Axess!

So today was the sneak-peek of MegaMan NT Warrior Axess. And surprisingly, it seems few are speaking of it in my LJ Friends, but I’ll give it another rundown. Here are some thoughts on it…

The theme song sucks balls. Why? It is a TOTAL reuse of the season 2, or however it’s cut up, intro of NT Warrior. Cheap. Ass. At the end, to let you know it IS a different show, the logo is different. I’m hoping that this is just due to it being a “sneak peek” and that they simply don’t HAVE an intro ready yet.

Translation. Wow. This is hard to rate, really. I guess as a straight translation, it pretty much sucks. SavageMan? Ugh. I find it hard to believe they couldn’t use “BeastMan” unless there was some copyright issue with Masters of the Universe. And even then, that’s really hard to believe, because a) MOTU is DEAD(sadly), and b) MOTU is owned by Mattel, who make–ta da!–the NT Warrior line of toys. I can’t think of any other conflict.

Cool was that they actually gave the guy who ran the test of the “Synchro” chip(that’s not what it was in Japan, was it? Was sure it was “Cross Fusion” Chip there. Funny they’d keep THAT from the games, sort of) a name, as well as his NetNavi. IIRC, this isn’t the first time they’ve done this.

Overall, from what I could remember, it seemed they changed most of the dialogue, yet managed to tell the story successfully… except they totally ruined the cliffhanger ending.

Sword-blurring seemed like it was down by some degree, but still there. Name changing, as noted with SavageMan, is still going to plague us, though they didn’t name ShadeMan that I saw. Kudos to them for at least seeming to manage to do some variation on Meijin Iguuchi’s “no need for formalities” line…

Lan: “Mr. Famous!”

Mr. Famous: “Just call me ‘Famous.'”

One thing they seem to have a habit of is reading ahead. One instance is MegaMan telling Lan that they can’t use any Battle Chips, because none were in the PET. IIRC, that didn’t come up til ep 2.

Speaking of PETs, no cheesey commercials from Chaud, yet. Sad. 🙁 Seeing Netto finally see one was great. I guess as long as they show that with Lan, it’ll be ok… if they had to cut anything, I suppose the constant-yet-pointless repetition of that commercial was a choice candidate.

More reading ahead, at least it seems like it now, is when Famous tells Lan that Cross Fusion can only occur within those dimensional areas, but someday they won’t be needed. From what I hear, by Stream, Netto seems to do it wherever without any regard to the areas, so I guess someday is sooner than later. I don’t remember that line in the original, so that would be a neat bit of foreshadowing, I guess.

Music is different, but seems alright. More in synch with what the Japanese version had, really, than the original series(while the original had its light music seemingly replaced with harder tunes, Axess actually had some fairly rocking music, and the NT stuff comes closer).

Voices are as good as ever. Casting is naturally questionable, but the voice actors do their jobs quite well. Is it me, though, or does Dr. Hikari sound younger than in the first NT? To me, he sounds the same age as Lan(who of course is one of the problem areas of casting, as he sounds way too old, IMO(and others)). Red says that Beast–er, “SavageMan” was voiced by Dr. Claw, aka Mr. Frank Welker. Unfortunately, WB has that fucking annoying habit of spitting on everyone who works on a show by squishing the screen WAY to much to run ads. I really fucking hate that. So no clue who did SavageMan. Maybe TV Tome will help. But I heard the growling, and was REALLY pulling for Scott McNeil’s “Dinobot” voice. I was severely disappointed, but if it’s Welker, all is forgiven.

ShadeMan’s voice was good, as well as his mysterious master’s(I seriously don’t know, WPP is WAY behind on Axess subs, and I’m behind them…). I suspect David Kaye.

So, ultimately, comes what I think on the whole. And that presents an interesting perspective.

See, before with the first seasons, there was nothing to compare NT to except other anime, including ShoPro’s own. And next to say, Inu Yasha, I’m tempted to say that NT Warrior was an astounding failure. However, on its own, it was alright. There was still inconsistencies throughout, not the least of which was the cutting of episodes.

Now, however, Axess has something to be compared to, and that’s NT Warrior. Overall, I’m going to say that the show feels rather improved, though not by leaps and bounds. But, it feels closer to its Japanese origin than the original NT Warrior did.

Let’s compare NT Warrior to Dragon Ball Z for a moment. I’d say NT much resembled the Saban era of DBZ. Once Saban was out of the picture, DBZ improved remarkably. By the end, cuts seemed to be at a minimum, save for blood. I’d say NT falls somewhere between the quality of the original and the level DBZ reached. Still, any improvement is good, and so I’m… content, with this. And I may have to be, because if WPP doesn’t haul some serious ass, I may wind up having to watch Axess this way just to get caught up. Of course, while WB is getting it in the Spring(probably May), I have no idea when Teletoon will, and unless something changes in cable, I likely won’t have WB to watch it on.

It actually surprises me that Kids’ WB had it first. And that it surprises me also surprises me.

Oh, and one last thing… being a purist of sorts(I can accept Japanese-English name changes, such as Rockman to MegaMan, but not Japanese-English-English2 changes, such as Meiru to Mayl to Maylu. Especially when they’re done by Capcom themselves), I’m sort of disappointed in the name of the show. MegaMan Network Transmission Warrior Axess. That’s a grammar teacher’s fucking nightmare right there. Maybe it’s supposed to be a commentary on netspeak, I don’t know. But I actually rather liked the rumored title better… “MegaMan Hyper Network.” Now follow me on this…

In Japan, they had Battle Network Rockman.EXE, or just Rockman.EXE for short. Rather than MegaMan.EXE, we got MegaMan Battle Network. That’s fine(especially as it made naming the RPG I’m in quite easy). But then, ShoPro(through demand of Kids’ WB, I hear) had to change it so “Battle” was no longer in the title, and we get “Mega Man NT Warrior” instead. I think “BN Warrior” would’ve worked better… “Battle Network Warrior,” as in, “a warrior of the battle network.” Works better than “Network Transmission Warrior,” which would be “a warrior of network transmission.” At least IMO.

So what does the Axess series give us? More battles, but in a suped-up, tie-dyed real-life network… sort of a “hyper” version of what we’d had before with Battle Network, because now, the battles are in the real world. So “MegaMan Hyper Network” just seems like it’d stick closer to the original name of the games here in the US, while acknowledging that which makes Axess stand out from its predecessor.

Oh well. I doubt they put nearly as much thought into it as I did. Truth be told, maybe “Axess” thrown on the title was to throw a bone to those who wanted something closer to the Japanese version.

Oh, one other “last” thing. As some may know, I’ve been planning an interview with ShoPro for awhile now. But in light of the lost episodes coming forth, and then the peek at Axess, I decided to hold off on it. So now that all of this has come forth, if anyone has any other questions for ShoPro, please bring them forth in your replies.

LBD “Nytetrayn”

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.