Nerd Reads Mega Man 2 and Zero Collections

I've been sick as all hell the past week, and am now just starting to feel a little better. I'm still not quite in the mood to get back the Axess reviews just yet, but for now here's a couple of interesting things.

First off, the Angry Video Game Nerd has recorded himself reading aloud Worlds of Power: Mega Man 2. As if Capcom didn't already milk the hell out of the Mega Man franchise, having a novel on the blue robot that pretty much goes off on its own tangent is really banking on Blue Bomber fandom. If you've never read this book, have it read to you by James Rolfe.

Also, something I've neglected to mention, but have been aware of the past couple of weeks or so is Mega Man Zero Collection, coming soon to the DS. I predicted this exact thing would happen a few months ago in my Zero series wrap up, and I think it's very cool to see I was right. I hope this drums up a bit more momentum for a possible new ZX game, or at least a Mega Man Game Boy Collection like Capcom was promising a long time ago!

Whatever you do though Capcom, please don't get another company that's too incompetent enough to port the damn games over for you, please!

Axess: Threat of the Dark Chips!

Plot Synopsis
Lan has been tasked to track down the source of the Dark Chips and learn more about them. At the local Net Arcade, he spots Ms. Mari, although her hair and clothes are different. He also sees a Net Battler slot in a dark chip. This powers up the guy's navi, but also causes it to go insane and delete his opponent's navi. The Dark Chip then causes the PET to explode.

The next day Lan asks Ms. Mari at school if she was at the Net Arcade, but she doesn't know what he's talking about. Lan goes to the arcade again to see if he can find the Net Battler, and discovers that the person that gave him the chip is the Ms. Mari look a like. He chases her down and bumps into the real Ms. Mari. After she points him in the right direction, he runs off and finds Ms. Mari sealed inside a freezer.

Lan jacks in MegaMan into the electronic lock where MegaMan meets NeedleMa... god damn it. SpikeMan attacks MegaMan, so Lan hits the Zeta Cannon program advance, which takes out SpikeMan and opens the lock... or so they think. Just as soon as Lan has Ms. Mari clear, SpikeMan ambushes MegaMan again. Ms. Mari offers Lan a dark chip to help save MegaMan, but Lan knows that if he uses it, it will corrupt MegaMan's data and make him turn evil. Lan refuses to use the chip, and Ms. Mari says something to the effect of calling MegaMan a hunk of data.

Lan suddenly realizes this woman is the fake, and she reveals herself to be Ms. Yuri, SpikeMan's operator. Lan uses some DoubleSoul to take SpikeMan out, and Ms. Yuri runs off into a crowd. Lan thinks he tracked her down, but runs into the real Ms. Mari instead. Ms. Mari lets Lan know that she has an identical twin sister, but she hasn't seen her in years. Lan wonders if vows to track her down and stop the spread of Dark Chips.

Critique
Ms. Yuri is the worst thing to happen to this show, hands down. The level of quality of the show is an inverse proportion to the screen time of this character. She's completely bland, cliched, and lacks any interesting characteristics whatsoever. In the first Battle Network game, Ms. Yuri is barely a blip in the story, and the evil twin scenario, complete with the mistaken identity crap, never has time to wear thin, and so it's not even worth notice to take seriously.

This show on the other hand takes her waaaaaay to fucking seriously, and the more they add to her, the worse it gets, trust me. Aside from Ms. Yuri being an incredibly boring villain, all this episode does is explain the dangers of the dark chips, which is an important plot point. I find the climax of this episode, Lan's choice of using the dark chip or not, to be kind of dumb. He knows the Dark Chip will essentially fuck up MegaMan, but how does he figure he's in enough danger to use it? MegaMan's been in battle for what, twenty seconds? Since DoubleSoul pretty much instantly takes out even a dark chip infused SpikeMan, I think my point is quite clear how dumb the scenario is.

It's just a lame episode, and this is where the season really starts falling apart.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Tribes: The Duel of the Continent of Mu

Plot Synopsis
Ra Mu is awakening, and in a desperate act, Bob Copper tries pulling the Sword of Berserk off it's pedestal before Ra Mu can fully revive, but Dark Phantom pulls him away. Harp Note and Cancer Bubble manage to rescue him, and they deal with Yeti Blizzard and Dark Phantom. Rogue pulls away Hollow, while Ra Mu begins absorbing EM-Waves in some sort of energy pool.

Omega-Xis is being caught in the pool and is being pulled in. Geo runs and jumps into the pool to rescue him, and the two of them burst out as MegaMan. Copper yells at MegaMan to get the OOPArt, and Dr. Orihime calls back Hollow to stop him. Before Hollow can attack MegaMan, Copper fires off a shot at Hollow, distracting him. MegaMan yanks out the Sword of Berserk, and the other OOPArts fuse into him. He tribes on, then double tribes, then triple tribes into the Tribe King form. Hollow tries to blast him, but MegaMan is immune to his attacks. MegaMan fires back destroying Hollow.

Copper tries to arrest Dr. Orihime, but she runs into the ruins as they begin to collapse. MegaMan, Harp Note, Cancer Bubble, and Bob Copper jump out of the gate to Mu, but Ra Mu follows behind them. Rogue tries to hold back Ra Mu and orders MegaMan to destroy the game with the OOPArts. MegaMan unleashes one final blast, the Tribe King Link Force Big Bang, and the gate is sealed, and Rogue jumps in along with it. The day is saved, and the next day, all the characters from the show, including Pat Sprigs, the FMians, the other humans, Bob Copper and of course Geo and Omega-Xis, head down to a Sonia Strumm concert, where she performs the opening credits in a very "this is the last episode ever" sort of way.

Critique
As finales go, you really couldn't ask for a better way to end the series. While it sucks that we only saw the other tribe forms for maybe a total of ten seconds, at least everything got wrapped up in a nice little package, along with some great animation, and even a couple of character moments. Bob Copper really kicks ass here, and they even managed to resolve the angle with Luna, as she wishes for Geo's safe return. That's right, not MegaMan, Geo. She knew it all along.

Rating: Thumbs up!

It was obvious they knew this episode was it when XEBEC finished making this show. The concert at the end is a pretty fitting way to go as Star Force's own legacy is still in jeopardy. While I personally love the Star Force series, neither the show, nor the games were particularly popular. Poor review scores and coming off the heels of Battle Network have been hurting this series since day one, and even if Star Force does everything right, it doesn't do anything new.

In America, the show never got a chance, being placed in a ridiculous time slot for a total of one airing, and being broadcast online to a really small audience. It's clear that someone at Time-Warner was afraid of a lack of interest that NT Warrior Axess had, and thus, this great show never got started. Personally, I can't recommend the show enough, and I highly suggest you look for the show, in both the original and dubbed forms.

Star Force is hit hard by a lot of factors that kept it from shining, and it looks like this star has burnt out. Operation Shooting Star was a flop, and there are no plans for a US release. Star Force 4 may be a pipe dream altogether, and even as much as I love Star Force, I'll throw down money for Mega Man 10 first any day of the week, or Mega Man X9, or Mega Man Legends 3, or Mega Man ZX3... but not Battle Network 7...

Still, if the adventures of Geo Stelar are truly over, it was a great ride while it lasted, and I'm satisfied that both the games and cartoon end without a lot of loose ends, the game series much more especially. If you want to see what happens next for Geo, buy Star Force 3, and maybe one day we'll get to see the more "comic book hero type" blue bomber again some day.

Now all I got left to do is the rest of Axess... great...

Axess: Dex Returns!

Plot Synopsis
Dex has gone of to train with World Three in hopes that they'll teach him how to finally defeat Lan and MegaMan in a NetBattle. For some reason, World Three is now setup on Jawaii at #2 Curry...

Anyway, Dex comes back to DenTech city and starts acting like a jerk. He challenges Lan and MegaMan to a NetBattle, but it gets interrupted when Lan gets a Net Savior call. Lan has to go investigate a disturbance being caused by a darkloid named BurnerMan, but Lan gets distracted when Dex interferes, allowing BurnerMan to escape.

Mayl chews Dex out and tells him about Lan being a Net Savior, while Lan looks for BurnerMan. Dex also goes to look for BurnerMan, so he can then battle Lan proper. BurnerMan jacks into the local gas plant and sends balls of fire bursting through the sewers. Dex tracks him down to an abandoned gas storage facility, and jacks GutsMan in to stop him. Even with GutsMan's new training, he's still no match for the Darkloid, and Lan eventually catches up with MegaMan to help out.

After BurnerMan uses a Dark Chip, he sends the gas storage tanks flying into the sky, along with Lan and Dex! Seeing their NetOps in trouble, MegaMan and GutsMan merge into a DoubleSoul. Using the new GutsSoul, MegaMan takes out BurnerMan no problem. Lan thanks Dex, but Dex still acts like a jerk, and vows to defeat Lan and MegaMan some day.

