Anime / MegaMan NT Warrior (2002)

aka: Mega Man NT Warrior

Battle routine set! Execute!

MegaMan NT Warrior is the anime adaptation of the Mega Man Battle Network series (Battle Network Rockman.EXE in Japan, and later just Rockman.EXE). The anime had 5 series (Rockman.EXE, Axess, Stream, Beast, and Beast+) along with a movie, though only EXE and Axess got an official English release. Despite all being under the same label and sharing the same basic concept, both the anime and the manga are separate entities from each other and the original Game Boy Advance games.

The chief concept is the series' famous alternate timeline plot: In the classic verse, Drs. Light and Wily saw incredible advances in the field of robotics, though Wily's jealousy at Light's more immediate success with the general public saw his arguably greater intellect twisted to petty theft and then increasingly devastating assaults on the world itself. In the Battle Network verse, however, Dr. Light (here named Hikari Tadashi),^note A pun on the Japanese-English L/R confusion in romanisation — the name translates out to Right Light turned his mind to the world of computer networking and carried the population of the world with him anyway, leaving Wily, who was left with his robotics to stew in misery. In the present, or rather, the far, far future of 20XX, the world has seen mind-boggling advances of technology, each and every bit of it connected through the vast cybernetic sea of the internet. Everything — cars, refrigerators, schools, the weather, you name it — everything is literally online.

This has gotten to the point where the internet has become its own dimension. In order to easily navigate this massive dimension, humans created a series of Artificial Intelligences, roughly human in form, called Network Navigators, more commonly known as "Net Navis" or just "Navis". Net Navis each have their own personalities and assist humans with the normal internet stuff: shopping, web surfing, interacting with friends, searching for information, defeating the wild viruses roaming around with their built-in weapon or BattleChips, illegal Net Battles between Navis...

However, nothing is ever ideal. The internet is under almost constant threat from a number of villainous entities, most notably the WWW (pronounced "World Three"). The Grandson of Dr. Light, 10-year-old Lan (Netto) Hikari and his partner, MegaMan.EXE (Rockman), find themselves dealing with everyday life and taking down said villainous entities that threaten to destroy the Net and the world along with it. They won't just be fighting online; when malevolent entities strike, the machine system connected to that part of the hardware will often malfunction dangerously which means Lan will have to take as much initiative offline to stop threats as MegaMan does in Net Battles. For example, Lan's and MegaMan's introduction to the world of crimefighting has the pair take down an arsonist who set housefires using electronic ovens.

In the anime, Lan and his childhood friend/love interest Maylu (eventually joined by schoolyard bully Dex, insanely rich Kinglish transfer student Yai, and quiet but loyal ally Tory) find themselves caught up in the various strikes and counter-strikes between the WWW and a small group of Net Agents led by the mysterious Commander Beef. The Commander and his Net Navi SharkMan will often spend time giving Lan and MegaMan subtle guidance on how to grow, or outright enable them to succeed when given no other choice. Also standing in the boys' way are the enigmatic Chaud Blaze and ProtoMan.EXE, the absolute best of the best.

The first portion of the anime consisted of two seasons consisting of a loose and then tighter and then loose again Anime of the first two Battle Network games, ending on a relatively satisfactory note with the end of the Gospel arc... before tripping over a series of Filler episodes at the end in March 2004. However, that October saw the airing of the new Rockman.EXE Axess, which abandoned the straight adaptational approach in favor of introducing the concept of Dimensional Areas^note A dimensional convergence between the cyberworld and the real world that turns a set area into its own phantom zone. and Cross Fusion along the way. The series continued, cycling uninterrupted through Rockman.EXE Stream and Beast before the airing of Beast+, whose episodes were shortened to only ten minutes and officially came to an abrupt and unyielding halt on September 30, 2006.^note The ten minute episode format would also be inherited by the Anime of the Game of Mega Man Star Force.

As promotion for the Battle Network Legacy Collection, Capcom made the anime available to watch on their official Youtube channels from March 23, 2023 to September 20, 2023. The Japanese channel contained all seasons of the show from EXE to Beast+, while the Capcom USA channel held the dubbed EXE and Axess seasons.

If you are looking for the mangas, see MegaMan NT Warrior (2001), and Battle Story MegaMan NT Warrior.

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This anime contain examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
  • StoneMan.EXE and GravityMan.EXE are the only navis that are never shown in the regular, hand-drawn, cel-shaded animation style.
  • The RockCube battlechip is always presented with 3D effects, and likewise every explosion dust-cloud in the series.
  • Aki-chan the Idol Singer is this, even moreso than everyone else as she is designed to look as "realistic-looking" as possible. Lampshaded and justified on the grounds that she's constructed from a different type of program than the Navis, so she can't properly interact with them.
  • Nearly every scene in Beast where there's an ungodly amount of viruses charging at the heroes, the viruses themselves will just be CG duplicates of one another. Used sparingly, probably for budget reasons.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Pretty common.
  • Bug Style in season 2.
  • Full Synchro in Axess.
  • Forte Cross in the movie.
  • The combined Beast Style in Beast.
• Aborted Arc:
  • Bass' arc. Towards the end of Axess, he made it quite clear that he was very slowly planning on making his own play for power and was shaping up to be a major villain in the next arc. In Stream, however, he's banished to the UnderNet by Slur and not heard from again until The Movie. And then he only shows up in the final episodes of the arc to finish off Slur and is never seen again.
  • Everything in the dub past Axess is this, as they still set up the coming of Duo in the final episodes of the season, and end it with Yuri looking at Duo's comet ominously arriving in the sky. However the next season which follows up on that was never dubbed.
• Adapted Out:
  • Since the Gospel Leader is a robot, Sean Obihiro doesn't appear in the anime.
  • Aside from certain names like BubbleMan, chances are if they're from the third game and did not get Demoted to Extra they are removed entirely instead. Cossak, Sean, Mamoru, Alpha and Serenade are plot-relevant characters, but none of them make an appearance here. This is as a result of Battle Network 3 being released months after the anime is aired, which covers mostly the first two games. By the time the Gospel arc ended, 3 is already out for a long time and the series is preparing to transition into Axess (which was heavily influenced by Battle Network 4), so there is simply no place to put most of these characters or the plot elements in.
  • From Battle Network 4, Atsuki Homura and Terry Jomon (BurnerMan and SparkMan's operators respectively) didn't show up, but their Navis did as Solo Navis.
  • Even though most of the Style Changes do appear in some capacity, some are completely omitted: from the second game, Hub Style^note Very noticeable, given it's prominence in the game(Hub.bat as a whole is omitted as well, even though its featured in every single game thanks to Hub Style or a Navi Customizer part that gives the same benefits)as well as the fact the Manga adaptation did feature it and from the third game, both Shadow and Ground styles.
