Mega Man X Sound Box
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Album Title: Mega Man X Sound Box (Rockman X Sound Box) |
| Record Label: Suleputer |
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| Catalog No.: CPCA-10324/35 |
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| Release Date: December 18, 2013 |
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| Purchase: Buy at CD Japan |
Commentary
Takekuni Uchida – Album Producer & Publicist
Hello everyone. I’m Takekuni Uchida from Capcom. For this occasion, I’d like to thank you for having bought the Rockman X Sound Box.
As all the fans that bought this CD-Box should know already, Mega Man was created with the release of the first game in the series on December 17, 1987, while the new version of the series we know as Mega Man X made its first appearance on December 17, 1993. So in other words, the release of this box in the year 2013 commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the Mega Man series. Were it a person, one would say we’re holding a coming-of-age ceremony.
It is especially meaningful to us that the soundtracks for Mega Man Xtreme and Mega Man Xtreme 2 were included in this ultimate CD-box and played in the original sound font. After all, it was the voices of everyone requesting such soundtracks from us that led directly to the creation of this product; I’m truly grateful to to you for speaking up.
I think game music is truly wonderful due to its ability to allow listeners to instantly recall the memories and feelings associated with the places where they first heard the tracks played in the games. The series has its very famous pieces remembered by everyone. But no matter where they heard these songs first, each person is bound to have different feelings and memories from the times they played these games, as well as from the games themselves.
If you do me the favor of listening to the Rockman X Sound Box, I’ll be happy to extremes that you can’t even imagine. You have bought “memories that can be brought back whenever you wish”.
…Phew. I wonder why I felt such a great pressure come over myself when I was given the order of “Please, write the preface to the booklet”. But I also feel honored to have been given such an important task as is contributing to the liner notes. As I did my best to write some strong lines, if at least one person thinks “Uchii is great even at this!” upon reading them, it’ll have been worth writing them.
Profile: Capcom Co., Ltd Producer, Member of the PR Support Team.
He’s a “jack of all trades” that has worked by himself in movie planning, photography, and editing (and occasional acting). He is also the man who established the official Rockman official community site “Rockman Infinity”, under the pretext of “Let’s make something interesting that gathers everything Rockman!”, and he also personally manages the site. The man is the so-called “employee who does startling things” himself, and his motto is “I’ll do anything from making movies to cleaning the frost in refrigerators!”
Favorite character: X. It was obvious I’d say “X” here! He’s a robot that’s capable of suffering, being sad or troubled, and who always wonders about his origins and the reason for his existence. He’s quite charming! Aside of our protagonist, I’m also charmed by the Old Robot that appeared in “X2”, which allowed to deepen further the world setting of the franchise.
Setsuo Yamamoto – Composer (Mega Man X)
When I was requested to write these comments, I kind of thought “Huh? Didn’t I already write something like this?” But then again, it’s been already ten years since I took part on commenting on the music that went into the CDs for the Rockman X1 to X6 collection… SETSUO here, who’s still astonished about how quickly this month is going by. Sorry for not getting in contact with you for so long.
When I used to be a twenty-something young man, it was typical that whenever I asked myself “What should I write?”, at that precise time someone would ask me “Setsuo-san, what kind of piece are you going to write?”. Indeed, no one would ever know what kind of piece I was going to write. But now, I’m writing these lines as a member of the Mega Man X sound staff.
I think I was appointed to work on Mega Man X during my fifth month working at the company, but until I completed the pieces for all eight stages during that summer, I had to work hard in order to have ready all of the songs that we were needing at the time for all sorts of in-game situations (such as the boss battle theme or the stage select song).
As I suffered from a severe lack of time, my senior by a year Satomura-san (Yuki Iwai) took care of the theme for the snowy mountain; my same-year colleague Kadota-san (Yuko Takehara) made the tower theme; my senior by a year Makoto Tomozawa-kun wrote the airport music; and similarly, my senior by a year Toshihiko Horiyama-kun composed the music for the password input screen, so they all helped me by each writing a song themselves.
