Mega Man: Fully Charged

Mega Man: Fully Charged is an animated television series based on the Japanese video game series of the same name by Capcom, developed by Man of Action Studios and produced by Dentsu Entertainment USA, and DHX Studios Vancouver for Cartoon Network and Family Chrgd. The show draws primarily inspiration from the Classic series, rather than the other variations of the video game franchise such as Mega Man X or Mega Man Battle Network. It premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on August 5, 2018 with an on-demand release on August 3 with a full ten episodes. It is the third Mega Man TV series to air on Cartoon Network following MegaMan NT Warrior from 2003 and Mega Man Star Force from 2007.

Synopsis
The series follows Aki Light, an advanced robot who looks like and lives the routine of a human schoolboy. He was built by scientist Dr. Light as his son and lives with his biologically human sister Suna Light. They reside in Silicon City, a town co-inhabited by robots and humans rather peacefully, though is currently seeing new attacks from rogue robots (the Robot Masters of the franchise). Aki responds by transforming into "Mega Man" and battles to neutralize the threat and protect the civilians from harm. Allies to Mega Man include Mega Mini, a wise-cracking miniature robot who operates within his forehead, his pet Rush the robot dog, and Suna Light. Other characters include Sgt. Night, a war veteran who gives anti-robot speeches (though works with the rogue robots to reignite a human-robot war) and Bert Wily, a classmate and friend to Aki Light.

Main

 * Mega Man (voiced by Vincent Tong ) - The protagonist and hero of Silicon City. Aki Light is a robot boy with the ability to transform into Mega Man. He can fire energy blasts from his arm cannon and has the ability to replicate the schematics of other robots in order to copy their abilities while having the personalities of some of them as a side-effect.


 * Mega Mini (voiced by Ryan Beil) - Aki's sidekick of sorts who powers his armor and gives him his abilities. He occasionally pops out of his head to speak.


 * Suna Light (voiced by Caitlyn Bairstow) - Aki's human sister and ally. She is the one of the few who knows about Aki's double identity.


 * Dr. Thomas Light (voiced by Garry Chalk) - Aki's father and a supporter of human/robot relations. In "Panic in the Lighthouse," it is revealed that he has always known of his son's double identity which he makes Aki know of after using the Mega Key to heal Chaotique.


 * Rush - The Light family's robot dog. He eventually gets his own armor and becomes Mega Man's sidekick.

Supporting characters

 * Bert Wily (voiced by Cole Howard) - Aki's friend and ally. The episodes "Drilling Deep" and "A Split End" hints at his connection to Dr. Wily when Bert accidentally gets a similar hairstyle.


 * Peter Punkowski (voiced by Cole Howard) - A nerdy know-it-all at Silicon Central School.


 * Ashley Adderley (voiced by Shannon Chan-Kent) - An intellectual and sarcastic girl who Aki secretly has a crush on.


 * Jacques - A small toaster-themed robot at Silicon Central.


 * Principal 100100 (voiced by Brian Drummond) - A former battle robot the size of a building who is refashioned as the principal of Silicon Central School. During the Hard Age, Principal 100100 was a close ally and fellow soldier of Wood Man.


 * Good Guild - A police squadron who is charged with protecting Silicon City. Unfortunately, they aren't trained to handle the rogue Robot Masters and have to turn to Mega Man to help defeat them.

Villains

 * Lord Obsidian (voiced by Michael Adamthwaite) - The main antagonist of the series. Sgt. Breaker Night is a human who wants to destroy human/robot relations by persuading some robots into attacking humans. When out in public, he gives anti-robot rallies where he believes that humans and robots can't be together. In the past, Sgt. Night took part in a long-forgotten conflict called the Hard Wars where humans and robots fought each other. When he becomes Lord Obsidian, he is a powerful robot hellbent on wanting to turn Mega Man the perfect weapon for his own goals. In the season 1 finale after his defeat and his exposure as Lord Obsidian, Sgt. Night reveals that he wants to use the "Mega Key" to turn all robots into slaves. Sgt. Night is then arrested by the Good Guild along with most of his Robot Masters.


 * Namagem (voiced by Vincent Tong) - Sgt. Night's robot lieutenant who was created to be better than Mega Man. He wants to prove himself superior to his heroic counterpart by any means necessary. Unlike Mega Man, Namagem can copy up to five schematics at a time. In "The Gauntlet" Pt. II, it is revealed that he is Aki's long lost twin brother who was stolen by Sgt. Night when the Hard Age was ending. His true form is revealed when Sgt. Night is defeated. Having been broken by Sgt. Night, Namagem takes his leave vowing revenge.


