NT Warrior: Evil Empress Roll! (Part 1)

Man, the N1 Grand Prix sure is heating up! I wonder what's going to happen! Well if you were watching the show as it was airing, you would have had to wait another fucking 8 months since the last episode for the series to pick up again! Jesus!

My guess as to what happened here is that Viz Media only dubbed their first 14 episodes to release to Kids WB because they weren't sure if the show would get picked up, as is typical for shows in their first season. Kids WB then probably decided the show was good enough to keep going with, so Viz Media started dubbing the next episodes, but Uh-oh! They had to change the voice actors from Alex Doduk to Brad Swaile for some reason. I'm not entirely sure why this choice was made, maybe there were contract issues which would explain the delay.

On the other hand, the fault could be with Kids WB who might have went back and forth between keeping the show or not, and by that time, maybe Doduk got involved in other projects or something. I'm not sure if this is true or not either, because I believe the show was still in syndication, but I'm not sure. In either case, 8 months is a long fucking time for a show to have an off season.

New with this episode is a new introduction showing off style changes which will come up later, and really cheap looking beginning where character stills are thrown at the camera. At least Swaile's voice isn't so different from Doduk's that Lan sounds completely different. You will notice it if you listen for it though.

Plot Synopsis
For the next match up, it'll be another couple of team matches where some of the loser Navi's will have a chance to re-enter the tournament. Of course, WWW siezes this opportunity to rig the contest so they'll face MegaMan and Roll. Not satisfied with just entering the match, they also decide to give Mayl a bogus battle chip by disguising Yahoot as Higsby. Yahoot, in the Higsby disguise, gives Mayl the Super Great White Angel chip, which he assures her will win the match.

The match begins and Lan and Mayls team work is putting the fighting Mr. Match and Maddy on the ropes. TorchMan and WackoMan get a shot off on Roll which promps Mayl to use the Super Great White Angel chip. When she puts it in, Roll transforms and is reprogrammed to listen to Count Zap who is controlling her backstage. She turns on MegaMan and begins fighting him! MegaMan refuses to fight back against her as Count Zap powers her up, making her look a bit more like Elec Man. Mayl can't get Roll to listen to her, and the bad chip is stuck in her PET. To make matters worse, she can't jack Roll out either! MegaMan is in dire straights as the episode ends with "To Be Continued."

Critique
A decent episode with some good comedy from the WWW operatives, but boy does it become obvious that Lan and Mayl's animations are just copied frame for frame. Actually, a lot of animations are reused this episode. The story though is an interesting setup though so it's worth seeing.

Rating: Thumbs Up!