Axess: Nebula's Great Invasion!

Plot Synopsis
MegaMan's down and out, and it looks like the Net Police are screwed. The greatest father in the world, Dr. Hikari, decides to rebuild MegaMan using an untested, painful, possibly dangerous procedure, on his only child, Lan. Lan of course has no problem jumping into a giant test tube for his buddy of course, but it'd be nice if his dad at least maybe struggled with the idea...

Anyway, they're going to rebuild MegaMan by enabling a cross-fusion between Lan and MegaMan, which will hopefully fill in the missing data for MegaMan. With both Lan and MegaMan recovering, and Chaud without ProtoMan, the Net Police are in trouble. Luckily, Lan's friend Raoul shows up, chasing down a darkloid named BrightMan. Raika has also been called in, and Chief Keifer orders them to work together, despite Raika's protests.

BrightMan isn't the only one causing trouble though, as more new darkloids show up. There's SwordMan, StarMa... god damn it! Why is his name NovaMan now? Fucking retarded ass translations. Anyway, they also have ColdMa... wait? He's FridgeMan now?! I... well... no I'll give them that one, ColdMan is a damn fridge... (I hope you can detect the irony in this paragraph, I really couldn't care less about the names...)

Raika feels Raoul is unqualified to help out as a civilian, but eventually Raoul and ThunderMan prove themselves (somewhat) to Raika by, not only saving Raika's life, but also correcting a mistake of SearchMan that saved the day. Raika grudgingly admits that Raoul was helpful.

At the end of the day, the procedure with MegaMan was successful, but MegaMan still needs more time to recover. Things are looking positive though.

Critique
Despite the train wreck of the last few episodes, this one is actually pretty good. I always thought Raoul's voice actor was pretty good, and it helps put up with the character's weird look and demeanor. He's one tall lanky black dude ain't he? Raika still comes off as an ass of course, but Raoul handles Raika pretty maturely, as you would expect an adult would handle a punk kid.

There's some really cruddy animation this episode, especially the running animation for Raoul about the middle of the episode. It just looks awful. The writers also go a bit overboard on the "anime man got hops" thing, when Raoul is leaping across pillars like a damn grasshopper.

Even though the story is decent this episode, I would still give it a thumbs up even if it was horrible. Why? Just look at BrightMan! HA HA HA HA HA! Holy fuck, that guys character design cracks me the fuck up! Look how hilarious he is! You couldn't ask for a better looking character for this show! Too bad BrightMan bites the dust at the end of the episode though, but for every moment he was on screen, I was in stitches!

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: Wanted - PrisMan!

Plot Synopsis
We open with the last two minutes of the last episode, then see Misaki using PrisMan to rob a bank. The police try to stop him, but he uses Cross-Fusion with a Dark Synchro Chip and takes off. He continues his crime spree into the night, while Ms. Yuri looks on grinning at her guinea pig.

The Net Police finally find out Misaki is causing all these heists, and Lan is left cleaning up after Misaki until Misaki finally collapses from exhaustion. Chaud takes Misaki to the hospital. Misaki wakes up, barely remembering the events that had just unfolded. Apparently, cross-fusing with a dark chip turns a person psychotic just like a NetNavi.

They keep Misaki under watch, but Ms. Yuri sends PrisMan in with a dark chip to screw up Misaki some more. PrisMan sends his dark aura from the dark chip to Misaki... somehow (what!?), and Misaki becomes Mr. Hyde, as he tears through the hospital.

He runs into Ms. Mari, mistaking her for Ms. Yuri, but Ms. Yuri is like ten feet away, so this scene is basically only there to keep drilling that mistaken identity cliche this show has run into the ground. Misaki takes off, prancing like a mad man when Lan finally confronts him. Misaki summons a bunch of dimensional area generators from the ground by yelling (this show is just getting worse and worse), and he Dark Cross-Fuses, while Lan answers back with his own Cross-Fusion.

Since Misaki is a human, Lan is hesitant to full out attack him, so Dr. Hikari tells his son to strike the Emblem on Cross-Fused PrisMan to break the fusion. Lan is about to do so when Dark ProtoMan shows up and interferes. Luckily, Chaud uses his magical power of teleportation yet again, and shows up just in time to deal with ProtoMan.

Lan and Misaki strike each others emblems at the same time, breaking both their cross-fusions and saving Misaki, but seriously fucking up MegaMan, and slightly injuring Lan as well. MegaMan is in critical condition and needs some serious repair. Lan puts it best at the end, "if MegaMan's damaged, and ProtoMan's a darkloid, how can we ever stop Nebula?!"

Critique
This episode seriously sucks ass until the very last few minutes, and even then, you've had to swallow a lot of tripe to enjoy it. It's kind of like having a nice dessert at the end of a really big serving of shit sandwiches, you're already too full of shit to enjoy dessert.

A good half of this episode is reused footage from the last episode, and a quarter of the new content is either recap, or just harping on old points of the series. Yes, I know Chaud doesn't want to fight ProtoMan. Yes, I know Ms. Mari and Ms. Yuri are sisters. Yes, I did watch the last fucking episode, I don't need to be reminded of every detail of it!

Of course Cross-Fusion vs. Cross-Fusion was coming from day one, hence why ShadeMan stole the Synchro Chips in the first place, and I'm not against the ideas of this scenario, beyond my usual stance on Cross-Fusion. Actually, Lan's hesitation in fighting Misaki is a good character position to put him in, and they do something similar with Geo in the Star Force series that also plays out nice. So this whole setup could have worked out fine, if they didn't cram the whole god damned plot into the last few minutes.

Then you end with some poor NetNavi in critical condition and... oh wait, that's MegaMan. He's still in this show? He basically uses one of about three of his lines in the episode to tell us he'll be out of commission the next episode. At least the writers are still aware that most of the fans of this show care mostly about this character... right?

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: The Battlechip Gate

I'm amazed they didn't call this episode Misaki returns...

Plot Synopsis
So yeah, Misaki comes back, and it's a big deal. Who the fuck is Misaki? Oh, you don't remember that extra character that had a total of two minutes screen time in the first episode of Axess? Of course you don't, Lan doesn't even remember that episode. That'd be like keeping track of every single battlechip Lan owns since the show started, Jesus!

Anyway, Misaki has come to join the Net Police along with Lan and Chaud, but he's all upset that he can't cross-fuse like they can. He still has some skill though, as he comes to Lan's rescue during a fight with GravityMan, which so so nonsensical it damn near crosses the line, even for this show. Anyway, Misaki uses his NetNavi PrismMan to trap GravityMan in a prism-prison (say that five times fast) and I guess they just leave him in the traffic lights network or something.

Anyway, as if MegaMan wasn't being phased enough out of this show, we're introduced to a new problem about Cross-Fusion which hasn't ever come up until this episode. No, it's not the cancerous growth on Lan's pancreas, it's the inability to use battle chips during Cross-Fusion. Apparently, they can only use five at a time since they have to preload them (even though Lan switched them out not more than a few episodes ago), and now suddenly this is a problem, despite the fact that Lan and Chaud have never struggled in choosing their chips beforehand. Should I point out that more than once Lan and Chaud have used Program Advances while in Cross-Fusion with a handful more chips?

Inconsistencies aside, SciLab has created an extension for the PET called "The Battlechip Gate," which is like sliding a game genie onto your NES, and functionally the same thing. The testing fails when Mr. Famous tries to load battlechips into Lan's Cross-Fusion, but Chaud seems to notice something Mr. Famous doesn't that basically only makes sense if you consider Chaud the god like figure the writers do apparently.

GravityMan breaks out of his prison pretty easily and starts wreaking havoc in a dimensional area, so Lan heads down there to stop him. Oh but guess what? Lan's five Battlechips don't work at all against GravityMan, so now Lan is screwed. Boy, good thing he was lucky in selecting his chips the entire season up until this point.

Chaud runs the repaired battlechip gate to Lan and uses some ultra rare, super effective chips, like Area Steal, Rock Cube, and M-Cannons for a Program Advance. With Chaud operating Lan (do not read any more into that, god my site comes up from some pretty sick people's search results...), NetNavi's can be phased out of the show entirely. Bye bye MegaMan, we'll miss you!

GravityMan gets deleted, and Misaki gets lured away by Manwella (the NetPolice Chief's secretary girl) when she tells him she knows where he can go cross-fuse. But wait a second! Manwella is standing with Chief Kiefer at SciLab!? Buhwhaaaaa?

In a merciful attempt to salvage something worthwhile out of this episode, ProtoMan shows up to taunt Chaud for a minute or so to make him cry a bit. There is seriously nothing better in Mega Man cartoons than an evil ProtoMan. If only Bass had made it to the Ruby-Spears show! Anyway, since this was the only thing interesting to happen this entire show, that's what the screenshot is of. Hell, I don't recall if they even use that stupid Battlechip Gate again.

So the episode ends with Misaki riding with the impostor Manwella (two guesses who she really is!) and she thinks to herself some ominous dialog... ooooh scary...

