NT Warrior: Ice Ice Baby!

This episode is a re-telling of scenario 4 from Battle Network 1, but there are a number of differences here because the writers wanted to make use of another character, Tory, who in the video game is so insignificant he just has a generic kid portrait and sprite. Tory is kidnapped in the game and Dr. Froid is forced to use his navi, IceMan.exe to do the bidding of WWW. Here, the role is reversed, and Tory is actually IceMan's operator, forced to do WWW's bidding because they've kidnapped his father.

I suppose this makes some sense for the TV show to make these changes. They probably wanted to have IceMan as an available character to use, but truth be told, the opportunities for Dr. Froid to work with Lan just aren't there, but using his classmate Tory, suddenly the chances come up. The strangest change though comes from between the original Japanese voice of IceMan and his dubbed character. IceMan in the anime is supposed to be a child-like navi as he acts and sounds like a child. In the dub, he has a deep, cartoony voice that sounds much older. The dub didn't go on long enough for this to become apparent, but I think it would have come up if they did follow through with Beast at least.

Also, the Japanese name of this show is "Subzero Brawl," and I only bring this up because "Ice Ice Baby" is a stupid name, and what kid, that watches this show, knows who the hell Vanilla Ice is?

Oh, one last thing, this episode aired much later in the US than it did originally, as Kids WB aired the episodes out of order. I am going by the original chronological order myself though for these reviews.

Plot Synopsis
Lan and his friends are returning home from school, when their classmate Tory Froid runs past them in a hurry and drops a security card for the Water Works plant, where his father works. Tory gets into a car driven by Maddy who tells Tory that if he does what she says, he'll see his father again.

Later in the day, the water for the entire city goes out. The next day it's still not on and people are starting to get in a panic. Maddy has taken Tory's father hostage and is using Tory's Net Navi IceMan to freeze the water works network.

Lan and his friends want to figure out what's going on, and Yai sends Glyde to check out the Water Works network. Unfortunately, Glyde gets frozen by IceMan, so Yai has everyone jump in her Jet-Powered limo, Batman style (beyond an obvious reference). Inside the Water Works, Lan uses the security card and finds Dr. Froid tied up. Froid tells them that the bacteria in the water is about to die (the stuff they use to purify it), so he splits them up into two groups. Lan, Dex and Dr. Froid will go open the manual release valves, and the little 5th grade girls will go look for Tory who, as far as they know could be held at gun point by a dangerous WWW terrorist. Very brave of you Dr. Froid.

Well luckily Maddy gets arrogant and assumes she's won so she's left, ordering WackoMan to delete MegaMan, IceMan and Glyde. Lan, Dex and Dr. Froid get the water back on though, so Lan is able to get some battle chips to MegaMan in time to beat WackoMan. The day is saved, Tory and Dr. Froid are reunited, and Lan's made a new friend.

Critique
This episode is ok, nothing particularly wrong with it, nothing particularly bad either. Tory is pretty generic looking a character, which is nice considering how out of control many anime characters can get. This episode does lack the charm the last episode did, but the characters don't annoy either.

I'm giving this episode a thumbs up though on a purely arbitrary point (although what review isn't arbitrary?) and that is the part where the robot is chasing after Lan and his friends. This sequence is alright, but what seals the deal is after Lan escapes the robot. The robot tries to smash the door down but fails, and then the robot gets such a dejected look on his face, it's priceless! The robot saved this episode!

Rating: Thumbs Up!