- "Can you handle 100 thousand volts?"
- —Count Zap, Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge
Count Zap, known as Count Elec (エレキ伯爵 Ereki Hakushaku, lit. Electric Count) in Japan, real name Jack Electel (ジャック・エレキテル Jakku Erekiteru) [1] (Jack Zap in the English anime), is a member of the World Three and operator of ElecMan.EXE. In the first Mega Man Battle Network game, he tried to hack in to the city's power plant. He was since sent to jail, and his NetNavi was given to his wife, Ann Zap.
Personality
Count Zap is cheerful and hyperactive in the anime, where he is also a fan of rock and roll. Count Zap also has a love for electricity, evidenced by his usage of electrical terms like "shocking" quite often, and also doesn't seem to take his work as seriously as the other members of the WWW. In the games, Count Zap is quite different from the anime, being depicted as creepy and uncaring, doing anything to get what he wants even if it means killing many people. Count Zap also seems to be older in the games. He is an avid player of the guitar and his light bulbs flash constantly.
Game History
Mega Man Battle Network
Count Zap makes his appearance in the first Mega Man Battle Network as a boss character. His role in the game is to get the Elec Code, in order to awaken the Life Virus. In the game, Count Zap is more serious than his anime counterpart and takes his mission seriously.
Although he doesn't appear in Mega Man Battle Network 2, he is alluded to, where it is revealed that he was the long-lost brother of the boss character Gauss Magnus in a quiz question by QuizKing late into the game (which is mistranslated in the English releases as "Jack Electricity"). It's unknown what happened to him after the game until Mega Man Battle Network 6, where his wife, Ann Zap, says he was arrested and is still in jail. Ann also implies that during this time, the Count was also recuperating and giving up his criminal ways. She uses his NetNavi and works hard to restore the family's name.
Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge
Count Zap also appeared in the game Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge.
Anime History
MegaMan NT Warrior
In the anime, Count Zap's behavior was changed to be a comic relief character despite being creepy in the game.
Count Zap is still a member of the WWW and is ordered by Lord Wily to crash a train in the second episode of the series. He orders ElecMan to disable electronic devices around the city and conduct electricity, making his light bulbs flash. One device includes an electric dog that steals Ms. Mari's purse. After the train is hijacked, he plays the guitar so loudly he's thrown across the room. However, Lan Hikari is on the same train, and he and MegaMan face off against them. Count Zap is ordered by Wily to delete MegaMan, but when ElecMan loses, his equipment explodes.
He, along with Maddy (Ms. Madd) and Mr. Match, participate in a scheme to take control of the robotic fish at an aquarium and subsequently watch MegaMan foil it.
He reappears a few episodes later, committing a string of thefts by using ElecMan to destroy security systems with electricity. His victims have progressively higher security levels and culminates in an attempt to steal the game, Maximum Valor, the day before its release in order to steal the "smiles of children". He flies into Yai Ayano's estate on a balloon and jacks in ElecMan onto an electronic fly. ElecMan bypasses all the security and downloads the data to Count Zap's PET. MegaMan battles ElecMan, but Count Zap uses Lightning to repair any damage that ElecMan sustains. All seems lost, but WoodMan intervenes by blocking the electricity and allowing MegaMan to defeat ElecMan. Count Zap finishes downloading the game data and is about to fly away when Black Rose (Sal) throws roses at him that shred his suit. He immediately covers himself, dropping his PET at the same time. Count Zap flies away in defeat.
When the WWW entered the N1 Grand Prix, he managed to make it to the second round, but was defeated by Chaud and ProtoMan using a Program Advance. Count Zap later attempts to mind control Roll using a devil Battle Chip called "Super Great White Angel", but his and the rest of the WWW plans fail and he ends up losing. When Lord Wily goes missing after his attempt to capture PharoahMan, he and the other WWW members work at a curry shop opened by Yahoot.
After the collapse of WWW, he wanders the world and ends up at his mother's house. He begins to hallucinate once inside and encounters his mother, who has been dead for ten years. Basically, the entire experience was produced from his mind and past experiences of what his mother would do and say. While engaged in the electric cage deathmatch against Lan Hikari and MegaMan, his mother still supports him in the battle and punishes him when he loses again. Oddly enough, his mother's voice could be heard throughout the battle by MegaMan.
MegaMan NT Warrior Axess
In the second season of the anime, it is revealed that his brother is Gauss Magnus and they actively hate each other. When the WWW goes to retrieve a Battle Chip with Wily's data imprinted on it, he agrees to become an officer at Grave and takes the chip, but only to spare his friends. Then, he challenges Gauss to a NetBattle for it and the blimp they are on crashes (because of the netbattle) and the chip is lost in the sea, with them arguing with each other on a glacier. Later, while infiltrating the old WWW hideout, he orders ElecMan to hold down MagnetMan while MegaMan used a Program Advance on him, ElecMan is deleted doing so. Count Zap has a normal life after this and doesn't appears as much in Axess afterwards, except when a scene has something to do with the original WWW or Yahoot's Curry Shop.
Rockman.EXE Beast+
Count Zap makes another appearance, however, he is confronted by his wife Ann Zap about their estate in a later episode. During their confrontation, he is shocked repeatedly by his wife and has ElecMan stolen from him. In the ensuing battle in which Dex and Dingo attempt to win ElecMan back, his guitar is fried and shattered by the massive amounts of electricity flowing around the store. One can infer that his guitar is an inherited item, because a small map of an item located in the Elec estate was found in the guitar. It turns out that she left a will along with the treasure of the Elec family.
Manga History
MegaMan NT Warrior
In the manga, Count Zap and Wily capture Yuichiro Hikari to help them create the Life Virus. After the Life Virus' defeat, Count Zap managed to escape, but it seems that he has no place to go as he's last seen on the streets with his clothes worn-out. He says he doesn't need ElecMan anymore and sends him away.
Trivia
- Count Zap is the only WWW member to have his family revealed.
- All of Count Zap's known relatives wield Elec NetNavis.
- In the original Japanese version of the anime, Count Zap has a speech quirk where he uses English phrases in place of Japanese, notably "It's amazing!" and "Oh my God!". In the English anime, Jack speaks with a British accent -- this suggests that he is a foreigner. This assumption is later proven to be true in season 1 episode 30 (Don't Mess With Mama Zap!), which reveals that Jack and his brother Gauss originated from Kingland.
- In the anime, the fact that Gauss is Count Zap's brother is made apparent. In Mega Man Battle Network 2, Gauss did mention that his brother, Jack, was adopted by a rich family and that he is jealous of him, but it is not made explicit that "Jack" is the same as Count Zap. In the quiz question "What's the name of MagnetMan's operator Gauss's brother?" asked by QuizKing late in the game, the answer is mistranslated as "Jack Electricity".
- Jack's hallucinations of his mother could be explained by theory that she was actually an electronic-brain like entity, an AI based on the memories of the individual (like the Hikari Tadashi and Dr. Wily of Beyondard). This is further exemplified in a scene when she detects Count Zap in the room and calls him a "useless son", and then proceeds to electrocute him for disgracing the Zap family name.
References