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.