Critique
So another "lost" character returns again. Why not just have the characters all stick around? What was the point of moving World Three? Isn't ElecMan supposed to be deleted? I find Dex's new obsession with beating Lan more puzzling than anything, as it sort of comes out of the blue. Also, why did he think World Three, a former terrorist organization that has never defeated MegaMan, be any help to him? On the outset, this episode is pretty stupid... but

Well Dex pulls it off decent enough. BurnerMan is a bit more entertaining than your standard darkloid, and the sewers exploding and flying gas tankers, while ridiculous, are pretty good. And of course, seeing a new DoubleSoul is always entertaining.

All in all I don't love this episode, but it stays consistently enjoyable enough for me to recommend it at least.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Tribes: The Lone Soldier, Rogue

Plot Synopsis
Things are quickly going to hell as the continent of Mu is starting to fall to Earth, and is releasing thousands of materialized wave viruses. MegaMan gets sucked up into the damn thing while Hollow chases after him. At the same time, Dr. Orihime convinces Hyde and Rich Dotcom to join her, and the three of them also follow to the Mu continent, with detective Bob Copper latching on to Yeti Blizzard's leg as well.

MegaMan fights with all his might against Hollow, but Geo can barely stand. Omega-Xis tells Geo to break the Wave-Change and escape, fearing that Geo will be killed. Geo refuses but is knocked unconscious by the next shot from Hollow. To save Geo, Omega-Xis breaks the Wave-Change and leads Hollow away from Geo, knowing Hollow will chase him for the last OOPArt.

With Geo unconscious and not responding to Aaron Boreal's calls, Harp Note goes after him into Mu. She saves him just in time from a materialized virus when the two of them stumble upon a hidden lair.

Meanwhile, Hollow finally catches Omega-Xis and extracts the Sword of Berserk! He takes it to Dr. Orhime, and she instructs Yeti Blizzard and Dark Phantom to place the OOPArts to reawaken Ra Mu.

Inside the lair, Geo and Harp Note find Solo sleeping in a capsule. He awakens at the sound of their voice and explains that he is the last human from Mu, and it's his job as Mu's guardian to prevent Ra Mu from ever awakening, that's why he fought MegaMan to get the Sword of Berserk. Solo is still really injured, but has no choice but to try and stop Dr. Orihime. He wave-changes to Rogue and takes off. With Rogue injured, Omega-Xis out of reach, and all three OOPArts in Dr. Orihime's possession, things are not looking good for our heroes!

Critique
Fantastic episode, well animated, and intense. It's a pretty strong episode all around for most of the characters, especially Omega-Xis when he tries to save Geo. Bob Copper even gets some points for his out right insanity in trying to apprehend the villains.

Solo's role was completely rewritten, probably due to the time constraints of the season, but it makes enough sense within the context of the show at least to work well enough. Granted, if the show were to continue, a huge amount of the character would have been lost, and getting Rogue and MegaMan to actually fight each other in the rivalry style that is the games would be really tough, but it doesn't look like they were worried about that since the last episode is up next. I really like what they did with him here with what they had to work with, and it's a damn shame this show wasn't popular enough to continue.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: The Friendship in the Mirror!

Plot Synopsis
MegaMan and Lan have invented a new game to help with their cross-fusion in which they ask each other questions about each other to build on their friendship. They're playing this game while Lan takes his friends out to a new holographic museum, although Lan is really there on a secret Net Savior mission based on an anonymous tip.

At first, nothing seems out of the ordinary until they reach the mirror exhibit, when suddenly SavageMan attacks MegaMan. SavageMan uses all kinds of mirrors to throw MegaMan off, and then creates a mirror image of Lan who gives MegaMan conflicting instructions. The phony Lan is so convincing that even DoubleSoul severely messes up MegaMan. MegaMan finally comes up with a way to beat SavageMan by asking Lan who Lan's top NetBattling rival is. The real Lan answers Chaud, while the fake answers Higsby. MegaMan blasts the fake Lan and then is able to fight back against SavageMan.

Well then ShadeMan gives SavageMan a Dark Chip, and the shadowed bad guy makes a dimensional area around the museum (and the episode was going so well too...). MegaMan is too distracted by viruses to get to Lan's PET to cross-fuse. Luckily, Chaud shows up, apparently now versed in Batman style acrobatics, and ProtoMan helps MegaMan get to Lan. Lan cross-fuses and defeats SavageMan and breaks the dimensional area.

We then find out Chaud has also become a Net Savior like Lan, and is tracking down Dark Chips. Chaud tells Lan that MegaMan and him need to work on their individual strengths instead of relying on each other so much. MegaMan agrees and suggest they start by Lan doing his homework by himself.

Critique
Everything is pretty solid up until the dimensional area hits... sigh. The whole setup was done so nicely with the foreshadowing of the question game coming in and resolving the double Lan situation. Really, the whole episode could have worked around this and been much better.

Then of course the dimensional area shows up with it's really shitty animation, and the battle gets pretty lazy from there. On top of this, you have Chaud, who is now like the fourth character to "return from disappearing for so long." Aren't we wearing this setup a little thin by now? On top of this, Chaud's acrobatic nonsense just looks ridiculous, and makes you wonder what the point of Cross-Fusion is if humans can fight like Chaud does? Also, Chaud's acting is horrible this episode, and he sounds half asleep. Could Bill Switzer try reading the script with some enthusiasm?

And Techno, boy is his voice annoying, but he doesn't have that many lines. This episode starts out pretty decent, then falls apart towards the end. There's something to watch here, but I really think the last act brings the entire episode down.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Tribes: The Hollow Empty

Note: Hollow's Japanese name is Empty, so I'm unsure of a localized title for this episode.

Plot Synopsis
MegaMan's attacks against Hollow are not damaging him in the slightest. Aaron Boreal and the Sattella Police arrive at the scene, along with Luna, Bud and Zack. Because the whole area is surrounded by oil tankers, MegaMan figures it will be safer for everyone if he can get Hollow away from that area. In doing so, he finds out that Hollow won't chase after him, because he is connected by some sort of line between him and Dr. Orihime's limo.

It turns out Hollow is actually a human made out of Matter Waves, and his power source is coming from the limo itself. Bob Copper uses a jamming beam attack (from the first episode, yay continuity!) and it stuns Hollow long enough for MegaMan to finally make an attack. Dr. Orihime then imparts her two OOPArts into Hollow, which heals him, and the two OOPArts along with MegaMan's react together, breaking the seal of the continent of Mu, revealing it overhead. Dr. Orihime cackles as no one can stop her now!

Critique
Of course things were going to get worse before they got better, and with only two episodes to go, we're on the edge of our seats to see how this all turns out. They do spend a few minutes spilling out a few scientific nonsense covering Hollow's exsistence, but overall I think the episode is well put together.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: The Cyber Garden of Doom!

Plot Synopsis
Some weird cyber vines are growing all across the network and taking navi's hostage. It's the work of a Darkloid named Plant... VineMan, and MegaMan and Lan are tasked with taking him down. Along the way, Mr. Match helps out, after having returned from some place else I guess. Why did every character take a vacation?

Anyway, WWW's navi's got captured by VineMan, as did Roll, and in one of the ensuing battles, VineMan damages HeatMan and retreats. Lan goes after him with MegaMan, while Mr. Famous helps recover HeatMan. In the process, Mr. Famous discovers that TorchMan's data is still inside HeatMan, and they manage to bring him back to life.

MegaMan has a lot of trouble against VineMan, who is now using the power of the dark chips, and even with the help of TorchMan, they still can't penetrate his dark barrier. In their desperation, suddenly TorchMan and MegaMan merge, giving MegaMan a new DoubleSoul, TorchSoul. MegaMan blasts away VineMan and frees up the network, and Mr. Match is grateful to have TorchMan back.

Critique
This one is kind of boring actually. I mean, there are highlights here and there, and there's no cross-fusion and some decent animation, but the characters just never stop talking! This whole episode is "Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah," even during all the action sequences! Everybody just shut the fuck up for two seconds! God damn!

That said, TorchSoul is nice to see of course, and there are certainly worse episodes than this one. I don't like that Mr. Match is suddenly a friendly hero-type character, but at least at the very end of the episode they shine a bit of that insane villain personality. This episode could have gotten really bad (MegaMan and Roll tied up in vines? God save us from fanart), but it could have been a lot better too.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Tribes: Orihime's True Colors

Plot Synopsis
Hollow and Dr. Orihime have come to MegaMan's rescue... or have they? Hollow takes out Yeti Blizzard and Dark Phantom with trivial ease and recovers their OOPArts by literally ripping them out. Dr. Orihime laughs and uses the OOPArts to... um... change her clothes to show off her cleavage?

Anyway, she was evil all along and really wants the OOPArts to reawaken Ra Mu and bring a new world order and blah blah blah. MegaMan refuses to surrender to her, and will fight to protect his OOPArt so that he can seal away Ra Mu.