I explained to them the appropriate concepts I had envisioned for these particular songs, and they all came up with their melodies on their own. This goes especially true for Tomozawa-kun’s track, as I ended getting so obsessed with it due to it representing Mega Man X just as I imagined it, that I just had to request him to make another song for the game: this time, for the power plant. It was so great and stimulating. As for the rest of the songs, I composed them all. If we count them, they’d go up at least to 28 tracks in total. But since I didn’t work alone on the game, it might feel like there’s a good amount of variety between the themes here.
And since we’re talking about music right now, the one that got the most important role among us all was my same-year colleague Tadashi Joukagi-kun, who was appointed as the sound designer. As we didn’t have much memory space to work with, I prepared the songs I made with the sound fonts I wished to employ in them. At the time, I was going along with my own whims, so I proposed to use some really wonderful sound fonts I had ready. So we tried checking for a long time if we’d be able to do it or not, and then why we couldn’t do it, for so long that we even went over our deadline.
The hardware could only handle playing a max of eight sound channels at the same time, so this meant we had to keep on mind that these channels would be used not only by the music, but also by all the other sounds in the game. Due to that, I had a very scrupulous discussion on it with the designer, in which we both were pretty fussy about all the things we had to prioritize. However, I still remember it was pretty fun. I really want to thank all the members of the composing staff as well as Joukagi-kun for all these experiences.
And it’s been twenty years since then… all the fans that still continue support X with their love are very merry folks. And I’m pretty proud of myself for being related to such a series of games as X. Thank you all for everything. I hope we can continue always depending on each other.
Profile: SETSUO is the alias of Setsuo Yamamoto. He has been working for Capcom for quite a long time, as this is his 21st year at the company. Currently, he is working behind the scenes as something similar to a supporter for the creators. He says his advisory role is a bit like “having made Mega Man X during elementary school”, which makes him happy in a certain sense.
Favorite Character: Come on, are you really asking me this? It might be obvious to everyone, but it’s Zero. As he is the character that advances, leaving behind the protagonist for a reason or other, he’s pretty cool. The sole fact that he was brought back to life is enough proof that he’s quite popular. The song that can be heard during his appearances, as well as in the scene after his death, is pretty short, but I really love it.
Kinuyo Yamashita – Composer (Mega Man X3)
I had the opportunity of participating on this series in Mega Man X3. When I was still working as a freelance composer back in 1995, I was requested to compose music for this SFC game through an acquaintance of mine and ended up taking part on its development. I still remember I was very happy about that happening, and I said “I’m going to make music for Mega Man!” all the time.
For the composition of all the music in the game, I used a SFC emulator in order to make sure the data I was making would sound exactly the same as I envisioned it when played back by the SFC’s hardware. I also made the timbres (imitating the sounds of instruments such as guitar and bass) and samples I needed in order to make these pieces. As the samples didn’t sound quite like the close replicas of live instruments we have nowadays, I wasn’t sure how much I’d be able to improve the sounds played back by the SFC. I had to arrange them in a way that they gave the richest sound, while using the lowest number of sounds possible at the same time, so there was lots of trial and error involved in their making.
I received a lot of questions to my approach at the time, such as “Why did you think about giving these melodies so much of a rock flavor?”. I didn’t actually take the decision of making all the pieces into rock songs, but rather made them according to the hunches I had, where a certain type of song would be the most fitting for each place and each character. From looking at the screenshots and reading the structure of the game, I gained a certain feeling about each part of the game, which then I used to compose each track. And in order to grasp correctly these images, I listened to the tracks of the game that was the starting point of everything: the original Mega Man on the Famicom, and used them as a reference.
The songs of Mega Man X3 were originally released in the SFC back in 1995. But now they have been released again as part of the soundtrack CD box that was released to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Mega Man X series, they will be able to reach everyone out there,. This makes me really makes me happy.
