MegaMan NT Warrior

MegaMan NT Warrior, known as Rockman.EXE (ロックマンエグゼ) in Japan, is the first season of the Japanese animated series based on the Mega Man Battle Network video game series. It loosely covers the events of Mega Man Battle Network 1, 2, and 3, though it heavily diverges from the source material in terms of how events are played out and when they happen (ie. the N1 Grand Prix, an event from BN3, happening before Gospel becomes a threat, the main antagonist organization of BN2). In Japan, the first season ran for 56 episodes, while the English dub ran for 52, skipping four during its run. It is split into two parts, known as “First Area” and “Second Area” in Japan, with the Second Area starting with episode 25.

The series spawned four more seasons totaling 209 episodes and a movie. The first of the next seasons, Axess, was dubbed in English while Stream, Beast, and Beast+, and the movie Hikari to Yami no Program, set during Stream, only aired in Japan.

It would later be succeeded by MegaMan Star Force, set 200 years in the future, which spawned a second season that only aired in Japan, Ryuusei no Rockman Tribe.

The Wonderswan Color exclusive video game Rockman.EXE WS features an rough retelling of the first two seasons of the anime as its plot.

Plot
The First Area of season one details the adventures of Lan Hikari and his NetNavi MegaMan.EXE as they battle the criminal organization World Three and participate in the N1 Grand Prix. Lan and MegaMan meet some new friends and learn about the Program Advance while preparing to face off against their rival Chaud Blaze and his Navi ProtoMan.EXE. The First Area ends with the revival of PharaohMan.EXE and the deletion and revival of MegaMan.

The Second Area starts with Lan’s adventures around the world as a prize for winning second place in the N1 before he and MegaMan battle the Net Mafia Grave and learn about the mysterious Bass.EXE. MegaMan gains the power of Style Change and new technology sets the background for Axess.

Music

 * Japanese opening themes
 * 1) "Kaze yo Tsutaete" (ロックマンのテーマ〜風を突き抜けて〜 Rokkuman no Tēma ~Kaze wo Tsukinukete~) by Jin Hashimoto (EXE)
 * 2) "Futatsu no Mirai" (二つの未来 Futatsu no Mirai) by Michihiro Kuroda (Axess)
 * 3) "Be Somewhere" by Buzy (Stream)
 * 4) "Shouri no Uta" (勝利のうた Shōri no Uta) by Dandelion (Beast)
 * Japanese ending themes
 * 1) "Piece of Peace" by mica (EXE, eps 1-25)
 * 2) "Begin the Try" (begin the TRY) by Shōtarō Morikubo (EXE, eps 26-56)
 * 3) "Hikari to Doku Basho" (光とどく場所 ) by Kumiko Higa and Akiko Kimura (Axess)
 * 4) "Doobee Doowop Communication" (ドゥビドゥワ コミュニケーション Dubiduwa Komyunikēshon) by Babamania (Stream, eps 1-25)
 * 5) "Hikari to Doku Basho ~ Yūjo no Shirushi (光とどく場所〜友情のしるし) by Kumiko Higa and Akiko Kimura (Stream, eps 26-51)
 * 6) "Ashiato" (あしあと) by Clair (Beast)

Broadcasters
Japan: TV Tokyo

USA: Kids' WB and Toonami Jetstream

Canada: TELETOON

United Kingdom: Jetix

Latin America and Brazil: Jetix and Rede Globo (Brazilian broadcast)

Portugal: SIC and Canal Panda

Hungary: A+ and RTL Klub

Poland: Jetix

Alternate English dub
An alternate English dub of the first two seasons, done by Voicework Unlimited, was made for the South-East Asian market during the show’s initial Japanese run with a script that strictly followed the the original’s, leading to some broken and nonsensical sentences when voiced in English. The show also kept the Japanese names, terms, and the original Japanese soundtrack, and was released in two DVD sets.

Reception
MegaMan NT Warrior achieved popularity among Japanese viewing audiences. According to a viewership sample conducted in the Kantō region by Video Research, the anime drew in an average of 4.5% and a maximum of 5.9% of households during the last year of its original run.

Trivia

 * Episodes 18 and 30 are absent on the anime's English official site, leaving it with 50 episodes, causing the numbering of the episodes from episode 18 onward to be wrong.
 * The letters "NT" in the anime's title stand for "Network Transmission".
 * This dub features an "announcer" for the online scenes, and a more cyberpunk based soundtrack than the more classic tokusatsu inspired soundtrack of its originating material.