ShadeMan.EXE

ShadeMan.EXE is a vampire-themed NetNavi from the Mega Man Battle Network series.

Mega Man Battle Network 4
ShadeMan attacks several Navis to suck their energy and captures Roll to be his dessert. MegaMan chases after him and confronts him, only to find him impervious to attacks (with MegaMan quoting: "Just like shadowboxing" after a few rounds). But ShadeMan escapes when ProtoMan appeared, abandoning Roll and leaving a Dark Chip behind. He later attacks the amusement park with its robots to retrieve the Dark Chip. MegaMan tries to fight against him once more, but again none of his attacks work, being only able to defeat him with the Dark Chip.

ShadeMan then makes a return during a sidequest where Boktai's Solar Boy Django struggles to get his Pile Driver to work on him before he reawakens and leaves his coffin. MegaMan retrieves a necessary part for Django and the two cooperate to prevent his escape, ultimately weakening his Dark powers.

Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation
ShadeMan appears as a boss. By this point it's implied that being struck with Pile Driver is what made ShadeMan slightly easier to battle in this game (He splits into four bats when hit, one of which is the real him) and even easier in Mega Man Battle Network 5 (He doesn't split at all when hit).

Mega Man Battle Network 5
ShadeMan was revived as a Darkloid and is fought in the second Liberation Mission, but is defeated by MegaMan and his team.

MegaMan NT Warrior Axess
ShadeMan is one of the many Darkloids and was their original leader. He first appeared in episode 1 of Axess, stealing all but two Synchro Chips. At the end of the next episode, all the Navis that were taken in an attack on NetCity were used to create his own palace, which he used as his domain to command the other Darkloids.

Despite a hatred towards humans, ShadeMan worked with Dr. Regal, where ShadeMan and his minions would perform some tasks for Regal, and in exchange, Regal would provide them with Dark Chips.

However, ShadeMan soon learns about what the Dark Chips can do to his minions, after seeing FlashMan return to him in a corrupted state, right after FlashMan had deleted DesertMan and then was later defeated by Cross Fused Chaud, and ShadeMan having to delete his minion because of it. Realizing that Regal had been double crossing him and his minions, ShadeMan intended to sever ties with him, but still wanted the Dark Chips, so he tried to steal a vast load of Dark Chips on one of their factories, but was outwitted by Ms. Yuri. Angered by that, ShadeMan left but not before easily defeating Lan and Chaud in their Cross Fused states with one attack.

ShadeMan moved to his next plan, and that was secretly building a Dimensional Generator of his own using one of Dr. Wily's abandoned labs, where he intended to kill Regal by crossing over to the real world. Eventually, the generator was completed, and he made his attack, but Lan and Chaud were also there, and they battled. However, Regal had left during their battle, and in his place was a holographic image of LaserMan, who mocked ShadeMan, and then proceeded to easily destroy ShadeMan's Dimensional Generators, sending ShadeMan back into the Cyber World. ShadeMan ended up facing MegaMan and ProtoMan, but his overwhelming strength easily defeated the two. Left with no choice, Chaud used a Dark Chip on ProtoMan, giving the latter enough strength to wound ShadeMan. ShadeMan still survived and was able to still fight, but was finally forced to retreat when MegaMan used his newly obtained Double Soul Proto Soul to wound ShadeMan further.

Weakened heavily, ShadeMan went back to his palace, but ended up finding LaserMan sitting on ShadeMan's throne, and alongside him, where ShadeMan's minions. ShadeMan was shocked by how his own minions betrayed him for a human, likely because the Dark Chips had already made them addicted to it and joined LaserMan for the promise of more Dark Chips. ShadeMan then saw the newly corrupted ProtoMan by LaserMan as well. Unable to do anything, ShadeMan fell into an abyss by LaserMan.

ShadeMan wasn't seen until later, having been left in a petrified state and BubbleMan sobbing over him. Then, Bass arrived and used his powers to restore ShadeMan, due to their shared hatred for humans and a desire for Navis to rule on their own.