Profile: After being employed by the Konami Corporation, she started working as game music composer and sound effect maker, as well as being involved in the creation of their sound programming. Later on, she became an independent composer who has worked on several games and has also tried at being a producer. Some of her most representative works are Castlevania, Esper Dream, Mega Man X3, Power
Favorite Character: Among the characters from X3, my favorite would be Zero. I don’t really have many reasons to say why: it’s just that he’s “cool” to me. The song that plays whenever he appears, alongside with his personality, was what allowed me to make a cool song that gave a great impact to the player for the intro♪
Toshihiko Horiyama – Composer (Mega Man X4)
It was fall of 1996. The first song I composed right after I entered the Mega Man X4’s development team was X’s theme song: the same one that can be heard in the opening stage. Right after I finished it, I got very positive critiques from the rest of the team members. Having felt their reactions deep within myself, I continued by making more songs… except with thinner melodies.
The themes I originally wrote for the jungle stage and the cloud stage are good examples. Why did I make songs for them with such thin melodies? I can only say I did it because that was the feeling I had at the time. And well, I ended up making a similar thin song for Zero’s version of the opening stage too. And thus one day, I was called by an enraged Inafune-san, who was the man in charge of development for the Mega Man series as the time, who told me “Why are these songs so lacking in melodies? Make melodies, make them!” So I had no choice but to make them again from the beginning, among them the version of Zero’s song that was recorded on this CD box.
It’s been around ten years already since I last tried listening to the Mega Man X4 songs, but they are all truly strong themes. They aren’t passionate: they are strong. It was a sensation I had completely forgotten about. Especially the final Sigma song: it’s the northernmost extreme of strength. Surely it’s because I made it while being so nervous: it has a tremendously dissonant sound to it, but there is no mistake that when I made it, I was intently banging on the keyboard without thinking of anything else.
And now I think about it, there’s the very important fact that we’re getting tracks that were made so long ago being remastered and re-released. And creating games is never limited to such things, as that means that no matter if it was ten or twenty years ago: we still continue creating games and music because you all love them. These feelings have only reaffirmed themselves on this fall of 2013.
Profile: Aside from Mega Man X, he has also worked in other related series such as Zero, Legends, and Battle Network. The last Mega Man-related product in which he worked was for the PSP game Mega Man Powered Up. Unlike in Mega Man X4, he was allowed to freely use sound libraries for the music of Mega Man Powered Up. His favorite food is tonkatsu. His favorite famous rock album is Marillion’s Brave, and his favorite rock musician is Keith Emerson
Favorite Character: My favorite character is Sigma. I don’t mean to say he was my favorite from the beginning, but upon listening again to the Mega Man X4 themes for this occasion, I ended liking him a lot. These dissonant sounds really are Sigma’s divine revelation. I recall that his favorite phrase was “This is the end!”…
Naoto Tanaka – Composer (Mega Man X5, X6, X7, X8)
The games of the Mega Man X series in which I took part were the four that went from X5 to X8, so I think this is the first time ever I’ve been able to talk about these games while comparing them. Because of this, I thought I’d write about the sound equipment I used during the times I recorded these songs and how they changed as time went on. I’m aware this is something of a topic that would interest only enthusiasts, but I’m sure there is someone out there that wants to know about this. Well then, let’s hurry and begin…
For Mega Man X5, I always kept the synthesized sounds from its direct predecessor Mega Man X4 and the guitar sounds from the forefather of the series Mega Man X in mind. I mainly used the standard synthesizer JV-1080. For the guitar, I used the output of a SC-88VL, to which I added distortions through an effector. I tried several effectors in order to find out which one would be the best for this, but in the end, I got a better mix balancer out from using ZOOM’s March Effector over the ones I got with the Pod that was so in vogue back in the time among the synthesized sounds. For the drums, I also used the standard Alesis DM5.