Critique
If the whole setup of Dr. Orihime being evil wasn't given away in the opening credits, this might have been a decent reveal. It's not a bad episode though, well animated, nice and tense, though some of the dialog is a bit cliche for this type of thing. There's only three episodes left, so everything is a bit rushed it feels, but I'm still left satisfied from this episode, and the final shot certainly pumps you up for the next episode.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: A Dangerous Bowling Game

Plot Synopsis
The new craze that's been sweeping DenTech city for the whole episode is bowling! Thanks to new bowling technology research, all new complicated mechanics can be added for something that seems really unnecessary to mess with! Higsby wins a couple of free bowling passes, so he decides to ask Ms. Mari out with him. Unfortunately for Higsby, Ms. Mari ends up accidentally inviting Lan and Mayl with them, turning it into a group activity.

Meanwhile, the Darkloids and their mysterious leader want to strike fear into the public by... attacking bowling alleys? Right... ShadeMan uses a darkchip on a custom Navi named BowlMan, which causes him to turn evil and, play the game more aggressively? I have no idea whats going on in this episode...

Since Higsby is terrible at sports, he sends NumberMan to cheat for him, but BowlMan catches him and starts attacking him. Lan sends in MegaMan, who he basically uses DoubleSoul RollSoul on for like twenty seconds, then a really cruddy looking dimensional area forms up, and Lan beats BowlMan with Cross-Fusion. Then Ms. Mari suggests that Higsby and everyone else go bowling again sometime soon.

Critique
Just look at BowlMan. He was stupid in Battle Network 3, he's stupid in Axess. Yeah, maybe it seems arbitrary as to why I think Vanishing Ganguroo is a great boss, and BowlMan and Wire Sponge are horrible ones, but seriously, BowlMan looks so stupid, and what the fuck are the darkloids hoping to accomplish this episode?

Granted, it's not like BowlMan is out of place. In the other game series, the robots are built for destructive purposes, but it would make sense that some bowling fanatic might customize their Navi towards their favorite sport, but he looks so fucking dumb! He shoots bowling pins as missiles and crap!

Let me not just fault the show for using one of Capcom's more stupid looking Net Navi's though, after all, there's plenty left to not like. The DoubleSoul and Cross-Fusion sequences are so lame, and MegaMan doesn't even attack in his DoubleSoul form. On top of that, I'd swear this episode only had like six animations total, as they reuse the same crap from this episode over and over. At one point, they even flip the image around so it looks different!

Lame story, lame characters, lame animations, everything in this episode is just lame. Higsby helps this episode a tiny bit with his antics, but it's not enough to save this episode this time.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Tribes: Hyde's Scheme

Plot Synopsis
MegaMan is trying to reach his mother, but Yeti Blizzard is holding him back... literally. To keep Mrs. Stelar there, Hyde offers to paint her. When MegaMan finally does show up, Hyde Wave-Changes and uses Geo's mom as a shield to keep MegaMan from attacking. Even the combined help of Harp Note isn't enough to best Hyde with a hostage in his hand.

Dark Phantom hits MegaMan hard, and he's down. Just before Dark Phantom can claim MegaMan's OOPArt, Yeti Blizzard shows up to take it as well. The two of them charge MegaMan, when a blast comes down saving him. It's Hollow, showing up just in time to rescue him... or is he?

Critique
The first half of this episode is done a bit comically, with MegaMan dragging Yeti Blizzard to Hyde's position, and I wish they had played it straight. However, the rest of the episode is played straight, and I don't think we've ever seen Geo with as much fear as he has in this episode, which really strengthens this episode as a whole. Yeah, even though the beginning was more comical than I would have liked, it did get a chuckle out of me.

I do think Hollow's sudden appearance at the end is a bit contrived, even if they did foreshadow it a tiny amount a few episodes ago, but we're really out of episodes to build on the story at this point, and this probably wouldn't have happened if there were more episodes to expand on. Hollows appearance certainly doesn't ruin this episode at all, and this is one of the better episodes of this season.

Rating: Thumbs up!

God Damn Renee!

So yeah, I wasn't sure what angle they were going with this at first. Renee's messed up, won't return Jack's calls, maybe hates him or something, is screwing her own life up, and then BAM! Saw a guy's thumb off! I liked Renee last season, but she's quickly becoming my second favorite character this season. Oh by the way, the bomb is back, looks like I was a bit premature in my last post. Good episode, although the subplot with "Jenny" and her abusive ex is getting really boring, really fast, but I hope to see more Renee soon!

More Mega Man stuff coming up sooner or later, I just want to talk about 24 right now.

24 Season 8 Premier

Yesterday, I had a pretty shitty day. Today, I also had a pretty shitty day. Day to day I live wishing for a time a couple of years ago where I was on top of the world with someone I loved and cared about.

But at least I know, no matter how bad my day was, it was probably a hell of a better day than Jack Bauer's. 24 started off a little quieter this season than seasons past. No immediate threat of a nuclear bomb, no main characters getting offed in the first five minutes, just Jack trying to get his life back together. But it was a well paced episode, with a relatively new cast that is feeling itself out, but nobody outright annoying yet.

When it came down to it though, Jack kicked ass like normal though, and that's what 24 is all about. Click here for the kill of the night, from the Something Awful forums.

Axess: Metal Hot Spring! Ow its Hot!

Plot Synopsis
Lan, Mayl, Tory, Chisao and Ms. Mari are heading to the YokaYoka hot springs for the day, but there's all kinds of ridiculous traditions and tests all of them must pass before they're allowed in the springs. Unable to pass the tests, Lan wanders into the nearby chip/electronics shop owned by Tamako Shiraizumi. She challenges him to a NetBattle with her own Navi, MetalMa... er, HeavyMetalMan... now here's a name change I can't even figure out.

Anyway, HeavyMetalMan isn't the only one looking for a NetBattle, as BubbleMan has followed Lan and MegaMan, planning to exact his revenge. Unfortunately for him, all his attempts go unnoticed by MegaMan, and generally backfire hurting him instead. For some reason, this causes all the sprinklers or other devices with water to go off, soaking Lan and Tamako. Throughout the day, Tamako continually challenges Lan, and their NetBattle keeps being interrupted by various water devices going off when BubbleMan's plans backfire.

Finally in the middle of the night, Lan sneaks away to finally try the hot spring, but Tamako challenges him yet again. During this battle, BubbleMan finally tries a frontal assault that flat out fails, so he summons a dimensional area around the springs. Lan and MegaMan cross-fuse, and take a full on barrage of exploding bubbles head on... which do nothing. Lan then shoots BubbleMan... well that was anti-climatic. BubbleMan runs off, and the next day as Lan is heading home, Tamako challenges him to one last NetBattle.

Critique
There are parts of this episode I like, but the majority of it is pretty mediocre. Weird stuff happens like the bubbles bouncing off the metal blades, and while BubbleMan is somewhat amusing, the entire episode is just a montage of the same joke over and over.

The dimensional area's colors are a bit tamer this time, but they still look pretty bad, and the setup for it has the generators sliding out of rocks and a bus, and it just looks horrible. There's a nice continuity error too, when Lan is fighting in a towel, and then suddenly is fully dressed, no doubt so the animators didn't have to make another cross-fusion animation. On top of this, you have the climax where BubbleMan's full on barrage is completely useless, so there isn't really even a final battle.

What I did like about this episode, is that MegaMan managed to attack HeavyMetalMan with one of his own Metal Blades, which by all accounts should have deleted HeavyMetalMan outright. Actually, MegaMan has a number of interesting moves, although most of them are pretty ridiculous in their own rights. Still, not enough to really save this episode. Also, the picture at the top is horrifying.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Tribes: An Absurd Strategy?!

Plot Synopsis
MegaMan and Yeti Blizzard and duking it out above the city when tons of EM-Viruses are being released everywhere. The cause is their attraction to the OOPArts, which only MegaMan is trying to seal away.

Meanwhile, Hyde is having his art class in a graveyard, when Geo's mother Hope Stelar asks to sign up for the class, hearing from Luna how fun it was. As the battle between Yeti Blizzard and MegaMan rages on on the other side of the city, Hyde learns that none of the children there are interested in the art, but actually interested in Luna's baked goods.

Just as Hyde is about to leave to steal the OOPArts in despair, he overhears Luna and her friends talking. Luna wants to MegaMan to try one of her treats, so Bud suggests giving them to Geo Stelar since Geo is MegaMan, so Luna blurts out something along the lines of, "I refuse to believe Geo Stelar is MegaMan!"

Hyde suddenly realizes that he has MegaMan's mother within his grasps, and broadcasts a message to the city, that if MegaMan wants his mother back, he'll have to bring the OOPArt to Hyde! Oh shi...