Afterwards, ShadeMan had BubbleMan kidnap Rush and bring the cyber dog to him, where ShadeMan broke into SciLab in the Cyber World, and used Rush to form the Rush Synchro Chip, allowing ShadeMan to cross over to the real world without a Dimensional Generator. Now able to freely exist in the human world, ShadeMan tried to go settle scores with Regal, who ended up bringing an entire planetary Dimensional field over the world.

When ShadeMan confronted Regal, he attacked, to which Regal used a Dark Synchro Chip to Cross Fuse with LaserMan. While it seemed that ShadeMan had the upper hand, having impaled Cross Fused Regal from behind, Regal showed no sign of pain as he turned his head back and fired a laser beam, instantly destroying one of ShadeMan's arms. He was then kicked by Regal after the latter used Area Steal to get closer to the Darkloid. Bass witnessed this and knew that ShadeMan was finished.

Grabbing ShadeMan by the throat, Cross Fused Regal mocked ShadeMan, before ShadeMan tried to hit Regal on the head with his remaining arm, to which Regal merely grabbed it and tore it off, making ShadeMan scream in pain. Having had enough of the Darkloid, Regal finished ShadeMan off with a Cross Laser attack, deleting ShadeMan.

After his deletion, BubbleMan had gone to help the Net Savers, having sworn vengeance on Regal for what he had done to ShadeMan.

Rockman.EXE Stream
In episode 31, Dr. Hikari and his team build the Past Tunnel that was connected to the time-space anomaly from Duo's arrival. While there, the scientists view the past of when ShadeMan faced off against Dr. Regal and was shown once more how he was brutally defeated. However, through the shift in time and space, ShadeMan was able to revive moments before LaserMan deleted him, and ended up going into the future, breaking through the barrier that the Past Tunnel had due to how it was meant to keep viruses from the past from arriving, but not NetNavis.

After arriving to the future, ShadeMan was still wounded greatly from losing both his arms against LaserMan and Regal, but was still in an enraged state, so he tried to seek Regal out in order to kill him and in the process, attacking the city that he arrived in. Lan and Chaud intercept him in their Cross Fused state, shocked to find him back once more. Despite the injuries he sustained, ShadeMan proved to still be of superior might against the duo and overwhelms them. Before he could finish Lan off, Ms. Yuri intervenes by being Cross Fused as well, allowing Lan and Chaud to have enough time to perform a Double Program Advance to finish ShadeMan off.

But ShadeMan survived, though he was even more wounded than before and was found by Bubbleman, who was crying over him saying how he always searched for ShadeMan. ShadeMan muttered that he needed Dark Chips. BubbleMan took ShadeMan to a Dark Chip factory that the Neo WWW was running, and placed the wounded Darkloid in a capsule filled with the dark essence of the Dark Chips, right as the Asteroid Navis FlashMan and SavageMan arrived, whom BubbleMan held off as long as he could.

As ShadeMan reawoke with his powers mostly restored, but still was missing his arms, the two Asteroid Navis fought against ShadeMan, but found that their attacks did nothing to harm him. ShadeMan attacked and managed to take FlashMan's arm to replace one of ShadeMan's missing arms. He then did the same with SavageMan's. The two Asteroid Navis, realizing that they were no match for him, retreated. ShadeMan then spoke with BubbleMan, recalling on how when he was crushed by Regal, he recalled some tunnel that he somehow went through that got him there. From that, he began to hatch a scheme for Darkloids to take over the world.

As MegaMan and ProtoMan ready themselves to enter the Past Tunnel to lead them 20 years to the past, ShadeMan arrives to attack them, and had bitten MegaMan in the neck, before he ended up going through the Past Tunnel. Almost instantly, a transmission is shown to the scientists of how Darkloids ended up ruling over the world led by ShadeMan. This shows how ShadeMan had altered history to fulfill his goal.

In the following episode, ShadeMan is shown sitting on his throne as BubbleMan informs him that MegaMan was coming to stop his plan. However, earlier ShadeMan had bitten a normal NetNavi and had them infected with the dark aura, which then transferred over to MegaMan when the latter had held down the Navi.Through the dark aura, ShadeMan took control of MegaMan and had him fight against Colonel.EXE, who was also with MegaMan during the time to stop ShadeMan's plot.

