Tekkaman Blade

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Tekkaman Blade
DVD cover of Tekkaman Blade
宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード
(Space Knight Tekkaman Blade)
Genre Adventure, Drama, Mecha, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Shounen
TV anime
Directed by Masami Obari
Studio Tatsunoko
Network United States UPN
Original run 18 February 19922 February 1993
No. of episodes 49

Tekkaman Blade (宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman Blade?, lit. "Space Knight Tekkaman Blade") is an anime series, released in 1992. This series was intended to be a reboot of the original Tekkaman: The Space Knight anime, though these shows ultimately shared little in common besides the "armoured hero" concept and a few common character names. The show was also dubbed and released in Western shores under the title Teknoman, one of the first shows on UPN Kids. The dubbed version has since been released on DVD in the U.S. under the same name by AnimeWorks.

Contents


[edit] Plot

[edit] Present Time: Earth, the Space Ring and the Space Knights

In the United Global Year (UGY) 193, the Earth is under attack from an extraterrestrial enemy; the Rahdam. The Rahdam are led by an even deadlier force, known as the Tekkamen.

Surrounding the Earth is the huge man-made orbital ring known as the Space Ring. The Space Ring was constructed well before the arrival of Rahdam and was the first human structure attacked by them. As the aliens attacked, those that were left either fled or were killed, and the Space Ring was largely abandoned, serving only as a battle ground for Blade and the Tekkamen.

Fighting against Rahdam and the Tekkamen are the Space Knights. Led by Commander Heinrich Freeman, the Space Knights are a Special Defense Force, and Earth's last hope for defeating the mighty Rahdam. The Space Knights consist of Noal, the pilot of the Space Knights' ship the Blue Earth; Aki Kisaragi, the Blue Earth Navigator; Milly, Communications Operator; Rebin, computer wiz and mechanic; and Honda, Mechanic and Repairs. The Space Knights have been unsuccessful at repelling the Rahdam until the arrival of D-Boy (Dangerous Boy - Tekkaman Blade's nickname while amnesiac), a mysterious young man who has the ability to transform into the powerful warrior known as Tekkaman Blade.

[edit] Rahdam

Rahdamu foot soldiers at the start of the invasion
Enlarge
Rahdamu foot soldiers at the start of the invasion

Commanding the alien forces is Omega, a Tekkaman general who leads the Rahdam invasion. Omega's base is located on the dark side of the Moon, where he lies in wait for the moment when he has enough power to raise the Rahdam mothership and descend to plunge Earth into darkness. To prepare the Earth for Omega's descent, the Rahdam have planted Tekkaplants across Earth—deadly plants that have the ability to transform humans into Tekkamen.

Also commanding the Rahdam armies are other Tekkamen. Once human, the Tekkamen were captured and transformed by the Rahdam to assist in the takeover of Earth. They are endowed with super-human strength, impenetrable armor and quantum energy weapons. The Tekkamen transform using power drawn from their Rahdam crystals, each unique to its holder. Blade is one of a handful of Tekkamen. Unlike the others he fights to defend Earth and, for the most part, is free of the brainwashing influence which the Rahdam place over their captives to make them subservient.

[edit] The Argos

Before the arrival of the Rahdam there was a deep space exploration ship called the Argos. It was the Argos that first encountered the Rahdam probe ship. Aboard the Argos were the Aiba family: Blade's family and their ship crew. Whilst exploring the outer rings of Saturn, the Argos' radar picks up an unusual disturbance. Going to investigate, the crew discover the disturbance to be an alien ship, and as they get closer, they are drawn in by a tractor beam. Excited at the prospect of encountering alien life, the crew board the vessel and discover the Rahdam.

Rahdam Tekkaplants rain down upon the crew, beginning the process of turning them into Tekkamen. All of the crew aboard the ship are put into pods, though only the most ideal humans could become Tekkamen. While this occurred, the Argos was slowly being assimilated into the Rahdam mothership. Over time, D-Boy's father was rejected by the process and manages to survive and uses what little time he had left to free one member of his family; Blade. It is through the crew of the Argos that the Rahdam learn of Earth and plan their invasion. On his last legs, D-Boy's father helps him into the escape pod and before activating the Argos' self destruct sequence, he casts D-Boy off into space telling him that the fate of the Earth rests in his hands. Upon the explosion, the Rahdam mothership crash lands on the dark side of the Moon.

