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Mega Man Ruby Spears: Crime Of The Century Rant
Reviewed: 06/25/2022
Doctor Wily Is A Hundred Year Old Criminal!
So, we end the series of the blue dweeb's life with episode #27 as Dr. Wily reprograms a bunch of dolls and other toys to perform robberies all over the city. However, it's all just a diversion so Wily can get his hands on something much more valuable: a giant black pearl. Mega Man has to figure out his plan and stop Wily's final plot, once and for all. How does this episode fare? Let's rant on shall we...?!
Crime Of The Century is written by Craig Ruby and was directed by Katsumi Minoguchi.
We begin this episode with a northern sweeping pan shot of the harbour in some city somewhere in the USA. There are a lot of colored dots in the scene as we do a sweeping shot of the city from a sky shot and then head to a really well designed toy store which is barricaded with prison bar. Head inside for a shot of a blond haired doll dressed in red in between a panda bear and a brown bear plush dolls. In comes Guts Man, Cut Man and Proto Man looking at the dolls. I don't see anything different about the artwork other than it has far more details than normal. This is the definition of an animation bump; which is unusual for an episode in it's third season. There is the Mickey Mouse head in shadow on the door in the background. Blues uses a gun to shoot a dart in the blond haired doll's arm and then talks to Dr. Wily on the transmitter and Dr. Wily's appearance on the monitor is beyond creepy since only his mouth is moving until he swtiches positions and is otherwise fine. Dr. Wily wants to test the doll and Proto Man shoots it again with a red light flashing and the doll stands up and is alive. Guts Man is not impressed by this and he has clearly seen the Teddy Ruxpin doll judging by the promo he cuts. Blues admits Guts Man has a point on his shoulders; but will have zero head on it when the doll gets through with him. Yup, Blues shoots the doll again, the doll runs in and rips Guts Man's head off. Yawn, robot dismemberment is a thing on this show, the shock value of this is gone. This plot of crime is so Quackerjack/Joker-equse it means there has to be a subplot. Otherwise, Craig Ruby has no idea what Craig is doing. I also found nothing in terms of resume either. The animation effects are awesome here, it feels like a TaleSpin animated episode, even at it's worst as the doll plays basketball with Guts Man's head; which is pretty creative and creepy at the same time. The doll slam dunks the basketball which has a panda bear backboard attached to the net and Guts Man's body manages to get his head back in the wrong place. HAHA! Cut Man just cannot resist laughing at Guts Man's expense and it's so bad that I was laughing my ass off. Blues contacts Dr. Wily to inform him that the test was a success and it's a child, not a baby doll. I realize that Blues is a heel, but come on, now! Dr. Wily is still a NARC with cluster b tendiences as he wants to commit the crime of the century. I thought world domination was the ultimate crime you could commit; so Dr. Wily is thinking way too small.
Dr. Wily cackles like mad and then we head to morning near some buildings. Jump cut to a closeup of a black pearl Roll is giddy at as we are inside a vault room with Rock, Rush, Roll, Dr. Light and a black man in a suit with a medal attached to the vest with black hair. Dr. Light proclaims that the black pearl was a priceless artificat of the world leaders before the Queen of Spain in 1780 got the pearl outright. Apparently; it was traveling to Spain by sea; but it got lost in sea until 20XX when it was recovered and placed in this stuffy vault. Rock found the pearl off the coast of Florida as I discover the medal has the words mayor on it. So, I'm guessing that we are either in Miami or Tallahasse, which actually makes this mayor make sense as the mayor talks about Rock's sucba diving skills, which Rock thanks Dr. Light for because Dr. Light built and raised him, you know. The mayor also has a mustache as we discover that Rock is going to present the pearl to the Spanish Ambassoder in a celebration of a lifetime. Roll is already thinking that Dr. Wily is scheming to steal this black pearl, she's not wrong. Then, I am proven wrong as the mayor admits that they are in New York City since the NYPC is involved. Yup, Series 3 starts with a new mayor out of nowhere as the previous mayor has been sacked. I would have redubbed this line to either "I'll have the Miami Police Department on the case" or even, "When we get into New York City, the police will help in security." That way, the audience knows that every city has a different mayor and this mayor can exist without having to be forced to explain to the audience why the mayor from the first two seasons is gone. Unless you are planning an angle for the new mayor's introduction from the start where the old mayor retired, resigned or was sacked in elections. I just find this really dumb. It doesn't affect the main story; but it annoys me just the same. It's okay to have this mayor be the mayor of Tallahasse. This mayor is way too optimistic to be making such boasts about tight security when Dr. Wily is around. Rush decides to be a fool and shadow punch box for a while. He's acting like Scrappy Doo despite having the lobster courage of Scooby Doo! I recommend listening to the Japanese opening to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? on Youtube and read the translated lyrics of it. It makes the Super Baloo french dub look high quality in comparison.
