Princess Pride (anime)

"I came here in secret"

- Princess Pride, showing her rebellious side despite her royal heritage

Princess Pride (プリンセス・プライド) is a character in the MegaMan NT Warrior anime series. She is the princess of Brightland, however she dislikes her royal duties and often sneaks out be with Lan Hikari. The first time the two met she was under the disguise of a boy named "Whip" ("Poipu" in Japan). She is the operator of KnightMan.EXE, who she gains the abilities to cross fuse with later on in the series. Raika has a crush on her.

Overview
Pride is a loving and warmhearted individual. Despite being a beautiful and feminine princess, she is a tomboy, and enjoys things such as NetBattling, which she shows great skill in, and competing in things such as racing Lan while swimming. She also did not mind dressing up as a boy to avoid attracting any attention as she toured DenTech City. Pride often feels constricted by her royal duties and shirks them if she can to go spend time with Lan who she shows great affection for (Lan in turn was shown to have a level of infatuation with her when he found out “Whip” was actually a girl). Despite these things, Pride takes her duties as a princess seriously and will attend to them appropriately when she is needed, as well as fight with her fellow Cross Fusion Members to protect the planet, and is well loved by her people and the world.

MegaMan NT Warrior
Princess Pride first appears disguised as a boy at the Game Soul arcade in DenTech City battling Dex Oyama and GutsMan.EXE. Dex taunts Pride after he believes GutsMan beat KnightMan.EXE in a single hit, only for KnightMan to strike back and do just that to GutsMan. The crowd marvels as Yai Ayanokoji mentions "he" has won 18 net battles straight, and Tory Froid wonders who would dare challenge him next. Lan Hikari approaches Pride and challenges her, but before they could begin four women in suits walk in and look around, and she runs out of the arcade with the women in pursuit. She tells Lan off when he confronts her, signaling him to look back where he sees the women chasing them. He offers to help her lose her pursuers in exchange for a net battle, and before she could reply he pulls her into a nearby alley and into a men's bathroom, which causes Pride's attendants to run away screaming. An embarrassed Pride thanks him for his help, and Lan follows her asking for the net battle she "promised". Annoyed, she tells him she didn't promise anything and that her name wasn't "c'mon", and to just call her “Whip” ("Poipu" in Japan). She tells him that she's from Brightland and just wants to see the city as a regular tourist and asks him for suggestions while holding the map the wrong way, to her embarrassment. She tells him she wants to see all of the city and asks Lan to show her around in exchange for a net battle. He agrees and shows her his home, his school, a few places he naps, #1 Curry, Higby's Chip Shop, and introduces her to Maysa. The two stop to get ice cream and Pride tells him she has never eaten outside before, much to his surprise, and as the two lay on the grass, Pride tells Lan that her parents have planned out her next three years, so she escaped and took the day to relax. Ribbita's new report starts announcing Brightland's new anti-virus program, and before Lan can see Pride's face on the TV she pulls his head away to look at her, using the excuse that she wanted to ask him what the flower (a dandelion) behind them was, saying that it was more interesting than what's on the TV and laughs nervously. After stand-in for Pride appears on the TV, Lan says that being a princess must mean she can do whatever she wants anytime, to which Pride states that that's not true, and that [Pride] is a regular kid that has the same problems as everyone else has although no one knows or believes it, before correcting herself and saying that she was just guessing and has no first-hand knowledge of this. Lan and Pride walk down the street as she looks at the time noticing she has to go home soon. They head to the DenTech Fun Park to meet up with Lan's other friends as her attendants catch up with her, and they escape with help from the others while riding a variety of rides. Her and Lan are accidentally doused while standing on a musical fountain in the sidewalk, and go to change into dry clothes where Lan learns "he" is actually a girl. Lan asks why she was dressed as boy, and she tells him it was a good disguise as he gazes at her. She tells him how great the day was and laments that she has to leave soon, and that before they go, they need to have their net battle. The battle is interrupted by ShadowMan.EXE, who was hired by Grave to delete KnightMan, the anti-virus program, and traps Lan inside of a massive toy capsule, though Pride manages to smash it with her barehands. Lan wraps her hand in his headband and together the four ward off ShadowMan. Pride asks to finish the net battle but Lan tells her to rest, and they'll battle tomorrow. She tells him he can't because she needs to go home, and hopes that one day she can come back and spend the day battling him. He promises to stop what he's doing and battle her, and holds his hand out to shake her, but Pride grabs Lan and kisses him on the cheek before running off to meet with her attendants, who notes she managed to stay away for the whole day as she removes her hat covering her hair and heads back with them, stopping to look look at the fireworks while making a gun gesture. Later, she appears before the press and introduces KnightMan, stating she thanks DenTech on a personal level for being a gracious host and that next time she comes it won't be as a princess, but as a net battler, having promised her "best friend" she would. She heads back to Brightland, Lan and the others none-the-wiser that "Whip" was Pride.