Critique
Most of this episode is action oriented, which is always a good thing, but the setup for the cliffhanger is fantastic! Surprisingly, this show hasn't abused Geo's friends in direct danger too often, and certainly hasn't gone as far as having his mother taken hostage, and now that it has gone there, the shock and added tension is greatly increased. Imagine if this show was as crazy as something like 24 (premiering tonight!) where almost any character could die at any time, although it'd be pretty fucked up to kill off Geo's mom and make him an orphan.

Even though we know his mother will be okay, this is still a fun setup.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: DoubleSoul!

Plot Synopsis
All the lights in DenTech city are overloading and projecting way more light than normal. Of course a Darkloid is behind it all, FlashMan, and Lan is called to the case by Mr. Famous. Overhearing his secret Net Savior call, Mayl follows Lan, and ends up jacking in her own Navi Roll, to assist MegaMan against FlashMan.

Unfortunately Mayl and Roll get a bit too cocky, and a poorly aimed aqua tower nearly deletes MegaMan. Lan jacks MegaMan out, and Roll gets jacked out too. They head to SciLab to see if MegaMan can be repaired while FlashMan continues to wreak havoc on the city.

Dr. Hikari examines MegaMan's data and notices a lot of strange new data, perhaps caused by the Cross-Fusion. MegaMan's in bad shape though, and they need to reboot him. During the rebooting process, FlashMan's attacks are screwing up the power grid, and if the power goes out in SciLab, MegaMan could be lost forever!

Feeling guilty for nearly deleting MegaMan, Mayl and Roll jack in to distract FlashMan while they buy MegaMan some time. Roll takes quite a beating for a few solid minutes while FlashMan continually pounds her with explosives. Roll is just about deleted when MegaMan finally shows up. He attacks with a Bamboo Sword and has FlashMan on the rocks, when FlashMan pulls out his own ace in the hole, a DarkChip.

The DarkChip surges an enormous amount of power through FlashMan, and he suddenly has no problem fighting off MegaMan. MegaMan goes down, and is about to be deleted, when Roll, struggling to her feet, attempts to pull MegaMan out of harms way. Suddenly, a chain reaction goes off, and a huge surge of light engulfs MegaMan and Roll. The two of them fuse together, changing MegaMan's appearance to take on some of Roll's characteristics, and giving him full access to her powers. MegaMan is suddenly even more powerful than DarkChip infused FlashMan, and blasts him away with ease.

With the day saved, Dr. Hikari figures the process was caused by those new bits of data in MegaMan, and they call the process DoubleSoul. Rolls Data left over from DoubleSoul is put onto a chip so Lan can use it at any time, and Lan thanks Mayl and Roll for helping save the day.

Critique
I like DoubleSoul. It's almost practically useless in the games, but it looks cool, and the show doesn't have to deal the gameplay limitations of it. Admittedly RollSoul looks a bit fruity on MegaMan, but conceptually DoubleSoul brings back the classic Mega Man theme of Mega Man taking his enemies abilities for himself. Although MegaMan never merges with an evil Navi for DoubleSoul, the ideas are roughly the same.

DoubleSoul in the show is more often used better than Style Change was as well, since MegaMan is usually in trouble when it triggers, and it's better than Cross-Fusion because it restricts Lan to his primary role as an operator.

For this episode, the narrative is pretty decent with Mayl's interference screwing up MegaMan, and her and Roll's determination to save him. DoubleSoul itself is given a reasonable explanation as to why MegaMan can suddenly use it, and the introduction of DarkChips will play a significant part in the rest of this series.

On the downside, the dialog is completely awful and there are so damn many reused animations of the same explosions again and again that this episode damn near comes off as lazy. This episode is practically 1/3rd recycled animation, and it becomes a drain to watch because of it. I'm still recommending this episode, because these problems don't overwhelm the positives.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Tribes: Three Way OOPArts Struggle

Plot Synopsis
With Hyde, Rich Dotcom and MegaMan all having a single OOPArt, the battle is underway, as all three pieces will be needed to revive or seal Mu. Dr. Orihime tells Geo that he'll have to prepare himself as the his enemies will come after him. As he's leaving, Dr. Orihime remarks to Hollow that while MegaMan, Yeti Blizzard and Dark Phantom are fighting, that's when they'll strike... whaaa? (fake surprise)

Heading home, Geo spots Hyde and Rich destroying the city while they are fighting each other, so he pulses in to try and stop them. Rich and Hyde decide that before they fight, it would be best to team up and take out MegaMan first! Uh-oh! Luckily for MegaMan, Hyde realizes he's lost track of time, and is late for a prior engagement. Hyde leaves, giving MegaMan enough time to escape.

Hyde has become a painting teacher, in hopes that the young children he raises in his studio will grow up to appreciate his work. In reality, everyone is really there to eat Luna's treats she brings, as Luna feels the class is a great way to practice her cooking, no doubt for her beloved MegaMan, and it looks like she's improved quite a bit!

Later in the day, Geo is out and about, and Rich Dotcom's EM-Being, Yeti, senses Omega-Xis and the other OOPArt nearby. Rich accosts Geo, and brings him to a cafe, where he offers Geo several briefcases loaded with cash for Geo's OOPArt. Geo doesn't even flinch. "I won't let you revive Mu!" he says! The episode ends with the two of them preparing for battle in the wave roads.

Critique
This is almost a strategic episode in the way various bits of the plot are being placed around the time frame to build up to the climax. You've got the brief hint that Dr. Orihime is planning something sinister, the double team of Hyde and Rich versus MegaMan, and Geo's unwavering determination to protect the Earth. Even Hyde's art class is setting up some significance, and while it seems dumb that he would potentially give up the OOPArt in order to teach an art class, it does seem to match his character. We only have six episodes left, but everything is moving towards the finale now.

This episode on it's own is pretty decent, although the rich guy offering the hero a truckload of cash that the hero rejects has been done enough times to be cliched, but the imagery is good, and it's some character points for Geo of course. It's an episode that makes you look forward to watching more.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: Bubble Trouble

Plot Synopsis
Ms. Mari's class is having a field trip to the waterworks and, once again, Lan is running late. Him and MegaMan are arguing back and forth about the situation, as Lan is being whiny, and MegaMan is being a bit smug. When Lan arrives, and emergency goes off and Lan gets a call from Mr. Famous, his Net Savior handler. Mr. Famous wants Lan to investigate the water works, so Lan jacks MegaMan in as they continue their little spat between each other.

Messing up the network is BubbleMan, another Darkloid. MegaMan is too much for him, so BubbleMan gets a dimensional area setup to go after Lan. Lan goes for the Cross-Fuse but MegaMan tries to stop him. Too far into it, Lan is cross-fused, but without his battlechips! "Why didn't you tell me before hand MegaMan!?" "I tried to!" They continue to argue as Lan fights BubbleMan with his Mega-Buster, but it's not being all that effective. BubbleMan loses interest in the fight, as Lan tries to destroy the dimensional area generators. Unfortunately, Lan's punching and shooting have no effect. "Lan, you're going to have to think of something else, it's not working!" "Then I'll make it work!" "Listen to me!" "BE QUIET!"

Overcome with anger and frustration, Lan's yelling at MegaMan causes the cross-fusion to break. MegaMan falls behind some sort of firewall, and the second time they try and cross-fuse, it fails. Even after MegaMan makes it through the firewall back into the PET, they still can't cross-fuse and MegaMan tries diagnosing the problem. They're running out of time though, as BubbleMan is tearing up the water works. Needing to stall for time, Lan tries to stop BubbleMan with his bare hands, but that of course proves to be futile.

"I can't figure out whats wrong Lan, I've tried everything!" "You're going to just have to try harder, and fast!" Just then, it suddenly dawns on Lan that MegaMan is always in the position Lan is in right now in combat. So Lan decides that if MegaMan needs more time, Lan is going to stall as long as he can. MegaMan looks on Lan, amazed that he keeps fighting despite being defenseless. BubbleMan is sick of Lan's interference so he blast a bubble at him filled with an explosive!

Just as the explosive hits, MegaMan screams Lan's name, and the cross-fusion finally restores itself, saving Lan in the nick of time from the impact. With the cross-fusion intact, Lan defeats BubbleMan and saves the day. Later, they determine that their friendship is what causes the cross-fusion to stabilize, and when they don't get along it doesn't work right. Lan then promises to listen to MegaMan more often.

Critique
If there's any episode of Axess I genuinely think is really good, it's this episode. The plot is pieced together very nicely and the build up to the cross-fusion breaking feels well paced. Seeing Lan in this episode try to take on BubbleMan by himself is great, and for once it comes off as actual bravery, rather than near suicidal insanity. The role-reversal with Lan and MegaMan is what makes this episode work, and it touches greatly on the partnership angle that I wrote about a few reviews ago. It's a shame the show really drops this angle as the series progresses.

