Rockman.EXE Beast+ strips the formula down to its skeleton and somehow makes it tighter. Ten-minute episodes mean every scene has to earn its place, no filler, no breathing room for anything that isn't a fight or a revelation. You get the exact opposite of what kids' anime usually does with a shrinking runtime, which is panic and rush everything; Beast+ uses it to snap you forward, arc to arc, like someone flipping through a strategy guide instead of watching a show.

Back in Japan after their adventures in Beyondard, Netto and his friends find that peace has not returned. A mysterious professor is releasing the Zero Virus, hoping to bring Beyondard's defeated cyber beast back to life. At the same time, a program called Cache is producing phantom duplicates of Net Navis as part of a plan to archive the internet and, in time, the whole world. Picking up directly after Beast but presented as a stand-alone series, Beast+ unfolds in a chain of arcs that open with the arrival of the Professor and Zero. Its episodes run roughly ten minutes each, making for a sci-fi action adventure told in short bursts.