Somehow, his boxing causes him to punch the black pearl and himself straight into the air and Rush is forced to land on his back with the black pearl tucked in his paws. This made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but it's funny so, I'll let it slide. I'm sure that black pearl is too tough to crack. It looks like a shiny bowling ball at times, without the holes. Why couldn't the artists make the pearl smaller?! Rock blows off Rush and we head outside the city AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as a white limo arrives on ground level. The door opens and out comes the doll and the two bears running into the building. You know, there should be three bears, then the Goldilocks pun would have worked a lot better. Cut Man is holding a model jet plane for no reason other than to make fun of the toys for doing hard work for the heels and then laughs badly. This is what heels should be doing: Making bad jokes and then laughing at said bad joke. It's even better when the laugh itself is hideously hilariously awful. Jump cut to the driver's area with Guts Man being the driver and Blues on transmitter, so Cut Man is literally a backseat driver in this setup. Very rich. Blues informs Dr. Wily that stage one of his plan is here as the dolls run into the police building as a police officer is at his desk reading a newspaper called the Erican Bowl and apprently it's a whitewash magazine for American Football. The child doll invokes the YO-YO OF BINDS to tie up the officer as this officer is afraid of dolls, so he was gaslit by those Teddy Ruxpin doll horror films. The yo-yo gets stuck in his mouth in the process as the dolls steal the WCW KEY OF DOOM from his pocket. The dolls take the keys and we get a really long shot of them going into an elevator and a countup to the tenth floor. Head to the tenth floor as the dolls unlock doors in the hallway. The child doll goes into an apartment building and looks around as the denizens are sleeping soundly in their beds. The doll goes into a room with lots of beauty products and a mirror. The doll ignores all this because she finds a purse and wallet with the letter "K" on it, doll takes them and opens them to find a small wallet; but foolishly puts the purse down and knocks over the beauty products as the denizens in bed wake up instantly. Apparently, the woman in bed's name is Patterson and the man's name is Havard. This would have worked if the letters on the purses were "P" and ":H" and not "K".
The couple is shocked and appalled as Patterson wants Havard to take care of this doll. Havard gets up; but literally takes a POWDER BUFF OF DEATH to the face. Sneezing ensues as the doll is throwing lipstick and other international objects at Havard...Oh wait, no it's actually Patterson because Patterson looks like a clown even Joker would hang his head in shame over. Which Joker? Does it matter? Ummmmmmm....nope. Doll runs out with the money on the roof edge of the 10th floor waving and saying "mama". Cut Man apparently comes out or the model airplane comes out of the white van, so again I get confused on the vehicle the heels are driving. The airplane comes up, the doll jumps on it and that is that. Havard's face is so wiped clean, there is no eyes, nose nor mouth shown when he turns his head. The airplane flies out of sight as shadowed denizens watch on so, maybe this episode is animated by Wang Films now? Probably not. Jump cut to a newspaper on the front is the city is robbed by toys. They showed New York on the newspaper, but left out the paper's name; probably to avoid possible copyright issues. We're back in the lab with Rock, Roll, Dr. Light and Rush exchanging notes on the situation. Dr. Light thinks this has nothing to do with the black pearl and that security will prevail either way. He's wrong, of course. Roll wonders how Dr. Wily controls the dolls and Rock wants to find out before the city is completely robbed. Head back to Skull Fortress RS as the dolls present Dr. Wily with their finding. Dr. Wily is not very impressed, since it's small change; but the test was a success because it's time to step up the plans big enough to make them choke on their coffee and donuts. You know he means the police in New York City because police are donut eating, coffee drinking, evil stereotypes, am I right?! Dr. Wily cackles in a violent manner that the animation talent is holding little back in this one. Head into the city with Rock in Rush Jet and Roll on the skycycle searching for something and not finding anything of note. How in the world is this city somehow not have at least one mugging in the last hour?! It's NEW YORK F'N CITY for goodness sakes! Rush's ears move and then he gives out the worst siren call I have ever heard. Rock wants to find out what it is and they jet on as we jump cut to the top of a building with the Wily Machine RS on top of said roof.