BubbleMan is probably the best new character out of Axess, a bit of a precursor to Cancer Bubble, although I personally find Cancer more endearing. But if you're looking for a pathetic villain with a speech impediment, Bubble's your man.

Not everything is fantastic this episode, and this is the episode where the dimensional area generators start sliding up out of solid concrete without so much as cracking the ground, and that just looks shitty. That's really the only small complaint of an otherwise fantastic episode though.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Tribes: OOPArts of the Ninja Mansion

Plot Synopsis
Training is done for the day, and Hyde, Rich Dotcom, and Geo all begin looking for the OOPArt, but the mansion is filled with tricks and traps. Geo pulses in, and finds the OOPArt as MegaMan in a secret passage. Before he can grab it, Rogue shows up and starts a fight with him.

The Ninja Master comes across Hyde and Rich Dotcom sneaking around the mansion, and expels them. So Hyde and Rich Dotcom wave change and attack. Surprisingly, the Ninja Master is able to hold his own for a small amount of time before they finally catch him off guard, and then both Dark Phantom and Yeti Blizzard make their way to the OOPArt.

With all the OOPArts in close proximity, the continent of Mu reveals itself, and Rogue moves towards it. With the distraction going on, Dark Phantom steals the Ninja OOPArt, and once Rogue reaches the continent, it disappears again. Everyone takes off, and the master is disappointed he lost the secret treasure of the tribe, but is enthralled with the new techniques he had seen during the battles, and is excited to continue his training.

MegaMan calls up Dr. Orihime to explain the missing OOPArt, and she calls him useless and gets angry. What the hell is her problem?

Critique
Hooray! We never have to hear "de osaru" again! Aside from that grating catchphrase, nothing wrong with this episode. Geo jumps for quite a scare after seeing a skeleton drop from the ceiling though, hilarious! It would have been nice for the battle to be a bit more climatic, but what a cliffhanger the show leaves you on with both of MegaMan's enemies now possessing an OOPArt!

Also, I like the thought of a well trained Ninja like human standing a fighting chance against Wave-Changed humans, ridiculous as the techniques the ninja used though. It was nice to not see him instantly go down.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: NetCity No More!

Plot Synopsis
Lan wakes up really late the next morning, still a little exhausted from the whole Cross-Fusion process. He goes downstairs to his mother barely recalling what happened. She's awfully cheerful for someone whose kid almost died yesterday. "You have to show me when you and MegaMan Cross-Fuse again Lan!" she says. God, you are the worst mother in the world!

Lan takes off to SciLab, which lies mostly in ruins, to pick up his PET and MegaMan. The whole place is a mess, and Lan's Dad thinks Dr. Wily might somehow be behind the dimensional area that happened last episode. Since the Darkloids stole all the Synchro-chips, they only have two left, and they can't make anymore due to the rare metal used in their creation.

Lan goes to pick up MegaMan, and because of the Cross-Fusion, MegaMan loses his ability to style change (damn backwards comparability!), but otherwise he's fine. Lan's father gives Lan back his PET and Lan runs off to meet his friends, but Lan's father forgets that Lan still has the Synchro-chip.

Lan, Mayl, Rush and Chisao are at some sort of exhibition that is giving a holographic tour of NetCity, when suddenly it comes under attack from a giant UFO like structure. The UFO starts sucking up NetNavi's and chunks of data from NetCity left and right, so Lan gets permission to use battlechips and Jacks MegaMan in. MegaMan boards the UFO, but is attacked by SavageMan and forced to log out. Just then, the evil shadowy figure bad guy dude launches another satellite dimensional area around the exhibition Lan is at. Finding the Synchro-chip on him still, Lan Cross-Fuses again to fight the viruses and SavageMan, but this time he loads up battlechips before fusing so he can use them in the fight.

Lan effortlessly defeats SavageMan, and the dimensional area collapses. Lan is still drained of his energy, but doesn't fall unconscious this time. Unfortunately though, he was distracted long enough to let ShadeMan take over NetCity, building a huge Cyber-Citadel over the former metropolis.

Lan heads back to SciLab and Lan's father decides to let him keep the Synchro-Chip, but he reprograms it to not drain Lan's energy. Yeah, basically there was a switch on it that Yuchiro moved from drain energy, to not drain energy, that simple right? Now the Synchro-Chip doesn't have a memory leak (lame joke)!

Dr. Hikari also introduces Lan to a man named Keifer, chief of the Net Police. He wants to make Lan and MegaMan Net Saviors, a sort of secret agent crime fighter of the internet. With Dr. Hikari's blessing, Lan enthusiastically takes the no doubt dangerous and life threatening job that government officials are giving out to children. Dr. Hikari, you are the worst father in the world.

Critique
In the setup of phase of Axess, it doesn't become apparent right away how bad things are going to get, and I don't have any particular beefs with this episode on its own to gripe about. Yeah, the scene where the Navi's are getting sucked up is so obviously motioned tweened and crummy looking, and I still think the dimensional areas look chuddy, but nothing hits too hard on the writing this time.

Personally, I love where MegaMan first meets SavageMan this episode, gets knocked to the ground, and then just starts talking shit. Ah MegaMan, never change! Maybe some of that Ruby-Spears Mega Man rubbed off on ya.

To tell you the truth, I don't think the episodes really get bad until we get a few episodes in, and we're actually working with an interesting setup at first, even though NetCity getting taken over pretty much negates the entire Grave Finale doesn't it? Things will get pretty shitty, pretty fast though, even though this episode isn't so bad. If there is one thing that I really do like about Axess, I think the new opening and musical score are pretty good, even if its chopped up footage of the original Japanese Axess opening. The Japanese score is decent as well, some sort of Rock tune that fits nicely, although I personally like the orchestral soundtrack.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Tribes: Training de Osaru

De Osaru is something all the characters repeat over and over this episode that is apparently nonsense that means nothing, so I have no idea how it would be localized.

Plot Synopsis
Zack has found a spot for everyone to go on vacation at that has something to do with ancient cultures and invites everyone to go. It's the ancient tribes of the ninja, and Geo doesn't seem to think that he'll find anything related to Mu there, but I guess he figures "what the hell," since he gets to be with his friends.

They all arrive and meet the instructor of the Ninja tribe, Jackie Hanzou. Jackie offers to train them all in the art of the ninja, and as a prize, he'll offer them a spring roll scroll. I haven't a clue if most people would consider this a good prize or not to tell the truth. Everyone signs up, and as part of their training, they must either catch Jackie Hanzou, or hit him with a shruiken. They all chase him through the forest in all kinds of silly ways, and Hanzou uses some pretty ridiculous techniques to evade them. Before the conclusion of the training however, Sonia and Cancer have to leave to meet Sonia's manager.

No one has successfully completed the training at the end of the day, and suddenly Hyde and Rich Dotcom show up. Both of them are interested in the Ninja training, as someone who completes it will be the new owner of the land. Just then, Geo gets a call from Dr. Orihime, telling him she thinks an OOPArt is in the area. The episode ends with Hyde and Rich Dotcom going through the same hell of training Geo and his friends just went through.

Critique
This episode is just a wee bit too silly for my tastes. While I don't mind off the wall humor, this episode feels like it's trying too hard, and everyone saying "de Osaru" at the end of every sentence gets really annoying really fast. I really don't think this episode does anything for Star Force, and I just found the humor to be really bland. Sonia is also getting a bit more insane each episode, as she threatens to decapitate Cancer, in a pretty serious manner.

On the plus side for this episode, it's kind of interesting seeing everyone in Ninja costumes, although none of them look as interesting as MegaMan's Ninja Transformation. I also thought that Geo's ninja name was interesting, at least with his Japanese name, which roughly translates to Shooting Star Subaru. Still, those are tiny pieces of a really mediocre episode, and I'm afraid this is the first episode of Tribes I'm going to have to rate a thumbs down.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: Cross Fusion!

And we're finally here, Mega Man NT Warrior: Axess, the second series in the NT Warrior saga, and just about the start of where the show stops having much to do with Battle Network, and goes off on its own set stories. There's a lot of problems with Axess, and unlike NT Warrior, I genuinely dislike this series. Not that every episode is bad, there's a few nuggets here and there, but the majority of them get pretty stupid, and the show really takes itself too seriously. There's a great deal of changes that get started with the show from the very first episode, and some of them don't seem to make a lot of sense.

I don't know if this is standard in Japan or not, but there was only one break between weekly episodes of NT Warrior, and that's between the first series and this one. From the start of this first episode until the end of Star Force Tribes, there was a new Mega Man episode each and every week. The gap between NT Warrior and Axess was about six months or so, a bit longer than US television breaks, but not out of the ordinary.