  • Gyro Soul is the only new Double Soul introduced in Battle Network 5 that is used. Likewise, Chaos Unison is not used at all. This is likely because Stream focuses more on Cross Fusion where the battles takes place in the real world.
  • As far as Crosses goes(Cross Mega Man forms included), Sol Cross MegaMan from the fifth game is absent^note To be fair, this one is exclusive to the Nintendo DS version of the game, and the Boktai crossover content from the games did not get adapted or referenced in the anime at all. And for the Cross System/Cross Beast forms from the sixth game, only Aqua Beast, Tomahawk Beast, Elec Beast, Ground Cross, and Ground Beast ever appear in Beast/Beast+.
• Adaptation Expansion: On the flip side, the anime has a few new things to show us, such as the inventor of the Copyroids, Mr. Famous' ex-girlfriend. Other characters such as Tory, Raika, Dingo, and Ms Yuri become Ascended Extras.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Chisao is aware of his brother's incompetence in the anime and doesn't fully support him at times. Similarly, he is much friendlier towards Lan while in the games he attempts to get Lan disqualified in one of the tournaments from the fourth game.
• Adults Are Useless: Stream averts this, introducing adult members of the team. Also, from the beginning, Commander Beef and his squad. The adult cross fusion characters occasionally prove to be significantly stronger than the kids. For example, at one point Lan, Fyrefox and Dusk each attack one of Dark MegaMan's minions, and while Lan can only manage to log CosmoMan out, the other two delete their foes. Also shown when Lan and Chaud can't make a dent in ShadeMan, but Yuri can.
• Affably Evil: The WWW henchmen and their Navis have a strong family-like relationship among themselves, which prompted them to perform the occasional good deed.
• Agony of the Feet: The female Jerkass in Episode 3 causes this by angrily kicking against a pole.
• Alternate History: In Classic Mega Man, robot technology is the way of the future; in NT Warrior, it's networks. Carrying over from the games, Tadashi Hikari chose to study network technology instead of robotics like Wily did. Most of the Robot Masters from previous MegaMan titles appear in this series as NetNavi programs with different personalities.
• Anime Theme Song: Several, all well loved by the fans. Some were disappointed Futatsu no Mirai never came out with a non TV Size version.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The English Dub instead settled for Techno Lite beeping and had a couple voice modulated "Mega Man: NT Warrior!"s thrown in for good measure, and then replaced that with a new set of Techno Lite beeping for the Axess dub.
  • The German version plays with this, re-dubbing the English anime (well, they did that for the Ruby Spears cartoon). Still, they took the original English theme and gave it actual music, which is an all-around improvement.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Hikawa Tohru (Tory Froid) in the games was a satellite character with a generic sprite. In the anime, he had an original design, was IceMan's operator instead of his father, and became part of The Team. And then this was downplayed in Axess, where he was relegated to "recurring character" status with Ms. Mari and Rush (to be fair, Dex and Yai were so completely Demoted to Extra that they left the main cast entirely), but by Stream he was demoted even further to just occasional appearances. An episode in Beast+ basically devoted itself to how bizarre it was that he and IceMan had become significant again.
  • Rush as well. A random virus in the games; Roll's pet in the anime, though rather independent.
  • After a straight two-seasons of anime without a hint of her in sight, everyone was surprised to find Mari's twin sister Yuri as an Unexpected Character in Axess. Still less were they expecting her to be The Dragon, or a member of the squad in Stream.
  • And of course Mr. Famous, who only appeared about 3 times in season 1, though always in a plot important role who starting with Axess more or less appeared in every episode as Lan's Net Savior backup.
  • Also from Axess on, Raika, who was one of the many possible scenarios in the 4th game and the second to last Team ProtoMan member acquired in the 5th. In the anime he becomes a member of the main cast, more involved in the plot than just about any other character from the same games, barring the ones that were already main characters. Heck, by Stream he'd gotten more focus than most of them! By Beast, he's a full member of the three heroes with Lan and Chaud.
  • The anime seemed to pick one character from each game and give them more than their share of screentime. For 5 it was Dingo, who becomes a regular instead of a recurring character like everyone else and remains so for Beast, even though most of the other characters from his debut game had left the show at that point. He even gets to go to Beyondard while characters like Dex and Yai have to stay behind. For 6 it was Pat Fahran who followed the team around Beyondard til they left unlike everyone else who was a one episode character.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Mayl and Roll were heroes already, but they increased in badass in the show. In season 1, they helped Lan fight battles against WWW and they beat Tory AND Madd during the N1 Grand Prix^note In the first game, Ms. Madd nearly kills Mayl in an urban terrorism attack and ColorMan spends some time torturing Roll, even making it into the semi-finals of the tournament and becomes an unstoppable force when corrupted. She still helped in season 2 and didn't do much in Axess, but in Stream, she and Roll actually managed to Cross Fuse. And they said anime girls couldn't be badass. They were wrong.
  • Many of MegaMan's later powers all lack the significant limitations they had in the games. The most prominent one being Style Change, which has them getting nearly all of the forms (In the games, you can't hold onto more than 2 (Battle Network 2) or 1 (Battle Network 3) styles at a time) over the course of just ten episodes, instead of having to go through 280 battles for each style. And the Double Soul forms all are stored in their own designated chips this time instead of Lan having to sacrifice a corresponding battle chip like the player normally would.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Mr. Higsby was a member of WWW in the first game. Here, he wouldn't even want to be associated with them. He's the same as he was in the games post-Heel–Face Turn, but he has his moments of hilarity and heartwarming, not awesome. It's easy to forget that he used to be a WWW member in the games since the other members are closer to each other in this adaptation while he hangs out with the main cast.
  • Masa, Miyu, and Sal were optional bosses but had little to do with the plot and its going-ons. In the show, they're awesome Net Agents, and during the first series, they had a lot of awesome moments and Big Damn Heroes moments too. Even in the second series, after most of the cast were Demoted to Extra, they had a brief return and they were awesome. Plus in Beast, they had their own Beyondard counterparts who were heroic like them.
  • Downplayed with Bass.EXE, who in his early appearances had more a case of Adaptational Non-Villainy. Following his arrival, he actually saved MegaMan's life, fought against FreezeMan, and even fought the Grave Virus. The plot of Axess forgot to really include him and he was banished at the beginning of Stream until The Movie brought him back to play Anti-Villain. He disappeared again until the finale of Stream, for his last act in the series — completely vanquishing Invincible Villain Slur in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Adaptational Jerk Ass: Lan could be abrasive and immature at times in the games sure, but still knew when to humble himself and was mostly a nice guy. Anime Lan and especially Manga Lan are a completely different story.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Bubble Man, originally a WWW Navi in the games, is a member of the Shade Man's Darkloids. Burner Man is also a member.