Critique
It's episodes like this that make this season a pain in the ass to enjoy. It's bad enough we have plots centering around so many disappeared characters returning, but now we're practically introducing new characters to come back?! Aren't we getting carried away with this shit a little bit XEBEC?

I feel sorry for the dubbers here, just what the hell are they going to do with this tripe? Is this what passes for children entertainment in Japan? Mega Man's name must hold a lot more regard there than I thought to have lasted the series as long as it did over there, but while American Audiences love Mega Man, we really need better shows than this to compete with what's out there. Admittedly, I quit watching Saturday morning cartoons when this show was running, but who am I to argue with what ten year olds like? I can hardly believe how dumb some of the shows I loved were (I don't love you any less though Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!).

In any case, what we have here is a manufactured crisis coming into the show, that apparently was a problem we never noticed until now. Lan's failure to choose proper battlechips against GravityMan is so predictable, cause all the characters basically tell you that's going to happen this episode.

With Misaki, you've got the coming of another plot line that this character was made specifically for, which we'll get into next episode, but you can really notice a difference between characters created by Capcom, and the show's original characters. Misaki is about as generic anime dude as you can get, and there's a good chance after his storyline is finished, you'll forget about him forever like I tend to do. They spend a good amount of time building Misaki up a bit for the audience, and all the characters act like they've known him a good long time, like he just belongs on the show. He's the big elephant in the room that nobody is talking about, but if you really have to remind the audience of where the character is from, he's not that important to them. We got rid of almost an entire cast of good supporting characters for bland personality-less jokers like this?

That's not to say everything in this episode is bad, just like 98% of it, with the last 2% being 1 part ProtoMan, and another part some of the silly dialog from GravityMan, and that's assuming you enjoy that kind of thing. What hurts this episode, is the lack of anything particularly interesting, and a conflict that seems conjured up out of nowhere, complete with new characters who have been conjured up as well. NT Warrior has plenty of good resources for material, why don't the writers ever use them?

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: Commander Beef Returns

Guess what? Another long lost character returns, marking the 4th episode to have this stupid title this season!

Plot Synopsis
Commander Beef is returning from a mission over seas to track down Mr. Gauss who's looking to score some Dark Chips from Nebula. Before he arrives, Mysteriyu and Black Rose get in contact with Lan and drop a bombshell on him; Commander Beef's identity is Masa! Lan is shocked at the news, but apparently everyone else already figured that out a long time ago, even MegaMan, further pushing the idiot NetBattler Savant theory. Also, everyone has already figured out that Black Rose and Mysteriyu are Sal and Miyu.

They're not supposed to know Commander Beef's identity though (making you wonder why the hell Sal and Miyu would reveal it to Lan) so Lan tries extra hard to keep Masa from knowing, that Lan knows, that Masa is Commander Beef.

Higsby on the other hand is frustrated at the news, because Ms. Mari has a crush on Commander Beef, and he blurts out Masa's identity right in front of her. This causes her to track him down and confront him about this, but Lan covers for him.

Masa and Ms. Mari go out for a walk down the fish market, and Lan is afraid he's going to reveal his identity to her, so Lan goes and keeps Masa away from her. While distracted, Mr. Gauss mistakes Ms. Mari for Ms. Yuri and takes her away to a secret warehouse. Lan and Masa spot her, and Lan gives chase while Masa runs off to change into his Commander Beef costume.

Higsby meanwhile, is pretty pissed that Masa is back, so he and the others spend some time sewing Commander Beef costumes. Back at the warehouse, Lan and Commander Beef jump to Ms. Mari's rescue, but are thrown off guard when Gauss shouts Commander Beef's identity in front of Ms. Mari. Ms. Mari is shocked again, but before it sinks in, Higsby, Mayl, Tory, Shuko, Miyu, Sal and Rush all show up dressed as Commander Beef. They claim it's Commander Beef day, which is why Masa is dressed up like him, fooling Ms. Mari.

Everyone jacks in their navis and then proceed to beat the shit out of MagnetMan. MagnetMan defeated, Gauss is arrested and put in cuffs. As the day comes to an end, Masa is about to reveal his identity again, but Lan stops him and says something along the lines of "a little Commander Beef is in all of us."

Critique
Okay, so the synopsis really makes this episode sound stupid as hell, but lets look over the upsides to this episode. You've got a Masa centric episode, with both Higsby and Mr. Gauss playing key roles, so already you've got a recipe for quality.

While the plot itself is kind of a mess, there's a great deal of humor thrown in, and it doesn't at all come off as repetitive watching the show, versus reading this synopsis. The whole episode is played up as ridiculous as possible, and it is a nice change from the melodrama that is generally associated with Axess. Lan plays off of Masa especially well this episode, and pretty much delivers one great line after line.

The only problem with this episode has little to do with the episode itself. Why has Masa been taken out of the main cast, and why is this the last time we'll see him this series? I'm not 100% on this, but I don't think Masa is ever seen again until the Beast series, and even then it's a parallel dimension Masa.

That doesn't take away what this episode has going for it though, and it's one of the strongest episodes as far as humor goes this season. Just look at this ridiculous couple of shots of Lan and Masa trying to hold back their secrets.
Rating: Thumbs up.

Axess: Space Junk

Plot Synopsis
A NetNavi without a NetOp named JunkDataMan (why are they adding words to the original characters names?) is floating around in space collecting space debris. Well he just happens to come across a AyanoTech space station, which prompts Yai to kidnap Lan and everyone to fix the problem.

In a series of jokes to remind the audience that Yai is rich, Lan and Co. blast off to the space station, where they battle JunkDataMan. JunkDataMan apologizes for taking the stuff, and just says that he was lonely. They all get together and teach JunkDataMan what is okay for him to take, and what isn't. He sees them off, waving his new friends goodbye as MegaMan gives Lan a sappy message about picking up after yourself.

Critique
Well, at least JunkMan got out of this show a lot better than the games, but we the viewer sure didn't. This is really an episode where nothing interesting happens, nor does anything funny happen either. I like the voice they gave JunkDataMan, but the rest of the episode is really mediocre. It seems like that shouldn't happen considering it takes place in outer space... actually, what the hell is Lan doing in outer space? Sigh, I know the show is going to get worse in that regard soon anyway, what's the point of complaining?

What keeps this episode down the most are just the lame jokes. It's a real snore fest this episode.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: Cut Episodes Part 4

Oh we were doing so well too. All the episodes were aired in order, and we hadn't skipped anything. What happened?

Well actually, this episode did air in English, but only in Canada, and unlike the first series of NT Warrior, Axess never made it to DVD. Unfortunately for us, that keeps this episode off the internet for viewing. Maybe it'll surface one day if a DVD release ever comes out (there was talks of this last year), but for now it's as good as gone.

SpoutMan's New Hero
Plot Synopsis Here
The key elements of this episode are SpoutMan getting saved by MegaMan, annoying the piss out of him, then both of them using DoubleSoul against BurnerMan.

I haven't seen this one, and I did try to hunt it down, but couldn't find it. I could go get the subtitled episode, but it's not on my list of priorities. My guess as to why this episode wasn't aired in the US was perhaps they felt SpoutMan's new affection for MegaMan cross the boundaries into homo-eroticism. That's a complete guess on my part, and what I get from reading the plot synopsis at the site I linked, but then again, that guy is a bit of a creep, and he might be reading too much into it...

Axess: Chaud vs ProtoMan

Plot Synopsis
Dr. Hikari is working with BlazeQuest to come up with a new PET that is resistant against Dark Chip influence. When Dr. Hikari misplaces the data cd at his home, Chaud heads over there to pick it up. As he's leaving, Lan goes out and talks to him in the park.

It doesn't go well and they get into a fight. Chaud tells Lan his plan was great to use the Dark Chip, but Chaud should have let Lan infect MegaMan, because ProtoMan is the superior NetNavi and the two of them would have been better Net Saviors. Lan throws Chaud to the ground and Chaud finally breaks down into tears. Lan tells Chaud not to give up, and that they'll get ProtoMan back somehow, and that Lan will do everything he can to help Chaud. This seems to help Chaud a bit, and he picks himself back up and thanks Lan.

Later, Nebula isn't too happy about this new PET, and they send ProtoMan and GravityMan to BlazeQuest to retrieve the data cd. GravityMan wreaks havoc in the lobby with a dimensional area, while ProtoMan breaks through the network security. Lan shows up Cross-Fused to help out Chaud, while Chaud uses the network security and his own battle chips to try and stop ProtoMan. Chaud says he'll keep ProtoMan from the Data CD even if he has to delete ProtoMan himself.

Chaud backs up the Data CD and removes it from the system while Lan finally takes down GravityMan. The plan a failure, ProtoMan returns to LaserMan to report in. LaserMan decides to use another dark chip to further corrupt ProtoMan, rewriting his data to make him more menacing. The episode ends as Chaud promises to bring ProtoMan back.

