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Mega Man Ruby Spears: The Big Shake
Reviewed: 04/25/2021
Step This Way, Please?!
Yes, that quote will come into play later on. So, this is episode #4 on the animation paper as Dr. Wily has found a way to create earthquakes and demands the city surrender or be destroyed. Mega Man must go out in search of his new machine, while Dr. Light attempts to find a way to counteract Dr. Wily's earthquakes. Wow, a plotline that makes Dr. Wily look like an actual threat? How does this episode fare? Let's rant on shall we...?!
The Big Shake is written by Richard Merwin, who story edited with Jeffrey Scott and was directed by Katsumi Minoguchi. Since this is an Easter Sadism rant, there are no tributes.
We begin this episode in some furturistic city with trains and cars riding and the city looks about 95% empty. Head to a sidewalk with a blond haired kid wearing shorts and a red sweater dribbling a basketball. This goes on for a while until we get the earth shaking, subdued panicking and a lot of crumbling. So, we are in California as Mega Man comes in on Rush Jet. So, Mega Man saves on old lady and places her in a park somewhere. The DUBBED ANIME STYLE swears are hideously hilarious here on Mega Man's part. Sizzling Circuits is probably the most so. Then the railway traintracks begin to break apart and Rock uses the Mega Buster as liquid metal to rehaden the surface and fix the rail. Then we see a tall building shaking and shattering glass as Rock panics again, and then sees Cut Man and Guts Man walking on the sidewalk as he goes after them shooting for no real reason. He calls them a public nusiance, which is projection as Cut Man invokes the Rolling Cutter and it cuts the power wires and the power pole, forcing Mega Man to deal with that. Guts Man is behind Rock and fires from the silliest blow dart weapon I have ever seen and it shoots a metal bug right into Rock's neck. Cut Man calls him a mega fool and he fell into the trap. Normally, this would be stupid since he spoke in normal volume and Rock should have heard that, but Rock didn't, so it makes Rock look incompendent! Rock and Rush go to ground level on the sidewalk and notices the heels fleeing. Oops! Maybe Cut Man shouldn't have cut that promo after all. However, the earth is shaking violently even more, so Rock is forced to shoot rocks for a while and then gets overwhelmed and flies into a fire hydrant andwe gets the water fountain spot as Rock wants an umbrella and Rush agrees with him. Rock decides to go back to Dr. Light's residence to do a welfare check on him, which would be reasonable if the games didn't have him in Denver, Colorado. I think it has less to do with the residence and more to do with Dr. Light being depressed all those years realizing how evil Dr. Wily is, but that is just me and I am no doctor.
We head to Dr. Light's residence as Dr. Light is in the lab on the computer and he proclaims that there are no major fault lines in the area. So, a _minor_ fault is causing them then! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm... Rock accuses Dr. Wily of this because he's in every episode of this show causing havoc! Why not bring in Dr. Cossack and at lease tease him being involved. This is feeling more like Chargeman Ken by the second, only if that show was more quality than even Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series, which had Wildwing accuse Dragonus of every little slight against the world and Dragonus was in every episode. A Pup Named Scooby Doo had this problem, but at least Red Herring was innocent of most of the accusations Freddy Jones made against him. So, there is a map with a red dot while the earthquake was and Rock decides to copy the map and check out the area. Oh, and Roll comes in and wants to join in complete with her arm cannon being a themometer that can now detect earthquakes. Dr. Light loves the modification and Roll basically thinks this proves that Rock is sexist or something. Oh wait, Dr. Light agrees with Rock on not going. Sod off, Dr. Light! We zoom out to a control room with Dr. Wily and Proto Man looking on from a monitor. Dr. Wily wants Rock to bring it on because they will be waiting for him. Dr. Wily switches screens to reveal Cut Man, Guts Man, the debut of Drill Man from Mega Man 4 and Stone Man from Mega Man 5! Guts Man loves ambushes and Proto Man is taking the lead. Of course! Switch to a green map with a green dot as Dr. Wily admits that the bug on Rock's neck is in fact a spy transmitter and remembers to call Rock a Blue Dweeb for the sixth time in this series, four by Wily alone. Proto Man blows him off saying that Mega Man is his to kill and walks away. Something that stops Wily from laughing. We discover that they were in the cockpit of a giant tank with a skull motif on it. I'm shocked that Capcom didn't steal this for Wily Machine 11. Oh well, there might be a Mega Man 12 somewhere down the line. Might. The Wily Tank RS leaves and there is a small explosion left behind him. Why? Why not?! Wily basically said that the Krackpotkin plan cannot fail with or without Proto Man. Head up to the surface as Mega Man is on Rush Jet and they jump into the crack and land on the ground below.
