Comic BomBom, Me, and Mega Man
Comic BomBom was a magazine I loved reading as a child, and it is also the magazine where I debuted as a manga artist. I learned many things there and held many feelings. However, at that time, I usually worked on games, so drawing manga for the main issue was rare. I mainly drew for special issues, but even then, I wasn't drawing every single one...
I once tweeted wondering, "Am I really allowed to call myself an ex-Comic BomBom manga artist?" Many people replied, "Ariga-sensei IS a Comic BomBom manga artist!" So now, I proudly state that I am an ex-Comic BomBom manga artist.
When I Was a Reader
As a reader, I was part of the early generation of Comic BomBom fans. I subscribed because I wanted to read Yamato Kouichi's Plamo Kyoshiro and the latest Gunpla articles. When I was in elementary school, I started biking all the way to Kaiyodo Gallery in Kayabacho because of a Comic BomBom article that listed new Kaiyodo products and included a map. The display windows were filled with Lupin III figures, giant Brontosaurus models, Godzilla monsters, and Ultraman kaiju. When I first tried to find the shop, an old lady nearby said, "Ah, you mean the monster shop," which remains a fond memory.
My love for looking at design sheets also stems from enjoying the robot anime feature pages in Comic BomBom.
The Aura Battler Dunbine and Heavy Metal L-Gaim manga by Ikebara Shigeto were beautifully drawn. I loved the massive amount of extra illustrations in the tankobon editions too. Later, when I went to assist Ikebara-sensei on his Mega Man manga, I was trembling. Ah, trembling love.
The impact of Kondo Kazuhisa's MS War Chronicles was also huge. When I later got the chance to draw a Mega Man manga, I told my editor, "If I can draw it, I want to do the 'MS War Chronicles' version of Mega Man."
"I Want to Draw the MS War Chronicles Version of Mega Man"
The person I spoke to was Yoneda-san, who handled my submission to Comic BomBom. He was the editor responsible for the Mega Man Encyclopedia Special, "The Birth of Mega Man," and "Mega Man Destruction Order." He had previously been Kondo Kazuhisa's editor. When I said, "I want to draw the 'MS War Chronicles' version of Mega Man," he smiled broadly and said, "Is that so. Finally, enough time has passed that readers from back then are bringing their own manga to Comic BomBom."
One of my earliest jobs at Comic BomBom, which determined my subsequent position and direction, was the Latest Edition Mega Man Encyclopedia.
Latest Edition Mega Man Encyclopedia, published in 1994
Having worked part-time at a game strategy guide editorial department in high school, and because Yoneda-san asked me, "Ariga-san, you said you liked Mega Man, right?", I ended up working on this book. I visited the editorial office and learned a lot. It really makes you realize how important it is to express what you like.
Creating the Latest Edition Mega Man Encyclopedia
First, I created rough layout drafts for the robot introduction pages, saying, "Something like this!" for each series.
For the game screenshots used in the text, I brought my own Famicom, Super Famicom, and Game Boy cartridges to the editorial office and borrowed their photography equipment. I aimed for cool boss scenes, entering passwords to reach later stages, and playing through to the boss fights myself to take photos. I think I spent several nights doing this.
If materials were missing, we made them ourselves. The Wily Mark, Light Mark, Cossack Mark, and Ruler Mark were newly created for this book based on my rough sketches referencing the game's pixel art, which I handed over to designers. For the Light Mark, I referenced the "RW Mark" prize sent by Capcom when I applied for the Mega Man 3 boss character contest.
I wanted to include Carddass cards as much as possible, squeezing them into the limited color pages. (This spirit was later shown in the Official Complete Works Mega Man and R20+5, where I packed Carddass tightly into the pages.)
While working like this, Yoneda-san told me, "You can make the end-of-book section however you like." So I planned "Evil Genius Dr. Wily's Introduction to Robots." After confirming the content with Yoneda-san and Capcom, that page was born.
"Evil Genius Dr. Wily's Introduction to Robots" (Currently included in the lower volume of the New Edition Mega Man Maniacs)
I drew these robots by imagining the structure and details omitted in the game. Capcom was pleased, saying, "It is very good that such details are depicted in media other than the game, as it expands the worldview."
What I drew here became the prototype for the later Mega Man Remixes and further Mega Man Megamix. Yoneda-san continued to handle me until the first episode, "Destruction Order."
From Remixes to Megamix
Around the time I was drawing "Metal Heart" for Mega Man Remixes in Comic BomBom specials, my editors changed to Yamamoto-san and Uezono-san. Yamamoto-san later handled THE BIG O for Magazine Z. With this team, we moved toward Mega Man Megamix. Everyone was young and passionate.
At that time, game comic adaptations relied mainly on game screens, in-game text, and instruction manuals. Sometimes those were the only references. We had to build the world and story up to a resolution readable as manga. Even if the original game was the same, different manga artists interpreted and outputted it differently. That was interesting.
