MegaMan Battle Network

[Max1996]

Will Archie ever make a adaption of this videogame series? It was a popular one, so what do you think?

[Penguin God]

It could be fairly fun and it seems to be a fairly frequent request, but unfortunately it's not an option that's pursuable for the immediate future. Viz Media still owns the rights to any Battle Network series adaptations, and don't seem to be giving said rights up any time soon. Neither Capcom nor Archie can force them to do so.

[Max1996]

It could be fairly fun and it seems to be a fairly frequent request, but unfortunately it's not an option that's pursuable for the immediate future. Viz Media still owns the rights to any Battle Network series adaptations, and don't seem to be giving said rights up any time soon. Neither Capcom nor Archie can force them to do so.

That's weird. When I looked up Viz Media on Wikipedia, MegaMan NT Warrior was on the list of "Formerly owned by Viz Media".
EDIT: It's actually in the list of "Formerly licensed anime".

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

If memory serves, Viz not only does the anime and manga, but they were also the ones who would handle licensing of the property out to other companies, such as Mattel.

So, in theory, it might be possible for Archie to license a comic book, since comics and manga seem to be considered different things, going by the Megamix/Gigamix releases by UDON (if you're going to argue the point, don't; this could be a good thing). But I think they might have to go through Viz in order to do so.

Or, perhaps worse, Viz and Capcom. And, just to throw more fuel on the fire, it's possible-- not definite, but possible-- that if Viz were the ones to be dealt with, it might not be Mega Man Battle Network, but MegaMan NT Warrior and all that comes with that name: TorchMan, Maylu, and among other things, "Chawed." *shudder*

Mind, this is just kind of a loose guess from my dealings in all this stuff. Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure that in some form or another, the BN timeline is considered a separate property, at least outside of Capcom's walls.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[Max1996]

If memory serves, Viz not only does the anime and manga, but they were also the ones who would handle licensing of the property out to other companies, such as Mattel.

So, in theory, it might be possible for Archie to license a comic book, since comics and manga seem to be considered different things, going by the Megamix/Gigamix releases by UDON (if you're going to argue the point, don't; this could be a good thing). But I think they might have to go through Viz in order to do so.

Or, perhaps worse, Viz and Capcom. And, just to throw more fuel on the fire, it's possible-- not definite, but possible-- that if Viz were the ones to be dealt with, it might not be Mega Man Battle Network, but MegaMan NT Warrior and all that comes with that name: TorchMan, Maylu, and among other things, "Chawed." *shudder*

Mind, this is just kind of a loose guess from my dealings in all this stuff. Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure that in some form or another, the BN timeline is considered a separate property, at least outside of Capcom's walls.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Yeah, those name changes are terrible. However, so far, only 1 is acceptable, which is Mayl -> Maylu. The rest are horrible. In fact, don't even get me started on NapalmMan -> MoltanicMan or AquaMan -> SpoutMan.

[Radz the Hedgehog]

Yeah, the red tape makes this a pipe-dream, but I would like to see an adaptation.

I didn't like the name changes for the dub, but I did like some aspects of the anime and wouldn't mind them being included.

[Mega Man Monthly]

Yeah, those name changes are terrible. However, so far, only 1 is acceptable, which is Mayl -> Maylu. The rest are horrible. In fact, don't even get me started on NapalmMan -> MoltanicMan or AquaMan -> SpoutMan.

The scariest thing about SpoutMan was that it bled over into the localization of Battle Network 6...

I agree with Mayl > Maylu because frankly, Mayl pronounced out loud just sounds awkward.

And, I agree that name changes like MoltanicMan are awful, but at least there's some logical reasoning behind why (i.e., censorship). I can at least feel slightly better about these. But we got a ton of name changes in Axess that were so random and unwarranted that it drives me bonkers. StarMan to NovaMan... ColdMan to FridgeMan... JunkMan to JunkDataMan... MetalMan to HeavyMetalMan... WindMan to WindBlastMan... PlantMan to VineMan... BeastMan to SavageMan... Why? WHY? Why did these names have to change?

