ShadowMan.EXE (anime)

"Traitor? I never intended to be loyal to you...if only for the reward, I don't listen to anyone's command. (...) You aren't even worth being used as bait to capture Gospel. So I'll delete you now."

- ShadowMan to FreezeMan.EXE before deleting him in a scene omitted from the dub version

ShadowMan.EXE (シャドーマン) is a character from the MegaMan NT Warrior anime series. At first, he was a seemingly Solo NetNavi assassin who took on several missions, having been hired to delete MegaMan.EXE by Grave before as well as KingMan.EXE by an unknown client, and destroying the Control X flight system for Nebula. During that mission, ShadowMan was deleted by SearchMan.EXE. It was not until much later that he was revived by Dr. Wily and given to Dark Miyabi, where he became his NetNavi from then on.

Overview
ShadowMan is an arrogant and silent NetNavi who carries out his missions with a cold and undaunted heart, deleting anyone who gets in his way, friend or foe. He will do any mission for the right price, once having told FreezeMan not to take his supposed betrayal personally, as he was never “loyal” to Grave and that so long as he was paid he would do anything, a sentiment echoed by his future operator Dark Miyabi to Lan. He is a highly skilled ninja, making for a dangerous foe that is almost never taken by surprise and is able to find where his targets are hiding with minimal effort, such as when he instantly homed in on Dark Rockman. Despite his skill and reputation, ShadowMan has failed almost all of the missions he has been sent on during the show, failing to delete MegaMan on several occasions as well as failing to delete KnightMan, KingMan, and the Control X program.

When he was revived and given to Miyabi, ShadowMan showed a steadfast loyalty to him as a fellow ninja, allowing the two to perform Cross Fusion, though he was still the same assassin-for-hire he was before. Despite having met Roll, ProtoMan, KnightMan, and SearchMan as enemies, with SearchMan even deleting ShadowMan in Axess, ShadowMan meets them all again as fellow Cross Fusion Members in Stream, and their past encounters are never discussed.

In the English dub, ShadowMan speaks with a Japanese accent.

MegaMan NT Warrior
ShadowMan debuts in the virus factory under NetCity when he throws a large shuriken that nearly hits Roll.EXE, though she is saved by MegaMan.EXE. He appears before MegaMan, Roll, and Glide.EXE, and MegaMan asks if he is with Grave, which he denies. He reveals he is an assassin that was hired by Grave to delete MegaMan, and MegaMan tries shoots his Mega Buster at him, though ShadowMan easily parries his shots and charges at him. MegaMan dodges his slashes and Roll and Glide attempt to attack him, but he uses an immobilizing force and freezes them. He then uses a duplication technique to surround MegaMan and uses the clones to strike him from all directions and prepares to land the finishing blow, however SharkMan.EXE darts in and takes the blow for him. Frustrated at the interference, ShadowMan slashes SharkMan several times and gravely wounds him forcing him to log out, but not before SharkMan gives MegaMan a battle chip license to use Battle Chips within NetCity, allowing Lan Hikari to use a Barrier battle chip before ShadowMan could delete MegaMan. Lan supplies MegaMan with several rare and powerful battle chips procured by Yai Ayano in Higsby's shop and finally uses a Meteor battle chip to destroy the virus factory, forcing ShadowMan to retreat.

When the CutMan Brothers plot revenge on MegaMan for deleting their brother CutMan.EXE, ShadowMan appears from Choro's shadow noting their energy and states they may be simple children, but they are fierce and powerful, and laughs. Later, Shadow damages the network and sends MegaMan into a fake NetCity when he attempted to go to the real one, and the CutMan Brothers use paper cut-out monsters to attack MegaMan. ProtoMan.EXE comes to his aid and reveals ShadowMan hiding in the CutMan Brother's shadow with a Flame Blade battle chip, and he emerges having been hit in the arm. ProtoMan attacks him again, but ShadowMan retreats and ProtoMan pursues him, and the two battle on the rooftops. They exchange powerful blows, and while ShadowMan manages to cut ProtoMan's helmet, ProtoMan shatters ShadowMan's mask, causing him to retreat.