Critique
See, now this episode would have been a perfect follow up to the episode previous to last where Chaud infected ProtoMan. Instead, we got the super model hijinks of whatever the fuck that last episode was.

This episode really develops Lan and Chaud's relationship, and shows how different Chaud has been since the show started. We really see Chaud's snide and arrogant personality from before seep through, but it's a defensive tactic to get Lan to leave him alone, and it really puts all of Chaud's character into perspective since the early episodes. Without ProtoMan, Chaud thinks he is nothing, and it takes Lan to show Chaud that Chaud is strong enough to fight for ProtoMan.

I've always said that Battle Network had weaker characters than Star Force, and that's mostly true, but Battle Network always had the potential for strong characters. Geo developed really well from his own personal suffering and overcoming his weaknesses. The characters in Battle Network don't really suffer aside from a few blips in the series, so none of them really grow into something better.

NT Warrior has managed to work a few choice stories around the characters suffering real traumatic experiences, although they do tend to fall into the status quo after a while, but occasionally, we do see that Battle Network has all the tools to make compelling narrative. The fact that Chaud's dilemma is sympathetic now, shows how well they've worked with the character... at least recently. I mean, I could probably complain hours on end about how certain episodes suck balls thanks to Chaud alone, but at least this new arc works well for him.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: Wavering Heart

Plot Synopsis
What's the best way to follow up a great episode of Axess? With an incredibly stupid one of course! Chaud is understandably having a bad day after losing ProtoMan, whose now the 2nd Lieutenant of Nebula. Lan and MegaMan both take turns talking to Chaud, but he's pretty distant. Even when Chaud visits Anetta in the hospital (I know, I'm shocked someone actually went to the hospital instead of SciLab too) she can't get him to talk about it. Chaud doesn't know how he can be a Net Savior without ProtoMan, but he vows to stop Dr. Regal and Nebula. Enough about Chaud though, we have a stupid plot to get through!

Lan's been assigned to protect a super model whose showing off a new line of fashion called the "wearable computer." She doesn't seem to mind having an 11 year old body guard, and the Net Police are afraid Nebula will try to steal the Wearable Computer because, like all good fashion, it's a dangerous weapon. Somewhere in developing a personal computer you wear as clothing, the super model thought it was safe to put on a cloaking device and disguise maker. Yep, no potential for espionage there...

Mayl tries to get into the show, but accidentally wanders into the next door building, which is an Aerospace company working on secret satellite technology. "Here Mayl," says the guard, "let me tell you about everything we do around here and all of our secret weak points in security!" He seriously goes on and on about this shit, answering questions Mayl never asked. It's no wonder the place gets stormed later by super models.

Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Um yeah, Nebula uses some sort of mind control sound wave to control the Super Models, who break into the next door building. Lan gets a call from Mr. Famous as he's being attacked by the models, saying the VIP he was protecting was found tied up outside of the airport. The person Lan was protecting was actually Ms. Yuri in disguise, and she's stealing the satellite data! To make matters worse, SparkMan is causing hell for MegaMan.

Luckily Roll counters the sound wave with her own sound wave, which some how reaches the super models attacking the security of the next door building from the top floor, all the way from the parking lot at the bottom of the fashion show floor. The models taken care of, Lan hits ProtoSoul on MegaMan and takes out SparkMan.

Ms. Yuri is about to steal the codes, when Chaud, using his psychic powers somehow, stops her. He knew Nebula was going to use the wearable computer and sound waves to control super models into stealing satellite data from a nearby aerospace company. I mean, come on, it's so obvious. Despite stopping her, Ms. Yuri still escapes as Lan arrives at the scene.

Suddenly, to remind the viewers that this show isn't always terrible, ProtoMan projects a hologram to Chaud, taunting him and telling Chaud that he means nothing to ProtoMan. Chaud screams out that he'll stop Nebula, pretty pissed that they are screwing with him.

Critique
Since this episode sucks balls, lets talk about the best thing about it. ProtoMan went back to the evil team! Hooray! It's been too long since ProtoMan was evil for the hell of it! All the way back to Ruby-Spears show! Ah, I really missed evil ProtoMan!

Sandwiching the episode are decent scenes to remind us of the overall story arc going on, even though a lot of it is through flash backs of an episode that we just watched. Then after we get into the meat of the episode, it just gets dumb. It's not that I'm against mind control shenanigans, hell, I think the episode where everyone was turned into animals by Yahoot was kind of funny, but this episode takes it so god damned serious.

Since the last episode was such a downer, taking the wacky route would be out of place the very next episode, but let's be serious, this isn't the sort of plot you deliver with a straight face. Chaud's deus ex machina at the end doesn't help the episode any either, showing up without any lead into how he figured it out.

Lastly, you have Nebula, who didn't even need an episode to recover from the loss of their oil tanker base. What's with villains in this show? Every loss is like a minor victory. Grave was especially bad about celebrating their defeat, and Nebula does the same shit. Why don't you assholes recognize a loss, and go for a revenge plot or something? Sometimes I hate this stupid show.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: Nebula's Secret Base

Five seconds ago on MegaMan NT Warrior Axess:

Anetta reveals the leader of Nebula as Dr. Regal, then she is kidnapped by Ms. Yuri and flown off in a helicopter. Now back to MegaMan NT Warrior Axess.

Plot Synopsis
After re-watching the last scene of the last episode, Chaud and Lan head to Dr. Regal's hotel room to look for clues. On his laptop they find a giant ship off the coast and figure that's where Anetta is being held. Lan tells Chaud to not even think about keeping Lan out of this one, and Chaud tells Lan that he actually needs Lan's help. What the hell is this? Character development on Axess?!

They take a helicopter to the ship and a dimensional area pops up. They land just before it locks them out, and Cross-Fuse on board. They fight a few dozen viruses, who are also attacking the ship. The viruses have been sent by ShadeMan, and he's coming after Regal as well. Ms. Yuri leads Lan and Chaud to Dr. Regal who has Anetta lying unconscious before him. Lan and Chaud want to know why he betrayed the human race, and Chaud demands Regal let Anetta go, then Dr. Regal gives the most silly sounding line in the show.

"Ha ha, you're not in a position to make any demands now to answer your questions," and then he goes on talking for like five minutes. He doesn't say anything that we as the audience don't already know, but the characters get to hear all of it to recap it. Anyway, then ShadeMan shows up pissed off and ready to attack Regal, but Chaud stops him, afraid the battle will injure Anetta.

Him and Lan must really care about her safety, because when ShadeMan starts kicking their ass, they both unleash a program advance (Life Sword and Zeta Cannon) which nearly blow up the god damned ship, and knock out Lan and Chaud's cross-fusion. It only manages to amputate ShadeMan's arm, who seems more annoyed than hurt by this, but before he can take his next attack to Regal, Regal escapes and leaves his own NetNavi, LaserMan there to stop ShadeMan.

LaserMan blasts the fuck out of ShadeMan, and they both log out and drop the dimensional area. Lan and Chaud go wake up Anetta, and she's okay. They aren't out of danger yet though, as ShadeMan, miffed about losing an arm, decides to blow the whole fucking ship up from the reactor. With no way to escape, Lan and Chaud jack MegaMan and ProtoMan in to stop ShadeMan.

The fight doesn't go well, and ShadeMan single-handedly (rimshot) thrashes them around. Desperately, Lan contemplates using the Dark Chip Anetta gave them to stop ShadeMan, but if he does so, MegaMan would join the darkloids. MegaMan sees what Lan is doing, and yells for him to use the Dark Chip. "Do it Lan! It's the only way, we're out of time! If I do this, at least you guys can escape..." Lan grits his teeth and goes to download the Dark Chip, but Chaud snatches it out of Lan's hands.

"Forgive me ProtoMan," says Chaud, and he downloads the Dark Chip into his PET. ProtoMan is powered up by the Dark Chip, and takes a shot at ShadeMan, seemingly incapacitating him. ProtoMan begs MegaMan to delete him before he becomes his enemy, but MegaMan can't do it. ProtoMan tells Chaud it was an honor to be his navi, but before they have time to grieve, ShadeMan grabs MegaMan. In their last act of desperation, MegaMan and ProtoMan DoubleSoul, and MegaMan receives ProtoSoul. With ProtoSoul, MegaMan is able to finally strike at ShadeMan hard enough to cause him to log out.

Chaud tries jacking ProtoMan out, but to no avail, and ProtoMan teleports away screaming in pain. The Net Police finally arrive with helicopters, and a very grief stricken Chaud boards the plane with his head hung low.

ShadeMan hobbles back to his fortress, only to discover LaserMan there at his throne. Unfortunately for ShadeMan, all the darkloids have betrayed him and now obey Nebula. They also stand with a new darkloid, ProtoMan, who shoves ShadeMan into a pit where he's sealed away.

Seeing Chaud in such pain, Lan vows to himself to stop the dark chips at any costs.