In Comic BomBom at the time, there were multiple Mega Man manga artists handling monthly serializations, 4-koma, and one-shots. I was just one of them.
From the afterword of the New Edition Mega Man Megamix. I think Izutsuki Kozi-sensei's (@moonup777) Mega Man & Forte is a masterpiece of the boy robot hero genre...!
Drawing Parts Not Told in the Game
When I was drawing Mega Man Megamix for Comic BomBom, since I mostly published one-shots in special issues, Capcom often said, "We want to see parts not told in the game." Indeed, in my manga, Roll appeared quite regularly in scenes outside of combat.
Roll and the Light Numbers became semi-regulars as sibling machines
I considered creating an original character named "Piano" for the Wily base side specifically to depict parts not present in the game.
From the afterword of the New Edition Mega Man Megamix
However, I resisted using limited page counts for elements completely absent from the original game. On the Wily side, robots from past games were repaired and active, and Reggae was already there as a comedic relief. I wanted to prioritize depicting the robots that actually appear in the original games, so Piano never appeared.
Anyway, this was around 1996, so some of this might be my misunderstanding or faulty memory; the details are vague.
Immaturity and Passion in My 20s
When I was drawing Megamix, I was still in my early 20s. Looking back now, the art and composition are clumsy and immature. But regardless of that, there is a passion visible even now, perhaps especially now. Originally, I wanted to draw manga featuring boy robots as protagonists. And I wanted to deliver the feeling of thinking "So cool!" when I read Comic BomBom as an elementary student to the readers... That's why I submitted to Comic BomBom, and I'm glad I could draw there early in my career. The compatibility between me and Mega Man must have been good too.
Since I was drawing manga in between game production work, I didn't do monthly serializations and focused on special issues. In retrospect, this suited my pace for crafting stories and drawing.
Collage of sketchbooks from that time. Used for the center spread of Mega Man Remixes. Currently included in the upper volume of the New Edition Mega Man Maniacs.
Mega Man 10th Anniversary Grand Expo
A major memory as a Comic BomBom Mega Man manga artist is the "Mega Man 10th Anniversary Grand Expo." At the venue, there were skits with Mega Man mascots, GANASIA performed songs, and you could hear live vocals. There was probably a Mega Man exercise routine too. I took the stage as a Comic BomBom Mega Man manga artist. By the way, this event was my first meeting with Yoshihiro Iwamoto (@iwamoto_yoshi), who serialized Mega Man X. We later visited each other's studios and ate curry together. Since there were two events around the 10th anniversary, my memories of the contents might be mixed up.
Huge crowds of Mega Man fans gathered, with demo stations for new games, creating intense heat. Another unforgettable thing was a large arch made of application postcards summarizing 10 years of Mega Man history. Among them were postcards for Airman and Crashman.
Finding them, I asked a Capcom staff member backstage, "Those aren't they selected postcards!!" They smiled and said, "You found them. There are more, so try looking for them." But afterwards, I was drawing ongoing manga manuscripts backstage and couldn't go look for the other postcards.
About 10 years later.
When making the Mega Man Official Complete Works, I wanted to include those selected postcards next to the official illustrations. However, Capcom informed me, "Unfortunately, due to privacy protection, the postcards from that time are no longer kept." Those postcards in the arch were gone. This was quite a shock.
I should have slacked off on my manuscript during the 10th Anniversary Expo and looked for the other boss character postcards!
Mega Man 10-Year History Dictionary
Mega Man 10-Year History Dictionary, published in 1998
Another big job from my Comic BomBom era was this Mega Man 10-Year History Dictionary. Since the Latest Edition Mega Man Encyclopedia already existed, I didn't want to repeat the same thing. So, I structured it with half-page review comics introducing each title while including game info. Additionally, it featured a roundtable discussion with Inafune-san and Sato-san from Capcom, and Ikebara-sensei, Iwamoto-sensei, and me from Comic BomBom. Being a dictionary, I dedicated pages to robot introductions too. I thought hard about the structure and worked quite hard on this book. These review comics are currently included in color in the lower volume of the New Edition Mega Man Maniacs.
The designer I worked with on this book was Teizo Osaki-san, who would later collaborate with me for over 10 years on Yokai Torimonochou. We communicated intensely while making this book. He remembered my work, and when launching Yokai Torimonochou, he asked, "Ariga-san, won't you make a book with me?"
Yokai Torimonochou is currently published up to volume 21 as of 2026. It continues.
Looking back, Mega Man has pushed me forward many times and connected me to future work opportunities.
There is truly a lot to be grateful for.
You Made Them Too Tough!