Rush invokes the flashlight with sound effects and they walk inside the cave made by the earthquake as Rock checks the wall and then proclaims that the center is way down below, so the two are forced to slide down and Rock and Rush slide down on their asses to the bottom, which Rock calls better than a roller coaster. Kit Cloudkicker would dispute that claim and probably win hands down. Rock and Rush see tank tracks and he's already accusing Wily of this despite having no evidence of his own to prove it. Sure, the audience knows it's Dr. Wily; but Rock shouldn't know. Cut Man and Guts Man could have easily been there with Rock because they are troublemakers. Subtley and suspense were not this show's strong point, that is for sure. Oh, here comes the next installment of CUTMAN IS INCOMPENDENT~! Might as well get it out of the way now. Out comes Guts Man, Drill Man and Stone Man. And Drill Man and Stone Man look almost 1:1 with their video game counterparts. Rock and Rush back up and out comes Proto Man from the giant stone that makes him look more puny than a puny god. Rock returns the favor, by trying to off Proto Man with a Mega Buster shot; but Cut Man cuts him off with the Rolling Cutter and say "C'mon! He cannot take all of us!" This is the point where I realized that the "Cut Man is Incompendent!" video on Youtube was edited to make Cut Man look like a bigger joke than he actually was. Here's what really happened: Robot masters surround Rock, Rock shoots them all in four directions and all four robot masters are knocked the F out! Basically, another edition of Rock being over powered instead of anything the heels did. Proto Man steps in with Blues Buster at the ready, and then the Wily Drill Tank arrives to join in the fun as Rock calls him Dr. Nutso. Geez, way to justify Dr. Wily calling you a blue dweeb there, Mega Bigot~! So, Rock gets surrounded as Rock proclaims that they are in big trouble as Dr. Wily proclaims that he's right and he'll crumble to dust to end the segment 6 1/2 minutes in. Wow, this is not too bad all things considered. Yeah, Wily's a sadist; but I sort of expected it considering Mega Man 8 now.
After the commercial break, we head back to the surround staredown of doom as the heels creep up on Rock and Dr. Wily orders them to destroy Mega Man. So, Cut Man (of course!) breaks the ice with Rolling Cutter and Rock dodges every possible shot that comes out from the laser weapons, Rolling Cutters and Power Stone. The good news is: Power Stone shoots straight, which makes it more useful as a weapon in this show than in the games. The bad news is: Rock can easily dodge the move now, thus buries the move and makes Stone Man look weak. Poor Stone Man, and then to make matters worse, Rush bites Stone Man's leg despite GUTS MAN being right there to target. Rush seems to hate robots who are bulky and look like a Larson & Gary experiment, even in the video games (as opposed to this show where almost every robot is on the juice). Rock does front flips and then dropkicks Stone Man in the face and Stone Man goes down. Rock touches Stone Man's hand and we get the Weapon Get Wireframe sequence and fires the Straight Arrow Edition of Power Stone right at the right side laser gun on Wily Tank RS and destroys it. (Wily (writing in notebook): Must adjust Stone Man's weapon so it's rendered useless when Mega Man uses it in video game!) Left side laser gun falls the same way as Dr. Wily calls Rock a Mega Menence and he's gone too far. Oh, so it's "render unto Ceasar now", eh Wily? Rock gleefully retorts that one for me as Rush speaks to Rock because there is still Drill Man, Cut Man and Guts Man left to destroy. as we get an awesome spot as Rock dodges the Rolling Cutter and then springs off the soles of Rush's feet, flips and somehow drop kicks all three heels at once! Rock then dodges Guts Man as he kills Drill Man with the Guts Punch, Rock dodges a Blues Buster shot from Proto Man, who is either a coward or smart or both on top of a rock. Blues proclaims that only him can kill Rock; Rock blows him off and shoots the rock and we get an explosion, so maybe Proto Man is dead. Nah! There's a "no kill" rule in this show, color me unimpressed.