• Adaptational Wimp: Despite the greater ease of access to certain abilities like Style Change and Double Soul, Lan and MegaMan don't win nearly as often as you might think. In most scenarios, they rarely are able to defeat an enemy Navi on their own, and usually must rely on help from either their friends, Chaud, or another character of the day to help them (it's even worse in the manga) save the day. Something Chaud even calls Lan out on in the N1 Grand Prix.
  • Justified. The first game makes it clear Lan and Mega have been together for years and already have a fair amount of experience battling together. Here in the anime, MegaMan didn't even come into existence until midway through the first episode.
• Bad Hair Day: In Episode 8, Mayl's hair changes into a different style after Fire Man sabotaged the device that was doing her hair.
• Balloon Belly:
  • Lan, Mayl, Dex and Chisao in episode 54 following their overeating misadventures.
  • Yuika and Blackbeard in Beast+ episode 9.
  • Tends to show up whenever somebody eats a whole hell of a lot; various instances abound throughout the whole series, especially with Dex.
• Baseball Episode: A later filler episode in the second season has Lan and company going out of their way to cheer up Kyuuta Hoshida, a One-Shot Character. For some reason it wasn't dubbed.
• Beach Episode:
  • Lan and MegaMan start the second season with a World Tour, but after they arrive at the tropical island region of Jyawaii, they discover that their friends are already there. Fun in the sun ensues.
  • Late in Rockman.EXE Stream, Yuuichirou decides the Cross Fusion team should all attend training camp, which is really a summer getaway where everyone (except Netto's mom Haruka, who was left at home) can get some more fun in the sun.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Asteroid NetNavis are dangerous and powerful, but their Operators use their powers for banal things—this can get out of hand if the Asteroid Navis decides to break away from their Operator.
  • Asteroid PlantMan helps his chosen Operator avoid having to eat his vegetables by ruining Japan's homegrown agriculture and then its international commerce, all to keep edible vegetation out of the country.
  • Asteroid GravityMan is used by a pair of lowlife crooks to give Manabe weight issues. This climaxes in Gravity Man dragging a submarine down to the bottom of the ocean in the plot while they're on it.
• Benevolent Boss: Oddly, ShadeMan is this. When his minions fail, he simply gives their chance to someone else, never destroys able Darkloids, and he lets BubbleMan, the most incompetent, annoying Darkloid ever follow him around like he's his older brother.
• Big Damn Heroes: Every main character and most of the secondary cast gets a couple of these. Lan usually has at least one an episode, especially once Axess starts. Enzan/Chaud has some truly awesome ones mid-Axess, probably to make up for having to turn his Navi evil a few episodes later.
• Big Fancy House: Yai's family lives in a GIGANTIC mansion on a sprawling estate. The mansion can even turn into A GIANT ROBOT.
• Big "NO!": Lan, on MegaMan's deletion in episode 22.
• Body Double: Used to convince the cast that Masa is not Commander Beef.
• Bowdlerise: International dubs had this, mainly editing out scenes of busters pointed towards the camera, alongside blurring out swords; Downplayed as scenes such as MegaMan's and ShadeMan's deletions were left unedited, even with the latter's violent nature.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Roll gets an episode of this during the N-1 Grand Prix. ProtoMan gets an entire story arc of this during Axess.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Among his group of friends, Lan.
  • Mr. Higsby and Masa. Usually in the butt of each other's actions due to their feud over Ms. Mari.
• Cain and Abel: Count Zap and Gauss Magnus is one villainous example. Also, Ms. Mari and Ms. Yuri.
• Canon Foreigner: Among the handful of anime-specific characters, there are a few notables. First is Gorou Misaki, a Net Saver and original test subject for Cross Fusion who runs afoul of Nebula's plotting and is tricked into undergoing Dark Cross Fusion with his Navi, PrisMan.EXE.
  • Then there's Keifer and Manuela, more commonly known by their original names of Inspector Kifune and Manabe, who serve with the NetPolice and "oversee" the activities of the Net Savers.
  • Then there's Makoto Aoki, a programmer notable for being one of the few prominent females on the cast and Mr. Famous' ex-girlfriend.
  • Slur, the extra terrestrial navi and Duo's second-in-command from Stream.
  • The Asteroid Navi operators in Stream excluding the Neo WWW members and Ivan Chillski, who are from the games themselves.
  • Trill, the child navi allowing MegaMan to beast out.
  • CutMan's brothers, who appear far more frequently than even CutMan does, ever since the original CutMan got defeated swiftly. They actually posed a threat against Lan and Mega in their debut episode, though their competence reduced after that.
• Casting Gag: As noticed in this video, some voice actors from the Megaman cartoon also did some roles in the anime. Same deal in the Brazilian dub.
  • Speedy Dave and Sal are close friends once again.
  • Fabio Lucindo voiced Ash Ketchum, a Mon trainer. In the anime, he voices MegaMan.EXE, basically a virtual Mon. Same deal with Ash's Mexican Spanish voice actor, Gabriel Ramos.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The final arc of each of the first two seasons is by far the darkest of each, but Axess is much darker and more ominous in general — the first episode involves the mass kidnapping of almost every Navi in Cyber City, and there's an entire episode that counts as a Big Lipped Alligator Moment... in part because everyone dies.
• Chekhov's Classroom: The episode 'Robotic Fish Gone Wild!' revolves around this. Did you know that jellyfish are 90% water? So are Jellyfish Viruses! Water conducts electricity! ELECTRO-SWORD!!!!
• Child Prodigy:
  • Chaud, Vice-President of a major corporation (and in the manga, ). It's implied that he's been VP since he was a little kid.
  • Lan, barring a couple of necessary defeats in the beginning, catches up to and later surpasses Chaud's skill. A major case of Brilliant, but Lazy.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: It rarely comes up, but Maylu doesn't like other girls horning in on Lan's time and attention.
  • When Lan and friends visit Creamland at Princess Pride's behalf, Maylu happens upon a close moment between Lan and the princess, which prompts Maylu to get mad and storm off.
  • In Episode 30 of Axess, AquaMan decides to wrap himself around MegaMan and never let go, which leads to awkward encounters in which Shuuko has to get physically close to Lan in turn so she can look at the screen of his PET as well. Neither Maylu nor Roll are a fan of this arrangement.
  • Stream had Jasmine and Meddy Promoted to Love Interest for Netto and RockMan, which naturally causes a problem for Meiru and Roll, who are not pleased to discover themselves to be in a Love Triangle.
• Collector of the Strange: JunkMan. He lives in an abandoned space station and uses it to collect space debris for his collection. He once tried to "collect" Yai's space shuttle and space station, until MegaMan and the gang showed him what he should collect.