Critique
The music in this episode is actually pretty catchy in the beginning, and trust me, I'm one of the last people to notice this sort of thing. Plot wise, there isn't a lull in the episode. This is the mid-season finale, and we're starting a new major arc with Dark ProtoMan. There's a ton of action this episode, some major character moments for the main cast, and some real game changers in the plot twists. You definitely leave this episode wanting to see what happens next, which is about as good as it gets for any show.

The only things I would complain about are the dimensional area generators sliding up out of the ship, because they look shitty as usual, and the other thing would be Dr. Regal himself. His villainous speech is silly, and the whole Dark Chip sequence is completely ruined by them overlapping Regal's face saying things like "DO IT! USE THE DARK CHIP! BWAHAHAHAHA!" Totally unnecessary and dumb looking.
It also seems weird to have MegaMan solve the conflict with DoubleSoul instead of the Dark Chip saving them, as it looks as if ProtoMan's sacrifice was a bit premature, but I guess the characters can't predict when DoubleSoul will go off. Really though, this episode only has nit picking complaints from me, and is otherwise a good episode.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: Anetta's Revenge

Plot Synopsis
Nebula has decided to assist a girl named Anetta in obtaining her revenge against Chaud and ProtoMan by giving her a Dark Chip that's been powered up to ten times the normal level, guaranteeing the corruption of a NetNavi in seconds. Anetta plays possum for the Net Police and pretends to be rescued by them.

While being shown around the Net Police HQ, we learn a bit about her past. Anetta was a patient at a hospital hit by a wave of virus attacks that caused a fire. Anetta's NetNavi Silk jacked in to try and open the doors for Anetta to escape, but Silk was consumed in the fire when Chaud and ProtoMan failed to rescue her. Desiring to avenge her fallen NetNavi, Anetta waits for the perfect opportunity to plant the disguised Dark Chip on Chaud's possession.

Anetta invites Chaud to hang out with her, and when Chaud accepts, he gains Lan's attention who decides to follow them. They go up into the observation deck of a tower, when a sudden fire alarm causes the doors to seal, and the oxygen to drain out of the room with Chaud and Anetta in it. Chaud jacks ProtoMan into the door to face a Dark Chip powered up SpikeMan. ProtoMan struggles, but Chaud never does use the Dark Chip, as he can tell which Battle Chips are his by feel (this ultra training bullshit is starting to get into nonsense here...).

While this is going on, Lan jacks MegaMan in to the network to open the doors. During the fight, Chaud apologizes for not being able to save Silk, but he promises to not let anything happen to Anetta, which causes her to question if she's doing the right thing or not. Lan gets the door open and has MegaMan join ProtoMan to stop SpikeMan. SpikeMan defeated, Lan tells Anetta what really happened when Silk was deleted.

Silk was interfaced with the hospital doors network, and if she had stopped, the doors would close, sealing Anetta inside. ProtoMan tried to get her out, but Silk refused, saying there wasn't enough time, and told ProtoMan to escape. With no other choice, Silk sacrificed herself to save Anetta. Anetta cries and apologizes to Chaud, who asks her where she got her Dark Chip, who she explains she got it from DR. REGAL! DUN DUN DUN!

At that moment, Ms. Yuri grabs Anetta and runs to a helicopter on the roof. Chaud and Lan give chase, but are too late to follow her. BubbleMan gleefully returns to ShadeMan to announce that he's figured out that Dr. Regal is the leader of Nebula. ShadeMan praises BubbleMan, and gets his dimensional area generator ready to strike at Dr. Regal's hidden base.

Critique
There's so much wrong with this stupid episode. First off, why would a paranoid group like Nebula, who blows up factories they use after a couple of weeks, trust a girl like Anetta to work for them, even though she's a complete unknown? If they just wanted to plant the dark chip on Chaud, why not have Dr. Regal do it himself? I mean, he's right there! Or even Ms. Yuri could do it, she seems to be a master of improbable stealth.

Anetta has taken a huge redesign of her character, right down to her artwork. In Battle Network 3, she's the operator of PlantMan, and an eco-terrorist working for World Three, marking her only appearance in the series. It seems weird to me to give a character like her such a redesign.

Her motivations are also pretty stupid, and inconsistent with her own character for the entire episode she's in. She's upset her rescuers couldn't save everyone? Are you serious? What a petty excuse for revenge, which is immediately countered when Anetta forgives Chaud after learning the truth, which was apparent from the start. Even if it wasn't, who seriously holds people responsible for not saving everyone? Yeah, it sucks she lost her navi, and people do weird things in grief, but this would be like saying the fireman who rescued people in the World Trade Center attacks are monsters because they missed a few people. It's just stupid.

And Navi death doesn't seem to mean much on this show anyway, just ask MegaMan, or TorchMan, or ElecMan. ElecMan especially, who just showed up again one day, he didn't even have the courtesy to give us all some sort of convoluted resurrection.

There's another problem with planting the dark chip. She places it with Chaud's other chips right next to his PET. Was ProtoMan asleep or something? Why didn't he notice? Then she's going to wait for Chaud to use the chip, but hell, why not just insert it herself? It's not like ProtoMan could have stopped her if she picked up the PET and threw in the dark chip, and nobody else was around.

Finally, you've got the final conflict of the episode with the draining of oxygen from the building. Chaud and Anetta are at the only entrance to that room? Why aren't there any fire escapes? Why don't the doors have a manual over ride to open them? Why the hell are they rehashing the conflict from the season premier, which is already standing on a shaky foundation?

And then Chaud can stop from using the battle chip by feel? Give me a fucking break. Like a huge nerd, I actually own some Battle Chips my sister got me in Japan, and there isn't any way to tell them apart with feel, even if you had ultra sensitive touch. I get Chaud is supposed to be really good at NetBattling, but we're really stretching the imagination here.

Then we've got the reveal of Dr. Regal being the leader of Nebula, which isn't surprising in the least, but the characters are justifiably shocked. This I have no problem with, but then Ms. Yuri shows up and kidnaps Anetta out of no where! Um, aren't Lan and Chaud standing at the only entrance to the room? Not only that, but Ms. Yuri also runs Anetta a different direction to the roof top, so if Chaud missed at least three exits out of the room, how do you expect me to buy the boy genius thing?

Anetta's not an interesting character, and you spend most of the episode wondering why this whole setup is so pathetically held together. The last few seconds of the episode are a little exciting, ignoring the inconsistencies in it, but that's about it.

Oh, but Lan does a good job getting some laughs by being creepy.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: VideoMan Returns!

For god's sake! Another episode titled "Character Returns!" and also a character who has been gone for maybe ten episodes at the most? Geeze! Despite that, I kind of like this episode though.

Plot Synopsis
Nebula's leader convinces VideoMan to join his cause for Dark Chips, and enlists him to delete MegaMan once and for all. VideoMan sets up a virus attack, which lures MegaMan and Lan out, and then he records MegaMan from afar. Using his recorded footage, he creates copies of MegaMan and sends them throughout the city to cause havoc, hidden within a new popular movie.

That movie (which is never named) just happens to be the one movie Lan is just dying to see, as there is the sequel coming out in a couple of weeks, and he wants to be caught up. He manages to find a copy of it, but gets interrupted when a copy of MegaMan starts attacking a local store. Naturally this confuses the hell out of Lan and MegaMan, and MegaMan is nearly deleted by himself, but ProtoMan jumps in for the rescue.

Chaud and Lan split up and try to take out all the copies, and Chaud notices that all the attacks in common happened after the proprietors of the property played the movie Lan wanted to see on their VCRs. Lan pops the movie in while at SciLab with Chaud, and the whole tape is ruined, which Chaud thinks might have been caused by the magnetic waves the two of them faced earlier. Dr. Regal, Mr. Famous, and Dr. Hikari determine that the copies of MegaMan are spreading through the tapes, and direct Lan and Chaud to check out where the tapes are produced.

The copies are getting grainy, so VideoMan gets BubbleMan to help clean his lens. He tests it again, and makes a perfect copy of BubbleMan. That's when Lan and Chaud shows up, so VideoMan unleashes a dimensional area (once again with generators sliding out of walls and the ground and shit), and attacks Lan and Chaud in cross-fusion. He manages to make copies of Lan in Cross-Fusion and uses them to attack Lan and Chaud.

Chaud uses a battle chip (I have no idea what he uses, or what he says, it sounded like Shake, but that doesn't sound right...) and he pulls out a, uh, thing, then Lan hits it with an electrosword, which causes a magnetic wave to burst outward for some reason and delete all the copies. Lan and Chaud then blast VideoMan with Lava Cannon's and delete him for good. Chaud tells Lan he figured out that the magnets would delete the copies from when Lan's video tape got messed up.

Lan tries to get another copy of the movie, but it's sold out. Chaud pulls up in a limo and takes Lan to meet the actors at Lan's own private screening!

Critique
This episode isn't perfect, but it's pretty good. Just about every piece of footage used in the dub opening of this show comes from this episode, with good reason. This episode is one of the finest animated in the series! There's a lot of good action sequences with MegaMan, and plenty of good poses and shots.