[edit] Battle for Earth

D-Boy floats towards earth for six months, in the confines of his tiny pod, alone with his thoughts. By the time he arrives, the Earth is already under heavy attack from the Rahdam. Fueled by his hatred for Rahdam, D-Boy bursts free from his pod and begins to attack them. The attack draws the attention of the Tekkaman, Dagger. The two fight and Blade is sent hurtling towards Earth, however, his armor protects him and he crash lands on Earth without sustaining serious injury. His arrival attracts the attention of the two Space Knights, Noel and Aki who discover a naked and bleeding D-Boy lying in a crater, and take him back to their headquarters.

In the beginning, D-Boy is mysterious and hostile towards the otherwise helpful Space Knights, however, as time progresses, he begins to respect and admire them for their dedication in even the toughest of situations, and soon develops a relationship with Aki.

The Space Knights, with the help of D-Boy, slowly begin to repel the Rahdam troops until, during a battle, D-Boy's crystal is shattered, rendering him unable to transform into Tekkaman Blade. D-Boy gives up hope, however the technically brilliant Rebin develops the tactical battle robot, who later takes the name Pegas (Short for Pegasus, in reference to the flying horse of Greek mythology). Pegas contains the shards of Blade's crystal, and amplifies its power, allowing D-Boy to transform once more. Pegas and D-Boy develop a close friendship, despite Pegas being a robot. In his first transformation using Pegas, D-Boy challenges Dagger and easily overpowers him, destroying him with blasts from his shoulder cannons.

Axe, Evil, Lance, and Sword
Axe, Evil, Lance, and Sword

Eventually more Tekkamen arrive on Earth to challenge Blade: Evil, D-Boy's twin brother, Lance, Axe and Sword are all keen to destroy him. Blade's sister, Miyuki, also arrives on Earth. However, she—like Blade—is not under the control of the Rahdam. After pulling herself free from Omega's base, she arrives very ill and is given a blood transfusion from Blade. Tekkamen Evil, Lance, Axe and Sword assault the Space Knights' base, attempting to kill Miyuki. Although outnumbered, Miyuki strikes back and fights them, eventually self-destructing in a vain attempt to take the evil Tekkamen down with her. D-Boy—now left without a family—is strengthened by these events and resolves to destroy the Rahdam. He manages to kill Lance and Axe and later gains the power to take on a super-form. Evil is given the same ability to serve as the final line of Omega's defence, while Sword is killed by Balzac, preventing the Blue Earth from reaching the Moon.

[edit] The Final Battle

Towards the end of the saga, D-Boy and Evil meet for one last time to duel. They battle and eventually Blade impales Evil. As he dies, Evil is freed from the aliens' control and hands Blade his crystal, instructing him that he will need its power to reach Omega's base on the Moon.

D-Boy takes off on Pegas whilst falling further and further into the depths of his rage. He finally arrives on the Moon and confronts Omega, who reveals the whole alien plan and that he is Kengo, Blade's eldest brother. Omega has begun to resurrect the alien mother ship, to descend upon Earth. Blade attacks Omega, but he is too powerful and easily stops Blade. Omega is about to kill Blade when Pegas steps in. Omega easily destroys Pegas, whose last words are a farewell to Blade.

The destruction of Pegas sends Blade over the edge, and he erupts, drawing all his power into a huge green beam which encompasses him. Omega tries to stop him, but cannot. As Omega is about to die, Blade tells him, "Go back, come home." The mothership spectacularly explodes. As pieces of it fall to the Earth, so too does Blade, once again crash landing. The series ends with D-Boy and Aki watching a sunset and Noel recalling what a miracle it was that Blade survived. However, prices were paid, as Blade is now wheelchair-bound, can barely speak and is almost completely amnesiac. With the aliens destroyed, the threat to the Earth was no more...