I mention this, because right away, the cast of characters has been tweaked and moved around. Dex is missing, Yai is missing, World Three is missing, Masa, Sal, and Miyu are missing, and Chisao, Mr. Famous, and Lan's dad Yuchiro, are now main cast members. Ms. Mari also makes more frequent appearances in roles you wouldn't expect, and I theorize that there must of been some sort of contract negotiations going on in the background with all the voice actors in Japan, because all of these characters do make a return appearance eventually, but their role is significantly smaller within the greater context of the show. I am just speculating however, and this could have been a writing decision from the get go.

Axess's main problem stems from a really boring supporting cast. The new villains just plain suck, starting from this very first episode, and the dub doesn't help any by giving some of the characters just horrible voices. The other problem comes from Cross Fusion, which completely destroys the entire dynamic of the show that worked out so well for Battle Network. I'll explain more after the synopsis.

Plot Synopsis
If you can't tell by the way, that's Lan. MegaMan's eyes are green.

It's been a few months since the dimensional area experiments last episode, and SciLab is close to perfecting it. They are working on something called a Synchro-chip, a battle chip that will let the NetOp and NetNavi fuse together in a process called Cross-Fusion. There first test between a guy named Masaki and PrismMan fails, and Masaki needs medical attention after the experiment. Of course Lan is like, "Oh man, that looks like fun!" Lan, you're dumb.

While Lan is bugging his dad to injure himself, the doors seal and all the air starts pumping out of the room from the ventilation. MegaMan jacks in and fights a new net navi, BeastMa, er SavageMan! Lookit dat! Another name change! MegaMan has no problems with SavageMan though, probably cause SavageMan seems to be preoccupied with whatever is stuck in his throat.

Unsatisfied with the work of SavageMan, Dr. Claw shoots some junk out of a satellite, which create a dimensional area around SciLab! The whole color pallet turns to shit, and the lab is suddenly under attack from viruses in the real world, and an evil Net Navi ShadowMan! ShadowMan is stealing the synchro-chips, so with no real way to combat him, Lan grabs one and cross-fuses with MegaMan. Lan and MegaMan merge together, but ShadeMan escapes. SavageMan shows up again, and Lan finds out that he doesn't have any Battle Chips to use, but luckily, his Mega-Buster blows the fuck up out of SavageMan. SavageMan retreats, and the dimensional area dissipates, and the cross-fusion breaks. Lan passes out unconscious, BUT HE'S OKAY FOLKS! (because we're watching the dub).

Critique
There's a number of things here that are just bad, and the first of which is SavageMan, who has the worst voice possible given to him. He sounds like he's ready to vomit, and the attempt to make him overtly scary with his voice is just laughably bad. He's the character I like the least of Axess.

Then you've got the scene where Lan challenges ShadowMan. Lan runs downstairs, ShadowMan comments how foolish Lan is, and suddenly Lan is on the ground. Um? We miss something there guys?

Finally, at the very end of the episode, Lan falls unconscious, but is suddenly ok for no apparent reason as we hear his voice from off camera as we're looking at an establishing shot of the lab. Why not show Lan getting up if he was just fine? Oh I know, because that actually didn't happen. All my complaints with this episode are problems the dub and Viz Media introduced. It was their choice to give SavageMan a horrible voice, it was their choice to cut out ShadowMan thrashing Lan around, and it was their choice to fuck up the ending. Listen guys, it's okay to show Lan taking some hits, as a character the audience should have learned to like by this point, it should have some emotional strength if that character is put in realistic danger. If anything, ending with Lan unconscious from Cross-Fusion and not responding would make a great cliffhanger, and ensure kids tune in next week if you ask me, I don't get this decision at all.

That said, this isn't a bad episode by itself. Yeah, the characters get tweaked around, the dimensional area effect looks like shit, and Cross-Fusion becomes the worst thing to happen to this show, but we're not off to a bad start. The characters might have been beyond the writers control, the dimensional areas look better as the show goes on, and Cross-Fusion hasn't been abused yet. Even though the later half of this episode is chopped up to high hell, it's alright I suppose.

Rating: Thumbs up!

While I'm on the topic of Cross-Fusion, I'll explain my problems with it. First off, I'm not against the idea of two characters fusing together. It works fine in Star Force, and Mega Man ZX. I'm not even against the idea of Cross-Fusion working in this show, provided it's used with some restraint.

In Battle Network, the important element that distinguishes it from all the other series is the partnership between Lan and MegaMan.exe. Lan is MegaMan's operator, he comes up with the strategy and MegaMan relies on him to be successful. MegaMan is the Navi, he is an extension of Lan's operating abilities, and it's MegaMan's job to protect Lan in this world of giant computer networks and cyber terrorism. If Lan is in any danger of possible injury or death, it's usually something environmental connected to a network, and it is MegaMan's responsibility to fix the problem to save him. Likewise, if MegaMan is in danger, it is Lan's responsibility to feed MegaMan the battle chips.

With Cross-Fusion, the partnership is mostly lost. MegaMan becomes basically an armor, and Lan becomes a Super-Hero crime fighter. MegaMan's role is almost entirely gone, while the show focuses on Lan jumping out of planes and fighting Darkloids with the Mega-Buster. The whole dynamic of Battle Network is lost. Lan is not MegaMan, and MegaMan is not Lan, and the partnership is diminished.

On top of this, what exactly are the practical reasons for Cross-Fusion? Was it always intended to be used as a weapon? Lan is totally excited to Cross Fuse at the start of the episode, but if Cross-Fusion was to be developed as a weapon, is it really likely that his father would ever let him use it, especially at age 11? Or was it going to be used as a recreational NetBattling thing, where NetOp and NetNavi battle as one? In that case, isn't that recklessly dangerous for a recreational sport?

The writers knew somewhere along the lines that if Cross-Fusion wasn't restricted somehow, there wouldn't be any reason to have MegaMan on the show at all, so that's why there are dimensional areas, the only areas where Cross Fusion is possible. It's also the only place a Net Navi can materialize in the real world, but doesn't it stand to reason that if Darkloids can materialize in a dimensional area, so could regular Net Navis? Couldn't Lan just jack MegaMan into the dimensional area, and more safely operate him that way from outside it? That seems more practical to me, and keeps the partnership dynamic, while extending on the range of dangers the show could work with.

That's why this whole idea came about in the first place. How many networks can you attack? If you open up the real world to these cyber-attacks, you just have a lot more material to work with. Of course if Navi's and Cross-Fusion could happen anywhere, Lan would be a full on superhero, and the whole idea of Battle Network would be gone completely, so that's why it's restricted to dimensional areas.

But the dimensional areas are abused to all hell as well. They pop out of rocks and the ground and all kinds of weird spots, and trust me, the animators don't even try to make it look good. One of the worst parts of Axess is watching them try and make dimensional areas.

Cross-Fusion gets abused like crazy this season as well. Just about every villain fights MegaMan for a few minutes, then says, "welp fuck it, lets attack the real world!" and then Lan Cross-Fuses. It'd been different if Cross-Fusion was worked a bit better, say like the EX Codes last season. EX Codes were powerful, but extremely dangerous. Cross-Fusion starts that way, but next episode they get rid of the danger right away. If Cross-Fusion was a last resort, it could actually work really well for the show.

Instead, get ready for this scenario over and over. Darkloid attacks some network. Lan jacks in MegaMan for a two minute fight. Darkloid gets irritated, and a dimensional area blasts from outer space to where Lan is. Darkloid jacks into dimensional area, so Lan cross fuses and takes them out no problem. Sometimes they even skip the MegaMan portion of the show, and MegaMan almost entirely disappears from this season. This is why I don't like Cross-Fusion, and they go out of control with it this season, and Stream from what I've heard.

At least in Beast they scaled it down quite a bit. Yeah, it took traveling to a fucking alternate dimension, but at least Lan and MegaMan were partners again, instead of MegaMan basically being Lan's talking armor. I think even the writers noticed some of the points I'm making by that point in the series.

As if Cross-Fusion wasn't bad enough though, wait until we meet some of the new villains. If the show kept really interesting characters, I could deal with Cross-Fusion. As it stand though, Axess is boring as shit.

Tribes: Terrifying God

Plot Synopsis
Possessed by an EM-Being, the village chieftain begins assaulting the city. MegaMan and Harp Note leap into action to try and stop him. The monster calls himself Terra Condor, a god, and he demands a sacrifice. In the midst of battle, he kidnaps Luna and takes her back to the Mu temple.

He DOES NOT TICKLE HER, but instead demands to sacrifice her heart, which is notably a bit more dangerous. MegaMan shows up again and continues the fight. In the fight, MegaMan blasts up the flowers that were made as an offering the previous year, and this affects the chieftain, allowing him to start reasserting his identity over the EM-Being, stunning it long enough for MegaMan to deliver a final blow to the beast. Interestingly, the Condor EM-Being seems to have a death animation like the NT Warrior delete animation, so MegaMan actually might have scored a kill here.

With the day saved, everyone heads home, and Geo makes it just in time to go out to dinner with his mom, where he has chicken! "No more birds!" cries Geo.

