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MegaMan NT Warrior (Manga): Thoughts
Volume 1:
- Wily's little simulation of Cybergeddon reminds me of Battle Network 3 a touch. The tanks have more realistic designs, though.
- MegaMan is much smugger in the manga, not even willing to treat a fight with GutsMan seriously and just dodging the whole time. Dex also tries to pick a fight with Lan, prompting the latter to call him dumb.
- Mayl is called Maylu in this, possibly to sync up with the English dub of the anime. Her Japanese name is Meiru, so that was likely done in the anime to match lip flaps. Yai also is wearing a very weird outfit that doesn't look like her in-game one, though it's corrected later.
- The manga corroborates the idea that Netbattling without a license is illegal. So Lan was just continually breaking the law in the first game, I guess? I'm assuming Sal and the others had licenses.
- As opposed to the games where Lan was just habitually late and slept in class, he seems to be more delinquent in the manga, cutting out on school. Granted, as Mayl notes, it's to see his father.
- In the anime and manga, Lan is initially presented as not being friends with Dex or Yai. Battle Network 1 had Dex as something of a rival for Lan early on, but there didn't seem to be an indication they disliked each other. Yai's shift to Lan's friend also doesn't really get any focus. It just kind of happens.
- As opposed to the games, Lan emotes a lot more about his father not being around often.
- This fight between Lan and MegaMan seems to be happening a bit too early. The manga might be expecting the readers to know the characters already, but we only just met Lan, his four friends, MegaMan, Ms. Mari, Haruka, and learned about Yuichiro. And that's after the glimpse of Wily. Now Lan and MegaMan are fighting on top of that? It's rather busy for an opening chapter. It's also resolved pretty quickly.
- MegaMan's momentary angst over being a "dumb program" probably would've evoked more sympathy from me if he was Hub in this universe. And also if it wasn't momentary.
- It's nice to see that Lan's core selflessness is still the same, and that you can actually call your Navi from your PC. That just makes sense.
- FireMan has also been renamed to TorchMan here. I presume to avoid confusion with actual firemen?
- I've seen "H-he's fast" as a meme for so long that I don't even know how to react to seeing I played straight. Also FireMan dies in one hit. To a basic Sword attack. What a jobber.
- "Those two fight just like real brothers." 
- I'm mixed up about how I feel about MegaMan not being Hub. On one hand, it gives him less plot armor and also makes him less special than other Navis. I remember being surprised seeing MegaMan deleted by PharaohMan in the anime when I was a kid, and there's also less "Why would I risk my real brother's soul over some data that can be recreated?" moments. That said, this kind of takes the twin bond and subsequent creation of Star Force's Brotherband by Lan for granted.
- Apparently Lan and MegaMan run an underground Netbattling Circuit. That's... I can't say I was expecting that. Though it does match up with my memories of MegaMan's fight addiction.
- Mr. Match seems about the same, albeit leaning on his BN3 manipulation of Lan here. Lan's desire to fight automated police and mess up the school board is surprising, but considering how he's not injuring real people and is basically a kid complaining about having to do schoolwork, I can see why he'd jump on that offer.
- Commercial Navis don't really seem to be conscious, instead directly operated by a Net-Op. There's also no angst over it being deleted since it's just a shell of a Navi.
- FireMan is again deleted in one hit by a basic Battlechip, this time a Cannon. What a jobber.
- Akira steals Lan's moving trip to Central Town five games early.
- Lan's kind of out of control in this first volume. Skipping school, fighting the police, and now hijacking a train and risking Ms. Mari's job. Hopefully they rerail his characterization soon. Poor Ms. Mari.
- That said, Manga Lan certainly seems a lot smarter than his in-game counterpart. If you told me that he became a scientist, I could believe it. In-game Lan just kind of coasts on the reputation of his father and grandfather. He's good at Netbattling, but that doesn't equate to being a scientist.
- Why did only Mayl jack in? More Navis could only have helped the situation.