• Comical Angry Face: In Episode 36, Mayl, Dex, Yai, and Tory spend most of the episode with angry expressions for being annoyed at Lan getting late to their meet-up and having to eat bad tasting ramen.
• Conspicuous CG: Virtual idol Aki-chan is animated in CG that makes her stand out from the surrounding inhabitants of cyberspace, though this serves to show that she's made with different code that prevents her from interacting with them.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Despite not using a Filler Villain (yes, Regal is the bad guy), the Stream movie could be considered totally Non-Serial with the exception of Baryl's PET getting nearly crushed—the cause of that weird crack across its face all series—and Bass getting left alone with the Nebula Grey (that nod doesn't show up until Stream's ending, when Bass shows up with newly-absorbed powers from the Nebula Grey).
  • For a more comical example, from Season 1's filler episode we have Aki-Chan's hit single Install Your Heart. Ever since the episode that first introduced Aki-Chan, any time any character starts singing, whether it's on stage or just a character singing to himself while he works, it will be that song. It's uses so frequently that fansubbers stop bothering to subtitle it.
  • Another humorous example is Chaud and Raoul's disco outfits. Used once in Axess as a disguise in order to hide their identities from Lan, thought to never be seen again after that due to how ridiculous they looked and how out of character it was for Chaud to wear something like that. Until Stream that is, when they use them to do some undercover work. Hilarity Ensues.
  • There's an episode in which Mega Man is severely damaged, so Lan is used as a base in order to help rebuild his body. The process is not pleasant for Lan, but it works. This is most-likely an allusion to the fact that in the games Mega Man was based off of Lan's deceased twin brother, who died as an infant.
• Cool Big Sis: Anetta for Meiru in Rockman.EXE Stream, where she support Meiru's interest in Netto and encourages her to go for it in the face of her new Love Triangle with Netto Jasmine.
• Cute Kitten: Why else would there be a Bizarro Episode where all of the Navis become cats? Perhaps as a Shout-Out to the infamous Lion Men Bizarro Episode in the original Mega Man cartoon.
  • Also, a cute little feline tends to make the rounds in Axess and Stream. In Axess, it stays with Mayl for a bit, which makes Rush jealous. In Stream, Yuri takes care of it for awhile.
• Darker and Edgier: In general, Axess and The Movie compared to the original series, with villains far closer to the Moral Event Horizon than the more comical WWW and even Gospel.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Most of the cast introduced in Battle Network 3 either suffer from this if they're not removed entirely. Tora only gets one filler episode in the second season, despite being one of Lan's allies in 3's endgame. Neo-WWW members Rei Saiko and Sunayama barely get any screentime in Stream, and when they do appear, it's always as second fiddle to either Inukai or Narcy. At least Sunayama got a single episode all to his self, though Saiko was not as lucky.
  • Also, Dex, Yai, the Net Agents and Tory from Axess onwards, though the Dex and Yai come back every now and then.
  • Higsby and Ribitta (two members of Team Colonel) are replaced by Maylu and Ms.Yuri as members of the Cross Fusion team. Toadman is even worst, having only a few episodes worth of appearance.
  • Ito and Vic were WWW members in the last game, but reduced to one episode each in Beast +.
• Discard and Draw: MegaMan loses the Style Change explicitly as a result of gaining Cross Fusion capabilities. Beast Out doesn't negate Double Soul, but that power was mostly ignored once Stream began.
• The Ditz: Our hero has a few moments. For example, in the N-1 Grand Prix, Enzan is shocked to see Netto and Rockman putting up a fight, given their chances were infinitesimal. Netto proudly responds that math is his worst subject.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Mr. Famous is constantly reminding people to call him "Just Famous." In the original Japanese, his refrain is "-san wa iranai," ("the -san isn't needed"); at one point he complains that he's not even over 30, suggesting the formality makes him feel old.
• Dub Induced Plothole:
  • In Episode 33, Cut Man is deleted by Mega Man in the Japanese version, wherein the dub instead has him logging out. This would conflict with Episode 36, where Cut Man's family announce to get vengeance on Mega Man for deleting Cut Man.
  • Some of the undubbed Axess episodes result in this in The Great Net Police Battle, where MegaMan claims all of the Darkloids had been deleted even though BurnerMan and SparkMan were never shown deleted in the dub version. In the same episode, Lan uses some Soul Unison/Double Soul Navi chips that were never obtained in the dub, such as WoodSoul and Wind Soul.
  • Another undubbed episode has Cross Fusion Mega Man battling Sword Man and deleting the red sword. Sword Man returns later with the red sword missing without an explanation in the dub.
  • Also in the Japanese version Yai's family company is a game company "Gabcom" while Chaud's family is IPC a tech company. In the dub this is reversed, with Yai's family having the Ayanotech tech company and Chaud having Blazequest games, presumably so Yai comes off as more respectable than the initially jerkish Chaud. The problem is Yai's company and her wealth are only ever used for filler or gag purposes in the anime, while IPC ends up being kind of important plotwise from Axess on, with them developing important tech, such as the PET upgrades for each season. They then try to dance around the issue.
  • The German Dub of NT Warrior contains a few, since only 42 of the episodes were dubbed at all. While most of the undubbed episodes were just filler, some important plot points were lost, like the episode where Princess Pride spends a day as a Princess Incognito with Lan, the episode "The Good Dog Rush", where Rush appeared in the real world for the first time, or "Subzero Brawl", the episode that introduced Tory Froid and IceMan to the cast.
• Dub Name Change: Doubles with Inconsistent Dub in reference to the Battle Network series.
  • Dubbed names from the anime deviate from the preestablished names in the video game canon, and the fans tend to find them obnoxious. FireMan became TorchMan, ColorMan became WackoMan, and then the anime hit us with SavageMan (BeastMan), HeavyMetalMan (MetalMan), and JunkDataMan (JunkMan).
  • Inspector Kifune and Manabe of the Net Police became Keifer and Manuela.
• Eagle Land: Amerope (The anime's English tends to be phonetic, so you may see "Ameroppa" instead), known as Netopia in the games, is an amalgamation of America and Europe as a whole (as you may have guessed). It is the most-featured foreign country in the series. In the anime, Lan visits it as part of his Championship Tour in the early second season.
• Everyone Knows Morse: In Episode 17, Shark Man signals Lan and Commander Beef by using the nearby lighthouse with an SOS morse code message to tell them their location.
• Everything Is Online: Everything. Even doghouses and hospital beds.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The Brainwashed and Crazy Roll sounded like Master Cyclonis.
• Evil Versus Evil: Gregar and Falzer along with their respective Zoanoroids.
