Mr. Match

Mr. Match, known in Japan as Ken'ichi Hino (火野ケンイチ), is a recurring character in the Mega Man Battle Network series. He uses three NetNavis in the games: FireMan.EXE, HeatMan.EXE, and FlameMan.EXE. He was part of the criminal organization WWW until the end of Mega Man Battle Network 3.

Personality
Mr. Match is a rather complex character as his personality traits differ between the games. However the only consistent traits are his fiery personality, his love for battle and use of fire-related puns.

When not committing crime he can be a friendly and even helpful individual to both Lan Hikari and others. However when he does engage in criminal activity, he is to be feared as he has dangerous homicidal pyromaniac tendencies that have endangered many lives.

Not only that, but he has shown to be manipulative as he posed as a system repairer (in the first game and implied so in the anime) only to fill households with viruses and set them on fire, and feigning reform on the third game to win Lan's trust and trick him into stalling program that set SciLab on fire.

On this game his cruelty is at its peak as he not only provoked Lan into playing a "game" with his father and SciLab's workers lives at stake, but he subsequently tortured the young boy psychologically over the prospect that he helped Match achieve his mission and thus making him as much of a criminal as Match is and even further so as he is the cause of his father's endangering, all the while Match avoided any responsibility for his actions, feeling absolutely no guilt whatsoever and passing all the blame on Lan, which left deep emotional wounds.

Although in the fourth game he plotted to set the DenDome on fire with WWW remnants, after learning that a person he had helped on the past was there, he came for the first time openly on screen came to regret his actions and genuinely repented by helping Lan overcome the situation and was willing to surrender to the Officials, although he was forgiven. He can also engage in petty fights against other Fire Navi users he may disapprove of, ending with incendiary results.

It is likely at this point onwards that Mr. Match did truly have a change of heart as he became a teacher on the sixth game, turning on a completely new leaf and even helping Lan on his quest, and being well respected on the school.

In the anime Mr. Match's traits remain consistent although he nowhere reaches the same levels of vileness as on the third game, he remains a dangerous villain. In this setting he makes a target of Lan and MegaMan (for ruining his plans), FreezeMan.EXE (for deleting TorchMan) and VineMan (for provoking them) and has shown to pursue them relentlessly and with fervor intensity. As the series progresses his villainous persona also diminishes.

Mega Man Battle Network
He is a member of the WWW that uses his NetNavi FireMan to commit arson to search for a super program for Lord Wily. He disguises himself as a NetSafety repair man and hacks into the control panels of houses to spread viruses in the ovens, making them explode. Mr. Match then goes to Lan's house and fills his control panel and stove full of viruses. However, by this time MegaMan confronts FireMan and deletes him. But, Mr. Match reveals that he already got his hands on the program that he needed, meaning that the operation wasn't a total bust.

Mega Man Battle Network 2
Mr. Match appears at the airport with HeatMan as his Navi, and challenges the player to an optional NetBattle.

Mega Man Battle Network 3
Mr. Match pretends that he quit the WWW and is now a good person. He has started working at SciLab and uses his Navi FlameMan to help Lan against weak WWW Navis (which were actually sent by him). He lures Lan into installing three malicious programs into the SciLab computers that caused the facility to reach high temperatures. Match reveals himself to Lan as a WWW member and challenges him to extinguish the flames that he had spread throughout the web. After extinguishing the fire, Mr. Match calls Lan to the Undernet 3 and fights against him with FlameMan. He had the advantage, but Bass appears and deletes FlameMan, forcing Mr. Match to retreat. The security of SciLab is weakened after this, and several scientists, including Lan's father, were sent to the hospital.

He reappears with Anetta and PlantMan in Castle Wily, where they use Full Synchro and fight MegaMan at the same time. After Wily's defeat, Match and the other WWW members were taken into custody and sent to the hospital.

Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun
In Red Sun, he participates in the Den Battle Tournament with FireMan; additionally, he appears in either version if the player fights BurnerMan in the Eagle/Hawk Tournament.

In Red Sun's Den Battle Tournament, Lan immediately suspects that Mr. Match is up to no good. Mr. Match approaches Lan at a hot dog stand, and the stand's owner informs Lan that Mr. Match saved her business. The vendor is then approached by two thugs, but Mr. Match runs them off after they attempt to coerce the woman into paying "protection money". As Lan and Mr. Match prepare for their tournament battle, Match reveals that he plans to blow up the DenDome, but decides against it when he learns that the hot dog-selling woman is in the audience. However, the thugs that he hired attempt to do it anyway. After Lan disarms several igniters, FireMan and MegaMan NetBattle with MegaMan emerging as the victor. The hot dog vendor asks Mr. Match to marry her, but he refuses.