Critique
Star Force 2 has a lot of problems, but if you were to pick out any particular thing about it that would sum up what was bad about it, it would be the Whazzap scenario which featured Terra Condor. It is so horrible, and god am I glad that they pretty much rewrote it entirely for the show.

This episode is almost non-stop fighting and it works well enough. This episode and the last one are pretty much the only ones to feature Luna as well, at least as a central figure in Geo's life, and I think it's important they got something out of that, considering what a key role she plays in the whole story. Also, there's this.

Rating: Thumbs up!

NT Warrior: Virus Busters!

Plot Synopsis
Lan's dad is conducting some weird experiments on the island of Jawaii, involving something called Dimensional Areas, which basically take data from the cyberworld and makes it into matter, kind of like how Rush can walk around and go from the real world to the cyberworld. Meanwhile, Lan himself is doing some of his own inventing and creates a wireless Jack In port for his PET. He then gets a startling phone call from Commander Beef.

Lan's dad has gone missing, and somebody actually noticed! Lan and his friends, and Tory, head down to the mall that Yuchiro was working at to try and find him. When they get there, they find the place has been overrun with viruses, except not just in the cyberworld, but the real world under the dimensional area from the experiment! Lan and everyone jack in their Navi's but immediately lose contact with them afterwords. With no choice but to run from the viruses, they all take off.

MegaMan and the other navis get lost in a maze of tunnels, and eventually Aki, who I guess is there for no inexplicable reason, helps lead them to their NetOps. Meanwhile, Lan and everyone find out that the viruses take damage from water. They all load up on water guns at a nearby toy store and begin shooting the viruses left and right.

Eventually they make their way to the core of the dimensional area and find it is infested with the mother of all viruses, The Life Virus! They try attacking it, but there efforts are futile. Just before they're about to be killed, MegaMan reestablishes contact with Lan, and appears in the real world to fight off the virus. When the virus is deleted, the core returns to normal, and all the Navi's return to their PETs.

Just around the corner, they find Lan's dad sleeping, which they figure was caused by the ghost virus. But since the ghost virus can't do that, I'm just going with my theory that Lan's dad is an irresponsible asshole. My theory is confirmed because seconds after seeing Lan, Yuchiro jumps in a van-helicopter-thing and runs off. You are the worst father ever! Just then, Commander Beef gets a call from the other net agents, and a second dimensional area set up by Lan's father is also infested with viruses! Everyone groans as they prepare to head on over that way.

Critique
So this is the real season finale? Seriously? A ghost busters parody? Are you kidding me? It ain't a coincidence, as the title of this episode is exactly the same thing in Japan. This whole episode is just everyone running around from viruses until they figure out they're weak to water. What? Are the viruses from the land of Oz? What happens if Rush touches water, does he get deleted too? What about MegaMan? He was firing water from his arm cannon right?

Then you got Aki, who is so fucking poorly animated, holy shit! Ever heard of Mo-Cap XEBEC? Or at least increasing the amount of keyframes on Maya? Thankfully, this is Aki's last appearance, and these horrible 3D effects are going to be limited for a little while at least.

The Life Virus had potential to be a big time finale type fight, as it is the final boss of the first game, but I guess they thought it would be funnier to go with some jokes instead. I really don't understand why this episode, and all the other ones after "The End of the End" couldn't have just been done before finishing up the whole Grave arc. Yeah, there are some lead ins with the dimensional areas and wireless PETs that will play a part in Axess, but those events could have been summed up in a few sentences of the next season, or hell, just make all those episodes come in for Axess.

Then there's a weird gap at the beginning of the episode where everyone's on a plane to Jawaii, and then suddenly the plane is now a helicopter. Did they get in a helicopter, or did the plane just turn into one? Ever heard of cutting to continuity here?

If there is anything to like about this episode though, it's that we get to see a lot of viruses from the games that haven't been showcased before, and many of them true to their source material. We've got the drop down guys, the Aura head things, the zap rabbits, the hands the drop bombs, the quake viruses, all kinds of interesting stuff, and at least the life virus does make an appearance.

Mostly though, I just think this episode is disappointing. I don't see a lot of effort into this episode, and referential humor isn't all that great. So what if they look like the Ghostbusters? Is there anything else to this episode? The answer is no.

Rating: Thumbs down.

As we come to a close on the first series of NT Warrior, I have some final thoughts. For all the shit I give this series, I did genuinely enjoy it. It has its ups (the N1 Grand Prix, MegaMan's deletion, World Three in general), and downs (Grave, Princess Pride, Bass, PharaohMan), but I think I've given mostly positive reviews. A lot of episodes in this show are good enough to watch, not just as a Mega Man fan, but as genuine entertaining show.

I don't go into each episode expecting much, but I still look forward to seeing what happens, because the characters keep it interesting. I definitely think Star Force has stronger characters, hands down, but I like Lan and MegaMan to be sure, and NT Warrior has its own cast of strong support characters (Count Zap, Mr. Match, Higsby, Masa, Rush) and a few lame ones (Yai, Kid Grave, Chaud early on but he gets better).

NT Warrior is pretty inconsistent though. The episodes that are good are just waaaaaay better than the ones that are bad. Ratings are a pretty arbitrary thing, but this show is always walking the line of "so stupid its great," and "so stupid its stupid." When you see Count Zap cackling away while wailing on an electric guitar about stealing video games from children, you can't help but laugh. When you hear Lord Wily give a long contrived explanation about the origins of Bass, you just want to change the channel. This show generally works better when it doesn't take itself too seriously, although sometimes weak writing, like in the episode above, keeps the joke from being funny.

I'll tell you what isn't funny though. MegaMan NT Warrior Axess. Take everything positive I've said about this show: a few interesting stories, great supporting cast, not taking itself too seriously, and then just chuck that shit all out the window. Now you have Axess, which strives to prove that you can absolutely murder a show.

Maybe I'm just speaking as an ignorant American, since the show did do well in Japan, but to me, Axess is the death of this show. The melodrama here is off the charts, all the good characters are replaced by absolutely horrible ones, and they some how manage to destroy the entire dynamic of Battle Network that forms the basis for the whole damn scenario!

That's not to say every episode of Axess is bad, but most of them are. You think I don't like Kid Grave, wait till you hear my thoughts on Regal and Ms. Yuri, good god. In the US, Axess didn't do well enough to keep going, but in Japan it managed to stay afloat for a few more seasons. Although I haven't personally seen Stream, some of Beast, and most of Beast+, from what I understand, the shows just got progressively worse. After Stream, the show got it's season halved, and then it got it's time slot halved as well. Ouch!

From what I've seen of Beast, they tried to fix a few problems that Axess introduced, and Steam drilled into the fucking ground, but by then it was really too late, and to fix those problems, they had to make new, stupid ones. If you want a decent cartoon to kill a few hours with, you could do worse than the first series of NT Warrior, but if you want to keep going with the series, you probably shouldn't bother unless you're a die hard Mega Man fan. Axess is coming up next.

Tribes: Infiltration! Nansca Village

Plot Synopsis
Sonia is reading about the wonders of Mu and is just so bored that she wants to get out and do something, but Cancer tells her to finish her song. Geo is at home with his mom who wants to go out for dinner that night, and she mentions something about Luna traveling around the world to enhance her cooking, which worries Geo right away.

Anyway, Geo gets a call from Dr. Orihime to investigate another set of Mu ruins in the village of Whaz... no fuck that, I don't wanna be one of them fagots that gets upset over a few small localization changes, but seriously, Whazzap is one of the god damned stupidest things I've ever had to experience in any video game ever, let alone some of the retarded shit from the Mega Man series. So I'm going to pretend it was never localized. Geo is heading to Nansca, alright? Nansca.

Sonia calls up Geo to find out what he's up to and jumps at the opportunity to go off on an adventure. They head down to Nansca and meet the chieftain at the village ruins. He lets them into the temple, but Omega-Xis and Lyra don't sense any EM-activity. He shows them around a bit and talks about the traditions of the village. They used to sacrifice people to their gods on this day, but now they have a chosen person make an offering of an important treasure to that person. The chieftain then invites them all to a festival they are holding in their god's honor.

While in the village, Geo and Sonia run into Luna, who is there looking for those cooking ingredients, presumably for her beloved MegaMan. This is the first time Luna meets Sonia as well, and does she turn into a screaming fan all of a sudden. The cheiftan begins the ceremony for god to choose who should make the offering, by sending a bird through a crowd of people. Whoever the bird lands on has been chosen, and it just so happens to land on Luna. Luna gets excited that she gets to make the offering.

Sometime later, Cancer Bubble is tracking down Sonia and comes to the Mu ruins looking for her. Just as he walks in, he sees the village cheiftan get possessed by an EM-Being! The Cheiftan, with a glow in his eyes, declares himself god, and that Luna shall be his sacrifice!