However, as Colonel froze MegaMan with an Ice Seed Battle Chip, ShadeMan arrived and fought against Colonel, and freed MegaMan along the way, and the two faced Colonel, quickly taking the advantage. ShadeMan soon had Colonel held by clutching his head, and ordered MegaMan to finish him off. However, right at that moment of firing the Charged Shot, Lan had used the Vaccine Chip and freed MegaMan from ShadeMan's control of the dark aura, and the attack was fired at ShadeMan instead, hitting his shoulder.

Surprised, ShadeMan released Colonel and knelt down, but smirked, stating that he won't die there, before removing the cloak he had on him, revealing his missing emblem which meant that ShadeMan was basically critically wounded during the battle already and was going to be deleted anyways. He spoke about how he implanted a missile with his Darkloid Factor from his emblem that would fire and then spread the factor throughout the Net and infect every NetNavi in the world. He then stated that he was dying in a marvelous way, before he finally succumbed to deletion and was gone for good.

However, his legacy of the Darkloid Factor through the missile was destroyed by MegaMan before it had a chance to work, foiling his plot.

MegaMan NT Warrior
ShadeMan makes an appearance in volume 8. After MegaMan and Lan enter the realm of the Darkloids, he abducts Lan and threatens to delete his conscious (which would in turn kill him in the real world). MegaMan quickly gives in to his anger and brutally rips ShadeMan to pieces (similar to his death in the anime).

In the English version of the manga, ShadeMan incorrectly calls himself "ShadowMan" on page 115.

Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django
ShadeMan appears in the game as a hidden boss after completing the game. He appeared in Django's world with the help of an unknown person (believed to be the Count) and Django has the help of MegaMan to make him return to his own world. Because of the Dark Matter in Django's world, ShadeMan was able to gain physical form and Django has to fight against him. Like in Mega Man Battle Network 4, ShadeMan is shielded by the power of darkness and can't be harmed, the only thing able to break his defense being dark powers. As Django had obtained dark powers during the game, he manages to break ShadeMan's defense, which surprises him as Django is known as the "Solar Boy". After being defeated, ShadeMan is taken to be purified in the Pile Driver, where he loses the Dark Matter and returns to the Cyberworld. After the battle, MegaMan also returns to his world and Django gains the MegaBuster.

ShadeMan is also the boss of the multiplayer Crossover Battle, where Django and MegaMan fight against one ShadeMan and the player wins if they defeat ShadeMan first or the other player is defeated. Players can also disturb the opponent in intervals by sending attacks or enemies to the other game or heal the opponent's ShadeMan.

Solar Boy Django (manga)
ShadeMan appears in a bonus crossover chapter at the end of Volume 3. Several MagTect viruses appear and Django tries to fight them off, thinking that they are some new race of vampire. Then MegaMan appears, but is called "Rocketman", with his MegaBuster referred to as the "Rocket Blaster". Django thinks that he is a vampire too, and a short battle ensues. Then, ShadeMan (incorrectly called "Shadowman") appears and MegaMan attacks, but due to the Dark Matter in Django's world, ShadeMan is invulnerable to the MegaBuster. Django attacks using his manga exclusive attack, "Bullet Del Sol", where Otenko is hurled like a projectile, containing tremendous solar energy. ShadeMan blocks this attack as well, and captures Otenko. MegaMan suggests that since ShadeMan has grown more powerful, that neither of their attacks alone would be enough to defeat him. Django gets angry and they begin arguing. ShadeMan takes this opportunity to attack with Noise Crush. MegaMan takes the blow, and is severely damaged. The MegaBuster falls from his arm, and he dashes at ShadeMan using his MegaBooster (which first appeared in Volume 2 of the MegaMan NT Warrior manga) and slashes off ShadeMan's right arm/wing, using "Barrier Blue Sword". This causes ShadeMan to release Otenko, but MegaMan collapses, still wounded. Otenko returns to Django, and Django picks up the MegaBuster, channels his solar powers into it, and blows a hole through ShadeMan with the attack, "Rocket Blaster Bullet Del Sol". ShadeMan and MegaMan are then sucked through a portal and return to the Cyberworld, called the "Virtual World". MegaMan mentions his operator, Netto, which is Lan's Japanese name.