Later, Pride is working at her desk lamenting that she has no one she can spend time and laugh with while looking at a picture of her and Lan wishing she could see him more often. Suddenly, an alarm sounds and one of her attendants rushes in and tells her that an intruder has gained access to Brightland's mainframe and KnightMan is nowhere to be seen. She quickly calls Lan (who at some point has found out Whip was Pride), and he, Maylu Sakurai, Yai, Dex, Tory, and Rush board one of Yai's planes to go help her. Upon arriving, Pride rushes over to Lan and hugs him, making Maylu jealous, and apologizes for summoning them there before another alarm sounds. She explains that KnightMan has gone berserk and is destroying the central computer as she and the others rush into the room where the central computer is. She asks for a report, and is told KnightMan has made it to the mainframe's firewall and Dex asks her what a firewall is. She explains it is a protective barrier that the main frame from Brightland's enemies, and if it were to go down, Brightland will be defenseless and watches as MoltanicMan.EXE attempts to stop KnightMan. MegaMan and the others try to stop KnightMan while Pride watches in fear, though MegaMan manages to qualm KnightMan without harming him. That night Lan and Pride sit out on a balcony and Pride tells Lan she wishes he could visit more, and in less dangerous times. Lan promises he and MegaMan will get to the bottom of the situation and they ponder over what happened to KnightMan and why he suddenly changed so much. MoltanicMan contacts Pride and tells her he has not seen any suspicious activity, and Lan asks how long MoltanicMan has been working for Brightland. She states he has only been with them a few months, having been found adrift in the net by KnightMan near Brightland's borders, and swore allegiance to them for saving him. She wishes KnightMan were back to normal, and Lan assures her everything will be ok. She hugs Lan again, causing Maylu, who notices this through the open door, to become jealous again. When Glyde is hypnotized by a traitorous MoltanicMan, Pride watches with the others as he attempts to cut off the power to the castle as a diversion while MoltanicMan brings down the firewall, which had been damaged by KnigthMan earlier. She states that if Brightland's enemies discover that the firewall is down, they will destroy Brightland, and MoltanicMan reveals he is a Navi for Brightland's enemy country DarkLand. She deduces he is the one who took control of KnightMan and Glyde, and MegaMan and a revitalized KnightMan delete MoltanicMan when Pride gives Lan KnightMan's Extension Chip. MegaMan closes the firewall generator and Pride hugs Lan again, making Maylu jealous once more.

Having saved the day, Princess Pride knights Lan as a royal knight, to come and "save" her whenever she needs. (This episode was censored and changed from the original Japanese version. )

Rockman.EXE Stream
Pride returns in Stream as she watches on as massive viruses materialized in the real world by Slur.EXE terrorize Creamland, holding her hands and putting her head down in worry.