Critique
They pretty much spend the episode building up the backstory of the village so they can bring about the conflict next episode. This is the first episode, probably of the season, to not have an action sequence in it at all. Instead we get some character interaction, and Sonia's starting to come off as much as a control freak as Luna. It is good they managed to fit Luna into this episode though, as she really gets shafted as far as her character goes most of this season, but poor Geo now has to deal with both of these crazy dames!

The only thing I don't like is that Condor (the EM-Being) just comes out of nowhere right at the end, without any real forethought or provocation. It's one thing if the villains induce him, like in the game, but it just seems lame that he arises out of nowhere, even after Omega-Xis explicitly says he doesn't sense anything in the temple. We're assuming Mu existed even before Battle Network started right? As did these EM-Beings, but they were hidden for thousands of years and lost until the FMian King showed up right? I'm just wondering why all of a sudden Condor appears out of nowhere is all.

All well, at least the chieftain is going to kill Luna instead of tickle her...

Rating: Thumbs up!

NT Warrior: From Here to Revolutionary PET's!

Plot Synopsis
Chaud and Lan are having a friendly NetBattle, and Chaud unleashes the Program Advance on MegaMan. Lan smirks and counters it with a simple Cyber-Sword, throwing Chaud completely off his game. Before they can finish the match however, Chaud gets a phone call from his father, and has to postpone the match.

BlazeQuest is working with a local engineer to design a brand new PET, but the engineer isn't finished yet. He keeps getting held up on really minor imperfections that are driving his assistant crazy. Chaud offers to help out, so the proprietor has Chaud running errands like shredding papers, cleaning the bathrooms, and buying them lunch, much to Chaud's chagrin (I know how you feel dude).

The way they are designing the chips involves Net Navi's cutting a cyber-stone thing with swords (don't ask me how engineering works on this show), so Chaud jacks ProtoMan to help out with the Program Advance. While the shot comes close, it's still not perfect, and the owner tells Chaud that "Power without control is useless."

After they send Chaud out to get them lunch, the power goes out. Apparently the assistant forgot to pay the power bill. Afraid of being fired, he runs off for an easy fix, and gets caught stealing World Three's electricity from #1 Curry. World Three chases after him, but the assistant gives them the slip.

As Chaud is returning, the owner of the shop is being harassed by mafioso types, but they quickly run off when they find out Chaud is the son of the owner of BlazeQuest. Chaud offers the man a position with his company, promising better work facilities and benefits, but the guy is worried about how he likes to do things his own way.

Just then, the assistant steals the incomplete data and sends viruses into the system to slow them down from chasing him. Chaud jacks in ProtoMan to help hold back the viruses when suddenly DrillMan shows up and... wait a second... DrillMan? Kinda coming out of left field on this one aren't we XEBEC? Just like the real DrillMan fight, he proves to be a huge pain in the ass for ProtoMan, even with the Program Advance which fails again. Chaud suddenly remembers that "Power without control is useless," and has ProtoMan target DrillMan's tip to take him out.

World Three ends up catching the assistant and decides they're going to "take care of him," their way. The man decides to take Chaud's offer and comes to work for BlazeQuest. The next day, the name of the technique to craft the chip is called the "ProtoMan technique" and Lan and Chaud have "the best NetBattle EVER!"

Critique
For once, Chaud is actually likable this episode. No, I'm serious! He actually doesn't come off as an arrogant twat, and he almost looks like he actually respects Lan and MegaMan. The humor in this episode comes from the store owner pretty much putting Chaud in his place the whole way through. Who cares if he's vice president, that toilet ain't gonna unclog itself Chaud! I even thought the banter between the worker navis had some good lines to it, and ProtoMan's fake enthusiasm is great.

Then you've got World Three, always delivering. Mr. Match sings, "If you're evil and you know it clap your hands!" And then there's this exchange between Maddy and Count Zap.

Maddy (to the assistant): Hey don't you know that's a crime!
Count Zap: Yeah! And we know all about crimes!

I don't know who I like better, criminally insane World Three, or criminally pathetic World Three.

If anything throws me off on this episode, it's "What the fuck? DrillMan out of nowhere?" Grave is gone, World Three is neutered, so was he the assistant's Navi, or did he just come with the viruses? Ah, who the hell cares I guess.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Tribes: Plesio's Wish

Plot Synopsis
Geo and Sonia finally meet Plesio Surf face to face, and find out that he just wants the whole Loch to be quiet again. They ask him about the OOPArt, and Plesio Surf tells them that some ancient stone is hidden in a temple in the lake that gives off a lot of energy.

Meanwhile, Rich Dotcom is causing a lot of noise with construction to purposely rile up Plesio Surf. He gets his attention, and Plesio Surf starts attacking the village. MegaMan and Harp Note quickly jump to the towns rescue and fight Plesio Surf.

While they're distracted, Rich Dotcom heads to the OOPArt and steals it. The OOPArt is the Saurian artifact, and upon taking it, a giant dinosaur shaped energy field encompasses Rich's helicopter in the sky. The village people mistake this for being Messie, and assume the he is leaving the loch. With the people no longer causing a fuss, Plesio Surf releases Gerry Romero and returns to his quiet life at the sea, but unfortunately for MegaMan, one of his enemies now has a powerful weapon, but at least he now knows Blizzard Yeti's identity.

Critique
This episode kind of resolves itself a little bit too fast, but sets up more conflicts on the horizon. MegaMan and Plesio Surf just sort of stop fighting after a while for no real reason, other than Rich Dotcom getting away. Otherwise this episode is pretty run of the mill, but decent enough, and I'm glad they didn't take the time to throw in a half assed environmental message along the way. The episode at least catches your interest for where it's going next.

Rating: Thumbs up!

NT Warrior: Chisao's In Town!

Plot Synopsis
Dex's younger brother Chisao is visiting from Netopia, and he's impressing everyone with his genius intellect. Wanting to try to impress him, Dex has filled Chisao's mind with all kinds of big talk about how all his friends are his students, and how he's the best NetBattler in town. Of course, just before Chisao showed up however, Dex begged everyone to agree to play along.

While this is going on, a new Noodle Shop has opened up right next to #1 Curry, and the competition is fierce. Slick Noodle's spokesman, NoodleMan.exe has everyone in town doing a really badly animated Noodle Dance, and that's scaring World Three. In order to keep Lan and his friends from trying the new Noodle Restaurant, Yahoot offers them free curry.

While they're eating, Chisao wants to see Dex NetBattle everyone, and everyone's Navi's try and take a fall from GutsMan's poor operating. Chisao wants to try operating GutsMan and pulls off the Life Sword Program Advance on his first try, nearly blasting MegaMan all to hell. Dex scolds Chisao, and tells him to get his own PET, but this whole incident is being watched by Sambo, the Slick Noodle owner.

Sambo hatches a plan into tricking Chisao to destroy #1 Curry. He gives him NoodleMan, who disguises himself as a GutsMan lookalike named NuggetsMan... or maybe NoGutsMan, I'm not sure. Anyway, Sambo tells Chisao that aliens are invading, and directs Chisao to attack #1 Curry's system network, starting fires and the like.

With Chisao missing, Lan, Dex and everyone else go looking for him, and there attention is caught when #1 Curry starts billowing smoke out its doors. World Three wants to know just what gives with Chisao attacking them, so Lan and Dex jack in and try to fight NoodleMan. All is not going so well until NoodleMan gives himself away by doing his patented Noodle Dance. Upon recognizing the dance, Lan and Dex bust in to the Slick Noodle to rescue Chisao.

After the whole mess is taken care of, Mr. Match and World Three are about to go medieval on Sambo's ass, when Lan suggests they forgive him, citing Spicy Noodle Curry as a great recipe. This causes everyone to break down in tears from the "beauty" of the two dishes uniting and they decide to all be friends. Dex breaks down too and promises Lan that he'll tell Chisao the truth, in about ten or twenty years.

Critique
I really think Chisao is a bit of a waste of air time. There's potential to use him to develop Dex, but it isn't used all that often, and even in the games, Chisao doesn't fill a role any other character couldn't do better. Then, he takes a more active role in Axess, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, given the circumstances, but they shift around characters so damn much on that series that all hell breaks loose.

But that said, I'm not shitting on this episode really. Chisao isn't annoying or anything, just not particularly interesting. What works in this episode is the whole Noodle vs Curry battle, and it's pretty damn funny how World Three went from kidnapping and terrorism, to the victims of Dex's younger brother, and Mr. Match plays it so straight too, the guy cracks me up.

There's a few little things that make this episode pretty good too. Just look at Yahoot's night gown! It looks so damn funny, yet it seems to fit him just so perfectly. Lan also gives a nice Phoenix Wright style OBJECTION! pose, that has to be intentional. Finally, you have the ending which is just so over the top dramatic, that you can't help but love it. While I don't particularly love Chisao, this is a good episode regardless.

Rating: Thumbs up!