Rockman.EXE: Hikari to Yami no Program

Gekijouban Rockman.EXE: Hikari to Yami no Program (劇場版ロックマンエグゼ 光と闇の 遺産プログラム) is an anime movie that occurs during Rockman.EXE Stream. It was shown in Japanese theaters on March 15, 2005 as a double billing alongside the Duel Masters film Duel Masters: Curse of the Death Phoenix.

It details Dr. Regal's plot to use Nebula Gray to destroy the world, taking story elements from Rockman.EXE 5 that were not adapted into Rockman.EXE Axess or the rest of Stream.

Continuity Placement
There is no official confirmation on the movie's exact placement in Stream 's storyline. However, because of Dex and Dingo's appearance in the movie, it most likely occurs shortly after episode 22 in which the boys move to Densan City, but not after episode 29 when elements from the movie begin appearing in the series, specifically those concerning Barrel and Colonel.EXE.

Storyline
The movie begins with Forte.EXE floating in slumber in the depths of the Undernet, where he has been since his fight against Slur.EXE in the main anime, before a a demonic energy captures him. Elsewhere, Netto Hikari and Rockman.EXE are having a match against FootMan.EXE in a tournament, defeating him. After the battle, they go to an amusement park with Meiru Sakurai, Dekao Oyama, Chisao, Tohru Hikawa and Dingo, where they run into Yamataro Higure, Shuko Kido and Mariko Ozono.

Meanwhile in several parts of the world, strange pillars of lights are appearing on Earth. SciLab receives news about it and Yuichiro Hikari figures it's a program created by Dr. Wily a long time ago, called Spectrum. He calls Netto as he was watching Duel Masters in the park, saying Netto must head to the Trinity Brain tower immediately. When close to the tower, Netto receives another call from his father saying the world is in danger and he has to plug-in in the tower to destroy the Tadashi Hikari Program inside. Netto does so, and when Rockman gets close to the program he's attacked by Forte, who is under control by an unknown force. The two fight, but Forte overpowers him, and just as he was about to finish Rockman, Colonel appears and holds Forte off as Rockman goes after the Tadashi Hikari Program and destroys it with a Program Advance.

Shortly after, Netto, Rockman, Forte, and Colonel run away from the tower as a pillar of light appeared nearby, and the strange energy that attacked Forte in the Undernet, Nebula Grey, appears in the tower's cybernetic area and destroyed it shortly after their escape. While looking at the destruction caused by the pillar of light and the strange wall left in the area it passed through in the real world, Netto gets a call from his friends, where they tell him Meiru and Tohru won their matches, but suddenly a light appeared in the screen and the signal is lost. Realizing what happened, Netto screams for them.

Later, Netto is devastated as Dr. Hikari comes and comforts Netto, telling his son, there is still a chance to save everyone, cheering him up. Yuichiro gives holds a meeting attended by Netto and Meijin, explaining that 20 years ago, Tadashi Hikari was researching a way to link human emotions to the cyberworld. This system was called "Spectrum". The program was successful, allowing living beings to move in the cyberworld, and after analyzing the pillars of light, Yuichiro discovered that Spectrum is the responsible for it. The Spectrum works using two programs: The "Tadashi Hikari Program" and the "Wily Program", which were created by the respective scientists, who used to work together in the past. When combined, Spectrum can work with 100% of its power, and everything touched by it becomes digital data. When Wily left, the project was abandoned, and the Tadashi Hikari Program was modified to be the main core of the Trinity Brain tower. Yuichiro is unsure what Nebula Grey is, but believes it's behind Spectrum and must to be destroyed. As the meeting goes on, a pillar of light appears, and Dr. Regal appears out of it. Netto is surprised to see him as he was thought to be deed, but he explains that he was transformed ingto data instead of being destroyed and ended up in the Undernet, where he found the Wily Program. Regal merged with the Wily Program and the merge created Nebula Grey, Regal being its core, but it's still incomplete without the other program, and captures Yuichiro to help him with the remaining part, returning to the pillar of light with him.

Later, Charlie Airstar leaves Netto in a dock, and Enzan Ijuuin calls him to help fight against Nebula Grey, which is in a base located in an island from Ameroupe. After reaching the island, Netto, Enzan and Laika cross fuse and invade the base and fight against the base's virus-shaped machines reprogrammed by Nebula Grey. Meanwhile, Regal is using a painful machine on Yuichiro to extract information of the Tadachi Hikari Program from him, and Barrel comes from the past to help Netto.

Inside the building, Netto fights against a strong giant machine. He manages to defeat it, but the damage caused him to un-cross fuse. When he was going after his PET, another giant machine appeared and was ready to attack him, but Barrel appears and attacks it, saying they have a weak spot. Netto is confused as he never met Barrel before, but recognizes Colonel. He explains Regal captured Yuichiro because Tadashi implanted a special code containing the Tadashi Hikari Program hidden in his left eye, Wily being the only person to know it. Outside the room Yuichiro is imprisoned, Netto and Barrel jack-in their NetNavis in the base. Colonel takes care of the silver humanoid viruses spawned by Regal inside while Rockman goes after Nebula Grey.

In the depths of the base's cyberworld, Rockman faces Nebula Grey and Regal, and Forte appears to take revenge on Regal for using him. Regal merges with Nebula Grey and fights Rockman and Forte, who are easily defeated due to his power, and Nebula Gray begins to absorb by them. As a last attempt to stop him, Rockman gives his Ultimate Program to Forte, who gladly agrees to absorb Rockman, but instead the two merged into the Forte Cross Rockman. He shortly defeats Nebula Grey and the world begins to return to normal, but Regal survived and creates a black hole to absorb all of them. The Cross is undone and Forte blasts Rockman away from the black hole, letting it take him. The base begins to crumble and Netto takes his father out of the base and meets with Enzan and Laika on the way, and Barrel left them to take another way. The four used a small boat to leave the island.

Tie-in
Mega Man Battle Network 5 features Phoenix Giga Chips that can be received in-game on all three versions as a tie-in with Duel Masters.

Reception
The Hikari to Yami no Program and Duel Masters: Curse of the Death Phoenix double feature ranked first for the weekend of March 13, 2005, dethroning Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean from first place and broke the record for spring break in Japan with a gross of $12,708,498 USD. It held the record for 5 weeks until Constantine broke the record with a gross of $14,859,234 USD on April 17, 2005 and dropped the film to fifth for the weekend of March 20, 2005 with a gross of $1,093,870 USD. The following week it dropped to seventh place with $559,800 USD and a cumulative box office gross of $6,178,840 USD at three weeks of release.