 * Hoover Gang - The Hoover Gang are a trio of criminals that consist of two humans and one robot. They used to work as custodians before turning to a life of crime.
 * Wayne (voiced by Ryan Beil) - Member of the Hoover Gang.
 * Duane (voiced by Michael Adamthwaite) - Member of the Hoover Gang.
 * Vacuhead - An unnamed robot who is a member of the Hoover Gang. He has a tank on his back and a window scrubber for a left hand.


 * Chaotique (voiced by Rhona Rees) - A prankster robot with skates that allow her to move at super-speed. She claimed to know Mega Man's true identity in the episode Old School, but it turns out that she had mistakenly believed Peter Punkowski to be Mega Man's secret identity, she was proven wrong in the episode "Old School" at the time when she tried to recreate "The Big Fade Away" prank.

Robot Masters
The following Robot Masters in this series are listed in order of appearance:


 * Fire Man (voiced by Ian Hanlin) - A former welding bot who turns against humanity after he is fired. He has become loyal to Lord Obsidian.


 * Drill Man (voiced by Andrew McNee) - A construction robot frustrated with being forced into the family business upon it being bought by Skyraisers Inc. when he wanted to be a musician.


 * Hypno Woman (voiced by Kathleen Barr) - A former school counselor robot at Silicon Central with hypnotic mind control powers who left her job after being overwhelmed with solving the students' problems. She has a human disguise named Mari and wishes to become more domesticated.


 * Wave Man (voiced by Samuel Vincent) - A former sewer sanitation robot who floods the city for his missing alligator friend.


 * Ice Man (voiced by Travis Turner) - A misinformed robot with ice-based abilities who wants to be a hero just like Mega Man. Due to a bug in his system, he takes everything too literally. Unlike other incarnations of the character, Ice Man wears a normal jacket along with a small winter hat instead of a parka, leaving his snow-white hair visible.


 * Blasto Woman (voiced by Kathleen Barr) - A jet aircraft-themed robot and former cargo delivery robot who is after money and will take up any contract. She later takes a liking to Mega Mini. In "The Gauntlet" Pt. 2, Blasto Woman is persuaded by Mega Mini to turn against Lord Obsidian.


 * Air Man (voiced by Ian Hanlin) - A vain fan-powered robot who considers himself to be the best at everything. In this show, Air Man more resembles Wind Man since he has fans on poles connected to his back instead of a fan-shaped torso. The fans on his shoulders help him fly in the air and the fan for his right hand can cause tornadoes. In "The Bluster Bunch," it is revealed that his arrogance hides his insecurity from his siblings constantly boasting about their successful accomplishments and belittling him.


 * Chemistry Man (voiced by Peter New) - Mr. NRT is a former chemistry teacher at Silicon Central who was fired by Principal 100100 for his boring lectures putting his students to sleep. Sgt. Breaker Night persuades him to go rogue and gave him the name of Chemistry Man. He can emit bubbles that can affect the respectful systems of both humans and robots as well as being adept at making chemical compounds. Mr. NRT's name is a pun on "inert."


 * Guts Man (voiced by Peter New in a Russian accent) - A garbage-disposal robot with super strength. He can create shock waves by slamming his hands on his robotic stomach and can also grow larger and more powerful upon eating garbage. In later episodes, it is revealed he can eat both organic and inorganic mater, not just garbage to get a power up.


 * Elec Man (voiced by Andrew McNee) - A hyperactive electrical robot who can move at super speed and absorb and blast electricity from his giant plug for a left hand. Similar to the version seen in MegaMan: NT Warrior, Elec Man has surge arresters on his back.


 * Wood Man (voiced by Mark Oliver) - A former soldier in the Hard Age who eventually comes to grips with the fact the war is over. He was also a close ally and fellow soldier of Principal 100100 during the Hard Age. After being persuaded to stop attacking by Mega Man, Wood Man leaves for the forest where he becomes a historian for the tourists that visit his forest.


 * Junk Man - A remote-controlled robot created by Aki and Suna to act as a practice robot for Rush to fight. Junk Man was later upgraded by Dr. Light to help guard his laboratory.


 * Cut Man (voiced by Colin Murdock) - Chauncey is a gardener and robot perfectionist with a bowl cut-shaped head who can get easily agitated if his work is messed up due to his faulty programming. He gets depressed after Aki and Bert accidentally destroy his bonsai plant. Chauncey is approached by Lord Obsidian who upgrades him into Cut Man where he sports scissor blades at the top of his head that can also be adjusted for flight. As Cut Man, he can launch Cut Blades from his wrist. Mega Man had a hard time scanning his schematics due to Cut Man being fast. When his bonsai plant is patched up by Suna, Cut Man stops his attacks. He went back to being a villain in "A Split End" when he snapped at customer's split end complaint at his new hairstylist gig. During his perfection battle with Mega Man who recently copied Cut Man's schematics, Cut Man was pulled into the sewers by Namagen who was sent by Sgt. Night to withdraw him.