Rock and Rush crawl underneath Wily Tank RS as Guts Man pushes the drill portion up to let Cut Man go in for the kill; but Dr. Wily yells for them to stop because he's inside the tank and more allergic to pain than Convingtion in Molly Coddled. Guts Man puts the tank down and Rock and Rush crawl to the other side, Rush turns into Rush Jet, Rock gets on Rush and they fly away through a hole in the ceiling. Dr. Wily is pissed off as he wants to reprogram them as garbage collector and Proto Man blows him off, so of course Dr. Wily blames him for the mess. But wait! Dr. Wily planted a transmitter on Rock and he can destroy Dr. Light's lab at his earliest convenience. So, we head to the shaken building from earlier as apparently, one of the offices is with the mayor of the city; who looks more like a private detective than an actual mayor. The mayor is a little surprised by this, however; Dr. Light proclaims that Rock can verify this and robots NEVER lie, so the mayor has to believe him anyway. Oh, and somehow there are nine televisions out of nowhere turning on to reveal Dr. Wily admitting responsibilty for the earthquake. He is literally a tiny terrorist now; as Dr. Wily threatens to shake the city down to it's foundation if the mayor doesn't surrender the city to him. Wow, no subtleness whatsoever. Mayor no sells it because it's slavery; but Dr. Wily don't care since he loves enslaving robots, so why not expand his villainry and include humans to complete the cycle of tyranny. Dr. Wily decides to give the mayor a reminder of what happens if you defy the true genius of the world -- not that fraudant Santa wannabe Dr. Light -- Dr. Wily~! So, he shakes the building and causes various object to fall and shatter; but Rock uses the group hug to protect the mayor and Dr. Light despite being nowhere near the objects. The chair was just there so the mayor could put the chair up, sit down and sulk. Dr. Wily signs off with a warning and the mayor wonders what to do since Dr. Wily has causes millions of dollars in damage. Wow, that's awfully small, it looked like more an a trillion dollars worth to me considering that it's in 20XX dollars instead of 1994 dollars. Dr. Light has a plan of his own, an earthquake stablizer, which he'll use to buy time while Rock destroys Wily's operation, which basically means kill Drill Man and the Wily Tank RS. Why didn't you go after both of them from the start?
These questions have no answers, do not think too much. We cut to Dr. Wily spying on Dr. Light and then turning off the monitor. I don't know why; it's not like the communcation is two way and you want every piece of detail to counter Dr. Light, knowing Rock is still in the picture. So, that was stupid. Dr. Wily is literally typing on the buttons like a keyboard as he calls him Mega Dweeb. Oh great, everyone is getting Mega Man Captain N Syndrome in this episode! He basically wants to kill Dr. Light and Rock all in one fell swoop with an earthquake I bet. He turns a switch and tells Guts Man and company to move to sector five and begin the operation from there; giving us the same creep eye he gave to Roll in episode #2. So, his lazy creep eye is a gimmick now. Head to Dr. Light's lab as Rock, Roll, Rush and Dr. Light are making the earthquake stablizing machine quickly. However, the sensors are not working, so Rock insists that it might be the input protocols. This is enough for Dr. Light to call him smart and Rock points out that Dr. Light built him that way. He's so humble as Dr. Wily is spying on them and he shows his sociopathic levels by calling it a touching moment while holding his head like he has a bad headache. He cannot stand these touching moments because he has zero empathy for Dr. Light because Dr. Light is a fraud who destroyed his work just because of an imperfection. And perfection is the enemy of the good as they say (never mind that the perfection part is the logical fallacy and the rest is irrevelant anyway). More complex speaking ensues as Dr. Wily continues to taunt them like an internet troll and then contacts his heel squad as Stone Man is out of commission it seems and then the quake proceeds start as Dr. Wily I think says that it was not a pleasure serving Dr. Light. The audio isn't good; but then again, there are no subtitles in this episode I could use anyway. Suddenly, Roll's themometer sticks out of her arm which means there should be an earthquake, a big one, but the two men no sell her because they don't hear anything. Thankfully for Roll (sort of); the place shakes and rumbles as Roll falls on her ass and Dr. Light gets sort of crushed by his machine. Dr. Light's selling is not good; but he's not dead at least. Rock comes off and throws the device away as it shatters off-screen, Roll helps Dr. Light and then the steel beams come down, Rock pushes Roll, Rush and Light away, Rock gets crushed by the beams to end the segment 13 minutes in. So far, a decent episode actually.
