NT Warrior: The Legendary Program Advance!

Plot Synopsis
MegaMan and Lan have a match with MagicMan coming up, but before that they're trying to get some training in to figure out how to use the amazing power Lan discovered last episode, the program advance, or LifeSword for those of you who have played the game. It's just not working out so well though as the power keeps fading before MegaMan can strike with it. Miyu comes to Lan's aid as she helps him train and tells him that he and MegaMan must be in perfect sync to work the program advance.

Lan is running out of time as his match is up next, so Commander Beef has SharkMan hold up his own match, running down the clock to buy Lan some time. This is one of the reasons you gotta like Masa, always secretly helping out Lan. Anyway Lan and MegaMan keep getting closer and closer, but even getting in sync they still can't quite figure it out. Eventually Commander Beef can't stall the game any longer and Lan has to go into his match against Yahoot.

During the match, MagicMan attacks very much like he does in the game, by unleashing tons of viruses. MegaMan has a tough time in the match, and finally Lan decides to try the Program Advance one last time. This time he has MegaMan strike with the sword before it fully forms. The shockwave dissipates before it reaches MagicMan, but it barely strikes him, enough for Yahoot to jack him out. Lan wins the match and everyone compliments him on his use of the Program Advance, but Chaud just laughs, "that's not the program advance," he says.

Chaud then has a match against Count Zap, and of course, the WWW operative cheats by shutting down all of Chauds methods to view the match. Chaud simply laughs at the cheap trick and loads up the Program Advance himself. The audience can't view the full effect, but the shockwave sends rumbles through out the arena, destroying the device Count Zap is using to jam the monitors. When they come back on, Elec Man is lying in pieces. "That's the Program Advance," says Chaud.

Lan is shocked, and knows the only way he'll beat Chaud in the finals is to master the program advance.

Critique
Here's an episode that works entirely off of suspense rather than action. Lan is pretty good this episode, and I like his reaction to Chaud's smugness this time, brushing it off, and I like how Masa helps out, even though the retarded writing points this out to us like it wasn't obvious. The N1 Grand Prix is the best story arc this series has and if anything is worth watching from this show, it's this series of episodes.

Rating: Thumbs Up!