[lalalei2001]

MetalMan to HeavyMetalMan

That one sounds kinda neat. XD

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

If memory serves, Viz not only does the anime and manga, but they were also the ones who would handle licensing of the property out to other companies, such as Mattel.

So, in theory, it might be possible for Archie to license a comic book, since comics and manga seem to be considered different things, going by the Megamix/Gigamix releases by UDON (if you're going to argue the point, don't; this could be a good thing). But I think they might have to go through Viz in order to do so.

Or, perhaps worse, Viz and Capcom. And, just to throw more fuel on the fire, it's possible-- not definite, but possible-- that if Viz were the ones to be dealt with, it might not be Mega Man Battle Network, but MegaMan NT Warrior and all that comes with that name: TorchMan, Maylu, and among other things, "Chawed." *shudder*

Mind, this is just kind of a loose guess from my dealings in all this stuff. Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure that in some form or another, the BN timeline is considered a separate property, at least outside of Capcom's walls.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Yeah, those name changes are terrible. However, so far, only 1 is acceptable, which is Mayl -> Maylu. The rest are horrible. In fact, don't even get me started on NapalmMan -> MoltanicMan or AquaMan -> SpoutMan.

Not even a fan of Maylu, either. As if things aren't trouble enough when characters have two names across both sides of the ocean, several of these guys now have three. Especially fun if you're performing searches! =P

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[GentlemanX]

I'm sure you guys that are more well versed in Mega Man are right, but do you mind giving me a link to when Viz got rights to everything related to Battle Network and Star Force? Or if it was said by someone else, where they said it?

Viz's site has three copyright claims for their Mega Man stuff: the copyrights for NT Warrior and Star Force both contain credits to ShoPro and TV Tokyo. ShoPro is the company Viz Media used to be, and TV Tokyo clearly indicates they're for the anime. The third copyright is another for NT Warrior, this one clearly for the manga as it features Ryo Takamisaki, the mangaka of Battle Network's manga adaptation. Interestingly, this copyright doesn't include ShoPro. I'm wondering if Viz's license is just ownership of Battle Network and Star Force's anime and retail products based on them rather than the brands as a whole.

Again, if I'm not completely in the know I wouldn't be surprised. I've seen like two minutes of NT Warrior back when it was on Kids WB and that's been my entire experience with the franchise. Please correct me, I'd love to learn more about the subject.

[Mega Man Monthly]

I've gotten into this before, and it gets really confusing, but lemme see if I can this right...

Xebec is an anime company. They actually create the Rockman EXE and Shooting Star Rockman anime.

TV Tokyo is simply the television station in which Rockman EXE and Shooting Star Rockman aired. I don't imagine they hold any special licensing rights. They probably just won the bid to get the shows for broadcast, much like how Kids' WB and Cartoon Network did the same in the US.

Shogakukan is a publishing company of manga and anime. They hold the publishing rights for Rockman EXE and Shooting Star Rockman. Which means they hold the rights to the manga, as well as the anime outside of its broadcast on TV Tokyo (i.e., DVDs).

In the US, a subsidiary of Shogakukan called ShoPro handled the licensing of these properties in the US. When Rockman EXE became MegaMan NT Warrior, ShoPro held the US license. In 2005, ShoPro merged with Viz Media, a company that licenses and publishes manga and anime in the US. Meaning as of 2005, Viz Media owns the publishing rights to the MegaMan NT Warrior and (later) Mega Man Star Force anime and manga.

Shogakukan happens to own Viz Media, meaning Viz Media is essentially the company that publishes Shogakukan's properties in the US. So in a nut-shell, the same companies own the rights to the anime and manga in Japan AND the US (and probably any other countries where they have branches).

My only guess on why there's so much red tape is that... perhaps... the licensing arrangement between Capcom and Shogakukan encompasses printed media in general, not just manga. If that's the case, this would explain why BN/SF were excluded from the Mega Man Tribute, and – from what I heard – special arrangements had to be made for UDON to localize the BN and SF Complete Works art books.

Now, I'm not expert in the matter at all, but this is what I've gathered by reading up on these companies in general on Wikipedia.

And assuming this all is true, that basically means the license has to expire before anyone else can get a piece of the BN/SF action.