After the commercial break; we see the entire Dr. Light residence and surrounding areas crumble and implode with the greatest of ease with Dr. Wily continuing to spy on Rock getting crushed by the steel beams and loving it like the psychopath that he really is. He also wipes his hands clean of this act and blows off Rock for basically destroying all hope. Dr. Wily laughs and then it's onto the next step, which I guess is contacting the mayor again as Rock crawls out of the carnage and this is the most literal form of carnage to date. Rock's right arm is broken, but he's more pissed than in pain as he slowly walks to a vault door and you can clearly see Dr. Light's lab coat caught in between the door edges. Rock opens the door and out comes Roll, Rush and Light who are perfectly fine as the security vault held up. Dr. Light is more concerned about Rock's injuries, including internal injuries, than Rock is with Light's state. Rock is worried about how Wily was able to target the lab so accurately and easily. Dr. Light is concerned too, but repairs must be made. Head to a cave as the Wily Tank RS continues to drill more holes than a million blocks of Swiss Cheese. Dr. Wily's loving it in shadow and then we head into the cockpit as Dr. Wily decides to give the mayor another conference call as he pushes a button to his monitor. We head to the mayor's office as he is on the phone at his desk calling for Dr. Light and getting no answer. You know, you might have a power cut in your office; but he's acting like he has power and therefore can call Dr. Light; but Dr. Light has no power. Mayor is confused in more ways than one and then Dr. Wily appears on all nine monitors to inform the mayor that the saviors of the world are dead, dead, dead and especially DEAD~! So the mayor must surrender! The mayor wipes his forehead, and is panicking and in his panic, he stops selling and says this:
Mayor: Go ahead and flatten our city! Flatten every city! You'll be the Emperor of Nothing!
If he said this to Sigma, Sigma would be like "okay, tyrant" and move on. Dr. Wily is pissed off and basically proclaims that the blood of the world is now on his hands and Dr. Wily is totally innocent even though Wily has no moral or ethical reason to do this at all. Dr. Wily decides to do the big quake and then signs off as the mayor has lobster courage and is gaslit into believing that he caused all of this and calls for Rock and Dr. Light. We head to the destroyed residence of Dr. Light as we continue in the lab as Dr. Light has repaired Rock's arm and Rock feels better. Light tells him to turn over to check his back and other circuits and finds the bug on the back of Rock's neck. I should point out that the neck changes from peach to grey and back again in several shots of this episode. Dr. Light uses the magnifying glass (which is cracked by the way) and tells everyone to whisper talk as he takes tweezers and plucks the bug off of Rock's neck. Roll comes in with an air-tight container, opens it up and the bug is placed in there and sealed. Okay, I get that at least they can talk and do stuff without Wily's knowledge; but Wily can still track them anyway. Why not destroy it now? Well, after they recapped everything that happened to them since the first three minutes of the episode; Rock proclaims that they are going to reverse-polarity Dr. Wily and orders Roll to come along with the container and not open it until he tells her to. Yup, they are going to use the bug against Dr. Wily. Scene change to Rock and Roll on Rush Jet flying into the broken down city. Somehow, the earthquake stablizer is on them despite being destroyed in the previous segment. Wait, what?! Oh wait, the quake stablizer is just a front for Rock to plant the bug onto it and draw Dr. Wily and company into the area so they can kick Dr. Wily's ass. Rock and Roll hide in an alleyway as Rock starts to gaslight Dr. Wily into believing that the quake stablizer is completed and does it in the most wooden voice ever just to assure the audience that he's lying right in Dr. Wily's face. For people who say how dumb Cut Man is, remember who reprogrammed him at the start of the show. Okay? Roll's acting is much more convincing in her promo as Dr. Wily buys into it hook, line and sinker.
Oh, and let's call him Blue Dweeb for the seventh time in this series (fifth by Wily alone) while Proto Man watches on as he wonders if they are going to kill Rock and Dr. Wily says no two ways about it. Who does Wily think he is, Ron Tronguard? So, basically Wily wants him dead as Cut Man, Guts Man and Drill Man walk away following the Wily Tank RS; and look in absolutely no hurry to get there. Head back into the city as the big one strike as crumbling and destruction arises. I'll say this about the booking: The earthquake scenes at least look threatening and animated despite being stiff and some of the artwork being off. It's even better than Last Horizons at least. So, the Wily Drill Tank RS drills up to the surface like a horse on it's hind legs and the hatch opens to reveal Proto Man. The rest of the Masters crawl from the hole as Proto Man jumps down and finds the stablizer with the bug attached and Proto Man realizes this is a decoy and throws it in the trash as Wily is pulling his hair out and panicking. He orders the RM's to find him at once as Guts Man is punching walls, Drill Man is drilling walls and Cut Man is looking for paper walls, or something. In comes Rock and Rush from the sky as he drops in and shoots Drill Man in the chest and knocks him out. Rock goes over and touches his arm to do the Weapon Get Animation Sequence as he gets Drill Bomb. Rock starts showing off the Drill as Cut Man notices him and tries the Rolling Cutter and Roll uses the vacuum cleaner to snag it away. This is not a case of Cut Man being incompendent because Roll got him from behind like a heel, so I don't blame Cut Man for that one. And he looks even smarter because Proto Man comes up from behind, grabs Roll, acts like a pervert and kidnaps her! Wow! I thought BS&P wouldn't allow that one. Proto Man runs stage right to the Wily Drill Tank RS as Roll protests this outrage. Proto jumps in with Roll as Dr. Wily is laughing it up because he has the bargining chip to stop Rock from interfering and then decides to flee and go back into the ground with the tank again. Rock tries to go after; but Cut Man and Guts Man surround him and Cut Man wants to finish this. Geez, you really want to die that badly, after being pretty much on your best ability throughout this episode? Rock then drills the conveniently placed pillar and crushes both Guts Man and Cut Man into the ground. That was the stupid part for Cut Man and was never in the video!