She later makes a trip to Syacclea, a territory between Creamland and Sharo that is feuded over by the two countries for ownership, to oversee the construction Cross Fusion Lab being made in cooperation by the two aforementioned countries in an effort to make peace. Raika runs to meet her and introduces himself, telling her he thought the inspection was set for the week after, and Pride tells him she wanted to see the construction as soon as possible, so she left the guards and reporters behind for an informal visit. Raika explains how Cross Fusion works and shows her around, and tells her that despite the fact that some people from Sharo oppose their country and Creamland's cooperation in this project, Asteroid Navis have become a global threat, and that without Pride and Creamland's help, it would have been impossible to create the lab. Pride tells Raika to call her just "Pride" and goes to look at the Dimensional Element, and is told there are three people currently capable of Cross Fusion: Himself, Enzan Ijuuin, and Netto, though she interrupts him and says Netto before he could. Raika asks Pride if she knows him, and she says that Netto is a very important friend of hers that once helped save her country. Her attendant tells her it is time to leave, and Pride tells Raika that next time they meet they'll talk about Netto, which he agrees to. As Pride was about to leave the lab is attacked and Raika, who was seeing her off, goes to see what was happening. Seeing this, Pride asks KnightMan what was going on and he informs her that someone has invaded the lab's cyberworld. Pride opens the hatch of the helicopter they were in and jumps out before it could take off and runs to the lab. The attacker turns out to be Asteroid AirMan.EXE, and Pride plugs KnightMan in to help SearchMan.EXE fight, shocking Raika as she tells him she wants to help. Raika tells Pride to evacuate and goes to save the Dimensional Element from a materialized AirMan. During the ensuing chaos Raika drops the element, but as AirMan was about to smash it, Pride runs up and grabs it and the Asteroid Navi pursues her. She is saved by Raika and the two get away on his snowmobile. That night, Pride attempts to contact help from either Creamland or Sharo to no avail and AirMan attacks again, throwing the two off the snowmobile. The Dimensional Element flies out of Raika's shirt pocket, and Pride manages to grab it as it tumbled toward her, only to be confronted and chased by AirMan before Raika crashes his snowmobile into him, sending him falling down a cliff. The two traverse a massive blizzard toward an old castle nearby and Pride convinces an injured Raika to keep going. They arrive at the castle and Pride explains that Creamland owned the castle 400 years ago, and she once came and played there as a child. Raika says that at that time Syacclea was still restricted, and that she must have come for an "informal visit" (joking about Pride’s early arrival to the Dimensiona Lab) before they share a laugh. SearchMan and KnighthMan inform them that strange radio waves are coming from the castle, cutting off communications, and they investigate. They find a room full of computers and a weakened General Koudo, AirMan's operator and a Creamland general who retired sixth months ago due to health reasons. Pride questions why he would be at the castle, and Raika turns on his computers to find that he is creating an army of Asteroid AirMen. She listens as Koudo calls Sharo the enemy and that one day, they will destroy Creamland, so he created an army of Asteroid Navis. Pride tells Koudo the Asteroid Navis are the enemy, not Sharo. She orders KnightMan to destroy the Asteroid Navi army and feeds him chips before going to meet Raika, who has defeated the original AirMan, and informs him that Koudo has passed. She goes to give back the Dimensional Element and cringes as the Crest of Duo forms on her hand. Raika shows her Duo's Comet and blushes as he looks at her before Netto pulls up in a car, having found them. Pride runs over and warmly hugs Netto, and three stare at the comet pondering over what task Duo has given them. Later on, Pride is recruited along with Charlie Airstar, Dingo, Jasmine, and Nenji Rokushakudama to join a team of people who have the Crest of Duo on them to test their compatibility with Cross Fusion. They are brought to Sharo, where Dr. Hikari concludes that her Synchro Rate is 97% and Netto asks who she was, as she was wearing a test outfit that covered her face. Pride greets him and takes her helmet off, to Netto's surprise. Later, as the newly formed team sit around and a table and discuss with Dr. Hikari about Duo, his test, as well as Dark Rockman.EXE and his Darkloids, Charlie notes he did not think they would be joined by the charming Princess Pride of Creamland, and she states that she too wishes to fight for peace, as well as fight alongside Netto. Suddenly, an excavator begins to go wild, and Pride and the others are summoned.