[edit] Characters

[edit] Name changes

Japanese name English name
Balzac Asimov Balzac Saint Jaques
Honda Mac Mackelroy
Rebin Maggie Matheson
Noal Vereuse Ringo Richards
Miyuki Aiba/Tekkaman Rapier Shara Carter
Takaya Aiba/D-Boy/Tekkaman Blade Nick (or Ness) Carter/Teknoman Blade (or Slade)
Aki Kisaragi Star Summers
Milly Tina Corman
Chief Heinrich Freeman Commander Jamison
Bernard O'Toole Sergeant O'Rourke
General Colbert General Xerxes Gault
Kengo Aiba/Tekkaman Omega Conrad Carter/Darkon
Hun Rii/Tekkaman Sword Catherine/Teknoman Sword (or Rapier)
Shinya Aiba/Tekkaman Evil Cain Carter/Teknoman Sabre
Fritz/Tekkaman Dagger Teknoman Dagger (or Gunnar)
Goddado/Tekkaman Axe Grant Goddard/Teknoman Axe
Morimotoh/Tekkaman Lance Teknoman Lance
Radamu (also written 'Rahdam') Venomoids

Note: The "D" in D-Boy, Nick's Japanese name, stands for "dangerous". At first the characters do not know his actual name, so Ringo/Noal chooses the nickname on the basis of how foolhardy and dangerous D-Boy acts.

[edit] Blade

Blade
Blade
  • Japanese name: Takaya Aiba/Tekkaman Blade
  • English name: Nick Carter/Teknoman Blade (International English Dub) Ness Carter/Teknoman Slade (US English Dub)
His real name is Takaya Aiba, although he is more commonly referred to as Dangerous-Boy (D-Boy), his nickname. Originally on board the Argos when it was taken over by the aliens, Blade was freed by his father before the process of transformation could be completed, leaving him almost free from the Rahdam's influence. Blade swore to avenge the loss of his family and destroy Omega and the Rahdam.
Although one of the more powerful Tekkaman, Blade is disadvantaged by a number of factors: in a previous battle, Blade's crystal was shattered and he was no longer able to transform independently; having instead to rely on the robot Pegas; also, Blade cannot stay in his Tekkaman form for longer than half an hour, lest he digresses into a primal state in which he becomes uncontrollable; furthermore, Blade suffers from a severe case of amnesia throughout the series and the more he transforms into Tekkaman, the worse his amnesia becomes; in one episode, he completely forgets how to transform into Tekkaman. The transformation process itself also puts a considerable strain on Blade's body, increasing his metabolism and, later in the series, causing temporary blindness and threatening his very life. These effects are aggravated later on in the series when he uses a Rahdam spore plant to evolve into an advanced Blastor Tekkaman. This enhanced form is the next step in the alien evolution but, while extremely powerful, is not without its drawbacks, the most perilous one being that the Tekkaman in question only has months to live upon upgrading. (In the original series, D-Boy does not develop amnesia until the Blastor process begins; at the beginning, he is lying about his memory loss to avoid difficult questions regarding his family.)
Despite these weaknesses, Blade is able to defeat Omega and save the Earth at the expense of his mental health.

[edit] Sabre

Evil
Evil
  • Japanese name: Shinya Aiba/Tekkaman Evil
  • English name: Cain Carter/Teknoman Sabre
Blade's twin brother. Evil believes that there was a mistake during their births and that only one of them can exist; this drives Evil to become more concerned with defeating his brother than with the invasion of Earth, and this gradually becomes obsession. As Blade becomes more powerful, Evil receives a power increase from Omega.
Evil seeks to destroy Blade on an equal footing to prove that he can beat him, and in the final battle, when Blade is over come by his 30-minute limit, Evil allows him to recover before resuming battle. In the battle that ensues Blade eventually impales Evil, holding him in his arms as he dies. As he dies Evil redeems himself by handing Blade his crystal explaining to Blade that he will need its power to defeat Omega. It turns out that the evil Tekkamen were only evil because of a mind parasite implanted to keep them obedient, but Shinya admits, "The truth is I kinda liked being Tekkaman Evil..."


[edit] Rapier

Rapier
Rapier
  • Japanese name: Miyuki Aiba/Tekkaman Rapier
  • English name: Shara Carter
Blade's younger sister. She managed to escape the final process of the Tekkaman conversion and left Omega's base to seek out Blade. Arriving on Earth very ill and weak, she is not expected to live for very long due to a fatal virus that has spread through her system as a result of her incomplete Tekkaman powers. Aware that her life will end soon, she bids Blade a heartfelt farewell and self-destructs in a vain attempt to vanquish Evil and his Tekkaman followers Axe, Sword, and Lance. It is later discovered that a piece of her crystal has remained in Blade's possession, temporarily boosting his speed and strength.