Isn't watching the full episode and reading it make for strange bedfellows doesn't it? Rock gets on Rush Jet and we fly into the hole and chase after the Wily Tank RS. We head into the cockpit of Wily Tank RS as Wily's keyboard skills are hideously hilarious, but better than Clipper pushing buttons as Proto Man's handling of Roll is more creepier by the second. Apparently; we are in New York City for some reason, which kind of really kills the idea that Light's residence is in Denver, Colorado. Oh, and they are in a subway track line for some odd reason as the chase is still on. Rock and Rush get on top of the roof, and Rush seems to have eaten a Mega Mushroom inbetween shots as Rock wants to give Dr. Wily some drilling of his own as Rock drills the roof. Rock calls it opening a tin can of worms as he opens the roof. Rock comes down, and proclaims that this isn't Wily's day as he shoots the drill bomb and it clips Blue's Buster arm and Roll is free. So, despite being able to destroy Fire Man and Elec Man in the first episode, she is helpless without a man to save her when it comes to Rock's brother. Blues tries to shoot Rock; but the Blue Buster is broken as Dr. Wily is pissed off and pushes buttons on his tank and the chairs fly them into the sky like ejection seats although they went through the holes of the roof; so none of them actually got stuck. So, Wily's fine, outside of the fact that he lost. AGAIN! So, Rock proclaims that he has to push the right trigger sequence to stop the earthquake stuff and as he is cutting this promo, he's smashing the entire console panel, causing it to explode and he goes flying back. He really is a blue dweeb! Rock and Roll now realize that the tank is going to crash because Rock destroyed the controls like the blue dweeb that he is. So, they bail through the roof and then throw themselves out of the tank as the tank explodes and that is that. Roll wants to go after Wily, but there are too many tracks to follow after proclaims that she knows where Wily is. Roll is dumb as everything is back to rebuilding at the Dr. Light residence as Dr. Light is coordinating and Rock is working with heavy machinery. Hope he didn't drink beforehand. Basically, they recap as Rush comes in with a sled with metal junk that is clearly bigger than his body weight as Roll is giving out orders on the condition of an energy fizz. What a Karen?! Rush turns into Rush Jet and flies the sled into the sky and Roll Karen gets dropped on her back. HAHA! Hey, Rush did nothing wrong in this episode and was a good helper; so you earned that one Roll. Rock shakes his head and looks to the audience for approval with his saxophone music playing in the background to end the episode at 21:30 approx. I actually liked this episode in spite of being a mess; albeit it was pretty decent of a mess. Funny ending for a change too. This get no rating on the trainwreck scale because Cut Man was pretty solid this time around, call it *** (60%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well, this was one of the better episodes of the series. None of the story hurt my head and it pretty much made sense for the most part. Sure, there was animation mistakes here and there; but it was solid for the most part. The earthquake angle was really good and was an actual threat for a change and made Wily into a sadistic monster heel rather than the comedy heel he has been throughout. I thought the mayor did a good job here despite being on screen for four minutes at best, as his one legendary promo was badass to say the least. Too bad, it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Cut Man was surprisely fine, just overpowered in every segment and he did lead Proto Man to kidnap Roll; so he had some smarts in this episode compared to some. Stone Man and Drill Man looked great, but got buried within minutes sadly; but that is par for the course. Overall, this was a solid episode with a funny ending, no real complaints about it other than what I wrote.So....
Thumbs in the middle and I'll see you all next time.