Pan down to ground level as we are at a rich apartment building. The vehicle the heels were driving on is completely gray as Guts Man is shooting the gun into a couple in which one of them is carrying three giant box of presents for someone's birthday I can imagine. Instead of an obvious dart, it's using sparkles because it would be impossible to shoot the gun into the presents without creating a hole and making it obvious. Even though the animation is better, the episode is still violating it's own internal logic. Figures, knowing it. We head inside with the rich denizens at tables with more riches that remind us that eating the rich is a good thing, thank you. It makes Mr. Khan look like a benevolant rich dood in the grand scheme of things. I vomitted in my mouth again typing that, sorry. Everyone is wearing party hats for the birthday of Rudy. I wonder if Craig Ruby is a ghost name? Probably not; Craig Rudy has nothing of note either in terms of resume. Who is this person who wrote this episode? I'm confused now. The IMDB entry is no help either. So, the presents are stacked behind some of the sitting denizens as the sparkles turn into darts and hit the presents. Instantly, the presents explode which I admit I was wrong, the writer did find a way to make this work without killing the logic of the episode. I'm guessing the blond haired man in glasses with the party hat is Rudy, but no one care; it's time for the QUACKERJACK TOY ROBBERY OF DOOM~! The denizens scream as toys rob them of their goodies as somehow Guts Man is inside on top of a table. How?! Why bother is a better question, it's not like the denizens can fight back againest the toys, they are rich doods who never worked hard in their lives. Also written in by teleport is Cut Man and Bomb Man with sacks with the $ sign on it, of course. We have a robbery in progress. Why bother when the toys are doing an awesome job of it already? All the robot masters are doing is signalling for Rock to come in and kick their asses for blowing their cover. The toys put the stuff in the sack and then Guts Man thanks them for the gifts; and here comes Rock to either ruin the whole damn thing, or to rob these poor robot masters of goodies the rich don't deserve. I should do the CWF75 gig of being the heel announcer who claims that the heels are committed to sportsmanship and fair play and that the babyfaces are evil rule and law breakers who should be in prison. Then again, the NARCs would take it seriously. Maybe not.
In comes Rush and Rock as Rock nails Guts Man with a potter plant. I'm hoping Guts Man literally plants Rock in the soil; even though it's funnier when Bushroot did it to Darkwing Duck. It still works in a "what a blue dweeb" sort of way. Guts Man's head has been taking a beat since this episode started I should note. Rock then gets punched by either Bomb Man or Guts Man and goes into the wall. What a blue dweeb either way?! Guts Man takes the plant off and blows off Rock for ruining his buzz, or something as Guts Man gets blasted in the chest and Rock blows off Guts Man in kind. Cut Man uses the head version of the Rolling Cutter to cut up a fern plant, blowing Roll and Rush's cover. Wait, so Roll was written in by teleport?! Usually I get mad about this, but Rock in the game does teleport in and out, so being written in or out by teleport does not break the show's internal logic. Rock shoots at Cut Man, Cut Man dodges as Rock is in perfect position underneath the conveniently placed chandelier for the clown doll to use bolt cutters on the chain as it teases the "BIG SPOT OF KILLS" to end the segment eight minutes in. You can pretty much guess what is next after this without watching it. The animation is vastly improved; but the episode feels like a decent Darkwing Duck episode and not much else.