ShadowMan intervenes while MegaMan and KnightMan.EXE were having the netbattle Princess Pride promised Lan at the end of their day together, having been hired by Grave to delete the anti-virus program: KnightMan. He takes control of a giant claw machine in the arcade Pride and Lan were in and grabs Lan, causing him to drop his PET and traps him inside a large Gashapon capsule. He pins MegaMan to a wall with a giant shuriken and summons a NinJoy, Ninky, and NinJoe to combine into a massive NinJoe to attack KnightMan. The virus prepares to delete KnightMan, but Pride breaks Lan out of the capsule and he operates MegaMan, who unpins himself, and the two delete the virus, causing ShadowMan to retreat yet again.

Sometime later, ShadowMan secretly contacts world-renowned Net Chess battler Tora through his PET and convinces him to seek out and battle Lan. He watches from the arena's lights as the two begin their battle hoping they would delete each other, however when the battle ended peacefully, ShadowMan attacks on a giant Scuttlest, disgusted at the respect and sympathy MegaMan and KingMan.EXE and their operators showed each other. Having been hired by two different clients to delete both MegaMan and KingMan, ShadowMan takes advantage of the fact that the two are weakened from their battle and forces KingMan to log out, but MegaMan uses ElecTeam Style and Roll's Extension Chip to defeat the giant Scuttlest, forcing ShadowMan to delete a fourth time.

ShadowMan appears before a fatally injured FreezeMan.EXE and taunts him before unsheathing his katana. FreezeMan calls him a traitor to which ShadowMan replies he never intended to be loyal to Gospel: if he was not to get rewarded he wouldn't have helped them at all. He tells FreezeMan he isn't even worth being used as bait to capture Gospel and promptly deletes him. He states he is also simply there as the defendant and that the reward he was offered was beneath him, and that soon, something will important will happen, before logging out.

MegaMan NT Warrior Axess
ShadowMan is hired by Nebula to destroy the Control X flight program, a program that uses satellites in space to pinpoint thousands of objects in an instant, to prevent Nebula's plan from being discovered. During his first attempt, he is hunted by SearchMan.EXE, who manages to spot him from far away and fire on him, though ShadowMan deflects the shot. He sends several Dark Chip-possessed security Navis after SearchMan, who coldly deletes his comrades, impressing the ninja Navi for his cool and composer. He gets away when SearchMan is distracted by a nearly deleted security Navi latching onto his leg.

ShadowMan meets with his employer through hologram, who compliments him and states that once he has located ShadowMan's "operator" (ShadowMan being a solo NetNavi) he will pay him, and gives him five Dark Chips to make up for it. ShadowMan notes how generous the hidden Regal is for giving him so many and takes them, and Regal asks if they will be useful. He states they will, but asks if Regal believes his success will be thanks to the Dark Chips, to which Regal replies that ShadowMan's skills are evident, but he will want more Dark Chips once he has used one. ShadowMan replies he only wants them if they prove profitable, and Regal tells him to think what he wants before asking what his plan was. ShadowMan tells him they are going after Control X, and Regal tells him he should decrease the number of sensors, which ShadowMan agrees with, and leaves.

During the unveiling of Control X, ShadowMan sends dozens of viruses to attack the system, though they are deleted by MegaMan, and corrupts the security Navis with Dark Chips, who begin to destroy the Control X themselves. He appears before MegaMan as he tries to get the security Navis to come to their senses and notes that he is as soft as ever when MegaMan hesitates to attack the them, and prepares to destroy Control X. SearchMan, who had locked on onto him, fires and hits ShadowMan's leg, and he retreats through a portal.

He then uses another wave of viruses to attack the airport's emergency system's cyberworld and adjusts it, giving him control of a plane that was touring the facility, intending to crash it and kill all the passengers inside. He is confronted by MegaMan and states he thought SearchMan would have been with him and notes how cold he must be to stay with Control X before saying he will deal with him later. As the two fight MegaMan questions what ShadowMan hopes to accomplish, and he replies he does not care as long as he is rewarded and surrounds MegaMan with clones. Lan and MegaMan find the real ShadowMan and MegaMan attacks him with a Wide Sword, but ShadowMan uses a Dark Chip and easily overpowers MegaMan. He prepares to delete the blue NetNavi, but SearchMan, who had been targeting ShadowMan all the way from Control X's cyberworld, blows off ShadowMan's left arm. Stunned, he staggers to his katana and picks it up with his right arm and rushes at MegaMan, but SearchMan blows off his that arm as well before shooting him in the chest. He collapses while in complete shock of SearchMan's sniping abilities, and is deleted.