Other characters

 * Man Man (voiced by Ian Hanlin) - An average man with a poorly constructed outfit who wants to be a hero like Mega Man. His costume is based on the "Bad Box Art Mega Man" from the infamous North American cover of the original game.


 * Bluster Bunch - A trio of air-themed robots that are the siblings of Air Man where they are similar in design, ability, and personality except for some cosmetic differences.
 * Mary Flair (voiced by Michael Adamthwaite) - Air Man's sister who works as an "award-winning special effects artist/director/writer extraordinaire" for weather disaster films. Her fans are a different shape than Air Man's fans.
 * Volt Aire (voiced by Ian Hanlin) - Air Man's brother who is an inventor and engineer. Volt Aire does not have fans like Air Man. His name is a pun on the French philosopher Voltaire.
 * Captain Dare (voiced by Ian Hanlin) - Air Man's brother who is a stunt pilot and has a single rocket thruster instead of fans.


 * Mrs. CHO (voiced by Lauren Jackson) - A heavyset chemical-themed robot who is the replacement chemistry teacher at Silicon Central School. Her bright attitude and chemical powers resemble her to Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6: The Series.


 * Hal (voiced by Brian Drummond) - An elderly robot who invented the Excitron 2000. In his youth, he pulled off the biggest prank at Silicon Central School called "The Big Fade Away."


 * Drill Man Senior (voiced by Andrew McNee) - The father of Drill Man who dragged him into the family business.

Production and development
On June 2, 2015, Capcom partnered with Dentsu Entertainment USA to create a 26-episode animated television series of the company's flagship Mega Man video game franchise after 20 years since the 1994 animated series of the same name had its final run. Under terms of the deal, Dentsu Entertainment holds worldwide broadcast and licensing rights for all aspects of the new Mega Man TV series and handpicks American writing team Man of Action (Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steven T. Seagle), the creators of Ben 10 and Generator Rex, to create, write and executive produce the show.

At the Long Beach Comic Con 2015, Duncan Rouleau gave out more details regarding the show's combination of game-based and new material such as the backstories of some characters being different with "a few surprises," creating both new major and minor villains other than Dr. Wily and the Robot Masters and including Easter eggs for fans, while still focusing the show for a new audience. Man of Action also noted they've been working closely with Dentsu Entertainment and Capcom, trying to write stories that will appeal more to western audiences. They also confirmed that the art-style would be much closer to how the characters appear in the games and Capcom's official art rather than the more superhero-like designs of the 1994 cartoon, as noted by Rouleau regarding the visual appearance of Mega Man himself "The Mega Man that you knew and fell in love with is still going to be the same Mega Man. He's going to be the younger version of him, because there are so many variations of who he could be, but we're going with the total, squat, awesome, big-boot, big-gun Mega Man".

On May 26, 2016, DHX Media announced that they would be co-producing the series with Dentsu, as well as handling distribution and licensing for it outside of Asia. An image of the first iteration of the show's design for Mega Man was released alongside the announcement. Later that year, Nerdist conducted an interview with the Man of Action creative crew, where it was said that Mega Man would be "optimistic" in this series, with the show's visual aesthetic drawn by Rouleau in conjunction with Capcom with inspiration by older anime shows like Gigantor and Speed Racer. The outlet initially reported that the series would air on Disney XD, but that was later retracted with Dentsu stating a broadcast on the channel was never confirmed. In late January 2017, footage from an incarnation of the series with the same design leaked through a demo reel posted by animation studio Film Roman. This was later removed, with a representative from Dentsu Entertainment describing it as an internal animation test not reflective of the show's current look.

On April 3, 2017, Dentsu and DHX announced that the series was delayed to 2018 and would premiere on Cartoon Network in the United States and Family Chrgd in Canada. It was then revealed that the series would be animated by DHX Studios Vancouver, utilizing computer generated imagery with a heavily revised Mega Man design from before. The next month, Jakks Pacific signed on to produce toys based on the series.

At the 2018 Licensing Expo, DHX Media's promotion for the series listed the series under the new title Mega Man: Fully Charged. The show held its premiere at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con on July 20. The series officially debuted on television in the United States on August 5, 2018, with the first 10 episodes available through on-demand platforms on August 3. Reruns began airing on Boomerang in the United States on August 12. The series was removed from both channels' schedules after 10 weeks, though it eventually returned the following January. The Canadian Family Chrgd broadcast began on September 8, 2018. It premiered on Pop in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2018.