Something I hadn't thought of earlier had occurred to me this episode as well. XEBEC, the animators of this show, made a much better effort to give the characters more unique animations than the last series. Everyone has a unique "Jack-In" sequence, and even Lan and Chaud's "Cross-Fusion" animations look different, and in general, Lan tends to use different Jack-In animations more often than not. It's good to see that, even if the writing suffered in the new series mostly, the animation's quality did go up.

There's a few clever lines here and there, and you can see some attempts at foreshadowing the magnet plot device, even if it isn't exactly clear what tools they're using to accomplish it, but that could just be me being dumb.

Not that this episode is perfect. VideoMan spends five minutes talking to himself explaining his plan, which is pretty obvious to figure out from just watching the episode, and then explains it again to Lan and Chaud. We get it VideoMan, you made copies of MegaMan, get going already!

VideoMan's dialog fluctuates between clever and stupid, but I generally like his way of talking more often than not. Lan and Chaud's one liners I could have done without though.

As far as this episode goes, everything holds together well enough, but the animation is among the best in the series. Worth checking out for sure.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: Magma Battle

Plot Synopsis
All of the Darkloids have decided to ditch ShadeMan and go work for Nebula to get their Dark Chips directly, leaving BubbleMan as ShadeMan's only minion. They hatch a plan to strike at Nebula's mysterious leader.

Meanwhile, Lan, Mayl, Chisao, Tory, and Ms. Mari are on a trip to another hot spring location, but all the instruments in the town are causing everything to break down, from way too hot hot springs, to hay wire pinball machines, to even the town geyser being late. It's being caused by BurnerMan and BubbleMan, working for Nebula (BubbleMan secretly undercover for ShadeMan), and they've broken into the geothermal plant and are raising the magma temperature.... what??? The Geothermal plant has machines regulating magma temperatures??? That sounds uh, implausible...

Chaud has been called to the scene by the Net Saviors, but Lan meets up with him after seeing an explosion. They chase down BurnerMan, and then MegaMan finally shows up for about 20 seconds before they open up a dimensional area. He seriously has about three lines this episode. Anyway, the dimensional area generators slide out of the walls and ground again in all the shitty ways they've done for a long time, and BurnerMan heads straight down to the Magma.

Lan and Chaud go after him cross-fused, because they figure the cross-fusion will protect them from a lavaey burning death. Chaud has a history of knowing shit without any evidence, he's a sharp fella. At one point, Lan takes his Cross-fuse off to switch battle chips... and doesn't immediately burst into flames. I think I'm on to something about Lan being a retarded NetBattle savant.

Anyway, using the Salamander battlechip, Lan catches BurnerMan off guard, and gives Chaud a chance to cut him in half. BurnerMan logs out, and the two Net Saviors haul ass to get out of the magma before the dimensional area collapses. Chaud and Lan have noticed how good a team they have become, and they even decide to be friendly and hang out the rest of the day! Good for them!

The episode ends with ShadeMan building his own dimensional area generator to strike at Nebula! Dun dun dun!

Critique
Oh this episode is so boring and bad! MegaMan is just a prop this episode, he really has only a handful of lines and scenes, and you don't even see him till halfway through. This is how cross-fusion is abused blatantly on this show.

Then you've got the conflict, which is a bit shaky looking in heating up magma and stuff, but I'll admit I don't know shit about this. I doubt it could cause the trouble the bad guys are looking to stir though, and Lan breaking cross-fusion and later jumping into lava nearly crosses the border on what is allowed for stupid for this show.

Finally, the jokes are just horrible, and the writing is only interested in the ShadeMan segments that bookend the episode. It makes you interested in the coming conflict, but this episode on it's own needs more of NT Warrior sticking to its roots.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: A Scary Power Source

Plot Synopsis
So we're halfway through the season, Dr. Hikari still hasn't figured out how to make portable dimensional areas, and they only now think to examine one of the generators the Darkloids and Nebula have been using... fantastic. Because apparently there aren't billions of these things lying around, sitting in buses and rock formations and junk, Lan and Chaud are tasked to protect one in SciLab's possession while they study it. And what a pain in the ass it turns out to be, as Lan and Chaud fight wave after wave of Dominerds and Shadow viruses (the two most annoying viruses in all the games).

They protect the generator for about a week while SciLab calls in an expert in the area of energy fields, Dr. Regal, who happens to have a really familiar voice to anyone who pays attention to this show. Upon Dr. Regal's arrival, they take him to the real dimensional area generator (the one Lan and Chaud were protecting was a fake to distract Nebula, except Lan was the last to know this), but Ms. Yuri plants some viruses in the limo the Net Agents are driving.

Dr. Regal has MegaMan examine the dimensional area, where he comes across ghost Net Navis, and freaks the fuck out of course. They play MegaMan's fear of ghosts a bit more straight this time, going from comical fear, to crippling phobia... poor Mega...

They're not sure what the hell is up with the ghost navi's, but Dr. Regal manages to repair the dimensional area. At that moment, Ms. Yuri sends a darkloid in, SparkMan, and he jacks in to the generator. ProtoMan and MegaMan follow, but their energy is being sapped away mysteriously. SparkMan activates the generator, and jacks in to the real world, where Lan and Chaud cross-fuse to stop him. Dr. Hikari, being the brave father that he is, upon seeing his son in danger, runs away with Dr. Regal to safe haven... father of the year folks!

Even in Cross-Fusion, Lan and Chaud have their power sapped away as well, and then about this point things start getting more ridiculous than usual. SparkMan uses his new ability to clone MegaMan and ProtoMan. What? You didn't know SparkMan could do that? Of course he can! What, did you think with a name like SparkMan he would shoot out electricity or something? Pfft, moron.

Anyway, Chaud figures out that the copies can put up a fight against their clone, so Lan and Chaud switch places and take on the other's copy. I'm not saying this doesn't make sense, I mean it does, and it's probably the first thing you would think of in a video game or something, but is there really any precedent or real clue that this would work besides Chaud just making up bullshit? After this, Chaud uses Muramasa on SparkMan, but it does nothing because Chaud is at full health you dolt! Oh, and SparkMan blocks it. Lan lines up a shot on SparkMan, who is told to turn around by a mysterious super deep voice that sounds just like Dr. Regal and the Nebula leader, but I'm sure that's just an eerie coincidence. Not that it matters, because Lan won't shoot since Chaud is in the way, despite Chaud practically begging to get a face full of lava.

SparkMan destroys the area generator and takes off. It's okay though, because Dr. Hikari has learned that Nebula powers their dimensional area generators with... THE SOULS OF NETNAVIS! Muhahahahahahahahahahaha! Anyway, that's why they were kidnapping so many of them back in the second episode, and this was also why it drained ProtoMan and MegaMan's energy. This revelation sends a chill down everyone's spine. Man, morality and artificial intelligence are fucked up...

Anyway, the episode ends with Ms. Yuri cackling like the shrill hyena that she is, and Chaud wondering who's voice he heard speaking to SparkMan.

Critique
Interesting concepts, a little weak on the execution. At the outset, studying a Nebula dimensional area seems like the first thing they should of done, and the fact that Nebula uses so damn many of them, you'd think they'd be in no short supply.

Then you've got Dr. Regal, who, even if you haven't played the games, has a secret identity that's painfully obvious. Although maybe they knew that going in, and didn't really try and hide it from the audience, so much as the characters.

Then there's SparkMan's clone attack, which makes no sense, but I guess I'm complaining about diverting from source material more than anything, which is a pretty weak complaint here.

This episode is pretty serious the whole way through, and even MegaMan's fear of ghosts is shown more sympathetically than normal. What I did like from this episode, was Chaud managed to do a few arrogant digs at Lan like he normally does, but he managed to be more playful about it than he's ever been. It's only a couple of lines, but at least the character is warming up to Lan just a little bit.

Overall, a relatively mediocre episode, but a must see for the major plot points for the series. It has ideas, but lacks any real strong scenes to give it a lot of quality, although no individual part of it is outright terrible. Thumbs down, but just barely.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: BubbleMan's Plan

Plot Synopsis
BubbleMan has been trying to figure out how to exact his revenge on MegaMan, and he's determined he'll need to counter DoubleSoul with his own DoubleSoul to beat him. He determines the source behind DoubleSoul's power is friendship, and if he can only trick someone into being his friend, maybe he'll be able to use it.

At first, things don't go so well. BubbleMan tries handing out free water in NetCity, but most navis avoid him. Just as he's about to give up, SpoutMan just so happens to be interested in BubbleMan. BubbleMan convinces SpoutMan to hang out with him, causing Shuko to lose track of him for a while. Shuko asks Lan, Tory, Mayl, and Higsby to help find SpoutMan, and the four of them jack in to begin their search.

