With the release of the Rockman Zero & ZX Double Hero Collection in Japan today, there is a bunch of news to report. From new art for the Rockman Zero & ZX SOUND BOX to the results of the character popularity poll, we have a lot of ground to cover.
First we have a new illustration drawn by Makoto Yabe (ZX series character designer and scenario writer) for the interior of the Sound Box package. The image on the right is the final design of the "Digi Stack" packaging.
The Sound Box booklet will have comments from Ippo Yamada (Inti Creates), Yasuyuki Tsujino (Capcom Sound Team) and an interview with composer Yoshiya Terayama from the Capcom Sound Team. It's nice that, finally, someone from the Inti Creates staff got some form of acknowledgement beyond the credits of the original games, as Inti Creates weren't involved whatsoever in the development or promotion of the Zero/ZX Legacy Collection . They weren't even mentioned anywhere, actually. It was almost as they never developed the games.
Anyway, the Sound Box is slated to release on March 25th for 8,800 yen (around $80 or 71€) with a total of 208 tracks spread across 6 CDs containing the original source music (i.e uncompressed) from Rockman Zero 1 to 4 and Rockman ZX and Rockman ZX Advent.
The first volume of the new edition of the Rockman ZX manga is already on sale in Japan and Capcom took the opportunity to release the first chapter for free which you can read here but do know that it's in Japanese.
This new edition features new covers drawn by the author Shin Ogino and some extra pages with comments and celebratory art by Toru Nakayama and Makoto Yabe.
Capcom also shared two rough pages that will be included in the Rockman ZX Advent Extra Edition booklet that will include a totally new chapter of the ZXA manga. Readers can get this booklet for no additional cost if they purchase the full set from Fukkan or e-Capcom (the latter is sold out already). If you had the change to read the Rockman ZX Advent manga before, you will notice that these two pages show Ashe doing "R.O.C.K On" for the first time - something that never happen in the previously published chapters of the manga because Grey was the only character doing all the fighting. Very interesting.
While we wait for more details of this new content you can catch-up with the fan translation of the manga here.
From February 14th to February 25th, the Rockman Unity Twitter account conducted a poll to find the favorite characters from the Zero and ZX Series among Japanese fans.
By the look of things, the final result didn't receive any "quality control"; for example, you will find odd things like the same character having two different entries or entries that are not characters, per se. Regardless, it is always interesting to see which characters are fan favorites among Japanese fans.
To commemorate the release of the Rockman Zero & ZX Double Hero Collection in Japan, various personalities took to Twitter to post celebratory artwork.
Let's start with Hitoshi Ariga. Most of the artwork seems to be old, but he uploaded these pieces in high resolution for the first time ever. At least one piece seems to be slightly different from what he shared years ago, too. The piece with Aile holding Prairie's hand is from the Rockman ZX Soundsketch - ZX GIGAMIX Music CD, 2/3 of the artwork are missing but you can see it in full here.
Next is Shin Ogino, the author of the Rockman ZX and ZX Advent mangas with a completely new piece of artwork:
Lastly, if you have no plans to or you're unable to purchase Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection at this time and you want to listen the new music/remixed tracks created for the collection, you can do so from the following video. We've uploaded all the new music, around 42 minutes and 19 tracks.
Not surprising to see Zero win the pole, it's Zero after all, and while i knew Leviathan is a beloved character, i did'nt expect her in the 2nd place.
ReplyDeleteLevianthan is easily explain, don't underestimate the power of waifu status.
DeleteI'm certainely not, but in the fandom, Omega and Harpuia seems to have strong Hushbando status as well.
DeleteAh yes, my favorite character Sunken Library.
ReplyDelete"The bond between X and zero" is really a much better character, obviously supposed to be true winner who was robbed. I suspect hacking and electoral fraud.
DeleteHonestly "the bond between X and Zero" gotta be the main character of MMX and MMZ series.
DeleteSeeing new art from Nakayama and Makoto Yabe after so long is great. just great.
ReplyDeletewhat is the new edition ZX comic?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rockman-corner.com/2019/12/the-rockman-zx-manga-is-getting-reprint.html
DeleteGrey is better than Weil? I like both of them but that's Abit overkill for Weil there.....
ReplyDeleteFunny how official art and all always use Vent as the "default" ZX protagonist, but Aile is always the most popular in the fandom.
ReplyDeleteWaifu status strikes again. This is even more exampled because 98% of the fandom are dudes and Vent and Aile are the quit LITERALLY exact same character. Aile is Basically a gender swapped Vent, they act exactly the same, have the same exact story, same personality and everything. They even look the same one has spiky hair the other flat, one has pants the other shorts, one is slightly tan the other is pale skinned, that's the grand extent of their differences, oh, outside of both having weak feminine voices but different nonetheless which I guess is another reason to lean towards Aile I guess.
DeleteThey really need to do something different with Vent or he's going to be stuck in Aile's shadow forever. While X, Zero, and Aile are distinct from each other in some capacity whether its powers or gender, Vent isn't sufficiently distinct in any regard, having the same gender as X and Zero and the same hybrid power set as Aile. He desperately needs a power and story-line that's unique to himself and not shared with Aile. Like maybe the ability to merge with Model Z by itself? Or to triple mega-merge? I dunno what. Something. Anything.
DeleteAnyway, very surprised Leviathan managed to beat out Ciel (not to mention Omega, Harpuia, and X AND Copy X). I'm slightly surprised she beat Aile but I suppose it makes sense since even though Leviathan is not playable she's been in more games than Aile has, but other than her I figured Aile would struggle against all of the above so I'll take her win over Copy X or even Pandora.