From Mega Man X6 onwards, I began bringing in samplers. And these weren’t merely Akai or Roland ones: rather, I chose to use the Yamaha A4000. I felt it was the most cutting-edge sampler both in looks and performance that was available back then (though this a minor influence on choosing it). For the guitar library, I used the STEVE STEVENS one. As I didn’t really have much of a choice at the time, I used an iron plate sound font. For the drums, the ones I used for the music were separated in loops from live-recorded drums as a recycling method that matched the music’s tempo, and in a sound font of electronic-type drums from Korg called Electribe ES-1.
In Mega Man X7, I used samplings even more actively than before. My style of work for this time was more technically accomplished, as it consisted of dividing and exchanging motif units composed of the wave forms used as material for the guitar phrases. S by editing them with the nuances of their original live performances and adding to them a digital taste, I could give to all the pieces a uniform sound.
For Mega Man X8, I frankly went straight to rock since the music had to match the game concept, which was a return to the origins. From this point on, it was quite natural for everyone to only use the DAW software sound fonts for the creation of music. For the samplers, I also began using the software from Kontakt, and I used the VSL Overdrive for the guitar libraries, to which I added the Amplitube amplifier simulator. The drums were taken from the Drumkit from Hell, and bass was taken from Trilogy, both of which I selected because they matched the focus on rock.
…And now I’ve written all this, I’m feeling on the mood to go buy some new samples and equipment.
Profile: Began working as a game music creator in 1996. He has worked as a composer in the X5, X6, X7, and X8 entries of the Mega Man X series. He has also worked in the Ace Attorney series. In these titles, he has been credited under the alias Akemi Kimura. He began working for Platinum Games back in 2007, and helped with the composition of the music for the games MadWorld and Anarchy Reigns. His most recent work is as the music director for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
Favorite Character: I feel in on a minority camp with this, but the character that left the greatest impression on me was Lumine from Mega Man X8. He was quite a new story development that broke up the promised pattern of “the last boss is Sigma” the series always had. I want to express and push on my respects for the director due to having such a mentality to face challenges head on!
Yuko Komiyama – Composer (Mega Man X7, X8, Command Mission)
Congratulations on the Mega Man X series reaching its twentieth anniversary! I participated as a composer in the games X7, X8, and Command Mission. As Mega Man X7 was the first game in which I took part in right after I began working for the company, the theme that was used for the PV of the game during the Tokyo Game Show, “Awake Road Again – Highway Stage”, was also the first piece of music I made after I started working at Capcom. As I was still an inexperienced new employee, to the point in which I came late everyday and I even had to go work during holidays, this was a track that took me over three weeks (how long!) to make.
In Mega Man X8, since it was the first I game in which I was the main composer for the BGM, I incorporated guitar sounds that would strengthen the rock elements of the music. However, as I don’t play guitar, I had to make almost all of the guitar sounds through MIDIs. I could do it back then because I was young, but I can’t do that anymore. (*laughs*)
For Mega Man X: Command Mission, Okada-kun was the main composer while I only helped by contributing a few tracks of my own. But while his music was cool enough to take away my breath, I had to work quite a bit to make sure my pieces didn’t stray far away from the tone of the rest of the game. One of my favorite pieces is “Fight! X” by Okada-kun.
I put all my heart into making my compositions carry a certain concept regardless of what kind of piece or game I’m making, and for this game, I decided that I wanted to express X’s feelings. He doesn’t want to fight against the Reploids, but he doesn’t have a choice than to do it to put a stop to the current situation. I tried to express these complex emotions, while also adding to it the enthusiasm that’s also present when playing as Zero and Axl. As I enthusiastically made them thanks to the nice comments I got from everyone in the staff, it’s just natural the pieces would be enthusiastic themselves.
Now I look back on them, the X games are a precious series of games that allowed me to continue growing. And I still love Mega Man X. As I’m personally a bit worried about what happened to Axl after X8, I’d be really glad if someday they decide to make a sequel to it. I’m really happy that such a premium album collection has been made, and that my own works were included in it. I think I’ll take advantage of the chance to listen to them and reminisce about how skilfully we made the “X” world.