- Why did Mr. Match try to burn down the school if Wily was going to try the brainwashing thing from the games? I don't think the elemental programs are a concern in this universe, so it seems like Mr. Match is just doing random evil things?
- GutsMan gets deleted and Lan even tells Dex to calm down since he can just be restored. The same happened with FireMan as well. So why are the games so melodramatic about it?
- Lan taps into Full Synchro with MegaMan still even in spite of the absence of the twin bond. That said, why did Dice Bomb stop working? Because anime power-up?
- Lan mistakes Inspector Oda as Commissioner Gordon. I assume the reference was different in the original. Then again, it's not like Japan is unaware of Batman.
- Higsby just kind of disappeared after last time. And unceremoniously showed up as a teacher, no less. I wonder if he was arrested.
- How is WWW behind 80% of the Net Crimes in the world and yet no one aside from the police are aware of them?
- Lan seems to have had MegaMan since he was five. That doesn't contradict the games as far as I know.
- Seeing Haruka interact with MegaMan is something the games don't show often (or ever?), so it's rather nice seeing it here!
Volume 2:
- I'm not sure what Oda's jokes are supposed to be in English, but I imagine it's wordplay in Japanese.
- Apparently you have to be 15 minimum to get a license normally. I imagine that's not the case in-universe given how a number of kids try out for their licenses.
- On the subject of Mayl, seeing her and Lan have an argument feels refreshing. Their relationship is too saccharine in the games. It's nice to see them butt heads without it being a "We're worried and want to help you" thing, but instead a "Stop being an asshole" thing.
- I have no idea why Eugene Chaud became Chaud Blaze. Eugene from Ijuin makes sense, so I guess they figured Eugene wasn't a cool enough name for a rival.
- ProtoMan moves at Mach 5. I see we're getting into Dragonball territory in terms of feats and the manga only just began.
- Another moment between Mayl and Lan that I like. Too often Mayl knows exactly what Lan is thinking and defuses tension between them immediately. Here she misses what he's doing and picks a fight, trying to chide him when he's actually addressing the problem in his own way. Granted, he could have stood to tell MegaMan what he was doing.
- GutsMan helps MegaMan train and also aids against StoneMan. Very nice.
- Higsby suddenly betrays the WWW. With no build-up or anything. Heck, he somehow managed to escape the school even though he wqs obviously the culprit and the area was locked down.
- I wonder if Yai's house gets a gas leak in the anime, too.
- The Ultimate Program was a part of MegaMan in the anime, but here it's akin to the Booster Program from Battle Network 5, apparently.
- Thus far, this manga has just been Battle Network 1 on fast forward. Chaud turned around his opinion on Lan way too fast and now we're already at the Life Virus.
- And now MegaMan is sacrificing himself like it's the end of Battle Network 3. This is too much too fast. Also Wily dies and never really mentions Tadashi by name. His grudge is just with Net Society in general seeing as Yuichiro doesn't really recognize him.
- Why do all of the villains keep dying in one hit!? Is everyone in this manga made of glass?
- I like how it only takes a few chapters for Manga Lan to want to punch Chaud in the face.
- I'm completely baffled by the hoops MegaMan has to go through to be revived. Yuichiro made him and he's not a human soul. Why can't he just be backed up and restored? Why does Lan need to use Psycho Transmission (the precursor to Pulse Transmission) to save him with his feelings? This all seems totally arbitrary. Is MegaMan different from other Navis? I know Yuichiro mentioned Lan would need to cooperate rather than just ordering him, but am I supposed to see all of the other Navis as just being ordered instead of freely thinking? If that's the case, it seems like that idea wasn't conveyed very well.
- Rather than being created by SciLab, the Undernet is some kind of weird area that exists "somehow". The manga and anime have this weird habit of treating the Net like an alternate world that always existed rather than a man-made one and it's weird.