She and the others watch the monitors as Netto, Raika, and Charlie attempt to stop the excavator, which is under the control of the Darkloids, and watches as it breaks through the Dimensional Area set up to stop it and sees Netto get attacked by the Darkloids, yelling his name and sighing in relief as Dr. Hikari deactivates the Dimensional Area around him, causing the Darkloids to de-materialize in the real world. As the excavator begins to level towns, she notes that at the rate it's going, it will soon hit Sharo's capital. Pride joins the others in meeting Raika and Netto, where Raika tells her that if something were to happen to her, it would be bad for Creamland, but she insists and grabs Raika's hands telling him they should fight side-by-side, causing Raika to blush. Charlie flies them to the excavator where Pride notes that Dimensional Converters are appearing, but they manage to break through and the Darkloids confront them. Pride, Nenji, Jasmine, and Dingo cross fuse for the firsts time, and she joins C.F. GyroMan, SearchMan, NapalmMan, TomahawkMan, and Medi in fighting the Darkloids, where she fights against SwallowMan.EXE. SearchMan manages to stop the excavator, surprising the Darkloids, and the Cross Fusion Members use that moment to finish them off. Raika asks if she was ok, and before the could celebrate, Duo talks to his chosen bearers of his crest, asking them that when they bring their crests together, if the power will be enough to overcome him. Pride is then invited to a "training camp" on the beach next to the sea, where she arrives by plane in secret to join many of the Cross Fusion Members and Meiru, Netto, Dingo, and Jasmine marvel at her beauty. She races Netto to the shoreline, but the race interrupted when Yaito swims up next to them in her mansion (which has transformed into a mech). That night as Netto, Meiru, Nenji, and Anetta are arguing over how to prepare curry, Pride dumps a variety of meats into the soup and when the curry is ruined due to everyone trying to make it a different way, she simply sighs. Later everyone watches Nenji shoot off fireworks, and Dr. Hikari informs Netto of a haunted house, so they all decide to investigate it. Pride is paired with Yaito and Anetta while drawing colored papers, and her team goes in first. While Yaito and Anetta are scared, Pride remains calm and cheerful, noting all of the stuff in the house. A ghostly figure passes through the hallway in front of them, spooking Yaito and Anetta, though Pride simply proceeds forward, and moments later screams are heard from outside. After the other teams enter and it is revealed that the "haunted" house was merely Dr. Hikari's "test of courage", Pride and everyone else who went into the house were spit out into the hot springs nearby. Everyone enjoys the hot springs as she and Madoi Iroaya tease Dingo and their training camp comes to an end. As Slur and the Asteroid Navis begin their destruction of Earth, Pride and Raika team up to fight the invading Asteroids in Creamland. Immediately after cross fusing, a copy of Asteroid BomberMan.EXE tosses several bombs at her, and C.F. SearchMan pushes her out of the way, taking the blow. C.F. KnightMan retaliates with a ShotGun Battle Chip, destroying BombMan, and scolds Raika for taking the hit before the two are attacked by another Asteroid.

She and the others convene at the Ministry of Science, where Meijin explains that while the Asteroids have been stopped for the day, those that have been given Asteroid Navis bu Slur will have more in reserve, and to be ready for another attack. A bit later, Asteroid Navis begin multiplying all over the planet, and while Netto, Raika, and Enzan Ijuuin are sent to fight Slur, Pride and the rest of the Cross Fusion Members are sent out to defend the city.

While riding in a helicopter to meet up with Netto and Enzan at the Space-Time Tower in Ameroupe, the crash site of Duo's meteor, Raika informs her that Enzan could not find any data on Barrel's Crest of Duo, and that he and Netto went to Barrel's apartment to look for clues, which she quietly nods to. They arrive at the tower, where Pride watches as Dr. Hikari attempts to bring Barrel into the present from the past. Hordes of Asteroid Navis begin to approach the Space-Time Tower, and Pride and the others cross fuse to defend it before being joined by Barrel himself, finally bringing all of the Cross Fusion Members together.