Profile: After graduating with a Major in Musical Creation and Performance from the Music School of the Soai University, she began working at Capcom in 2002. After she participated in the X7, X8, and Command Mission instalments of the Mega Man X series, she worked as the composer and musical supervisor of the Monster Hunter series, from Monster Hunter Freedom to Monster Hunter 3 (tri-). Later on, she was also involved as the musical supervisor for the events and concept CDs related to the Monster Hunter series. She left Capcom in 2010, and currently works as a freelancer that composes music for TV shows and CMs.
Favorite Character: My favorite character is Bamboo Pandemonium from Mega Man X8. X8 is also the game that has the bosses with the names I like the most, so even now I end up having this guy’s name suddenly pop up inside my head.
Shinya Okada – Composer (Mega Man X7, X8, Command Mission, Maverick Hunter X)
Congratulations on this twentieth anniversary! I’m really happy about it! The first title in the series in which I worked was Mega Man X7 right after I joined Capcom. I still have very deep memories of us being committed to creating something that inherited the world setting of a franchise with such a long history as Mega Man, while also trying to continue making it evolve.
Despite the fact that the series has its roots on the “rock” genre, it involved quite a lot of suffering to me because I don’t play guitar… And thus, the first song I completed for it was “Combination~vs Mega Scorpio”. The second one I made was the song you should be hearing the most in the game proper: “Stage Select 1”. I think it should be very memorable to everyone out there because of how catchy I made it (*laughs*).
And later on, I was appointed to be the main composer for the first time ever in Mega Man X: Command Mission. As this was the first RPG ever made for the Mega Man series, I had to make a number of decisions regarding the music: to keep in mind the drama of the Irregular Hunters, to imagine the “rock” that served as the root genre for the series as club music, and to depict the musicality of the entire series as a straight line! By leaning in the direction of club music and structuring the main rhythm sections with that style, I was able to make dramatic songs made with striking melodies and harmonies. Though it was quite a pain too…
I also thought that since it was an RPG, it needed a main theme that would stand out against any other track. And thus, the track I completed under that mindset was “Fight! X”. I also made it as a theme song for the eponymous character, though I also made it rather short so it would remain in the ears of the listeners during a battle. And thus it has become a title crammed with all sorts of memories of me fumbling around as I made its melodies!
I also made a guest appearance in Mega Man X8, and I also arranged the song “Armor Armage Stage” for Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X. In addition to these, I have many more memories of the youthful days I put in the X series. If you can sink into your memories as you listen to these songs, I’ll be really happy!
Profile: Began working for Capcom in 2002. He has worked as a composer in games such as the Mega Man series, Monster Hunter 2 (dos), and Demento, and has also taken part in several games as a sound director and sound manager. His latest work is Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen.
Favorite Character: Zero. While he might just be a beta model, he’s so cool! He’s such a lovable character, even though he’s such a pained guy that had gone through a past filled with so many hardships! He’s the best co-star ever, as he’s been so active despite these being stories where X is the main character. It’s because I love supporting characters more than the main ones! (*laughs*)
Kento Hasegawa – Composer (Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X)
Thank you very much for having bought the commemorative soundtrack box we released in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Mega Man X series. Maverick Hunter X was the first game in which I took part as the main composer, so I have lots of memories of it, which are both fun and painful.
What left the greatest impression on me was working on the special long version of the clear movie. When I began clashing ideas with the supervisor of the movie cutscenes, I was told we’d need over 20 songs in order to cover the entire game. However, I felt at a loss as to how to tie these 20 songs to more than 30 minutes of movies in a way that didn’t feel awkward or weird.
I had to revise the BGM several times in order to make sure that they matched and connected well with the scenes where they play, especially the tempo. In fact, this was to the point in which I was composing to the last minute: the morning of the day of the MA. This was the very first important experience I had during my career as a sound maker, so I still remember it as if it was yesterday.
It’s already been nearly ten years since it was released, so I’m truly glad that this soundtrack finally had found its way to your hands. Therefore, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to all the members of the creative staff that worked alongside me, to all the players that played through the game, and finally, to the precious members of my family. If you continue listening to these songs forever, I’ll be really happy.