IceMan runs across BubbleMan and SpoutMan, and ends up getting wrapped up in this whole friendship business, and ends up getting lost from Tory as well. Lan tells MegaMan, Roll, and NumberMan to stick together so they don't get lost, and BubbleMan runs off with IceMan and SpoutMan to build an ice fort.

They build a bunch of slides and play and have fun, and BubbleMan figures they buy his friendship enough to get DoubleSoul working... except he can't figure out what to do exactly. Just then, MegaMan and the others show up, so BubbleMan convinces SpoutMan and IceMan to attack them, by saying they'll have a friendly NetBattle. MegaMan, Roll, and NumberMan are hesitant to fight back, figuring SpoutMan and IceMan have been tricked, and they actually manage to get in some serious trouble really fast. Just then, Tory and Shuko finally establish contact with SpoutMan and IceMan, and make them come home immediately.

IceMan and SpoutMan thank BubbleMan for the real fun day and leave, with BubbleMan cursing for not figuring out DoubleSoul. MegaMan and the others decide to jack out as well, seeing as BubbleMan has given up. Shuko and Tory chastise IceMan and SpoutMan for being tricked by a Darkloid, but the two of them seem optimistic that BubbleMan is actually a good guy, which disheartens Shuko and Tory that their Navis are such idiots.

BubbleMan is afraid of going back to ShadeMan to be ridiculed, but to his surprise, ShadeMan actually thinks it was clever of BubbleMan to use MegaMan's friends against him. BubbleMan is renewed with a new zeal, and vows to take care of MegaMan once and for all!

Critique
I've always liked the pathetic villains of the entire Mega Man universe, and BubbleMan is just great this episode, as are IceMan and SpoutMan. I laughed really hard when SpoutMan starts crying, "Oh it's not fair! Having to pick between two things I really really want! WAAAAAAAH!" Oh these navis are pathetic, and pretty funny.

BubbleMan completely misunderstanding friendship, and ShadeMan getting pretty weirded out by him at the end, make this a great episode. Sorry BubbleMan, but you're only half right about friendship with DoubleSoul. In the show, DoubleSoul was caused from some data changes after Cross-Fusion took effect, probably rewriting the style change data within MegaMan. In the game, it has something to do with MegaMan's resurrection and full synchro after Battle Network 3. It might be possible for another Navi to DoubleSoul, but you've got a lot more work to do besides making friends BubbleMan. Although, knowing this show, a contradiction could happen at any time, so take all that with a grain of salt. Good episode though.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: ShadeMan's Ambition

Plot Synopsis
ShadeMan's a bit pissed about being tricked by Nebula, but rather than kicking the habit, he's decided to come up with a plan to steal all the dark chips. Oh what you junkies will do to get your fix.

Some time later, the Net Police get an anonymous tip about a warehouse storing dark chips, and Keifer sends Manwella to investigate. When she arrives at the warehouse, a dimensional area forms around it to keep her out. She calls for Lan and Chaud to assist her.

Lan and Chaud stop what they're doing (rounding up dark chip corrupted NetNavis), and head to the dimensional area. ShadeMan appears before Nebula's leader and offers to help protect the dark chips with himself and another Darkloid, GravityMan, to which Nebula's leader accepts. Lan and Chaud come up with their own plans to break through the dimensional area barrier, completely ignoring the last episode where Chaud managed to do it through magic or something. I guess he forgot how to do it since last week?

They break through the barrier, with Chaud amazingly doing so by somehow jumping away from it, and eventually get down to where they think the dark chips are. Unfortunately, the path is blocked by GravityMan, who just gives them absolute hell fighting them. They eventually team up and form a strategy against him, taking GravityMan down.

Inside the dark chip vault, ShadeMan stands, ready to steal the dark chips, for it was him that gave the Net Police the anonymous tip. He only finds a single chip there, his reward, explains Ms. Yuri, for protecting the warehouse, of which they had already abandoned weeks ago. Um, didn't we already do this exact same plot?

ShadeMan is pissed, and on his way out, pretty much blasts Chaud and Lan with one shot that breaks both of their Cross-Fusions. He's too irritated to kill them I guess, and he logs out nonchalantly, leaving the two of them fearful of his power.

Critique
So yeah, this episode really feels like it moves in slow motion, because the characters talk waaaaaay to god damned much again. Add to this that the voice actress for Ms. Yuri is the same voice actress for Manwella, and she ends up speaking about 90% of the dialog this episode. I have nothing against the voice actress, but I wasn't expecting a damn soliloquy from her.

MegaMan is also sidelined this episode, again. He's barely in it at all, and things were going so well too. Add to this that the ending is pretty much the same thing from every episode of Axess, that is, Nebula being one step ahead of everyone, but also wasting everyone's time, and you have an episode that's nearly frustrating to watch.

Although a lot of the action in this episode is really slow with the characters never shutting up, the GravityMan fight doesn't feel as bad, and this is one of the rare episodes we get to see Lan and Chaud working together while Cross-Fused, something that isn't really standard until Stream and beyond. For the dub especially, this is a pretty rare occurrence, and I did like that Lan is actually shown to have some quick thinking when he saves himself and Chaud from the elevator shaft, which even slightly impresses Chaud. I just think it's odd how Lan is allowed to do all these dangerous activities so young because he's a child prodigy of Net Battling, yet, they always make him out to be so dumb. You would think by the way the show goes, that Lan is actually some sort of genius in regards to this stuff. Or maybe he's just a Savant, which explains why they make him out to be so retarded.

Anyway, GravityMan is a pretty stupid character too, and has another really annoying voice. They decided to give him a stereotypical robot personality you might see off a show like Lost In Space or something, which seems odd for a cartoon based on a spin off of a video game about robots... That said, GravityMan is probably the only use of 3D on this show that actually looks good, although his animations aren't very complicated. He looks like the 3D you might see on the show Futurama, and that should be taken as a compliment.

If this episode didn't move so slow, rely on one voice actress, and stayed away from NT Warrior's typical contrived story writing conventions, it could have worked out decently. The Darkloid and Nebula's growing tensions make for interesting narrative, but it really feels like only ShadeMan's character is putting any effort into making that narrative interesting, which in turn, hurts this overtly mediocre episode.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: Dark Secret

Plot Synopsis
DesertMan has been weakened from his use of Dark Chips, and has become dependent upon them for survival. Needing to restore missing data, he breaks into the NetPolice vault, where the confiscated Dark Chips are being held, and tries to steal some. Luckily, Chaud is at the station, and quickly apprehends the weakened DesertMan and takes him to SciLab for testing.

Running some tests, Dr. Hikari confirms that the Dark Chips slowly destroy NetNavi data, including the Darkloids, and that their dependence on them will eventually lead to their own deletion. He also puts forth a new theory that the Darkloids were not man made, but evolved out of chunks of data floating around the cyber network. There's a scary thought for you, 4chan memes becoming sentient and trying to take over the world... god help us all...

FlashMan tries to break DesertMan out, but SciLab's defenses combined with MegaMan and ProtoMan are too much for a Darkloid to handle, so they come up with a new scheme. They jack in to NetPolice Chief Keifer's limo, with him and his assistant Manwella inside it, taking them to a car crusher, and of course, since there is no security any where in the world, this puts them in grave danger... oh man, if this was last season I could have made a pun...

SpikeMan contacts SciLab and demands DesertMan's return for the lives of Chief Keifer and Manwella. With their backs against the wall, Lan and company agree, and take DesertMan to the car crusher to make the exchange. Mr. Famous jacks DesertMan into the terminal, but SpikeMan double crosses them and activates the car crusher anyway. Lan has merely precious seconds to get MegaMan to open the lock on the car doors before the passengers get smooshed.

FlashMan then meets with DesertMan and attacks him. He's going to delete DesertMan for his failures, and DesertMan just laughs, knowing that FlashMan will soon share his fate from the Dark Chips. FlashMan deletes DesertMan as a SearchSoul charged up MegaMan gets rid of SpikeMan to free Keifer and Manwella.

They aren't out of danger yet, as a dimensional area forms around them, with the generators sliding up out of the fucking ground again like the Earth pushing a turd out its ass. Why can't they just stick to the satellite animations? Lan has MegaMan try and blast one of the generators with his SearchSoul gun, but it merely bounces off, making Raika's super intelligent plan fucking worthless. Too bad Lan didn't cross-fuse, because FlashMan causes Lan to drop his PET, knocking it away from him.

Just as everyone is about to meet certain doom, Chaud shows up and Cross-Fuses with ProtoMan to save the day... uh... how exactly did Chaud break through dimensional area barrier? I mean, ignore the speed thing for a second, because how the fuck did he do it without Cross-Fusing first? NT Warrior doesn't ask any questions, and neither should you, as Chaud takes out FlashMan with a new program advance, Elemental Sword. See, the writers are asking you to look the other way for Program Advances kids!

FlashMan escapes and stumbles to ShadeMan, begging for Dark Chips. ShadeMan is horrified at FlashMan, who's data has deteriorated and decayed. ShadeMan wonders if the Dark Chips hold this fate for him too. Nebula's leader laughs to himself, knowing the Dark Chips will destroy the Darkloids after he's used them to his own ends.