After the commercial break, as I expected; Rock dodges the chandelier and it smashes into a conveniently placed table that came out of nowhere for Rock to grab. Whatever, I've seen worse suspense in this very show than that one. Cut Man gets shopt and he goes through the wall. Bomb Man runs in and somehow has his sack of money on the shot where Rock shoots Bomb Man and Bomb Man goes through the wall. Jump cut back to Dr. Wily being angry and ordering the robot masters to leave since they got what they came for, and it reduce the blowing of covers to his main scheme. And for at least one more old times sake, Dr. Wily calls Mega Man a blue dweeb. All we need now is the Rush eyecatcher and my life and this show's life will be complete. Bomb Man cuts a promo, throws a bomb and it explodes outside off-screen as the heels all bail stage left. Probably one of the few times since episode #1 that Bomb Man's bomb didn't backfire in his face. The babyfaces chase after them as we get the SCOOBY-DOO CHASE SEQUENCE THE SKY SHOT edition, made more hilarious by the sound effects of the toys. I cannot take this seriously even if I tried. Cut to the monitor with Dr. Wily wanting to put an end to this nonsense. Don't worry Dr. Wily, Bandai made sure after this episode that there would be no more nonsense on this show. Sadly, that meant your show is cancelled and the rich execs would no longer pay you royalites, except for Capcom where you continued with the games until Mega Man 11. Blues has the gun and I think he shoots it; as the chase continues with what seems to be the model airplane zooming by. Then Rock sees a slow motion moment as the babyfaces trip on a trip wire which I believe was set up by the model airplane. Rush somehow avoids tripping; but Rock is on bottom with Roll's head and body dangerously close to Rock's groin. It looks like Roll is listening to Rock's hip, as if his heart is in that part of the body. Both robots are knocked the F out from a trip wire. Rush tries to run in; but get bitten in the tail by a robot rabbit on rollerskates. I swear to PZ Meyers this is true. Rush is not amused as Rush swings the robot rabbit into the air and where it lands, do we really care? Actually, Rush grabs the rabbit on the way down with his mouth as Rock and Roll finally recover as they are acting like dweebs who couldn't fight a bunch of toys. Rush does made Roll's day by showing off the toy rabbit struggling in it's mouth.
Too bad it wasn't a duck; I guess Nintendo would have been pissed off or something. Keep in mind, that Hiroshi Yamaguchi was in charge of Nintendo and had such insane policies at the time that made them so anti-developer that they escaped to Sony after PlayStation was released. I put nothing past him to sue the creators of this show for doing an obvious Duck Hunt spot with Rush, so the rabbit would have to do. Jump cut to the lab with way too many closeups to be healthy as Dr. Light removes the dart from the rabbit with tweezers. It's a control dart that flies by itself (nope!) and attaches to dolls and makes them alive, or something. Dr. Light puts the dart into the computer scanner, which is more complex than most scanners and checks the specs on the computer monitor. Dr. Light then discovers that Dr. Wily has actually learned to actually encrypt the code and scrambled it in order to make the darts hack-resistant against the efforts of the Santa Claus wannabe. Dr. Light, everyone. Rock decides to use the computer and push a red button to turn on the television as it's on a channel called MMN (Mega Man Network, a parody of CNN. HAR! HAR!) as a brown haired man in a black suit and purple tie addresses the toy terrorist robbery situation to us. Apparently, the new reporters already knows about the bugs even though Dr. Light just figured this out. Wait, what?! Does MMN have a spy in Dr. Light's lab? TUNE INTO SOFT COPY TO FIND OUT~! One day, I'm going to write those fanfics. Or not. Anyhow, more toys are shown stealing stuff, including a television set; because why not. Dr. Wily has no shame. The greatest shot is a doll with gun pointing at a bank officer in a bank with the alarm on. The reporter confirms that all law enforcement in New York City is being used at the moment; so Rock gets a phone call from a literal white telephone that looks like it came from the 1990's. Rock answers it and it's the mayor as Rock informs the mayor that Dr. Light is working on a counter measure to stop the doll. Mayor informs him that the ceremony has been moved to a different location. Scene change to Skull Fortress RS as Dr. Wily is literally loving life and basically expected all this to happen as Cut Man calls Dr. Wily the greatest. I howled with laughter when he said that, in the general context of the whole show in general. Guts Man points out a serious problem with this plan; but Dr. Wily has it figured out because the robot masters are not busting into the mayor's house. In comes an Indiana Jones clone like figure with lots of rope and a black onyx like camera on his forehead that moves. Blues grabs the doll and proclaims that the mayor will not be expecting this.
