Plot Synopsis
Ms. Mari is feeling depressed, so Yai throws a big
picnic to cheer her up, and invites everyone there, including World Three, Higsby and Masa. Masa and Higsby get into a big argument as they are both madly in love with her, but she doesn't seem to notice either of them. All of them finally catch on that Ms. Mari is love sick herself, and they try and find out whose got her interest.It turns out to be Commander Beef after a misunderstanding about a cat rescue (Masa was just trying to get the fish back that the cat stole), and this news enrages Higsby. He challenges Commander Beef to a NetBattle, and Yai decides to throw together a big stadium match up called "The NetBattle of Hearts" in honor of the event. Since Masa doesn't have his own Net Navi though, Lan offers to battle in his place, and Lan just cannot wait to battle Commander Beef.
Of course, since Masa is Commander Beef, there are some understandable problems with this whole scenario. Since Commander Beef is a Net Agent, he is obligated to accept all Battle Challenges, but he can't reveal his identity to Ms. Mari either.
The next day, the terms of the NetBattle are set, and winner gets a date with Ms. Mari, except for Lan, who will be having dinner with Ms. Mari as friends if he wins (thank god even this show won't go there). Higsby and Commander Beef duke it out with NumberMan and SharkMan, but Higsby loses due to his hesitation to use any type of Battle Chip that will actually give him an advantage.
That leaves MegaMan and SharkMan, who obviously have a much more interesting battle. The two of them are just thrilled to be battling each other, and when the announcer, Sal, makes a comment about how Lan and Commander Beef's true love is NetBattling, Ms. Mari takes it to heart and starts cheering for MegaMan instead of SharkMan. This throw Commander Beef off his game, and Lan seizes the opportunity to win the match.
Everything goes back to normal, although Higsby is disappointed with his own loss. Ms. Mari decides to treat Lan and all his friends out to dinner, her own mood much better.
Critique
Uh, hey, NT Warrior... after you have a season finale, you're supposed to... uh... get ready for next season. You don't have to keep going you know. This episode really has nothing to do with anything, as do pretty much the remaining episodes until Axess, but this one is pretty good at least.
The first five minutes of this episode are reeeeeally lame, I mean nausea inducing. The jokes are just bad, and they dress up all the female characters in really skimpy costumes similar to that god awful 3D model they have of Aki. This might be the reason this episode never aired in the US since, you know, Mayl and Yai are 11 and 8, although seeing the other girls on this show drawn like this is no more pleasing on the eyes. I can't back up that statement about why it didn't air in the US though. They couldn't have really cut this scene out either though, because it has some pretty important plot elements.
But everything after this five minutes, is just fucking hilarious. When Lan starts tearing up at Masa and Higsby's sob stories, the episode just doesn't stop being funny as all hell. Brad Swaile just fucking nails those lines. Then you've got Higsby challenging Masa, the real telling of the cat story, Higsby's battle chip weakness, and Masa and Higsby just arguing the whole episode. Aside from those first few minutes, this episode is genuinely really good.
One thing I noticed though, is that they don't use Ribbita anymore for announcer positions. This episode tries to explain that away by saying she's out on assignment somewhere, but she hasn't done any announcer type things in awhile, and they always had someone else do it. Maybe something happened with the Japanese voice actress or something. I dunno, I just thought it was interesting.
Rating: Thumbs up!
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