During the Blue Moon Eagle/Hawk Tournament, Mr. Match reappears during BurnerMan's scenario to see if his NetOp is any better than he is. Mr. Match is pretty much disappointed in Atsuki Homura, as he doesn't appear to have a "burning spirit". Atsuki in turn starts provoking Mr. Match by calling him, "Old Man" and they end up quarreling with each other. They decided to settle the dispute with a NetBattle in the ACDC and Park Areas, causing the Net to catch fire. Lan manages to resolve the battle by telling Atsuki and BurnerMan, that he and MegaMan, had beaten FireMan before. This really humiliates Mr. Match and he demands a win from Lan in the tournament. After BurnerMan loses, Mr. Match humiliates Atsuki one last time from the spectators stand. This causes Atsuki to go berserk and he orders BurnerMan to burn the arena, but ends up catching his own pants on fire instead.

Mega Man Battle Network 6 Cybeast Gregar
In Cybeast Gregar, he becomes a teacher at Cyber City Elementary School and gives Lan his first Link Navi and Cross after the defeat of DiveMan (at this time, he had actually quit the WWW and has truly become a good person). He sends some modified Kettle viruses throughout the net to test Lan's Virus Busting ability, and sends HeatMan along with Lan to help learn the powers of the Cross System. His outfit has changed drastically, turning from a shirt and loose pants or jumpsuit into a suit and tie, complete with glasses.

MegaMan NT Warrior
In the anime and manga, Mr. Match's first appearance is similar to the games, committing arson for WWW; but, he has more appearances in the anime.

Anime
In the anime, Mr. Match appears in the first episode, attacking ovens to wreak havoc for WWW. After setting Lan's oven on fire, MegaMan destroyed all of the viruses and TorchMan (FireMan) decided to leave. He later attacks Maylu's house, but is defeated by MegaMan.

Mr. Match, Count Zap and Maddy (Ms. Madd) are scolded by Lord Wily for their failures. The trio then cooperate in the scheme to make robotic fish at an aquarium go out of control, but their scheme ultimately fails.

Later, Mr. Match is feeling dejected because of being defeated by MegaMan. He then decides to challenge MegaMan and Lan to a rematch. In anger, he unleashed TorchMan on the Net to overheat various electronics and to attract MegaMan's attention. His actions indirectly lead to Maylu and Roll having a spat, which distracted MegaMan and Lan from his actions. Mr. Match loses patience and rages before TorchMan raises the possibility that Lan might not know it's them. Mr. Match then sends TorchMan to challenge MegaMan directly. TorchMan threatens to destroy the Central Heating Grid if he doesn't, but gives the message to Roll and GutsMan instead. When Lan and MegaMan don't show up, Mr. Match berates TorchMan for that mistake. Even though, he enjoyed watching TorchMan dominate Roll, GutsMan and MegaMan, he panics when TorchMan's crest is damaged and logs him out.

He participates in the N1 Grand Prix with other WWW members and fights against MegaMan twice. After PharaohMan and Lord Wily were believed to be destroyed, Mr. Match and the other WWW members started their own curry shop, #1 Curry, to support themselves.

While Lan was traveling through several locations as a reward for getting 2nd place in the N1 Grand Prix, Mr. Match follows after him to have a rematch, but only manages to stay one step behind; reaching a city after Lan had already departed. After returning to DenCity, TorchMan is deleted by FreezeMan in NetCity, and Match relies on the help of Mr. Famous to change TorchMan into HeatMan using his remaining data to save him. HeatMan is able to defeat FreezeMan during the incident with Gospel.

In his fight against VineMan (PlantMan) in episode 7 of MegaMan NT Warrior Axess, HeatMan turns back into TorchMan, and MegaMan uses Double Soul with him to defeat VineMan.

Manga
Match uses TorchMan to set fire to Lan's school, and Dex is trapped inside with the other students. MegaMan enters the school's server and finds several viruses and TorchMan, deleting them. After being defeated, Match uses a backup of TorchMan and sends a message to MegaMan to meet his operator. Mr. Match lures Lan to join the WWW and wants him to rob a bank with him as his first job, but it was actually a trap to delete MegaMan. However, MegaMan is too strong for him and TorchMan is deleted again.

In a later chapter, he reappears with his new NetNavi FlameMan. FlameMan is one of the first DarkNavis to appear and after defeating MegaMan he is defeated by KingMan.EXE.

Trivia

 * Mr. Match makes a cameo appearance in the Mega Man Gigamix story “Asteroid Blues”.
 * Mr. Match's accent and manner of speaking indicate that he is Scottish.