Axess: MistMan's Tower

Plot Synopsis
Lan is out with Mayl trying to catch bugs for a school project that he's waaaaaay behind on. He ends up spotting one and chasing after it for miles and miles until he and Mayl end up in the desert (they might be exaggerating Lan's ability to run this episode...). When a sand storm picks up, Mayl and Lan duck into a nearby tower for safety, where Lan, again, goes chasing bugs. One of the bugs is a golden scarab pushing around a gigantic diamond!

But the tower isn't safe, as deadly, or perhaps mildly annoying, traps litter the area. To make matters worse, Ms. Yuri and a couple of Darkloids are also scouting the tower, looking for the Net Navi in charge of the place, MistMan. MistMan is a strange, but powerful Navi, resembling a Djinn, and he'll only work for the person who holds his relic, in this case, an Aladdin inspired magic lamp.

As Lan and Mayl stumble upon this lamp, Ms. Yuri becomes frustrated with the traps in the tower, and activates a dimensional area. This causes FridgeMan and SwordMan to pop up to ambush Lan. One cross-fusion later, and the battle is on. MistMan also joins the frey, assisting MegaMan, because Mayl holds the magic lamp... for a few minutes anyway until Ms. Yuri grabs it and orders MistMan to fight MegaMan.

Ms. Yuri and Mayl fight over the magic Lamp, while Lan dodges MistMan and the darkloids attacks. MistMan continually switches sides until finally, Ms. Yuri falls in a pit, and Mayl keeps control of the lamp. MistMan assists Lan, and the darkloids log out. MistMan thanks Lan and Mayl, as apparently they've freed him from a life of imprisonment some how or something, and then the tower disappears, and Lan and Mayl walk home... until Lan spots that scarab and gives chase again!

Critique
This is a pretty good episode, showing NT Warrior at it's finest when the show doesn't take itself so seriously. We've got a little Aladdin homage, some good scenes for Lan and Mayl, and even Ms. Yuri doesn't irritate the shit out of me this episode. For once, she takes the pathetic villain role that the World Three members played so well, and it honestly helps me tolerate her so much more.

The story is pretty predictable, and the setup is cliched, but there isn't any glaring flaws besides some reeeeeally cheesy animations. But the episode is humorous, and besides The Mysterious Masked Navi, is the best of the lot of ten episodes that were chosen, and probably the best of the episodes that were skipped.

It does seem to me that MegaMan's lines were either edited or delivered incorrectly though, as it looks like his fear of ghosts and monsters is supposed to crop up again. It's hard to tell, but the animation and his expressions just seem to indicate different context to his words to me. I could be wrong though. In any case, good episode.

Rating: Thumbs up!