But considering the state of the franchise and the fact that both of those series have definitive conclusions... There's no viable reason for any company to take a chance on those two (except Archie one day). I mean... I love BN as much as the next guy and would love to see Viz Media actually USE their license by, say... releasing Axess on DVD, or dubbing Stream, Beast, Beast+, the movie, and the rest of Star Force... But there's just not a strong demographic.

[GentlemanX]

I'm surprised at the amount of that I understood. I'm a big anime fan, so I know companies like Xebec, TV Tokyo, and Shogakukan by heart nowadays.

To add a couple of things, Japanese television broadcasters actually can have a bigger roles in the anime that play on the channel. According to ANN, TV Tokyo was involved in production of Mega Man NT Warrior alongside Xebec, NAS, and Shogakukan. This is similar to other big name anime on the channel such as Naruto or Bleach, both animated by Studio Pierrot. Interestingly, Star Force does not have the same designation, just broadcaster.

Shogakukan and Viz do have that relationship, though there are exceptions. One notable one is the very popular Detective Conan, which is published by in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine. The anime adaptation is licensed in North America by FUNimation Entertainment. Viz also publishes anime and manga from other companies besides Shogakukan as well, such as Shonen Jump series like Naruto and One Piece that are published by Shueisha.

And yeah, Viz used to be a pain when it comes to releasing their anime. If it didn't sell big numbers, it got dropped back in those days. Mega Man NT Warrior and Star Force were in a long line of other series that got cut off early such as Zatch Bell, The Prince of Tennis, MAR, Monster, and others. They've never even put a subbed version online like most of those got.

[Mega Man Monthly]

I'm not sure why you're surprised you understood that, because it sounds like you clearly have a better grasp on it than me!

I also hate how poorly Star Force was utilized. It actually had an extremely good dub. There were absolutely no cuts made, they were very consistent with the games (with the exception of Sonia Strumm becoming Sonia Sky), and the translation in general was very faithful. Yeah, the soundtrack got replaced which was a total bummer... But it was a solid dub.

But all it got was a single run on Toonami Jetstream (an online-only service) and then some odd Frankenstein'd "movie" on Cartoon Network, and then, bam. Over with 25 episodes, right before the best episode.

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I'm sure you guys that are more well versed in Mega Man are right, but do you mind giving me a link to when Viz got rights to everything related to Battle Network and Star Force? Or if it was said by someone else, where they said it?

Wow, you realize that kind of thing would be more than a decade old by now, right? Unless someone in the fandom archived it, that could be very, very difficult.

But all it got was a single run on Toonami Jetstream (an online-only service) and then some odd Frankenstein'd "movie" on Cartoon Network, and then, bam. Over with 25 episodes, right before the best episode.

I think it had a better run in the UK in some form. I know it even got a DVD release there! Shame they never released that here.

The whole of NT Warrior/Star Force outside of Japan is such a clusterfracas that I've practically washed my hands of the whole thing. If something happens that I can check it all out, preferably in a legitimate form, I'm all for it. Otherwise... bleh.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[Mega Man Monthly]

I think it had a better run in the UK in some form. I know it even got a DVD release there! Shame they never released that here.

I don't know about how it ran in the UK, but Manga Entertainment did release the 25 dubbed episodes on a single DVD in the UK. I happen to own it, and there are no extras at all. A total bummer too, because the staff credits on the back of the box give credit for the "Heart Wave" theme song (cut from the dub), which made me think it might have a subbed option. I even tried to rip the contents of the DVD to see if the original language track was hiding in there somewhere. No dice.

Interestingly enough, this is the ONLY region the anime got a DVD release in. It never even got released on DVD in Japan (even though all of EXE did).

The whole of NT Warrior/Star Force outside of Japan is such a clusterfracas that I've practically washed my hands of the whole thing. If something happens that I can check it all out, preferably in a legitimate form, I'm all for it. Otherwise... bleh.

Agreed. The franchise had SO much potential to be huge over here... and granted, NT Warrior did get pretty popular for a little bit, especially with the merchandising to go along with it. But then it just suddenly vanished without a trace. No warning, no signs. Kids' WB abruptly wrapped up its run of Axess, never aired the show again, no one picked it up after, and it was just... over.