• Eye Scream: In The Movie, Dr. Regal kidnaps Yuuichirou and subjects him to a painful Borrowed Biometric Bypass by extracting a data code from his eye. It Makes Sense in Context, though that context is not pleasant at all.
• Eyes Always Shut: Both Higsby and Yahoot. Funnily, Yahoot has to impersonate Higsby during the tournament at one point.
• Face Fault: In Episode 38, just as Lan and Tora are about to start their Net Chess battle, Lan admits he has no idea how to play chess, causing everyone including the viewers of the match to flip.
  Announcer: This kid is obviously not ready for the pros!
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: Naturally by virtue of being data Navis can get blown up, impaled etc., with impunity. Special mention must go to SearchMan dismembering ShadowMan in Axess before deleting him by blowing a hole right through his chest, echoed by ShadeMan's brutal deletion at the hands of R-Laserman at the season's end.
• Fanservice: After the first season, it became a Once a Season feature to throw the cast into a Filler Beach Episode or Hot Springs Episode, not just Lan and his friends, but the older characters for Parent Service.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Most are carried over from the games, but the anime adds some more like Kingland as a United Kingdom stand-in and Namasty, which serves as a Battle Network counterpart for India.
• Fighting from the Inside:
  • Subverted in Roll's example above; Mega Man/Rock Man tries to use The Power of Friendship to try to get her to snap out of it. It seems to work for a few seconds...but it turns out that she was just trying to get him to let his guard down.
  • Chaud gives the trope new meaning when he crossfuses with Protoman in order to get in and drag him out..
• Filler: Most of Stream, but every season has a couple of these here and there.
• Filling the Silence: Provident in the English Dub. Most scenes that were originally silent in the Japanese Dub has large amounts of Dub Text to have extra dialogue.
• Flanderization: Most of the main cast, though this is heavily dependent or who was writing them at the time due to some of the staff preferring to derail characters to fit their own writing cliche's. Chief cause of this was Staff Writer Mayori Sekijima, whose long-running preference for comedy filler stories throughout his career (See Tenchi in Tokyo) was to turn all the characters into idiots and then exaggerate their character traits. Much of the character flanderization in the series is rooted in that, and many examples below come from episodes he wrote.
  • Mayl, grows increasingly, ah... expressive as the series goes on. While she had Tsundere tendencies from episode 1; In the early seasons she was more or less sharing the Only Sane Man role of the crew (stuck in a group with Dex, Tori and Yai) with Lan, and generally much Closer to Earth. With the major genre-shift that happened in Axess, she was assigned a bundle of extra cutesy character traits that became more and more exaggerated with each season. Near the end of Beast+, she actually breaks down crying over a bag one of their recurring antagonists shredded...though to be fair on that, she'd spent the majority of the episode going through a bunch of trials to GET that bag in the first place.
  • Roll is treated no better; she essentially acts as though she's Mega's one-and-only from Axess on. Her own personality is also heavily simplified and has more whiny behaviors.
  • Also, during his introductory arc in Axess, Raika is much nastier to Lan than in the games^note And by "in the games", we mean that this is the guy who punched Lan in the stomach after meeting him; he is consistently and unendingly condescending about Lan and his abilities (and is just fine taking all the credit for a successful mission in which he only had to outwit a few Mooks because the boss was occupied with Lan and Mega), and even after Lan and Mega Man save the day, he still refuses to allow for any contribution Lan makes, instead only acknowledging to Mega's impressive ability to Double Soul. He joins the main cast and becomes buddy-buddy with them later on (even moereso than his game counterpart), but damn. Jerkass alert.
  • Lan caught this smack in the face in Axess, though arguably got hit the hardest by the idiot stick in the Gospel/Grave arc episodes before Axess (the Japanese version, at least) ACTUALLY HAD TO DIAL IT BACK. This started, unfortunately, due to very inconsistent writing for the kid depending on which staffmember was behind each episode...and then the Dub massively exaggerated the idiot hero depiction as a result as they felt it was then keeping his character consistent. Regardless, While Lan is certainly no supergenius, he was otherwise competent and aware of his surroundings to the point of sharing a deadpan snarker straight man roll with Mayl. In example, he managed to piece together Commander Beef's true identity during the N-1 Grand Prix (though no one believed him and Miyu bailed Masa out, anyway). Come Axess (the Dub, at least; less so in the original japanese), Lan became a massive Idiot Hero with an ego that repeatedly limited his effectiveness... and he suddenly had absolutely no idea that Masa and Commander Beef were the same person (which everybody else suddenly knew as obvious fact, just as they knew Black Rose and Miyu Miyu were Sal and Miyu).
• Free-Range Children:
  • Netto/Lan and his friends take this to ridiculous levels, even before he becomes a Net Savior. This is more often than not due to Yai having her own Personal Jet and ROCKET SHIP.
  • In Axess, Dex travels to Jawaii Island to work at WWW's curry shop. In Stream, Dingo does the same thing when WWW moves back to ACDC.
• Funny Background Event: Episode 15 of Beast is a very silly episode, and even in a crisis one can find silliness going on in the background.
  • While Netto and RockMan realize the whirlpool is the result of the park's computer being cracked, Mariko is riding it out in style by using Dekao as a personal flotation raft.
  • While Netto is analyzing ElementMan's attack pattern and countering it, Mariko is busy pumping water out of a soggy Shuuko's stomach.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Lan winds up doing this for Chaud after ProtoMan is corrupted by the dark chip.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Almost literally in one episode where Yai hosts a racing competition and is happy for anyone to join, even WWW members.
• G-Rated Drug: The Dark Chips. The way Darkloids and Humans crave them is criminal, and they always feel that they can get along by using them all the time. Unfortunately, they have a very nasty side effect makes Darkloids dependent on and become corrupt the more they use them; FlashMan, SavageMan, and DesertMan are prime examples who suffer said effects.
• Grade-School C.E.O.: 12-year-old Chaud is the vice-president of the IPC hardware company.
• Gratuitous English: Count Zap's speech in the original Japanese is peppered with this, mixed with his habitual No Indoor Voice. (Justified, as it's implied that English is his native language.)
  IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!
  • Quite a few terms are in English in the Japanese dub, including PET, NetNavi, WWW, Battle Chip, Program Advance, Style Change, Soul Unison, Cross Fusion, Dimensional Area, Operator and Net Saver (changed to Net Savior in the English dub).
  • Whenever an Operator plugs a Navi in, they'll say "Plug in, (name of Navi)! Transmission!" in English. Also, when inserting Battle Chips, they'll say "Battle Chip, (name of Chip)! Slot in!"
  • Some of the episode titles employ this too. Episode 8's original title is "Revenge Fireman!" ("Hot Tempers!" in the dub).
