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.