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 episodes 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 27.

The series is the second animated series in the Mega Man franchise after the 1994 series, and is the longest running Mega Man TV show to date, having spawned four more seasons totaling 209 episodes and a film. 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 video game Rockman.EXE WS features an rough retelling of the first season of the anime as its plot.

Plot
The "First Area" of season one contains story elements of the original Mega Man Battle Network and Battle Network 3. It details the adventures of Lan Hikari and his new NetNavi MegaMan.EXE as they battle the criminal organization World Three and participate in the N1 Grand Prix. Lan and MegaMan meet many 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 episode 27 and contains an loose adaptation of Mega Man Battle Network 2. It follows Lan and MegaMan’s adventures around the world as a prize for winning second place in the N1. He and MegaMan then battle the Net Mafia Grave and learn about Bass. MegaMan gains the power of Style Change and new technology sets the background for Axess. Chisao from the third game also debuts, and a Life Virus acts as the final threat of the season in episode 56, mirroring the final battle of the original Battle Network.

In the English dub of the show, the episodes Ice Ice Baby!, Hot Tempers!, and Game Off!, which featured Maddy, Mr. Match, and Count Zap's rematch with Lan and MegaMan respectively, were all shown towards the end of the season rather than at the beginning of the season like the original Japanese version, making it seem as if the World Three had become active again after Grave was defeated. In the original Japanese version, the World Three stayed disbanded and its members had become more like allies to Lan and MegaMan at that point. This is reinforced in the dub of Axess, where Mr. Match vows the defeated the two one day, whereas in the Japanese version he was simply happy to help them defeat PlantMan.

Music

 * Japanese opening themes
 * 1) "Rockman no Theme - Kaze wo Tsukinukete" (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 Todoku 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: Cartoon Network, Kids' WB and Toonami Jetstream

Canada: TELETOON

United Kingdom: Jetix

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

Spain: Jetix

Portugal: SIC and Canal Panda

Hungary: A+ and RTL Klub

Poland: Jetix

Australia: Cartoon Network and Network Ten

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.

Home media
In Japan, the series was released across 65 DVD volumes containing all five seasons as well as a separate DVD release for the film. The first season was also released on VHS. Rental stores had different DVD art than retail DVDs to differentiate them.

In America, only the first season of MegaMan NT Warrior was released across 13 volumes.

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".
 * The English dub has an "announcer" for events that happen on the internet, such as a NetNavi being deleted or logged out (i.e., the announcer saying “MegaMan logging out” when MegaMan returns to his PET) where as there was none in the original Japanese dub, and features a completely different soundtrack from the original version as well.
 * The Brazilian dub version of the anime follows the same English dub version of the anime.