Critique
This episode adds a bit of intrigue, and is perhaps a bit dark for the standard NT Warrior fare. I've always thought the way Dark Chips were used in this show, and the games, were pretty clever in their own, super contrived way. I mean, eventually you have to forget about putting out Cyber-Fires, and NetNavi's drowning in Cyber-Water, and just roll with it right?

I like ShadeMan's reaction at the end of the episode, and I really think the voice actor did a good job with his voice. ShadeMan I feel is the way to do a more serious villain right, by adding some personality to him, as opposed to the leader of Nebula, who is boring as shit.

As a whole, this episode is pretty bland, sprinkling tiny bits of more interesting plot points that serve for the whole arc of the series, rather than the plot of the individual episode. On that front, it's certainly worth watching, and it isn't boring, but its not even close to the level of entertainment of the last episode.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: SearchSoul!

Plot Synopsis
Strange ghosts viruses have been robbing data-banks across DenTech, and Raika and Lan have been assigned the case. Unfortunately Raika is too much of an intolerable ass for Lan to work with, and MegaMan is deathly afraid of ghosts. (MegaMan.EXE's fear of ghosts originates from the Mystery of the Ghost Ship episode, which was never dubbed in English, and this continued to be a running joke for the rest of the series.) Chief Kiefer tells them to get over it and work together, so the two of them decide to split up and figure out their own ways to track down where the data was taken.

SearchMan's excellent tracking skills locate the viruses in no time, but Lan is stuck following Rush around to every Pizzeria and Deli in the city. So much for relying on the nose of a cyber-dog. Everyone is called back to SciLab after Raika encountered the ghost viruses (which turned out to be invisible Mettaurs), and painted them with a tracking signal. Raika waits around to see where the viruses go, while Lan throws a temper tantrum in the street about how much he hates Raika.

Lucky for Lan, the viruses happen to stop by his location, and he arrives first to the scene to find DesertMan in the network ordering the viruses around. MegaMan is jacked in to stop him, but using the Dark Chips, DesertMan turns invisible, making it impossible for MegaMan to fight him. DesertMan uses his advantage to grab MegaMan and begin squeezing the life out of him.

Just then, Raika shows up with SearchMan, so DesertMan holds MegaMan over a pit of lava, knowing that if SearchMan takes a shot at DesertMan, he'll delete MegaMan in the process. Raika doesn't give a shit and tells SearchMan to take the shot, but SearchMan hesitates, remembering all the good times he had with MegaMan... like that time they stopped ShadowMan... and that time MegaMan called him heartless... and that time... actually it's all from the same episode, but whatever, point is that SearchMan is a bit more amiable to MegaMan than Raika is.

Raika yells at SearchMan, continually ordering him to take the shot, but SearchMan just can't bring himself to fire. DesertMan drops MegaMan into the pit, so reacting fast, SearchMan fires an ice beam at the lava, freezing it and allowing MegaMan to land safely. That leaves him open to an attack from DesertMan, and SearchMan takes a direct hit from DesertMan's Ant-lion attack. Raika is in complete disbelief that SearchMan disobeyed him, and MegaMan rushes to SearchMan's aid. This triggers a DoubleSoul, and MegaMan fuses with SearchMan to create SearchSoul.

DesertMan turns invisible again to out maneuver MegaMan, but with his new tracking ability, MegaMan easily pinpoints him and takes the shot, which impresses even Raika. DesertMan logs out and the data is recovered. Raika is pissed about SearchMan disobeying him, and decides to return home to Sharo. Heading on the plane home, Raika grudingly admits that it was thanks to MegaMan's skill that everything worked out. Lan thanks him, then Raika adds, "Just because I think your NetNavi has skills doesn't mean I think you have any."

"ARG! YOU BETTER GET ON THAT PLANE!"

Critique
Just to be clear, I don't hate Raika as a character. Actually, the only episode I hate with him in it, is the last episode because of how the dialog continually has Raika beating the audience over the head with the only feature of his character, his so called intelligence, on top of which Lan mostly just ends up taking the whole episode. This time Raika actually uses more than ten words from the dictionary, and Lan's building pure rage over Raika's arrogance is hilarious!

This episode is just pieced together so well, a rare home run for this show. At the start of the episode, you have Raika explaining how a NetOp is useless if his NetNavi is disobedient, and this foreshadows SearchMan's inevitable decision in the climax. Lan's increasing anger and frustration are done well, gradually building to a near psychotic outburst, and even when he thinks he's finally shown Raika his ability, Raika throws it back in his face for the perfect ending!

MegaMan is fantastic in this episode as well. The running gag of MegaMan being afraid of ghosts is probably the best thing about NT Warrior ever being made, and the action sequences have some really nice dynamic shots of the blue bomber. They aren't animated as particularly nice as say, Star Force, but the poses and shots are done pretty well. The climax with SearchMan's decision between taking out DesertMan and saving MegaMan is the best the show has ever done to raise some real tension and drama in the characters. You really don't know if SearchMan will take the shot or not (although it's a safe bet MegaMan would survive either way), and I really like this final scene.

This is definitely the best episode of Axess, and one of the best episodes of NT Warrior, and it features a mostly new cast, which is what I've chastised in this series the most so far. There's no Count Zap, no Higsby, no Masa, and this episode still manages to be fantastic, proving that their is a potential for strength in this show, even if it's rarely used. It has a perfect blend of humor, such as Lan following Rush all over town, and suspense and drama. Overall I think Axess is pretty bad, and it's going to get much worse from here, but this episode I'd put in my top 5 episodes of any of the Mega Man cartoons, it's really good.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Axess: The Man From Sharo

Plot Synopsis
Some viruses have stopped a car over some train tracks, preparing an imminent collision with the train. Luckily, a mysterious Net Savior standing on top of a car (way to respect other people's property for an unnecessary dramatic stance...) is in the area, and he jacks in SearchMan to take out the virus, seconds before Lan and MegaMan arrive on the scene.

Back at SciLab, Lan meets this Net Savior from Sharo named Chau... er Raika. Raika is working with Lan a few days to see how Electopian Net Saviors handle missions with Cross-Fusion. Wanting to impress him, Lan spends the majority of the day bragging to Raika about how great he and MegaMan are, and how Cross-Fusion works.

Chaud... er Raika, complains that Lan is relying on only his brute strength and not any intelligence in stopping the Darkloids, something he repeats about twenty two thousand times this episode. When the evil VideoMan attacks a movie theater with, um... lava (what the Christ?), Raika figures this will be a good opportunity to show Lan what he's talking about.

Lan jacks in MegaMan for literally about 12 seconds before Nebula launches a satellite and makes a dimensional area around the movie theater. At least the fucking generators don't materialize out of buses. Lan cross-fuses and tells Chaud... er Raika, to beat it, but Raika goes on and on about being intelligent. Apparently being intelligent means being Batman, as Raika goes about doing flips and using grappling hooks to get around past the viruses.

Things don't go well for Lan, as VideoMan captures him within his grasps, and begins strangling Lan with his... uh tape? Just as Lan is about to meet his maker, Chaud -okay I've run this joke into the ground- Raika has SearchMan destroy the Dimensional Area Generator, dissipating the dimensional area. Lan is a bit short on breath, but otherwise okay, as Raika chastises Lan for being an idiot. Lan hopes he never has to work with that arrogant jerk, Raika, ever again!

Critique
If you didn't get it, Raika is a carbon copy of Chaud in this show, minus the psychopathic tendencies from Battle Network 4 (seriously, who the fuck shoots at an ally?). The whole episode he goes on and on about how much smarter he is than Lan, and you start to wonder when he's going to jack ProtoMan in already.

The dialog is so terrible this episode, as Raika says the word "intelligence" over and over and over. If he's so damn smart, maybe he should look up a fucking thesaurus and expand his vocabulary, I've never heard the damn phrase come across so annoying. In the Japanese version, Raika sounds a lot younger, as do all the characters, and I can only imagine the snot nosed child actor saying this repetitive tripe non stop.

This episode also follows the formula of Lan being too arrogant, and then getting slapped back into reality, except I think they're a bit too harsh on him this time. I mean, Raika sure talks a lot of shit about taking down Darkloids, despite having never been in a dimensional area his entire life. Tell me what's so smart about not doing any research about your enemy? Lan may be dumb, but he's got a hell of a lot more experience.

I think the intention of this episode is to make Raika look smarter more than annoying, but he just comes off as a stupid ass whose overly dramatic. His idea of intelligence is really agility and taking really dumb risks. Perhaps if the writers had some intelligence, Raika would be less grating this episode.

VideoMan is a positive this episode though, as he has some really great lines, but they jump the gun so fast to get into the dimensional area, MegaMan hardly has any screen time at all. This is kind of what I'm talking about with Cross-Fusion ruining the show, because MegaMan literally fires his buster once, and then it's Cross-Fusing time. This sequence really seems cut up too, as if there was more to this scene, and I'm not sure if that's the dubbers cutting something, or if the source was really like this. Either way, this sequence is really shoddy.

