Awesome / MegaMan NT Warrior (2001)

• Let's start this from the top: Props absolutely must go to how much more dangerous Mr. Match is in the manga's first chapters. Here the man has no time for petty house-by-house arson, he goes for big, showy displays — like burning down an entire elementary school.
  • And does he stop there? No! Even after his first defeat, he immediately shifts into Gear, pinpointing and exploiting Lan's delinquency in order to actually offer him a chance to join WWW. And no, our bastard of a first boss doesn't stop there — the whole arrangement was a ploy specifically to get MegaMan, a recognized threat, to leave himself open to Friendly Fire and keep him from getting in WWW's way again.
• Lan gets a moment of awesome in response, by sacrificing the Alpha-II Navi to save MegaMan's life.
  Lan: Delete MegaMan? No way, bozo.
• The third chapter has Lan being a delinquent again, exploiting the class field trip to hijack a bullet train chartered by the school so his class can go on a joyride. Naturally, things go sour, and Lan's plan results in two bullet trains heading towards an imminent collision in a tunnel. So what does Lan do? He activates the emergency thrusters to maximize the bullet train's speed and then takes it off the rails, using the ceiling of the tunnel to loop over and around the second train.
• Lan and Mega share some Awesome together during the NumberMan fight. Lan's late for school again, but finds himself locked out of class. Some mysterious men in official uniforms inform him he doesn't have to go to school today, and Lan is psyched to go home. About five seconds later, he vaults over the men and the school fence, contrary to the last.
  • Inside, when they find out about the incident, the boys pull a Big Damn Heroes to save GutsMan from NumberMan's dice bomb. When NumberMan doesn't take to that and vaporizes GutsMan with his highest roll yet, Lan and Mega Set Battle Routine. NumberMan panics and starts lobbing multiple dice at a time, causing huge explosions that cause some of the most serious damage to Mega's body we've yet seen, not that he cares. NumberMan goes down, screaming about illogic and calculation errors.
• The fifth chapter is no slouch either. Turns out those men at the gates were Net Police, and they think Lan and Mega might have some talent that they're looking for, but before anything gets to move forward, the WWW strikes. Lan does not take to being told to sit back, and so he plugs Mega specifically so they can show off how awesome they are. Busting their way through to the main area, they're confronted by the WWW boss, who promptly upstages them, blasting Mega off of his feet and pinning him beneath his spear, which he uses to try severing Mega's head off. Lan and Mega hit Full-Synchro so fast that they break the record; the boss barely has time to react before Mega's free and kicking his ass in turn.
  WWW Boss: I'll be... You've just redefined what's possible!
• As with the anime many of the final battles are awesome, such as the vs. Nebula Grey, which obviously features Bass Cross Megaman, who owns Nebula Grey in an arguably more awesome way. The best battles in the series though are against Megaman and Bass, such as the fight against Bass GS, which lasts an entire volume! And their final battle during their beasts arc where they are combined with Gregar and Falzar respectively.