- Lan diving into flames to save MegaMan is about what I'd expect from him. On the manga's own merits, I think it's a disjointed and poorly paced story. As an add-on to the games, I can appreciate it more.
- ShadowMan seems to be a guardian entity of the Undernet here, probably due to his solo role in BN1.
- Even though the world has been saved, Lan and MegaMan mutually decide to fight everyone in the Undernet. Just because they want to test themselves. The fight-boner rises.
- Lan and Mayl have a much cuter relationship in the manga than they do in the games, helped by the fact that their relationship is more than "I like you." "Wh-what?". Mayl is also a bit more of a tomboy from what I can tell.
- Manga Lan created his own Battlechip and also made a program to modify MegaMan's appearance. He is definitely smarter than his game counterpart, unless you go with the idea that Game Lan made Spreader, V-Gun, Crossgun, etc.
Volume 3:
- I wonder how Miyu and SkullMan got so popular with their few game appearances. They're only in BN1 and BCC! Her air purifier/urn even features here.
- Lan: -jumps off of a moving bus-; Mayl: You crazy idiot! 
- Either this chapter with SkullMan ended abruptly, or there are some pages missing. Speaking of abrupt, Program Advances got no introduction at all.
- ElecMan is apparently made fanatically loyal to WWW and unable to think for himself. I assume the same holds true for BlasterMan BombMan.
- Chaud being involved in goofy moments is fun, but I think I prefer him to be stoic most of the time to make his occasional comedic involvement funnier. I don't know how the anime handled him, but if he's like he is in-game most of the time, I imagine Disco Chaud is even funnier.
- Needing Full Synchro to go into the Undernet is a neat way of selling its danger, though I feel it does kind of put Full Synchro in danger of being power-crept.
- I feel like Bass might be the mangaka's favorite character given his introduction. It helps that the manga version of Bass is a very fun take on the character. That said, power creep shows its head against with Bass moving at light speed.
- GateMan is the gatekeeper of the Undernet. I don't remember if Mr. Famous is in this manga, but it seems like alternate mediums really don't like letting him keep his Navis.
- GutsMan and Dex go through their training arc from BN3 and achieve Full Synchro. They even save MegaMan from an aura virus and help them find the training ground they're looking for. That's neat. Granted, they achieve Full Synchro from head trauma as something of a joke and lose it from another blow to the head, requiring GutsMan to be saved. So that's also kind of lame.
- PharaohMan has existed on the Net for 20,000+ years. Even though, as Lan points out, the Net didn't even exist 100 years ago. Is the Cyberworld built on top of some alternate reality? How does this even work?
- I got an unintentional laugh out of MegaMan flashing back to Ms. Mari's conversation about ancient civilizations that were super advanced where Dex is ridiculed for believing Mu exists. Mayl even brings up OOPArts, to Ms. Mari's chagrin. It's like the mangaka knew.
- That being said, ancient prehistoric civilizations existing doesn't explain how one wound up on the Net! The Undernet being a world created in ancient times that wound up underneath the Internet is just baffling.
- The concept of the Chosen One is recycled from the games. While Alpha doesn't matter in the manga and the Giga Freeze is also irrelevant as a result, it's nice that someone got some mileage out of this idea. Here, the Chosen One has to defeat four Style Changed versions of themselves (albeit with no elemental affinities) in order to acquire the ultimate power: Hub Style.
Volume 4:
- Lan and MegaMan (jokingly) take PharaohMan hostage in order to get a cheap shot on MegaMan's Style Changed forms when they start losing. They're a bit more Chaotic Good in this manga, huh?
- I'm going to assume these Style Change guys, who are speaking as though they're merely imitating MegaMan's form, are CopyMan (CopyMen)?
- Hub Style is still born from 200% synchronicity despite having no actual ties to Hub. It's also a wildly destructive power that deletes PhraohMan and the four Style Changes in one attack, though they're all just like "Eh, it's cool. I was tired of living anyway."