• He's Back!:
  • Roll, after she's freed from the Devil Chip near the end of episode 19. This is added in the English dub, in the Japanese version she goes straight to the Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
  Roll: [thinking] Good to be back... to my old self again.
  • Mega's restoration during the PharaohMan arc.
• Heel–Face Turn: Arguably, the WWW minus-Dr. Wily became this in the middle of season two of the original series. Mr. Match (since Gospel's FreezeMan.EXE deleted FireMan.EXE) and Count Zap (because Gospel's Dragon is his arch-nemesis brother) stand out in particular.
• High Heel Hurt: In a fashion-themed episode, Roll tries on a wedding dress with heels and she can barely walk in them. Doesn't stop her from stomping on Megaman's foot for his obliviousness to her affections though.
• Hot Springs Episode:
  • Beginning in Axess, Mariko and Tohru (often joined by Chisao and Rush) form a Hotspring Appreciation Society of sorts, which travels to various hot springs to sample and enjoy them. Episodes 5, 17, and 24 all feature hot springs.
  • Downplayed in Stream, where the Beach Episode ends with a hot springs scene.
  • Even Laika and Dingo get one such scene in Beast, in the smallest towels imaginable◊.
  • The climax of Beast+ included a Freeze-Frame Bonus scene featuring Continuity Cameos of Mariko, Yuriko, and Tamako sharing a hot spring. Earlier in the final arc, there was a nice, long scene of Tamako luxuriating in a spring all on her own, with only MetalMan for company, demonstrating that the MetalMan who was attacking Net City was a fake.
• Hulk Speak: GutsMan's usual speaking tone.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The anime seems to love this plot even more than the games, and even extended it to Navis other than MegaMan:
  • Dark ProtoMan and Chaud in Axess episode 49.
  • Attempted in a first season fight where Roll is turned into an evil dominatrix by a corrupted chip. It fails miserably. Roll is only restored by purging the chip from her system manually.
• Identical Stranger: Most of the Asteroid Navis and Zoanoroids to previously deleted antagonistic navis, though the Zoanoroids are also this to good navis.
• Idol Singer: The second season introduces Canon Foreigner Aki-chan, a Virtual Celebrity who takes the world by storm with her saccharine In-Universe Ear Worm, "Anata no Heart ni Install" (i.e., Install Your Heart). Her debut episode takes the opportunity to dress up nearly the whole regular cast (not just the girls, but even Netto, Dekao, and Tohru) in Aki's skimpy outfit.
• Improbable Age: Chaud, Vice-President of a major corporation. It's implied that he's been VP since he was a little kid.
• Indignant Slap: In Episode 38 of Stream, after Lan and Mayl defeat the Monster of the Week, Lan acts oblivious to Mayl's feelings when he mentions Jasmine is able to see Duo's comet, annoying her enough to deliver a slap.
• Jerkass: Chaud and Protoman were like this to Lan and MegaMan in the original series. Raika Took a Level in Jerkass over his Game incarnation, and trust us, that's saying something.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On the other hand unlike in the games, Chaud and ProtoMan eventually began to warm up to their rivals much earlier. Even to go as far as to save MegaMan a lot of times. In Axess however, Chaud became friends with Lan. Same can be said for Dex except he was already a jerk with a heart of gold earlier on before Axess.
• Just a Kid: Arashi said this about being defeated by Lan.
• Karma Houdini: The original WWW run a curry shop during the Gospel arc. Dr. Wily also disappears after said arc and returns in Stream to help against Duo. Nevertheless, none of the WWW members and Dr. Wily receive serious consequences for their crimes.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: Lan's control isn't total, and it's based in part on teamwork and empathy.
• Klotski: The ending theme, Hikari Todoku Basho, has a short animation of the puzzle being solved in the background near the start of the video.
• Know When to Fold Them: Jacking out is essential to prevent one's NetNavi from taking too much damage and being deleted. Logging Out can be the equivalent of being KO'd, but also applies to escaping.
• Large Ham: Plenty, but Count Zapp, Masa and Commander Beef stand out. Higsby, too, when he's motivated.
• Lightning Bruiser: SkullMan in the anime. Lan and MegaMan only win when Miyu forfeits.
• Limited Wardrobe: It's notable if a character is seen in more than one or two outfits.
• Lover Tug of War: After Meddy is introduced, the Love Triangle between her, MegaMan, and Roll immediately turns into a tug-of-war. When Roll realizes that they are hurting MegaMan, she lets go before it can turn into a Tear-Apart Tug-of-War.
• Magnetic Hero: Lan and Mega know how to make friends.
• Marilyn Maneuver: In "Ice Ice Baby!" (a.k.a. "Subzero Brawl"), Yai and Maylu have this when riding in seats that descend and transport them into a car, along with Lan and Dex. But Maylu holds her skirt in place as this happens.
  • Maylu has another in "Allegro" from Axess, due to a tornado approaching, but she keeps her dress in place.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: In the episode where all the Navis are turning into cats, their minds are at risk into becoming what they are.
• Mons: The Navis, with a dash of Bond Creature. The viruses, too.
• Mon Mode: NetOps can perform Cross Fusion to become one being if they use slotting a Synchro Chip and have a high sync rate with their Navi while in a Dimensional Area. The NetOp becomes a more superhuman with along with their Navi abilities and use Battle Chips while fused.
• Monster of the Week: Each episode involves Lan and the others dealing with an evil Net Navi and their operator.
• Mouth Taped Shut: In one episode, Lan discovers a girl all tied up with her mouth taped shut. He removes the tape from her face.
• Must Have Caffeine: If you see Chaud consuming anything, chances are that it's coffee. Apparently he also puts ten sugars in, according to a mid-season Axess episode. That explains how he manages a schedule like that, anyway...
• Mythology Gag:
  • Episode seven of Stream has MegaMan and ProtoMan participate in a car race and their cars are named Red Sun and Blue Moon, after the two versions of the fourth game.
  • Chisao's debut episode has him operating a shape shifting navi that looks like GutsMan, much like the CopyMan fight from the third game.
  • At some point, Lan holds Iris and calls her name in the exact same manner that Zero did to his timeline's Iris in Mega Man X4.
• No Ending: Beast+ (and with it, the entire anime) just ends. We never find out what happens to the characters, and we never see the fallout of Cache's plot. All we are left with are a string of questions and subplots that are never going to be answered since EXE is pretty much dead.
• Non-Idle Rich: Chaud is the vice president of a major company, the son of the president of the aforementioned company, REALLY rich. Yet he works for the Net Police as a Net Savior.
• Non-Standard Character Design: There are a few instances of really strange looking viruses, such as the Beastized versions.