Profile: After graduating from the Economics School of the Kwansei Gakuin University and spending some time in a vocational school, he began working for Capcom in 2003. After he left Capcom, he began working as a freelancer, and he is currently employed to Designwave Co., Ltd. He has participated in games such as Devil May Cry 3, Resident Evil: Outbreak, and El Shaddai.
Favorite Character: Zero. I have only participated in one of the games in the series, but the excellent timing in which he made his appearance really rose my tension levels. On the other hand, you can feel a lot of manliness and gallantry when he leaves.
Mitsuhiko Takano – Composer (Mega Man Xtreme 2)
To all the Mega Man fans, it’s been quite a long while since we last communicated, isn’t it? I’m Mitsuhiko Takano. Whoa, the Mega Man X series has been around for 20 years already!? Oh dear, how time flies! It’s been already over twelve years since I was tasked with making the music for Mega Man Xtreme 2. Twelve years. At the time, I was mostly tasked with working on games for Arcade, but since I wanted to work so much on a Mega Man game, I had to beg to the sound leader of the branch dedicated to console games in order to be allowed to work on it. I told him “Please, let me work on it!”
Mega Man X used straight rock music for its BGM, while in Mega Man X2 they progressed to using chords that would make anyone question if they weren’t leaning more toward progressive rock and in Mega Man X3 they went for a more melodious and catchy feeling that I really liked. I was always troubled while I worked on Xtreme 2, as I constantly wondered if I should be trying to mix up these styles like this. While it was unavoidable for that to happen, since I played the X series games a lot, it was pretty fun at times too. And it was in this way that I settled down with the concept I used for it, which was “a sound similar to the many themes of the X series being played by a single band!”
The first thing I decided was on the richness of the sound, which I thought should be fittingly as rich as possible. As the sine waves (of which the bass parts were the main ones used in the BGM) that gave the characteristic sound to the Game Boy’s sound source couldn’t be changed, I wanted to make the bass much more audible for Xtreme 2. By reducing the volume of the rectangular waves and noises more than that of the sine waves, the final result was that the bass was made much louder! Or at least I made the music so it has such a sound. At the time of writing these lines, I still haven’t heard the sound source used for the soundtrack version, but unless they reduced the volume of the bass during the mastering, the aggression of the low sounds should come across.
Next, I’ve got to explain about the band part. I intended to put in band-like parts that were similar to shamelessly stealing guitar and bass slides. As I liked the original songs, I did my best to not change the impressions these versions of them gave, so I structured them with an approach that made them similar to band-like songs regardless of the lack of sounds available. However, I have to say that the Shining Tigerd stage theme was the only one in which I had to change the ideas from the original, as I gave to it a flavor of Four-on-the-floor.
By the way, about the two sounds of the rectangular waves… huh? I’ve already written about too many things? Well then, we’ll have to continue this conversation whenever we have another chance!
Profile: He started in 1991 as a game music composer, sound effects maker and sound driver designer. He entered Capcom in 1998, and he has participated in games such as Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure (composer), The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (composer), Mega Man Battle Network 5DS (arranger), Sengoku Basara 2 (music director), and Sengoku Basara 3 (sound director). Currently, he works in Capcom’s development department as a jack-of-all-trades.
Yoshihiro Iwamoto – Cartoonist (Mega Man X Manga)
It’s been already twenty years since I first became acquainted with Mega Man X. And of these twenty years, for over four and half of them I was able to work alongside the series as a manga artist. It also happened to be during the same time in which one of my works got serialized for the first time, so it was a very important time for me. I still remember I had to search for some ways to cope with certain aspects of working alongside the team leaders, who wanted me to draw the world setting of Mega Man in a specific way.
In the case of the protagonist X, I had to search for a way in which he ended having a heroic appearance while still following a template I was given to a certain extent. I was told to give each of the enemy characters much more individuality and received stories about each of them. While I was a bit troubled because I had to keep on mind their settings and personalities, I still had a lot of fun drawing them.