[edit] Omega

Darkon
Darkon
  • Japanese name: Kengo Aiba/Tekkaman Omega
  • English name: Conrad Carter/Teknoman Darkon
Omega is the Tekkaman general of the Rahdam army. He remained in the shadows as he was physically linked to the alien mothership until he can eventually raise the mothership from the moon and descend to Earth. He is eventually revealed to be Blade's eldest brother, Kengo. Omega is also the most powerful Tekkaman, however Blade is able to destroy him by harnessing his rage over the loss of his family.


[edit] Dagger

Dagger
Dagger
  • Japanese name: Fritz/Tekkaman Dagger
  • English name: Teknoman Gunnar (US English Dub)
Dagger is the first to fight Blade upon his return to earth and sends Blade crashing down. He is extremely cocky and arrogant, and believes that Blade could never defeat him. When Blade's crystal is shattered, Dagger leads an offensive on the Space Knights' base, offering to relent if they provide Blade, knowing he can no longer transform into a Tekkaman. Blade, however, uses Pegas to transform and easily destroys Dagger. His first name is given as Fritz, but his connection to Blade and the Aiba family is not known.


[edit] Axe

Axe
Axe
  • Japanese name: Goddado/Tekkaman Axe
  • English name: Grant Goddard/Teknoman Axe
Blade and Evil's martial arts instructor. He's also an electrical engineer and one of the heaviest Teknomen. He tries to trap Blade and fight him one on one. Blade manages to defeat Axe by stabbing him with his hands in the shape of spears. Even though Axe was dying he tries to kamikaze Blade by bear hugging him and performing a Voltekka. O'Toole manages to break into the arena Blade was trapped in and shoots Axe in the head. This allows Blade to escape and Axe self-destructs.


[edit] Lance

Lance
Lance
  • Japanese name: Morimotoh/Tekkaman Lance
  • English name: Teknoman Lance
Not much is known about his past except that he was one of the crew on the Argos, and his name was Morimotoh. He is tremendously strong in human form. He breaks into the Alaskan Space Knight Command Center while Blade is upgrading. The Space Knights had to distract Lance long enough so that Blade could finish his evolution. Bernard makes a final stand by going kamikaze on Lance with a grenade. The resulting explosion does not harm Lance, and Lance returns the favor by impaling Bernard. Blade, however, finishes his transformation and destroys Lance with a Voltekka in his upgraded form. Lance is also able to cling to walls and hang upside down from ceilings, much like Spider-Man


[edit] Sword

Sword
Sword
  • Japanese name: Hun-Ri
  • English name: Catherine/Teknoman Rapier (Applies only to her first appearance in the International Dub)
Hun-Ri , Kengo Aiba's former lover and fiancée. She is now Tekkaman Sword. Although she is loyal to the alien cause, she still clings to the memories of her past life and wishes that Omega was still the man she loved. She saves Evil from being killed by Blade and also destroys all but one of the space ports on the Space Ring (though the last one is destroyed by Blade in an attempt to blow Evil out of the sky). Sword damages the Blue Earth while Noel and Balzac are on a mission. She finally dies when she burns up while entering Earth's atmosphere, after being gunned down by Balzac. Strangely enough, in her first appearance in the dub, she seems to be male, as her voice is deep and masculine. This is corrected after the first episode.


[edit] Space Knights

[edit] Aki
Aki
Aki
  • Japanese name: Aki Kisaragi
  • English name: Star Summers
A member of the Space Knights, Aki is the Blue Earth's navigator. She is headstrong yet compassionate, though she sometimes romanticizes situations. Aki, along with Noel, discovered Blade when he crashed on Earth, and soon developed a friendship that eventually became love. As Blade slips into his primal state after the final battle with Evil, he holds on to the image of Aki to keep him sane. She accompanies the Space Knights on many missions.