So, we head to the mayor's residence AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark for the second time because I missed the first one at the beginning of the episode) as we see security cameras scanning the area. There are also red alarm lasers on top of the gate, but it don't matter because the toy explorer doll simply walks through the bars of the security gate and easily gets inside the building without security suspecting a thing. One problem: We head inside the mayor's office because the mayor is showing Rock and Roll the route for the black pearl as we see the map in full, they are moving the pearl from New York to Coopersville, which there are TWO towns in New York State alone. Judging by the map route, it appears to be the Clinton County version of the town. They exchange notes as the mayor calls the Mega Buster a Shot Gun. If he got Shotgun Ice from Chill Penguin I would forgive this, but the mayor needs to put some respect in the Mega Buster's name. Heck, Rock Buster works just as well since that is the Japanese name for the weapon. Okay, I take back what I said about the doll from earlier, it's a cowboy doll inspired by the Capcom game Gun Smoke. I apologize for getting this wrong. The mayor rolls up the map and puts it in the desk drawers and calls it a night. Rock and Roll are working on the graveyard shift in security, which explains why the cowboy doll has the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERYWHERE to climb up to the floor in question! Yup, it's the last episode and everyone knows on this site that I love to be as annoying as possible writing this rant. The cowboy doll enters the mayor's office and brings out a gun and shoots the lock, using a legit bullet. Okay, we're not in total laser mode at this point even though the episode was released in 1996. I should point out that Don Karnage did the same exact thing to a treasure chest in Raw Toonage, only with a larger rifle. Toy opens the drawers, brings out the map and puts it on the desk in full so the camera on his forehead can scan it and show it to Dr. Wily on the computer monitor in his lab. Blues and Dr. Wily are loving life because this is too easy, although Blues should know that Don Karnage set the standards for stealing X from baby promos and should learn that this is not enough as an analogy.Blues brings up Rock and Dr. Wily has a surprise to kill Rock for good as he calls Mega Man a blue dweeb for the second time in this episode. I am so going to miss this spot once this episode is over. This ends the segment 12 minutes in. This is a perfectly acceptable episode so far and the animation is much better here. The breaks in logic in places still do annoy me though. Deep breath, the last ten minutes or so are here...
After the commercial break, we head into the country side on the train tracks as an orange/white train zooms in. Yes folks, the end of this series is going to be focused on a train and Charge Man is not involved. What a "missed the train" moment that was?! Rock and Rush Jet are above the train as Rock is on the transmitter to Roll inside with the mayor at a table inside the train. Dr. Light is at his own table, so apparently, he is not a smooth talker if you catch my drift. One of the police officer has the black pearl under glass on the table. Roll thinks they got the last laugh on Dr. Wily, she's so wrong she's not even wrong. Thankfully, Dr. Light is not buying this crap as he continues to work on the anti-dart device, which uses a lot of white color and the cigar lighter on the tip. Shot of the table with the black pearl under glass as Rock looks around and here comes the Skullcopter as Rock informs Roll of the situation. Bomb Man is flying the thing on the turn around shot as Rock wants to make Dr. Wily wish he hadn't. Bomb Man, Cut Man, Guts Man and Blues are in the Skullcopter as they dodge Rock's buster fire for a while and the chase is on as they head into a cave, ala the SeaDuck and the Air Pirates from Captains Outrageous, only the heel/face dynamics are switched. The heels hide behind rocks as Rock flies in like the blue dweeb that he is and Bomb Man fires a bomb and it explodes into the blue dweeb's body. HAHA! Rock flies into the rocks and both he and Rush get buried. Wow! This is Bomb Man's best performance of all time now. Sure, he'll piss it all away because the heels have to be stupid in the end, but wow! Whomever wrote this episode has clearly seen the burial job this show has done on this robot master and built a revenge angle for this episode. AWESOME! Bomb Man throws another bomb and the causes a cave-in as he cuts a lame promo that I didn't get. Well, you cannot win them all, I suppose. Cut to inside the cave as Rock and Rush climb out of the carnage looking quite okay. Rock rushes over and points his buster at the Skullcopter ordering the other robot masters to put their hands up. What a blue dweeb?! Bomb Man would never let the other robot masters be fed to the wolf unless the three in the cockpit were literal crash test dummies, most of all Proto Man! Rock throws out the cardboard cutouts as he's been hacked! You don't say?! Somehow, the television that the toys stole is in the cave showing Dr. Wily! AWESOME!
