Written by Marcus Rinehart
Directed by Gino Nichele
Rating: Alright
Ice Man is back and still thinks he’s a hero. When he and Mega Man compete to put out the same fire, Mega Man comes away feeling that Ice Man is the superior savior. I originally thought this episode was genuinely good, but after seeing all of the cartoon and reading all the comics, it’s just gotten markedly worse on rewatches. It reminds me of the “Cold Steel” episode of the Ruby Spears cartoon, except instead of everyone standing around and letting things hit them, everyone acts uniquely bad at what they do. Otherwise it’s semi-entertaining.
Good Points
– Suna using the Socratic method to make Aki decide to be a hero again.
– Ice Man continues to be one of the more interesting characters on the show, not only in how he acts but how he forces others to react. He’s a very unique character for a show that aspires to be a pile of stereotypes.
– The final battle between Mega Man and Ice Man is particularly well done and sets things up nicely for the conclusion of Ice Man’s character arc in his next episode.
Stupid Points
– The pixel art cutaways are used to the most random effect yet. Plus, they spoil the reason why Aki gives up on being Mega Man so easily. If only they had been cut out entirely, this would have been an episode where it’s fun to figure out what’s going on by yourself.
– Mega Mini’s utter ineptitude as a mechanic fully manifests in this episode. He’s unable to thaw out Aki’s systems even though he thawed them out pretty quickly in “Hard Times in Silicon City”. If he couldn’t do it because they were too frozen over than they were last time, that still makes him a bad mechanic. He should have acted far earlier in response to one of the many signs that something was going wrong with Aki again. Instead of doing anything a useful mechanic might do, he says he’s run every possible diagnostic on Mega Man, which just makes it sound like he’s tried nothing and is all out of ideas.
– The reason Aki chooses to be a hero again is just as generic as ever. Does this show really expect anyone to believe that a brat like him believes in doing the right thing? It’d make a lot more sense if he did it for the sake of Dr. Light or for glory or to show that he’s better than everyone else or something. Anything to give this senseless, flavorless protagonist some semblance of a real character!
– Everything about The Hoover Gang and their bank robbery is cringeworthy in a way that I haven’t seen since Whitey Duvall in Adam Sandler’s “Eight Crazy Nights”.
– It’s unintentionally funny how Suna cringes at the Good Guild rushing to stop the bank robbery. Even she knows they’re completely useless!
– You know, what the heck. Let’s also toss in the implication that the state of Mississippi apparently exists in the world of Fully Charged.