[edit] Noel
  • Japanese name: Noel Vereuse
  • English name: Ringo Richards
A member of the Space Knights, Noel is a tough Joker, who initially, doesn't trust Blade at all, and shows it. He seems to like Aki as seen in the first episode, and cares for her a lot, as seen in the episode, "Falling Star" when he beats Blade up for causing, (indirectly) Aki to be hospitalized. He is also willing to destroy him in the fifth episode, as seen when he is fully prepared to blow Blade out of the sky when it seems that his time is up.

As the series goes on, however, they become firm friends, playing a strong part in breaking Blade out of the Military confinement center where Blade had been taken, and constantly telling him to reveal his feelings about Aki, such as advising him to buy flowers, and so on. Some time into the series, when he is breaking Blade out of the confinement center, he steals the Sol-Tekkaman suit, (the Tekno-suit in the dub) and he plays a part in almost every battle after that, fighting alongside Blade, and sometimes alone.
While the suit is strong, he is more often than not defeated while in it against evil Tekkamen. It just doesn't measure up in terms of strength, and its ammunition is ineffective against Tekkamen. The bullets are also particularly easy to dodge.

[edit] Milly
  • English name: Tina Corman

She is a bright and bubbly young space knight, and seems to be the one that Blade trusts at first, he certainly confides in her the conditon of his 1/2 hour time limit in a more compassionate way than he does to anyone else, even Aki.
She looks like Blade's younger sister, Miyuki, a coincidence not left unused. When Blade exceeded his 30 minute time limit, and became a rahdam warrior, she was the only one who could bring him back, and he reverted back to his normal state, horrified at what he had done.

[edit] Freeman
  • English name: Commander Jamison

A strong, tall commander, who leads the Space knights well. He is extremely concerned with the safety of his personnel, as shown by his absolute unwillingness to force Blade into action, or to undergo the Evolution process. He is the one who discovered the Information on the Argos, prompting Blade to fill in the rest of the gaps.

[edit] Honda
  • English name: Mac MacElroy

A wide, caring mechanic. Extremely down to earth, he often snaps Rebin out of his daydreams about Blade. He designed Pegas with Rebin's help. He is brave, and will not step down from the line of Duty. After the attack on the Space Knights HQ, he chose to stay with Freeman and build the new command center rather than travel with Aki, Noel and Rebin to destroy the Tekkamen.

[edit] Rebin
  • English name: Maggie Matherson

Rebin is a cross-dresser and a highly skilled mechanic. He also fantasises about Blade in the earlier episodes, to have himself be brought back to reality by Honda. He is extremely talented in mechanics, cooking apparently and history. He chooses to travel with Aki and Noel in the land vehicle, the Green Earth.

NOTE: While male in the Japanese version, this character is female in the English Dubs. Rebin's fascintation with Blade was one of the more notable characteristics carried over to the English Dubs. As a result, Maggie would often gush over Blade and even attempted to assist him in battle at one point by blasting a spider-crab with a turret gun, only to be saved at the last minute by Balzac and his powerful new Teknosuit.

[edit] Pegas
  • English name: Pegus/Teknobot

The mobile support unit used by D-Boy to transform into Tekkaman Blade after his crystal is shattered. Pegas has a deep, bland strong voice which is easily recognizable. He can be activated by voice command, or by remote from the Space Knight Central Command. He was given the name Pegas by O' Toole after the flying horse Pegasus. His trademark is singing a soldier's song (The Irish 'Johnny Boy') which O' Toole always sang and asked him to save it into his data banks which annoys Maggie. He is destroyed by Omega in the final episode. An interesting note is that in the original Japanese version and International Dub, an oil tear floats from Pegus's eye when saying his final goodbye after he is killed, but this was removed in the US Dub to indicate he was rebuilt and is now used by Aki in Tekkaman Blade II.

[edit] O' Toole
  • Japanese name: Bernard O' Toole
  • English name: Sgt. O' Rourke

The leader of a special commando unit, who was stranded on the Space Ring. At first, he didn't believe in Teknoman's abilities until he was saved by him. He teaches D-Boy/Slade/Blade about how soldiers have lives too. When he lost 3 of his soldiers, he asked him how would the families of those lost soldiers would feel, which made him realize that he can put trust in others, specifically the Space Knights. In addition, he taught Pegas to sing "The Irish Johnny Boy". Unfortunately, he is killed by Lance in order to give Teknoman the time needed to upgrade his powers. He was buried in the flower field hidden deep under the Antarctic Space Knight Base.

