Today marks the birthday of Mr. Hitoshi Ariga, and we just wanted to wish him the happiest one he could possibly have (and maybe a job working for Capcom heading up the Mega Man brand).

For those who have been living under one of Guts Man’s rocks, or are simply fresh off the assembly line, Ariga is a longstanding fan-favorite artist who has worked with Mega Man– or Rockman, if you would like to be technical– for many years. Beginning with Rockman Remix, which included a couple of Classic Rockman tales in addition to an adaptation of one of Bandai’s Rockman X MegaMission card sets, he has created a number of other manga based on the Blue Bomber, filling out a series of three Rockman Megamix and three Rockman Gigamix volumes.

More recently, much of his work has been adapted under the Mega Man name and released in North America by UDON Entertainment. Furthermore, his was the guiding hand which brought together the R20 art compilation, known better to some as the Mega Man Official Complete Works and Mega Man X Official Complete Works, also released in North America by UDON. He has also developed short manga and illustrations for the Rockman 9 Arrange Soundtrack, ZX Tunes, and Chiptuned Rockman.

In addition, he also designed the Robot Masters Dynamo Man and Burner Man for Mega Man & Bass, for which he also designed the Super Famicom box art. Outside of Mega Man, some might recognize his work from the Star Wars and The Big O manga.

Suffice to say, he’s done quite a bit. He even gave us all a special treat on his first visit to North America in 2010, when answered questions and showed us his idea for how Bass and Ice Man’s hair would look.

Now that you know what the man has done and that it’s his big day, there’s just one thing left for you to do: If you’re a deviantART member, go there and wish him a happy birthday (and maybe check out some of the works he’s posted there). Or, if you’re on Twitter, you can wish him well there, too.

Tags: comic, Hitoshi Ariga, manga, Mega Man Classic, Mega Man Gigamix, Mega Man Megamix, Mega Man X, Merchandise, Udon

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