NT Warrior: Street Fight!

Plot Synopsis
Hoo boy, does a lot of shit happen this episode. Everyone has a day off from the N1 Grand Prix and it looks like Higsby has been hired on as a guest commentator with Ribbita. Lan is opening up his e-mail and gets special battle chip from his dad, a Longsword chip. Once again, being the ungrateful brat he is, Lan whines about the chip, but decides to keep it anyway as a memento from his father. Lan also has another e-mail from Yai. As a celebration, Yai decides to invite Lan, Mayl, Dex, Tory and Ms. Mari to a fancy dinner at an upscale restaurant. Also, Higsby and Masa show up trying to get close to Ms. Mari. I could watch these two guys argue forever, I could.

All is not well however as Miyu has predicted a virus attack, as Lord Wily orders his faithful robots StoneMan and BombMa... BlastMan? Oh god damn it... Anyway, he's ordered them to find the "ultimate navi" from this tournament and they plan to release those viruses that night. As Net Agents, it's Miyu, Sal and Masa's duty to stop them.

Yai's party quickly goes sour as Chaud has taken Yai's special table at the restaurant and just to be an ass, he decides to insult her and her fathers company as well. Also, Chaud's father owns a game development company for some reason. Maek viedo geames kidz! Live lavish life styles! Have a bat cave!

Anyway, Lan sticks up for Yai and Lan and Chaud get into a fight... er a Net Battle. ProtoMan is really fast for Mega Man, and Mega Man is struggling the whole fight. I don't know about you, but I would pay good money to have this boring version of ProtoMan swapped out for the Ruby-Spears version. "You're about to be deleted...brother!" The show would become about a million times better. Lan loads up MegaMan with a Cyber-Sword, and then a WideSword but he's just barely able to hold ProtoMan off.

BlastMan and StoneMan see ProtoMan and MegaMan fighting so they send in the viruses which start fucking up the city. Sal and Miyu run around carrying crowd control while MegaMan and ProtoMan take on the bulk of viruses. Chaud and ProtoMan continue to trash talk while the battle rages on, and soon MegaMan is surrounded by viruses. Not sure what to do, Lan quickly slides in the LongSword chip from his dad, and what an effect that triggers! MegaMan's swords grow with some really intense power as the viruses form up into a single huge virus. Unfortunately the power fades within seconds and Lan gets an error message on his PET.

ProtoMan takes the opportunity to kill the giant virus, and him and Chaud make a few more smug comments before taking off. BlastMan and StoneMan figure either MegaMan or ProtoMan are the ultimate navi that Wily is looking for and head back to WWW to report their findings.

Lan is confused over the whole event and Higsby tells him that Lan almost performed a "Program Advance" by using the Sword, Wide Sword and Long Sword chips in order. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to fully use it, and Lan becomes determined to learn the Program Advance.

Critique
Hope you were paying attention to this episode if you plan on playing any of the games, because the Life Sword Program Advance has to be the most useful Program Advance in the series. It's really easy to build, really powerful early on, and essential for clearing most of the early levels of the games. For the first time, and what will soon become a theme for this show, the Mega Man cartoon is giving you hidden tips on how to play the game.

Even if this weren't the case, it's a good episode on it's own. Chaud's a twat, but he's written that way. Lan comes off as a bit dumb this episode though, and I kind of wish they kept his character a bit more consistent with his levels of intelligence. There are some really great scenes though early on with the Net Agents (particularly Sal's driving session) and I can't get enough of the way Masa talks myself. The action in this episode is relatively tame compared to most, but the program advance adds a bit of mysticism about the show and makes you want to tune in next week to see how it plays out. Is there anything better for a show to want to accomplish than that?

Rating: Thumbs Up!