The toys stealing that television set earlier in the episode during the news report actually lead to something! Dr. Wily proclaims that he is going to do something horrible and Rock asks if he is going to flood the cave with water. Dr. Wily blows it off because it's too boring...and Rock no sells water and acid anyway, so let's bring out the floaty bombs from Bubble Man's stage! There you go everyone, the one reference from Bubble Man does make it in this show on the heel side. The bombs surround Rock and Rush. Any sudden moves and kaboom! Rock is dead. So, just make them explode now and kill him you vampire sucking assface! Don't give Rock two minutes to formulate a plan as Rush is panicky. Dr. Wily says his farewells and then the screen goes to dark with the digital timer set for two minutes at 7:10 on my video, which means 9:10 would be the explosion time. Let's see how much the writers screw this one up. Rock looks on as we head back to the train as Wily Machine RS arrives over said train. Cut Man uses the Rolling Cutter to open the top of the train without much fuss as Dr. Wily is loving life again. By the way, as this is happening; Dr. Light has completed his anti-dart gun and just hope it works. Uh-oh! This might be a problem as Roll notices that somehow the Wily Machine RS is at the back of the train even though most of the shots were clearly in front of the train. Sigh, good animation, bad logic. This show just cannot buy a break. One more police officer is written in by teleport as Roll is calling for Rock with no success because Rock cannot move because if he does, the bombs will kill him. While the robots have an excuse of teleportation, the humans don't. The robot masters are entering the train through the roof as we head back to the cave as Rock discovers that he only has to shoot downwards to avoid the mines and does with success. Rock brings Rush down and a scene changer later, Rock is away from the mines and heads to the blocked entrance with about 11 seconds left at 8:07. That's fine because there was a scene changer in the middle. Rock blasts the cave and when they are about to run out, the video reads 8:18 which means the bomb should have exploded right there and it doesn't explode as the babyfaces run out until 8:24, a good six seconds too late. Heck they showed the clock at four seconds in between shots just to fill up the fact that they screwed up the timing. If they just had it at 17 seconds, this would have been perfect.
Sigh, I should have expected nothing less from this episode. Seconds after the bomb explodes, jump cut back to Guts Man punching a door down off it's hinges. Roll hides behind a counter as the two police officers are shooting at the robot masters. So, there is a mini-bar on this train. Okay. The robot masters cower in fear, but Blues runs in, uses the Blues Busters and causes an explosion so nasty that this should have killed everyone worse than an AR-15. I betcha everyone is still alive as the police are groaning in the scene to indicate that they are alive. So, yes; 4Kids is not the originator of that spot nor Saban nor Funimation. It was this show, due to the obvious no kill rule. Man, still pretty nasty all things considered, they had a foot on the line of BS&P there. Here comes Rock on Rush Jet in the sky shot, and then a FPS shot of them chasing the train. Pan north to Wily Machine RS as Dr. Wily is sleeping in his machine on auto-pilot. Rock rushes to the train as we cut back to Blues in the mini-bar talking to Cut Man and the dolls wanting to get the black pearl. Everyone bails, except for Guts Man who is literally grabbing Roll and is about to kill her by body slamming her or something. Rock calls Guts Man a blockhead, how very Peanuts of you, you blue dweeb; and in comes Rock like a baseball, breaking through the window with Rush in tow. Rush bites Guts Man's leg for old times sake. Somehow, Guts Man went from holding her by the shirt to holding her by her throat but the promo has her no selling the throat at all. Sigh. Rush gets kicked off for the last time in this series as Rock has his buster set to profits. Rock orders Guts Man to let Roll go, so Guts Man throws Roll and Roll gets in perfect position to do a literal crossbody block on Rock and they both go down. That was funny. Rock sells injuries better than Roll, and shoots Guts Man in the chest and he is mangled like crazy, but blocking the door. Guts Man thinks he's won; but Roll uses the vacuum cleaner arm to crumble Guts Man into spare parts. Take that, "Baby Doll"~! Now this episode really sucks. HAHA!
Ron Sparks: It sucks more than Shuan Desmond.