Rockman.EXE Stream
At some point, Dr. Wily revived the deleted ShadowMan and gave him to Dark Miyabi, and from that point on he became the assassin's NetNavi. When Rockman is taken by Dark Rockman.EXE, Miyabi reveals Rockman's location to Netto and Yuriko Ozono and plugs ShadowMan in, who attacks CloudMan.EXE who was crushing Rockman, freeing him from his grasp. ShadowMan greets Rockman, who asks how he's still alive, but Miyabi corrects him. CosmoMan.EXE asks how they found them, and ShadowMan replies that the Darkloids "stink" too much, and he just followed his nose. When Dark Rockman talks to the group from afar, ShadowMan throws some kunai in his direction, revealing his hiding spot, and watches as the two Rockmans exchange Giga Cannon Program Advances while sheathing his sword. When his sword clicked against his sheath, the two blasts fired, and ended in a stalemate. He and Miyabi then take their leave.

Miyabi sends ShadowMan to fight Rockman in the cyberworld after he steals Netto's Synchro Chip and challenges him on the roof of Sharo's Dimensional Area Laboratory, hoping to delete him to fulfill his contract with Tesla Magnets. While fighting he and Rockman watch as the cyberworld they are in lights up when Dr. Hikari activates the Dimensional Area for the Cross Fusion Members, and though it seemed as though Rockman had defeated ShadowMan with a Super Vulcan battle chip, ShadowMan ambushes him from behind and would have defeated Rockman if not for the timely arrival of NeedleMan.EXE. ShadowMan and Miyabi retreat when the Crest of Duo forms on Miyabi's hand and Meijin and some Sharo guards break through the roof's door and attempt to reprimand Miyabi.

After failing several attempts, Miyabi becomes frustrated at being blocked at every turn while trying to delete Rockman. ShadowMan tells him not to sweat it, as there will be plenty of chances, but asks if Miyabi really believes he cannot defeat Netto. Miyabi replies that he does not believe so, but feels like the world itself is protecting Netto, which ShadowMan states is impossible, and that Netto is just getting lucky. Miyabi replies that fortune within itself is a strength and tells ShadowMan of an ancient ninja code, that that those with fortune on their side will rule the world, and Netto has this ability. ShadowMan states that is also impossible, as someone as careless as him cannot be above others.

Later, when Netto offers Miyabi a free meal ticket to Maha Ichiban in exchange for him to stop working as an assassin, ShadowMan tells him to not get tempted by food. Even later, he and Miyabi perform Cross Fusion for the first time to stop Deep Kawase and Asteroid SwordMan.EXE from killing Netto and Dingo.

While infiltrating the Neo WWW base, Miyabi plugs ShadowMan in to open a doors that had closed on him, Jasmine, and Meiru Sakurai, barring the three from the others. He uses Bakuen to burn the Canodumbs and the door's control system.

When the Cross Fusion Members confront Duo.EXE, they are beaten in a single blow and forced to cross out, and their Navis materialize before Duo. They care for their operators when Duo offers them a chance to stand at his side or be deleted, but ShadowMan and the others refuse, with ShadowMan stating that him and Miyabi are blood brothers. Duo prepares to delete them, however their operators defend them, and they all watch as Barrel and Colonel.EXE cross fuse with Duo to help him learn about bonds and friendship.

Rockman.EXE Beast
While not physically seen, ShadowMan cross fuses with Miyabi in the season finale.

Rockman.EXE Beast+
ShadowMan is sent by Miyabi to look for the Reverse Cross Fused Captain Kurohige and Chirol in the cyberworld. Netto sends Rockman to help, and the two find the Beyondardians being attacked by beastized viruses that managed to escape deletion at the end of Beast. They save the two criminals and get them out of the cyberworld before they are killed from the instability of the Reverse Synchro Chips.

Powers and Abilities

 * Kanashibari no Jutsu - Paralyzes ShadowMan's targets.
 * Bunshin no Jutsu - A duplication technique.

Trivia

 * While ShadowMan has always been Dusk’s Navi in the video games, it is implied in NT Warrior and Axess that ShadowMan was a Solo NetNavi until he was revived by Dr. Wily and given to Miyabi in Stream. In the dub, ShadowMan is implied to have had an operator the whole time during a conversation with Dr. Regal, whereas in the original Japanese version the opposite is true. It’s possible in the dub ShadowMan was intended to have always had an operator.