta Ray Type Robot" by Ruki
Entry #258 Vacuum Man by Daichi Yo
Entry #256 Sonar Man by Pippuppa
KEY: 
p 136Entry #83 Satellite Man by Elegance
Entry #90 Gold-Ringed Dragonfly Man by Muramo
Entry #109 "Bomber Man" by /J/
Entry #179 Crab Man by Kazuki
Entry #183 Abyss Man by Keigo
Entry #193 Moray House by nami
Entry #211 Hydro Man by Heaven's Road
Entry #246 Pilot Robo by tomo
Entry #257 Moon Man by Dinh
p 137Entry #161 Rumble Man by Keigo
KEY: 
back cover (entrant's illustration only, not Ariga-drawn)Entry #14 Lobster Man by em
Entry #18 Cream Man by ?Swaddling?
Entry #20 Monk Man by shosya
Entry #43 Honey Comb Man by sui
Entry #42 Peach Man by The Muzudon
Entry #50 Claw Man by Edged
Entry #66 Noise Man by Jason Howell
Entry #67 Mirror Man by Chris Hardy (Sprited by Jason Howell)
Entry #68 Paint Man by Billy Dicks (Sprited by Jason Howell)
Entry #79 Radio Man by AWD!
Entry #86 Coil Man by Brett
Entry #115 Decker by Maria Jose
Entry #143 Nameless [01 Blade Type] by Chrono
Entry #145 ????? by hare
Entry #156 Fishy Girl ??? by Purple Peach
Entry #163 Drink Man by TAC
Entry #168 Wash Man by Inoue
Entry #178 Sugegasa Man by Morikawa
Entry #181 M.O.B. by takeha
Entry #187 Brick Man by M.S. Corley
Entry #197 Vice Man by em
Entry #214 Farm Man by ?Serious Palace?
Entry #221 Tyrano Man by Ro Kumaji
Entry #286 Plesiosaur Man by Daichi Yo