- I do like how ProtoMan improves more dramatically in the manga than in the games, where he feels like he's pretty much peaked at Battle Networks 2 and 3 only to be made slightly easier in the following games.
- Gospel is called Grave in the manga as well, likely to match up with the anime and avoid angering any religious moral guardians.
- I'm pretty sure ProtoMan could delete AirMan fast enough to save MegaMan rather than just going "Ah well, I guess I'll let you die, bro." What happened to being faster than Mach 5?!
- Sean is much more upbeat in the manga than in the games. He also mentions that Chaud is Japanese, not Electopian. Interesting distinction.
- Everyone decides to just give up and kill Lan and MegaMan pretty quickly. I mean, I guess they're responding fast to a potential threat, but still! That said, Chaud going out of his way to save Lan, just so he can beat the shit out of him afterwards is fantastic.
- Lan gets the new Battle Network 3 PET, but there's a safety lock put on it to prevent him from going ham with Hub Style again. That's a responsible decision.
- This manga is either eerily prescient or inspired some future events. Gauss is inviting Lan's class on an ocean cruise.
- I don't think Gospel is being handled very well. Their entire organization has been defeated already in the span of two chapters, aside from their Navis forming into the Gospel Mega Virus. It feels like this is being put on fast forward to get to Battle Network 3.
- FreezeMan looks weird with pupils and Shoryu likewise should never have a mouth.
- Another final boss that dies in one hit. It should come as no surprise that the same happens to Alpha as well.
Volume 5:
- The fight between Hub Style MegaMan and Bass feels like the first one that isn't just a "get rekt" fight. Even the MegaMan vs. ProtoMan fights tend to be resolved pretty quickly with ProtoMan emerging as the victor.
- Bass seems really excited at the idea that MegaMan might possibly be able to kill him.
- MegaMan also has a momentary rush to his ego where he announces himself the most powerful after defeating Bass. It's kind of interesting to see MegaMan have a moment of hubris.
- Out of all of the characters, Bass is the one that's most loyal to his in-game counterpart in terms of backstory. It's completely unchanged and actually shows how Bass wound up turning against Cossak and Net Society. The only real change is that a second manga that deals with Bass fighting Serenade shows that Cossak still cares a great deal for him, whereas the game version seemed more willing to delete him due to viewing him as a mistake.
- I do like how Bass is a lot chattier with MegaMan now that he's recognized him as an opponent worth battling, even if only momentarily. And the way that Full Synchro works and improves MegaMan's capabilities even forces him to acknowledge Lan, whereas he's largely overlooked by Bass in the games.
- In case this battle wasn't Dragonball enough, here's MegaMan using Death Beam to defeat Bass' Spirit Bomb.
- Curiously enough, Bass actually has a bit of notoriety in this universe. In the games, he's largely a concealed presence, but that battle on the cruise ship wound up making the news and so everyone has some vague idea of who he is in the manga.
- Ah, so Mr. Famous does have one of his Navis in the manga. He's better off than he is in the anime, at least.
- How did the censors let Punk get away with calling MegaMan a skank?
- Dark Power! Not to be confused with Darkloid stuff. That comes later.
- KingMan actually talks in the manga with a "Ye Olde English" manner of speaking.
- Dark Power seems to be some type of evil energy that can negate Hub Power. I'm not sure how that works, considering that Hub Power came from an ancient civilization and was only just recently discovered and only used by two people, but okay. I mean, Mr. Famous being able to see a weakness in how long it takes to start up makes sense. Some unrelated people just happening to have a perfect counter for it when they've never even met MegaMan before is just weird. For that matter, it's weird that Gospel seemingly existed just to take Hub Power from Lan.
Volume 6:
- There's something weird about childish censorship ("Bling bling" and "ding ding" as a curse replacement) being paired alongside images like Mayl kicking Tora in the nuts.
- MegaMan saving KingMan from FlashMan is certainly a reversal from BN3.
- Hub Power is useless against Dark Power. Despite that, MegaMan defeats FlashMan with Hub Power because, uh... it was concentrated into his sword?