Head to the back of the train with Dr. Light and the mayor with the black pearl under glass in tow, as we get the confrontation between them and Cut Man and Blues. The toys literally have bullet shooting guns on their person! Wow, did BS&P take a smoke break or something?! Blues gets the black pearl under glass as Rock comes in and orders their surrender. Blues is laughing his ass off after that one. What a blue dweeb?! Proto Man basically tells Rock to either save them or get the pearl back. Rock chooses their lives and Proto Man and Cut Man bail onto the roof with the black pearl under glass. Rock gives a lot of cringe twitchy eye looks before Dr. Light tells Rock to go after them because he'll take care of the doll and he invokes the ANTI-DART GUN OF SHOCKS and basically destroys the control darts inside the dolls and that is that. Rock goes topside on the roof as Dr. Light and the mayor breathe a sigh of relief. Rock runs in as we finally get the last fire fight of the series between Blues, Rock and Cut Man. Rock proclaims that Blues has reach the end of the line. So have you, you blue dweeb; the show is cancelled after this episode is over anyway! Firefight ensues as Rock dodges all, counter shoots and Cut Man crumbles to spare part. Remember that Rock put his blaster on full power in the cave earlier. There's no evidence that he turned it off to hold back; so this makes sense. Sadly, this is the last of Cut Man; being crumbled into parts by Rock, and no victory sign present either. Dr. Wily enters the scene with the Wily Machine RS as he uses the purple tractor beam to pick everyone up, but only picks up Cut Man because Rock shoots Blues down which makes sense since he still has the black pearl. Rock runs in; but Blues dodges Rock on the follow through. So, then they decide to end the unofficial feud by jumping off the train into the waterfall. Wait, WHAT?! So, they have a tug-of-war underwater after finding each other topside. Someone in BS&P decided enough of this nonsense, it's back to business as usual. They go down the waterfall in extreme anti-climatic fashion and they fight for a while before Rock double kicks Blues in the chest, Rock gets the black pearl under glass, Proto Man does a realistic version of the Team Rocket exit and that is that. Rush Jet comes in to rescue Rock and then Rock and Rush head into the sunset to end the episode and the series at 21:30. Yeah, that was an anti-climatic finish and ending, but what can you do?! The episode itself was animated a lot better than previous episode, but logic breaks killed it softly with their song. Otherwise, an okay episode and not much else. *** (60%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well, we end the series on an average note with this episode. The whole idea is okay and it is a nice change of pace from the usual world domination stuff Dr. Wily has been doing and failing so far. The animation was the star of the show, along with the mostly relaxed S&P job where police officers were shown injured and looked dead had it not been for the groan noises. Still, the logic was touch and go and the whole idea of Dr. Wily using toys to do his bidding is too Quackerjack-equse for my tastes that I would rather have Quackerjack do this episode than Dr. Wily. Overall, there's not much to say about the episode, the attention to detail was cool, although they overdid the explosions spot a little too much for my liking; but it's a perfectly acceptable cartoon episode and not much else.
So, that officially ends the Ruby-Spears edition of Mega Man and despite the creative license steps this show took, there were signs that the show was trying way too hard to be faithful to the show while fighting a battle against BS&P and the American attitude of other countries invading their culture without a hint of irony and complete hypocrisy. There were signs that Proto Man was going to turn babyface, but the Bandai toy incident practically killed that hope as well as a Mega Man X series. While there were robot masters which their designs, voices and characters were extremely flaky (Toad Man, Air Man, among others); others were 1:1 (only Ice Man had changes and they were minor in the case of all the Mega Man 1 robot masters, Stone Man, Drill Man, Ring Man, Bright Man, etc.) and a few were better than the games (Pharoah Man and Top Man, maybe Snake Man to a lesser extent). Then there's Cut Man, who in the early seasons was the best thing to laugh at, not so much after that though. The early episodes were animated well, but internal logic was busted in a lot of them and season two's animation was horrible with better logic. Despite the awfulness of some of the episode, Curse Of The Lionmen was good enough to be below average and a total trainwreck that was funny. There are at least five episodes in this series alone that are far worse than this. I overall enjoyed this show: When it's good, it's really good; when it's bad, it's beyond the pale bad, but most of that is funny and I can laugh at it. Oh, and the Rush eyecatcher will live on in my mind as the best of the entire show. Sadly, it didn't appear in this episode. Overall, I gave two thumbs up, 14 in the middle and 11 thumbs down. Better than Quack Pack, and the worst episode turned out to be more offensive than Curse of the Lion Men. Best one is Brain Bots by a mile. Finally, the blue dweeb can be put to rest for good and I move on to other stuff. Sadly, Peppa Pig will have to wait for a while longer since only one episode is left for me to rant and the television stations have yet to complete Series 7, despite everything but the last four episodes being on Youtube already. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.