For an episode about intelligence, this episode is really stupid.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: SavageMan Returns!

Oh joy, as if I was missing our frog throated friend...

Plot Synopsis
SavageMan is freaking out from using the Dark Chips. Apparently using them frequently causes the NetNavi to lose data, and gets them dependent on the dark chips to restore it. In other words, all of Mega Man NT Warrior Axess is an anti-drug PSA, remember kids, just say "No!" to Dark Chips! Anyway, in order to get more dark chips, SavageMan will have to work directly for Nebula, with his mission of destroying MegaMan!

The next day, Ms. Mari is taking Lan and Mayl to an international exhibit at the brand new "Sea Tower," which is a sky scraper built on a sea platform. Uberknownst to Lan and Mayl is that it's actually Ms. Yuri in disguise, leading Lan into a trap, and a very complicated one at that considering she could just disguise herself as Ms. Mari and shoot Lan in the back or something.

While at the exhibit, Lan runs into Tamako, who's sole purpose this episode is to give MegaMan a new DoubleSoul. No seriously, we'll never see her again after this. Anyway, they get into a Net Battle which is interrupted by SavageMan, seeking to assassinate MegaMan. With HeavyMetalMan's help, MegaMan gets a new DoubleSoul, MetalSoul, and is able to dispatch even a powered up SavageMan.

That's only phase one of the plan, as Ms. Yuri uses SpikeMan to take out one of the tower's support beams. The building starts to collapse, but don't worry, this is a kids show, no ones getting hurt from a silly thing like thousands of pounds of steel and rock crushing them! While trying to escape the falling building, Lan stupidly drops his PET into a precarious spot and has to spend a few minutes trying to fish MegaMan out of it.

As if matters couldn't be worse, a dimensional area forms around the building and SavageMan comes to fight Lan. Lan Cross-Fuses at the very last second and fights off SavageMan with a tiny Cyber Sword, deleting him once and for all. Well... that was easy? Lan passes out from exhaustion, but he's okay.

ShadeMan starts getting suspicious of the dark chips Nebula is giving him, but they reassure him everything is okay, and as soon as he leaves, they laugh and make fun of how stupid these Darkloid junkies are.

Critique
So this new angle on Dark Chips is actually pretty interesting, and I think it's one of the stronger points of this season, as is SavageMan dying since we won't have to ever hear his stupid voice again, too bad we have to deal with him this episode though.

What a stupid title too, SavageMan returns? What? He was gone like for six episodes maybe? Who gives a shit about SavageMan? This is also like one of five episodes with the title "Soandso Returns!" Why go out of their way to keep bringing disappearing characters to our attention? And of the characters, once again, who gives a fuck about SavageMan?

Then there's Tomako, who I also find annoying, combined with Ms. Yuri and you've completed the trifecta of shitty characters this episode. Add a sprinkle of Cross-Fusion and anti-climatic battles to give a pretty lame episode. It's not extremely boring, but even MegaMan's MetalSoul (which looks great) doesn't save this episode from mediocrity.

Rating: Thumbs down.

Axess: It's All How You Look At It!

This episode is similar to a scenario in Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon.

Plot Synopsis
Shuko is a depressed girl with a run of bad luck so bad that the entire town considers her a jinx to have around. All the shops around her close, hoping to ward off her misfortune before her presence taints them. Bad news for Higsby though, as he's having a Net Battle tournament that Shuko excitedly enters.

On the day of the tournament, there is a heavy downpour of rain and Shuko chalks it up to her bad luck. The contestants Lan, Mayl, Higsby, Tory, and Shuko, prepare for their match, a five-way brawl where leaving the battle platform disqualifies the contestant. Shuko brings out her Navi, AquaMan... scratch that, SpoutMan (this one isn't the dubbers fault this time though, there's a dispute with DC comics that resulted in the renaming), and SpoutMan is so adorable to everyone that he throws them off their game. In the fight, Lan slips up with his battle chips, and NumberMan manages to throw his doom dice so it lands on a corner. Afraid of being cursed with bad luck, all the NetNavis back away slowly from SpoutMan until they accidentally fall out of the arena, leaving Shuko the winner. Shuko is absolutely ecstatic about this sudden turn of events, and happily claims her prize, a 10 pound bag of rice.

Unfortunately, Shuko's rice cooker is broken, so Higsby lets her borrow his. It just so happens, however, that the power plant is shutting down the power for a week for routine repairs (they must have PG&E! Ha, obscure Californian power crisis reference!). Shuko starts blaming her bad luck and starts crying, so determined to make her feel better, SpoutMan sneaks off to repair the power. In doing so, he trips up a few security alarms, which make him start bawling. When SpoutMan cries, he releases tons of water from his spout, enough to flood the entire cyberworld!

Lan, Higsby and Shuko run to the power plant to try and stop SpoutMan, but the waves surrounding him are too much for MegaMan and NumberMan to break through. Shuko calls the situation hopeless and starts lamenting her bad luck, when Higsby finally tells her she caused her own misfortune by exaggerating her problems. If she had been more positive, SpoutMan wouldn't have gone off on his own. Shuko tries to think up a solution to the problem then, and determines that they can stop SpoutMan by plugging his spout.

MegaMan performs a DoubleSoul with NumberMan, raising his analytical abilities high enough to accurately pinpoint his attacks. MegaMan plugs SpoutMan's spout with an Elec Sword, bringing him under control and stopping the floods. Later, Shuko gets a job assisting Higsby with the chip shop, and has decided to have a more positive outlook on life. After all, she's luckier than Higsby.

Critique
Shuko is probably the most annoying new character to me, and the writers don't hesitate to ramp up her annoying whining as much as possible. I know Shuko is acting to get the intended effect, but damn if it isn't still annoying.

Other things work in this episode, Shuko aside. The little bits of bad luck are humorous, Lan has some decent lines, and for no particular reason, one of the extra characters has "ze outraegous French Axsent! No?" Also, Higsby has the best line in the show. "You have to have a good outlook on life, althought you don't have to be as upbeat as Lan, he's so gung-ho!" Oh man, Lan could not have been summed up any better than that.

Also, we get a new DoubleSoul, which is always a plus to see in action, and MegaMan's voice gets modified like NumberMan's which is a nice touch. The little details are what save this episode, but Shuko really comes close to killing it.

Rating: Thumbs up!

Also a side note, it looks like Ribbita showed up this episode, so I suppose I was wrong about her voice actress disappearing for a while. I don't really recall her showing up again though, so maybe this was a one time deal, or maybe I'm just talking out my ass. (Probably the latter).

Axess: The Incredible Guts!

Plot Synopsis
This episode plays tribute to possibly the greatest movie of all time, King Kong. Dex is delivering some curry on the island of Jawaii to the seedy noodle merchant from the CutMan Brothers episode. Of course, since that episode only aired in Canada, if you're watching this episode in America, you'll have no idea who the fuck that is.

Anyway, the guy trades his curry tab for a weird device called a Net Wrecker. Initially Yahoot, and World Three deride Dex for making the stupid trade, but to their surprise, the device actually powers up GutsMan an incredible amount. Since Lan and MegaMan just happen to be stopping by on their way back from Kingland, what better time then now to finally defeat them once and for all?

World Three lure Lan into a friendly matchup, and just as MegaMan starts winning, Dex pulls out his ace in the hole. He activates the Net Wrecker, which causes GutsMan to increase in power and size tremendously, but Lan is still able to work up a strategy to put up a fight. Dex goes full throttle on the Net Wrecker, blowing up the machine and sending GutsMan into an uncontrollable rage! Now much bigger, and more dangerous, GutsMan starts wreaking havoc on the cyber network... oh yeah, and Dex wins the match by the way.

Realizing they've got bigger problems (I made a pun), they run the Net Wrecker back to the noodle merchant, who says he got it from some guy named Tadashi Hikari, Lan's grandfather. Through a quick series of coincidences, deus ex, and straight up bullshit, they determine that the only way to stop GutsMan is to put him to sleep, and wait for the Net Wrecker effects to wear off. To do that, they gather up a bunch of Spicy Chips, which apparently now put NetNavis to sleep.

GutsMan gets tuckered out, day is saved, everyone hugs and goes home.

Critique
Definitely an improvement over the last episode, with a lot of great imagery (such as GutsMan climbing a tower holding Roll) and quirky moments. An episode with World Three is always a plus, even if their role has shrunk even smaller than before, and unlike Dex's last episode, his sudden being a jerk trait has been toned down as well.

The only real problem with this episode is how much crap the writers pull out of their ass to resolve the conflict at the end. Coincidences happen in shows all the time, but a crap load happening at the same time is what we called contrived. It's not an episode killer though, about what you'd expect from this show. It's a decent homage to King Kong for MegaMan, and that makes it worth watching at least.

Rating: Thumbs up!