 * *The incorrect names are due to poor English translations, as the original Japanese version uses the correct names. Rockman (MegaMan's Japanese name) is pronounced "Rokkuman" which sounds similar to Rocketman (rokettoman). Even though MegaMan leaves his buster behind, Django never used it again in the manga. ShadeMan first appeared in Mega Man Battle Network 4, but when Lan is shown, he is holding the PET from Mega Man Battle Network 3.

Abilities
ShadeMan cannot be harmed through any means except Dark Chips, which will be able to harm him in this storyline encounter, and have no side effects for their use.
 * Bat Split: In BN4, when ShadeMan is hit with 10 or more damage, he splits into four bats that scatter among the rows and fly off-screen. One of them is the real ShadeMan; the other bats cannot be harmed.


 * Red Wing: ShadeMan summons two to three bats that will fly down the row, turning towards MegaMan when they line up with him.


 * Noise Crush: ShadeMan fires a powerful pulse, hitting the panel immediately ahead of him, and spread forward in a WideSword-esque fashion. This pierces Invis, but Mole is safe from this attack.


 * Shade Hand: In BN4, ShadeMan summons a hand that will badly scratch the player.
 * Black Claw: In BN5, ShadeMan appears in front of the player and attacks in a WideSword-esque fashion.

In the anime, ShadeMan retains most of his powers from the game. As the leader of the Darkloids, ShadeMan is exceptionally powerful, and considerably the most powerful natural Darkloid. He has single handily defeated both Lan and Chaud on many occasions throughout Axess, the first time defeating them both in a single strike. He is also able to outmatch the duo despite being heavily damaged at his return in Stream.
 * Shade Drain: ShadeMan will appear behind of MegaMan and bite him, draining some HP and restoring it to his own. Used only in BN5.
 * Big Noise: During Crossover Battle; if the Boktai player counters ShadeMan, a Big Noise chip is sent over to ShadeMan on the Battle Network side. ShadeMan slides to the deal middle on his field and performs the attack exactly like the Program Advance.
 * Ripper: Used only in Boktai 2. ShadeMan attacks similarly to Ringo and Black Dainn, swinging both arms in an attempt to slash Django.

Also, it is interesting to note that unlike other Darkloids, ShadeMan seemed to be the only one that isn't affected by the negative effects of the Dark Chips, such as the addictiveness or the data erosion, as he even had the dark power from it heal him when he returned from being heavily wounded to the future Stream, and still suffered no negative effects.

Despite being a Darkloid, he is able to handle Asteroid Navis with ease, as seen in episode 31, where he disabled both Asteroid BeastMan and Asteroid FlashMan as well as taking their arms. When he was in the past, he takes on Colonel despite being at near death from having removed his Navi crest earlier, which would have deleted most Navis in an instant.

Trivia

 * In Mega Man Battle Network 4, ShadeMan starts with a Mystery Data at the top right corner of his area. This data contains a Giga Chip that will vary depending on the version being played.


 * When "Humor" is installed in the Navi Customizer, one of MegaMan.EXE's jokes is when he says that he is leaving Lan, so he brings (mainly speaks as) ShadeMan.EXE along as a replacement, until he stops the joke.


 * Like in Mega Man Battle Network 4, during the boss battle and the encounter in the Battle Arena, Django must transform into Vampire mode and attack with Enchant Dark. After so many hits, ShadeMan will become vulnerable to other attacks. His weakness is Sol. He does not have the Dark Barrier in Crossover Battles.
 * Right before the first battle against ShadeMan.EXE, MegaMan.EXE will say ShadeMan's name, despite the fact ShadeMan never tells him his name any point before that in the English version. However, he introduces himself in the same area in the Japanese version.
 * Interestingly, in a unusual contrast to most anime villains like him, ShadeMan was actually very benevolent to his minions. He would reward them for doing good work, and if they failed him, he'd never delete them, instead he'd shift the needed task to a different Darkloid, such as giving BubbleMan's mission to BurnerMan.EXE when the former failed. He also seemed to be an almost fatherly figure to BubbleMan in particular, which may have contributed to BubbleMan's steadfast loyalty to ShadeMan. ShadeMan appeared to have the Darkloids best interest in mind, as evident by his horror in seeing FlashMan's corrupted state and his fury at being duped by Regal about the Dark Chips.