Speaking of Mega Man from the Comic BomBom era, in Mega Man & Forte, three manga artists drawing Mega Man manga at the time designed boss characters. During this period, I frequently visited Capcom regarding Comic BomBom work.
Once, a development staff member for Mega Man & Forte said with a great smile, "The boss designed by Ariga-san is extremely tough, so please look forward to it!" ...I suddenly remembered this now.
You made them too tough!
Burner Man. Throws bear traps to restrict movement, and uses burners to push you into instant-death spikes at the screen edge. You can't deal significant damage unless you hit him with his weakness weapon effectively.
Dynamo Man. Rapid-fire spark shots up and down, homing missiles, full-screen attacks. When his health drops, charging units descend from the ceiling. Even if destroyed, new charging units descend repeatedly after a certain time.
The era when Comic BomBom and Capcom worked together to hype up Mega Man eventually came to an end.
When Mega Man Disappeared from Comic BomBom Pages
Afterwards, Mega Man manga in Comic BomBom ended one by one, and Mega Man ceased to be covered in the magazine. Online, it has become somewhat of a consensus that Shinichiro Ikeda, who returned as editor-in-chief, was the "root cause of Mega Man's withdrawal from Comic BomBom." However, seeing blame concentrated on one person feels like a trial in absentia, which bothers me slightly.
As someone who drew Mega Man manga for Comic BomBom and was relatively close to the situation, I believe a significant factor was a "misbuttoning" caused by lack of confirmation and assumptions between the editor-in-chief and Capcom. From what I saw and heard at the time, the project where three manga artists designed bosses for Mega Man & Forte was jointly advanced by Capcom and the Comic BomBom editorial department.
The Comic BomBom editorial department handled communication and scheduling with the manga artists, who designed the bosses while juggling serializations. Capcom implemented these designs into the game. The names of the three manga artists are credited in the game's ending. However, as far as I checked, the packaging, manual, and Capcom ads for Mega Man & Forte did not list Comic BomBom as a production collaborator, nor did they name the three manga artists. Also, in game magazines covering Mega Man & Forte, I don't recall any mentioning the three manga artists designing the bosses. The only medium I confirmed highlighting this was Comic BomBom itself. It wouldn't be strange for the editor-in-chief to feel, "We cooperated, what is going on?!"
Another major factor might have been the rollout of Mega Man DASH. Information on Mega Man DASH was prioritized in V Jump, and exclusive articles by Capcom were only published in V Jump. Capcom later explained, "Since the target audience differs from traditional Mega Man, we partnered with V Jump for distribution." Playing Mega Man DASH now, I understand that judgment. It is a work with a different atmosphere and gameplay, so targeting a different user base was natural.
But for those proud of having nurtured Mega Man in Comic BomBom, this might have felt like a betrayal. I heard Editor-in-Chief Ikeda was the one who secured Ikebara Shigeto to draw Mega Man manga for publication in Comic BomBom. With such deep attachment, the feeling would be stronger.
I speculate that the Mega Man DASH rollout was also a major reason Comic BomBom distanced itself from Mega Man. However, I never heard directly from Ikeda-san that "this was the deciding blow."
At least within my knowledge, it seemed that Capcom did not fully convey Ikeda-san's dissatisfaction, and the intent behind distributing Mega Man DASH via V Jump was not fully shared with the Comic BomBom editorial department. Rather than one side being entirely at fault, it seems both sides miscommunicated and misbuttoned. Of course, there may be stories I don't know.
I wasn't just watching from the outside either. The Mega Man Megamix I was progressing had received OK on the storyboard from both the editorial department and Capcom, and was ready to go, yet later I was told, "That was... cancelled for now." I was quite angry at the time, thinking, "We prepared and progressed this far!" (Though that storyboard was later finished as a manuscript and included in Volume 1 of the New Edition Mega Man Gigamix).
Still, I think it is wrong to place the sole responsibility and condemnation for Mega Man disappearing from Comic BomBom pages on one person. Including what I saw and heard at the time and what I've heard from related parties since, I want to write down what I know now.
Subsequent Mega Man Manga
Afterwards, Mega Man expanded primarily through Mega Man Battle Network in CoroCoro Comic and became a huge hit. I think this was ultimately very good for the series' future. Considering the game content and magazine nature, the combination of Battle Network and CoroCoro Comic fit well.
By the way, I later became friendly with Ryo Takasaki (@takamisakiryou) and Miho Asada (@asayanen), who drew Mega Man Battle Network manga for Shogakukan, visiting each other for fun.
Mega Man Turns 40 in 2027
And Mega Man will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2027. I am looking forward to the new title Mega Man: Dual Override!
Since bosses from past titles seem to appear, I might cry from nostalgia while playing.
Can't wait!
Note: This article is reconstructed from past tweets and posts. Events from long ago are written based on current memory. If anyone familiar with the time notices inaccuracies, please let me know.