- There's something weird about seeing Lan beating the shit out of Sean considering how Battle Network 2 ended.
- Ameropa is left untranslated in the manga. I guess the manga translation team wasn't very familiar with the games.
- If Dark Power beats Hub Power, why would the people controlling Sean want to control it? It'd be like a Jedi trying to learn how to use a samurai sword.
- Dark Space causes Navis to materialize in the real world. Functionally it's like a Dimensional Area from the anime, but with more darkness I guess.
- The manga doesn't really explain what Dark Power is or where it came from. Is it also from the ancient civilization Hub Power came from? Explain!
- DesertMan murders an entire building full of people. That got really edgy really fast.
- MegaMan again tries to use Hub Power to beat Dark Power, even though this should not work. Also, Chaud attacks MegaMan while pretending to be evil instead of just attacking DesertMan, who has already been mentioned to be exposed and vulnerable. What happened to being at Mach 5 speeds?!
- Serenade keeps a similar role as in the games, though there's no Mamoru here.
- I like that ProtoMan gets a Style Change. Everyone says it's possible for Navis, but only MegaMan ever gets one in the games.
- "Don't follow me, Lan. I have to die to defeat this poorly explained villainous organization we've never heard of before." Okay, Chaud. You do you, I guess.
- Serenade is not a she!
- Serenade dabs on MegaMan so hard that Hub Style turns into Bug Style. Amazing.
- DarkMan, DrillMan, and PlantMan talk shit about DesertMan killing "only ten people" (even though it looked like more in that panel), only to die shortly after being introduced without killing anyone. What a bunch of losers.
- Also, here's Alpha for no reason.
Volume 7:
- Bass gets revenge on Alpha in this universe, but he doesn't seem to notice or care. It's hard to even feel anything about it since Alpha is such a nonentity.
- "How dare you face me with this nakama bullshit, MegaMan?"
- Bass defeats Serenade and then insults his belly shirt. What an absolute savage.
- How the heck do they already know what Soul Unison is? I guess the idea they merged power would cause them to coin the name, but they act as though they already are familiar with the power.
- MegaMan stops Bass from destroying the city by destroying the city himself. Our hero?
- "My fight boner dictates that I must defeat you at full power." Based and, uh, ...Basspilled?
- Maybe it's nostalgia on my part since this is the first volume I read of this manga, but this is easily the best volume thus far. Every time there's a fight with Bass, things immediately get better. Fights can be paced properly instead of just "get smoked"!
- Mayl: -beats the shit out of Lan- I'm so glad you're okay!
- Bass saves MegaMan because only killing MegaMan himself will satisfy his fight boner. I love this trope.
- Darkloids are differentiated from dark Navis by being made of darkness instead of just manipulating it. I guess that's a difference, but Dark Navis still feel poorly explained in general.
- The mangaka coming up with a female Navi named Rhythm as ProtoMan's partner sounds like a good idea. Shame nothing came from it.
Volume 8:
- You know, for all of Lan's angst early on, this is really the first time I recall him being around his father an extended period of time. I guess Lan's fight boner superceded his disappointment over Yuichiro never being at home.
- In the manga, Darkloids are from the Dark Web. That's so silly that it circles back around to being brilliant.
- How did the Dark Navis get their hands on Alpha if the backstory that ties into BN3 still happened? Wouldn't it be sealed away in SciLab?
- BubbleMan sure gets paired up with the Darkloids a lot. This happened in the anime, too. He even makes friends with AquaMan, though here they're brothers.
- BubbleMan and AquaMan were abandoned by their operators in the manga. Or AquaMan never got the washing machine misunderstanding sorted out.
- I'm gonna need to save that image of Dark MegaMan kicking the shit out of BubbleMan.
- MegaMan hesitates to delete GutsMan for no reason. He's been restored from backup data before and even mentions that his very soul is being corrupted. Leaving him alive seems like the crueler choice since you actually will permanently lose everything that makes him GutsMan at that point.