While I can still remember all of the characters clearly, the ones that left the greatest impression on me were Overdrive Ostrich and Crystal Snail. Ostrichwas a character that I unexpectedly managed to make by skillfully interweaving several elements, similarly to Storm Eagle, and to which I managed to give quite some personality. As for Snail, I gave a good deal of depth to him thanks to the existence of Magna Quartz. And finally, we have Storm Owl. While Magma Dragon was rewarded a bit by being revived later on, Storm Owl-san didn’t get the same second chance…
As X is the only character capable of moving the army and using the power of the Ultimate Armor, I wanted to do everything I could to draw him! No matter how much of a time limit I had. It should be obvious, given how powerful something called Ultimate should be, right? (*sarcastic smile*)
Profile: Born on July 17, 1967. Made his debut in Comic Bonbon (Kodansha). After making the manga version of Mega Man X, he began making his main work drawing manga versions of several titles in magazines aimed at children.
Favorite Character: There are several characters I like, but the one I like the most is Sigma, with his multiple variations. During my career as a manga artist, I’ve always had trouble whenever it came time to draw final boss-style characters for any series, but after X5… no, especially in X5, I wanted to try my hand at drawing Sigma’s design. Happy 20th Anniversary!
Cartoonist – Hitoshi Ariga – Cartoonist (Mega Man X Manga)
Congratulations for reaching your 20th anniversary, Mega Man X! I’m still amazed it’s been already twenty years since I met X. The first time I saw him was at a compilation manga published in Comic Bonbon. At the time, I was still a manga artist employed at Bonbon and it was impossible to work on games, since I would need to keep two positions at the same time between my work on monthly serializations.
However, I managed to play the game during a short break time I had, and upon listening to the music from its opening stage and seeing its graphics, a thought wriggled inside my head: “I want to draw this! I want to draw the manga for this Rockman!” I held quite a bit of jealousy towards Iwamoto-san for having gotten the serialization to the game… to the point in which I wanted to let all of it out. I was even jealous because Iwamoto-san was also making it into a great manga! Though I was later on called to draw the extra story “Mega Mission”.
As for the games… what could I say? Their world setting was brought about by the combination of their graphics, music and game systems; and I was quite taken in with them. Especially the music, as the themes that can be heard from the first stage up to the ending had quite a great influence on me. The feeling they gave me of wanting to start running also settled the impression these games left on me… I think.
As for the songs, the ones I like the most are the ones played in the opening stage and the songs for the Mandriller and Armage stages. These were the inspiration for the new illustration I drew for this booklet (to be published along these lines, titled Vs Spark Mandriller). If you listen to the Spark Mandriller song recorded on this soundtrack box as you see this illustration, maybe it’ll feel more realistic to you?
Profile: Was born in Tokyo in 1972. Works as a game character designer, manga artist, children’s book illustrator, and picture book illustrator. As a children’s book illustrator, he has participated in Youkai Detective Stories (Iwasaki Shoten, created by Teizou Oosaki) by drawing its illustrations. He has recently taken part in the manga adaptations Klonoa (Bandai Namco Games, published by JIM ZUB), Mega Man Gigamix (Capcom). As a picture book illustrator he has participated in Monster Densetsu Meiro Book (published by Kin no Hoshi). As a game character designer, he took part in the design of the Pokémon that appeared in Pokemon X & Y (Nintendo, developed by Game Freak).
Favorite Character: My favorite characters from the “X” series would be the Counter Hunters. They are a group that hunts down the Irregular Hunters, and I like their name and purpose a lot. As I decided that they all should give off something of a special feeling when I drew them, I wondered if their three members wouldn’t look better as a set… or something like that.
Posted on September 4, 2014 by Gerardo Iuliani. Last modified on September 20, 2014.
About the Author
Gerardo Iuliani A Venezuelan that spends his days studying languages, translating as a hobby and playing videogames. Is also a frequent listener of video game music, particularly that composed by the Gust Inc. composers and related artists.
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