• Open-Minded Parent:
  • Lan's mother, Haruka. Lan flies all over the world and has even gone into outer space on several occasions. He saves the world on a regular basis. Not once have we seen Haruka act nervous about her son going on all of these dangerous adventures.
  • Several of these adventures are actually encouraged by the father, and she's been putting up with him for years.
• Parting-from-Consciousness Words: In episode 19, after being freed from mind control, Roll apologises before passing out in Megaman's arms in the Japanese and Mandarin versions (Cantonese version has her passing out mid-sentence). In the English dub, she was cut off mid-sentence while asking for forgiveness by passing out.
• Police Are Useless: Whether they are normal security, police or military, all unnamed netnavis will be deleted by the bad guys without even putting up a fight.
• Pool Scene:
  • Episode 16 of Stream opens in a posh Health Spa, where Netto and Meiru are hanging out at the pool while Manabe is busy having her weight examined.
  • Episode 15 of Beast+ is a whole pool episode, in which Netto and his class relax at a local water park, unaware that malevolent weatherman Tsuyuharu Nyoudo and his NetNavi ElementMan.EXE are out to misuse miniroid technology to make them rue the day they laughed at his Epic Fail of a forecast.
• Post-Script Season: The Anime of the Game was not expected to go on past the second season but was surprisingly renewed, albeit in Retooled form as Rockman.EXE Axess.
• Potty Emergency: Yai has one in Episodes 3 and 20, the latter caused by drinking too much Strawberry Milk.
• Power Glows: Program Advances, Style Changes, Soul Unisons. The first episode of Axess indicated that Cross Fusion sequences appeared this way from the outside, too. Also, Full Synchro R-Rockman in the Axess finale.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • This gets a big send-up during the final battle of the N-1 Grand Prix, with Lan as its representative. This is also what brings MegaMan back after he was deleted near the end of the first season of the show.
  • Soul Unisons are a more blatant example later on. Also, Cross Fusion is said to rely on the 'synchronization rate' of the Navi/Operator pair; while friendship isn't the only factor, it still seems to be a key one.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Everyone is usually in character, the storylines are true in spirit to the games (though not taken from them), and quite a lot of thought went into designing a society around the games' play mechanics.
• Put on a Bus: Lan, Mayl, Mega, and Roll (and to a lesser extent, Higsby) are the only main characters to appear regularly in almost every episode of every season. To note.
  • In Axess following the retool of Lan being a Net Savior, Dex and Yai move out of the country, to keep their more silly aspects out of the more serious plot, although they'd return for an occasional episode from time to time and the climax of the seasons. Dex would eventually move back in Stream, and remain there for good. Yai would also move back in Beast, but the action would quickly move to Beyondard which she didn't go to. Tory never actually moved away, but appeared less and less as Lan spent less time at school and move saving the world.
  • Since the Net Saviors basically took over their role in the plot the Net Agents also left the country, only appearing once in Axess for a visit and never again (Sal also had a separate episode to give Wood Soul).
  • WWW ALSO left the country, to move to Jawaii and run their curry shop and only reappeared in Axess for 2 episodes (and another one for Match to give Fire Soul). In Stream, Yahoot returned with Dex to open a Japanese branch and since then the other members would occasionally show up there as well.
  • In Stream, Chaud is stationed overseas a few episodes in (to keep him from stealing Lan's thunder and making the fights too easy) and stayed there until Beast, although he'd return for big events like the movie and ShadeMan's return and also had a few episodes focusing on him and Raoul.
  • Except for Dingo the Cross Fusion members who all appeared frequently in Stream all went home in Beast (or in the case of Fyrefox and Dark just stopped appearing) but they returned for the finale.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Plenty.
  • Lan is the Red to MegaMan's Blue.
  • And the red to Chaud's blue. And let's throw Lan vs. Laika in here, though technically they all form a team of three.
  • MegaMan plays double duty by being the more generally cheerful contrast to ProtoMan and SearchMan.
    • Inverted with the Lan/Chaud and Mega/Proto relationships, since the Hikari brothers have associations with the color of blue and the other pair are associated with reds.
  • Roll can generally be counted on to be far more perky than MegaMan. Averted with Lan and Mayl, who are more Jerk and Tsundere.
  • Anime-specific example: Sal and Miyu. A nod to the trope appears when the two are "working" (read: lounging and sun-bathing) in Jawaii: Sal is sporting a red bikini and Miyu is relaxing in a light blue one-piece.
• Retool:
  • The original anime was The Anime of the Game for the first two games in the Mega Man Battle Network series, but Rockman.EXE Axess revamped the premise into a Henshin Hero action series, and Rockman.EXE Stream expanded on the new premise to make a full Sentai series.
  • Beast dialed the Sentai and Henshin Hero elements back, but midway through the series had a half-dozen core cast members Trapped in Another World.
  • Beast+ returned to being The Anime of the Game, but consisting of a mishmash of single-episode adventures and short arcs based on Battle Network 6, Mega Man Network Transmission, and Rockman.EXE Phantom of Network.
• Rich Bitch: Ms. Millionaire/Ms. Millions. She traps people into entering an endless challenge which costs their lives once she's unsatisfied with their performances. Her Beyondard version is actually dirt poor.
• The Rival: Chaud, and in the anime Raika as well.
• Same Character, But Different: In Stream, the Asteroids are exactly the same as the Darkloids from Axess, only they have different origins.
• Say My Name: The anime loved this and loved employing dramatic cliffhangers to get these out there. In the Japanese version, Lan's catchphrase could very well be "ROKKUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!"
• Scarf of Asskicking: Bass-Cross MegaMan.
• Series Continuity Error: During Chaud's mental battle with Dark Protoman, a memory of Chaud first receiving Proto Man as his navi shows Chaud holding the new wireless PET instead of the model from the first season (or an even older model).
  • That would be a frequent error. For whatever reason from Axess on they never showed the original PET's from the first season ever again, even when flashing back to the first season itself (it would always be reanimated to have the new PET) or flashing back to events years prior before the advance PET could have been made.
  • During the Gospel climax, Raoul and ThunderMan introduce themselves to Lan's friends, but when Raoul returns in Axess, only Lan remembers him due to his trip to Netopia.
  • When Wily reveals himself as the mastermind behind Gospel, he is now riding in a motorized wheelchair, but when he returns in Stream, he can walk just fine.
• Sixth Ranger: Princess Pride, in the second season, only appears in two episodes, but in Stream, she and her netnavi officially join the Cross Fusion members and join in the rest of the series battles. Interestingly, in the original games, she pulled a Heel-Face Turn, as she was a villain before joining the heroes.
• Ship Tease: There was plenty of this between Lan and Mayl and, likewise, MegaMan and Roll (Axess even through Lan and Mayl into a date at a theme park).