- "We're MegaMan DS!" Uh... I feel like that's supposed to be short for Double Soul, but that's an acronym for Dark Soul in the games, so that's a really unfortunate wording.
- Hub Power continues to ignore its weakness to Dark Power. Why was that ever a thing if they just keep ignoring it?
- "I am ShadowMan." No you aren't.
- With a bit of tweaking, I'd like this more. The idea that MegaMan's reckless pursuit of strength built up negative aspects of himself is a much better handling of where his Dark Soul came from than "muh special Dark Chip".
- Speaking of which, I only just noticed that Dark Chips don't seem to be a thing in the manga. I guess that does help streamline Nebula a bit, even if that was one of their more interesting aspects.
- MegaMan murders ShadeMan by literally tearing him apart with his bare hands. Between this and the anime, I get the impression ShadeMan.EXE wasn't well liked. That or everyone mutually decided he should die painfully every time he shows up.
- This manga has a lighter tone than the games. I'm not 100% a fan of it because it feels a little flippant at times, but it's fine enough for what it is. That said, MegaMan going from "Teehee, you can't make me hate you. 
" to kicking off half of Dark MegaMan's face and choking the shit out of him the moment that Lan is threatened is a very effective mood whiplash.
- I appreciate how MegaMan DS is a culmination of some of Lan and MegaMan's earlier bad traits. I almost wonder if the mangaka planned this out from the start.
- MegaMan DS taking Bass' power for his own feels like a nice reversal of Bass taking Hub Style.
- The darkness is absorbing the Cyberworld like this is Kingdom Hearts or something.
- Why does every anime inevitably wind up involving tentacles?
- Evil Soul Unison! That could've been a neat idea for MegaMan DS: Soul Unisons with Nebula Navis and Bass. I guess Chaos Unison and Bass Cross are close enough, though.
Volume 9:
- This plot only proves that MegaMan DS should've been the main villain of 4. Both the anime and manga handle him better than the games.
- Bass is literally Vegeta in this manga. And that's okay.
- "Hah, Bass used to hit me way harder than that. It was way better than fighting you!" Oh no, MegaMan's becoming a masochist.
- MegaMan is literally only fighting his Dark Soul to get Bass' approval. This is literally "Notice me senpai.", only as a fight to the death. He doesn't care about the Dark Soul at all. If it weren't you the fact that these were kids, I'd swear there were yaoi undertones here.
- Colonel and TomahawkMan show up here, sent by Netopia. And Colonel uses the Giga Freeze on the Darkloids!? I forgot that was a thing.
- Colonel wants to apprehend MegaMan in order to prevent the possible danger of his Soul Unison program giving him the power of any bonded Navi. Considering that MegaMan literally just won his last fight because of his bond with Bass, that makes perfect sense really.
- Colonel immediately sees through ProtoMan letting MegaMan escape by testing his ability to block.
Volume 10:
- Dr. Regal is a Netopian weapons developer in this universe. Still looks as obviously evil as ever, though.
- Lan mistaking Charlie as a member of the Netopian military was pretty funny. And leaping out of a moving helicopter to parkour up a building is probably the craziest thing he ever does. Unless the anime tops that somehow.
- TomahawkMan has undying faith in Colonel in the manga due to the latter vouching for his capabilities as a military Navi.
- Apparently Colonel and Serenade were friends and saw each other as equals. That explains how he got the Giga Freeze. Does that make manga Colonel a Chosen One, too?
- Baryl suspects Regal because of trace amounts of Dark Power around his systems, but really I suspect the monocle was his first hint the guy wasn't on the level.
- Nebula Gray indirectly infects MegaMan with Dark Power through TomahawkMan, but MegaMan's fight boner is so strong that turning into Tomahawk Soul just causes him to murder all of the nearby Darkloids. Amazing.