In the season finale, she and the others finish off the attacking Asteroids and are called back to the Space-Time Tower by Dr. Hikari. As they return, Forte.EXE, who was having a destructive battle with Slur, damages the Past Gate. Pride and Raika ask Dr. Hikari how bad the damage is, and he informs the team that they have been set back a few days. Suddenly, everyone's crest begins glowing, and the Past Gate opens, revealing a projection of Dr. Regal. He tells the group that he stopped Duo's destruction with their crests that he copied, and that he has obtained Duo's technology and plans to destroy the Earth. Everyone cross fuses again and Pride and the others prepare to fight a monstrous Regal and his silver creatures. Pride follows Netto as Regal captures Meiru and drags her into the past gate, and the team comes upon the dead and decayed remains of the insane scientist, who was unable to keep his hold on Duo's technology. She listens as Duo makes a speech about how humans are hateful and greedy, and has deemed Cross Fusion a product of a incorrect network civilization and prepares to fight him with the others before being defeated instantly. Duo un-cross fuses everyone and materializes their Navis, who run to aid their operators. He offers them a chance to join him, but KnightMan and the others stand by their operators, so he prepares to delete them as Pride and the other humans stand and shield their Navis. She witnesses as Barrel cross fuses with Duo, saving the Earth as the alien Navi learns what it's like to feel emotions. She and the others return to present Earth, and watches Barrel communicate with them about his time with Duo. The Earth having been saved, she returns to Creamland and is seen at her desk during the credits looking at a group shot of her and the several other characters during the training camp before smiling.

Rockman.EXE Beast
Pride is summoned to join the other Cross Fusion Members in fighting off the Earth invasion of Zoanoroids and Beastized Viruses towards the end of the season. She fights Zoano KendoMan.EXE, who gets the upper hand and attempts to finish her off before Yuriko Ozono saves her and the two delete KendoMan with ShotGun Battle Chips. Pride states she thought she would never get a chance to fight cross fused again before they are ambushed by Zoano MetalMan.EXE, who launches missiles at them, but the two are un-phased and prepare to strike back. She and Yuriko meet up with the other remaining Cross Fusion Members on Earth at Densan City, where they are joined by BubbleMan.EXE in fighting off a massive swarm of beastized viruses. They begin to get overwhelmed and tired before Rockman uses Trill's Synchronizer powers to erase the viruses from the real world, but the Beyondard Dr. Wily-possessed Super Cyber Beast crosses over from Beyondard onto Earth and easily defeats the Cross Fusion Members, causing them to un-cross fuse. Pride watches on in worry as Netto, who has become Beast Form Cross Fusion Rockman, fights the Super Cyber Beast and yells his name when he crashes into it, but he defeats it with ease, and Pride and the others run over to reunite with Netto, Meiru, Enzan, Raika, and Dingo, who return from Beyondard.

Pride does not appear again for the rest of the series, and is absent from Beast+, but it can be assumed she resumed her duties as princess of Creamland and was turned into cached data by Cache before Netto defeats him and changes the world back in the series finale.

Trivia

 * Pride has shown to have grown a crush on Lan and often shows him much affection, much to Maylu's distress.
 * Pride has a mischievous and rebellious side to her, having snuck out without anyone’s consent three times during the season:
 * Once to tour Dentech City like a normal civilian,
 * Another to tour Sharo’s Dimensional Area Laboratory privately
 * And once more to join Lan and the others in their summer training camp.
 * She also mentioned secretly going to an old castle in Sycclea to play there, of course, without anyone’s consent or knowledge.
 * She and Barrel are the only two Cross Fusion Members to not appear at all in Beast+, with several of them appearing during the season and the rest appearing as cameos during the series finale.
 * Despite promising they would net battle again the next time they saw each other the first time they met, Lan and Pride never net battled when they met up later in NT Warrior, nor even later in Stream.
 * For some strange reason, Pride has some height inconsistency when first introduced. In her debut episode, while disguised as a boy, she was roughly a head taller than Lan, akin to a teenager. However, whenever she's not wearing her disguise, such as her normal atire, she towers over Lan, needing to bend over to hug him. Her height varied in the same episode, as she was at normal height when wearing the kimono or in the TV report, yet was shorter again when Netbattling with Lan. It's unknown why she seemingly gets shorter whenever she's in her disguise compared to every other time she's shown. In Stream and beyond, she is shown to be roughly a head taller than Lan like when she is when in disguise, hinting that is her true height.
 * While Princess Pride is a member of Gospel in Mega Man Battle Network 2, she is instead targeted by Grave in the anime.
 * Likewise, while in the games Pride has shown to become ruthless in her pursuit of protecting Creamland from Gospel, leading her to join them, in the anime she is optimistic, caring, and has an unwavering sense of justice. Creamland itself is also not in the economic turmoil it is in the games.