  • Between Lan and Maylu:
    • The undubbed episode 42 of Rockman.EXE Axess, "Meiru's First Date", features Netto and Meiru on a date at the theme park as a major plot point. The episode starts with a Dream Sequence of Meiru being able to cross-fuse with Roll and being able to protect Lan from Darkloids.
    • Maylu routinely provides Lan with The Glomp.
  • Between MegaMan and Roll:
    • When MegaMan defeats TorchMan in the first episode, Roll gives him The Glomp.
    • In "Chess Mess!", when Maylu steps in to assist Lan in an unfair game of cyber-chess against Tora, she sends Roll in, too. The instant she appears, Roll rids the board of the Queen piece to take its place next to Mega Man. They both blush happily at the prospect of working together.
  • It isn't even limited to the ones above. After saving her from a broken elevator, Chaud and Yai are shipped together quite a bit, same goes with Chaud and Annetta after Annetta's Heel–Face Turn establishing a Love Triangle between the three. Stream, does hint between Laika and Pride, though by the end of the series nothing came out of their relationship.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Episode 40, Lan and the others dress up as the cast of Journey to the West.
  • Axess reveals that Raika has, or at least is fairly close with, a dog. Who looks exactly like the picture provided, is one of Sharo's national heroes, and might have been left to die by military officials before Raika disobeyed orders to save her. Minor example of Heartwarming in Hindsight.
• Squashed Flat:
  • WackoMan does this to Roll during their duel in the N1 Grand Prix.
  • Sometimes, a character would express shock or terror by imitating The Scream.
• Story-Breaker Power: In one Axess scene, the writers decided to short-cut through dragging out a long fight against a horde of viruses by having Mega use a Black Hole chip, which here can completely obliterate every virus in the vicinity. It is never used again.
• Stunned Silence: In the Japanese version of episode 22, everyone has this after Mega Man saves Proto Man, getting shot right through by Pharaoh Man.
• Taking the Bullet: How Mega Man ends up temporarily deleted: He senses Pharaoh Man about to shoot Proto Man with a laser and shoves him out of the way.
• There Was a Door: In Episode 31, Lan and the others head over to Higsby's shop... by using a Drill Tank since they considered it would get them there faster. Higsby is quick to chastise them for not using the front door.
• Threatening Shark:
  • Subverted with anime!SharkMan, who's actually a pretty nice guy. However, followed to a T in one scene of the episode with Yai and Chaud trapped in the underwater restaurant.
  • Not to mention the episode Lan and his friends (and Masa) were chased all over the city by an out-of-control giant mechanical shark.
• Tournament Arc: When not fighting good or evil to the death, Navis often fight each other in controlled settings. This in particular is the second to last arc of the original anime, and certain individuals have a keen interest in bending the outcome to their purpose. However, the events happen before they were anticipated, and the Final Arc of the first season is damage control taken to the next level.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Lan loves curry to the point where WWW uses it to lure him into a trap during one of his world tours. Later on, they genuinely open up a curry shop that Lan himself frequents, which he notes that "the food is good, but the people aren't".
  • Also Yai's love for strawberry milk.
• Tsundere:
  • Yai can be quite prickly before you get to know her.
  • Mayl also develops a fair few Tsundere tendencies, especially Axess on. (Ironically, her game counterpart was originally explicitly meant to be one, but this was thwarted by the higher-ups).
• Transformation Sequence: Style Changes in the original, Soul Unisons and Cross Fusion in Axess and Stream, Beast Out and Beast Cross in Beast, Cross in Beast+.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: '200X.'
• Wacky Racing: A filler episode late in the second season features the main cast getting involved in a Cyberworld race to advertise Gabcom's new cyber-car software. ProtoMan joins in — uninvited and on a motorcycle — to advertise IPC's new cyber-car software. This would be almost a Bizarro Episode, except ProtoMan brings the bike back during the Gospel arc to save a little girl-Navi from getting deleted.
• We Can Rule Together: Dr. Regal briefly offers this to Lan during the final battle, saying that "he wants him by his side." Lan refuses.
• The Worf Barrage: Yai likes to demonstrate her wealth (her father's wealth, mind you) by throwing down incredibly rare and proportionately powerful Battle Chips for kicks. Because she has no battle sense whatsoever, this can lead to absolutely humiliating defeats, such as when she has Glyde deploy a Paladin Sword against NumberMan, lose to a Barrier, and then proceed to lose the fight.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: In-Universe. One episode has Miyu and Sal try to convince their boss over the phone that he could use their help during his mission to Hawaii... while packing beach gear.
• Vague Age:
  • Princess Pride looks around Lan's age in her teenage boy disguise, but looks more mature and towers the kids when she removes it.
  • Raika. He's apparently a Lieutenant and can pilot aircraft, yet looks like he could be 18-years-old at the most.
  • Chaud has a little bit of this, too. He's treated as older than Lan, but by how much isn't clear.
• Visual Pun: Early in the second season, during HeatMan's debut, his body is in a "sealed" form, not fully ready to be Operated. The seal takes the form of a binding chain... so, ChainedHeatMan?
• Vocal Dissonance: IceMan, one of the smallest and cutest Navis in the show, has a voice in the dub that might as well belong to a New York cab driver.
• The Worf Effect: Mega positively humiliates GutsMan during his premiere battle in the anime, rendering him an irrevocable Butt-Monkey for the rest of the show's run.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
  • While the battles in which the bad guys are in a completely separate building than the Net Saviors are justifiable, WWW and Regal would have won long ago if they were willing to, punch Lan and co while they're busy with their PET units?
  • Notably averted in one episode of Stream. MegaMan defeats BeastMan, but instead of Inukai yielding and running off like most villains and he himself usually does, he sics his pet lion on Lan in the real world where MegaMan can't help him. Fortunately Famous runs in with about a dozen Net Police officers, odds that even having the help of a lion wouldn't work against. Inukai does the same thing against Jasmine but fails thanks to Hoshi the dolphin saving her.
  • One episode of Axess has SwordMan attack Lan before he can cross fuse with MegaMan.
• World Tour: Lan starts the second season travelling around the world after the N-1 Grand Prix and meeting a variety of colorful characters along the way. Mr. Match, desperate for a rematch, works his way along the same route in hopes of catching up.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: In one episode of Axess, Numberman, the Navi who loves math above all else, is tied to a virtual bowling pin while an evil Navi is knocking down pins one at a time. Numberman calculates the odds that each ball launched will hit his pin - and gets the math wrong. Even assuming that the ball will only knock down one pin, and that each pin is equally likely to be that one (a generally invalid assumption when bowling), the odds would be 1 in 10, followed by 1 in 9, 1 in 8, etc, or 10%, 11.1%, 12.5%, 14.3%...The numbers that Numberman comes up with are 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%...

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