- Colonel fought Darkloids in the Alamo. This is manga canon. I need a screenshot of this for the Battle Network 5 LP.
- Meddy interacting with Colonel is a little weird, but I guess it did happen in Team ProtoMan if briefly.
Volume 11:
- MegaMan convinces Bass to ignore his fight boner and focus on defeating Nebula Gray. Amazing.
- Bass is really REALLY getting possessive of MegaMan. Not allowing him to die without his permission because of their bond. Sure is Vegeta in here.
- "They're not powered by hate or friendship! They're powered by a mutual desire to kill each other!" This is the best. Literally everything involving Bass in this manga is the best.
- Colonel sacrifices himself for MegaMan and Bass. 
But wait, he can just be backed up. I forgot that in the heat of the moment. 
- Using a BN4 transformation to beat BN3's secret boss and a BN6 transformation to beat BN5's final boss is the raddest shit, and if you don't agree then you're probably some kind of nerd.
- Bass kills Regal because there's no room for him in any version of Battle Network 6. Get smoked, nerd.
- Everyone uses vague language to say they're upgrading their PETs because Lan has to have needless angst for this chapter.
- Team Colonel (minus KnightMan and ToadMan) have a bonus chapter that I don't think is supposed to be treated as canon. It deals with them fighting a devil virus from space, which is ultimately defeated by Bass Cross MegaMan. If this is canon, it means Bass doesn't die at the end of Volume 13.
Volume 12:
- Roll says she wishes MegaMan would pounce her while Beasted Out and... yeah, I'm gonna sidestep that one entirely.
- Cyber Jungle is very weird, but suddenly RULES OF NATURE
- Why is Gregar's name misspelled the first time it's spoken?
- Oh no, MegaMan has to fight his friends whom he's already proven himself stronger than. Will he ever prevail?
- Why is MegaMan being so overdramatic about having to fight his friends? He's literally fought all of these guys before without deleting them. Stop being a baby and kick their asses.
- Iris YEETS GutsMan out of Fight Club because his time in the limelight ended long ago. Kinda funny. Kinda sad. Ah well.
- Now Roll is being tentacled. And now MegaMan is being tentacled again. Whyyyy
- oh god no CircusMan why not the gloom cage
- "MegaMan. MegaMan, look at me. ...Bitch." Iris please
- I kinda like this take on the Underground, but this arc is kinda boring. I feel like the mangaka was running out of steam at this point. Probably why next volume was the end.
- Bass just eats Falzar like a chicken dinner. Okay then. Kinda anticlimactic.
- Why ChargeMan EX instead of SP?
Volume 13:
- Beast Out Bass looks pretty neat. Shame there's no fight between him and Beast Out MegaMan, though.
- Of course Colonel's idea of a test is a fight to the death.
- The Cybeasts fuse, just like in the anime.
- Colonel and Serenade's relationship makes more sense now given that they both existed to protect the world from some great evil. Also, Colonel and Iris were one program in this universe as well.
- While this arc is kinda meh, everything being absorbed/deleted is a pretty climactic ending.
- Serenade coming back to have final words with Bass is nice.
- I do love how Bass continues to insist MegaMan isn't his friend, even as he basically treats him like a friend.
- Now this is an appropriate moment for MegaMan to separate from Lan.
- The final chapter is about MegaMan trying to regain his fight boner after saving the world so many times to the point that regular Navis aren't fun anymore. Seems about right.
Final Thoughts:
- That was a decent ride. I feel Lan's friends got sidelined pretty hard as it went on and a number of minor characters like Oda and Higsby didn't have a lot of presence. The major villains from the games (Wily, Sean, and Regal) didn't factor in very much and Duo was skipped over (not that I really mind considering the Darkloids Arc was the best part of the manga easily; also BN Duo is lame), but it was a decent enough read.
- The story felt like it sorta got off the rails at the end, and also struggled to find its footing in the beginning.
- If anything, everything dealing with Bass was worth the price of admission. Also Blood Knight MegaMan.