[edit] Balzac
  • Japanese name: Balzac Asimov
  • English name: Balzac St. Jacques

An arrogant soldier who was a spy for General Gault who maliciously taunted Blade and the Space Knights. Jamison intentionally gave him the data on Teknoman, implying that the Space Knights will need all the help he can get. He led a strike team on the Space Ring thinking it was the main base; however, it wasn't and fell into a trap set by Saber, who end up annihilating his team which included his childhood friend Marlowe, the scientist responsible for creating the Tekno-Suits. Balzac escaped the massacre and returned to Earth where he was saved by Rachael and her brother Rick. For several months, he stayed with Rachael and Rick, finally understanding what it feels like to have people care for him, but also seeking revenge for the death of Marlowe. He ends up helping the Space Knight giving extra fire power to the team, which already had Blade and Noel. He and Noel still show rivalry towards each other, but in a friendlier sense. Near the end, both he and Noel take on Teknoman Sword. Balzac used Noel's suit to use a special cannon designed by Jamieson to negate the Tekno Powers. He managed to take out Sword; however, she attempted a kamikaze attack which almost killed them. According to Noel, he did survive his ordeal.

[edit] Analysis of armor

Armor stats
English name Height (m) Weight (kg)
Balzac Saint Jaques 2.30 181
Ringo Richards 2.30 181
Shara Carter 1.95 70
Nick/Ness Carter
Teknoman Slade/Blade
2.32 81
Blastor Blade 2.38 87
Conrad Carter/Darkon 2.41 108
Cain Carter/Teknoman Sabre 2.36 90
Teknoman Dagger 2.40 89
Teknoman Lance 2.42 86
Teknoman Sword 2.20 70
Pegas 2.70 6.5 TONS

A Tekkaman (or, in the English version, a Teknoman) is a human who has been biologically altered by alien technology. The process, however, is so physically taxing that most don't survive it.

Those that do survive gain the ability to transform into a powerful armored form. The armor is capable of self-propelled flight, functions as an environmental suit, and is virtually invulnerable to most forms of attack - Blade withstood a nuclear explosion at point-blank range without any ill effects. Even in human-form they have enhanced speed and strength demostrated by Lance and Blade in "Tekno Trap" and "Metamorphisis" as well as the psionic ability to sense other tekkamen.

All Tekkamen control their armor by use of a crystal that is stored in the body while not in use, a Tekno-Crystal. Blade's crystal is shattered early on by Dagger, and he is forced to use Pegas to transform. In addition, the crystal is capable of enabling the Tekkaman to travel through space at high speeds (without his crystal, Blade is earth-bound without the assistance of the Blue Earth)

Tekka-Armor also has a number of built-in offensive systems. First, physical strength is enhanced considerably. For melee combat, a Tekkaman uses a spearlike weapon called a Tekk Lancer (called Tekno-Lance in Teknoman). The lances wielded by some Tekkamen had special abilities: Dagger's could double as a bow capable of firing energized arrows, Blade's had launchable boomerang blades, and his (demonstrated in episode one during his first battle) and Evil's could generate an electrical charge in addition to being used as a throwing star. Blade also had a grappling spike that could be fired out of the right wrist of his armour as was shown at the end of episode three when he tows the Blue Earth. (Miyuki and Evil are also shown using similar tools).

Most Tekkamen (the one notable exception being Dagger) also had access to Vol Tekka (known as Teknopower Blasters and later Tekno-Bolt in Teknoman), massively powerful energy cannons. Evil is capable of using his blasters to power a "ball lightning" blast, and Blade is later able to boost the power of his blast using Pegas.

Blade and Evil later evolve into Blastor Tekkamen (known as Super Teknoman/Teknoman Plus/Penultimate Embodiment in Teknoman). During battle, they can change their armor into an enhanced form which boosts their energy blasts and speed considerably. This enhancement has serious neurological effects for both of them, however.

Blade had a technique called Crush Interlude (Tekno Battle Mode in Teknoman) in which his armor generated a bird-shaped aura of green energy, allowing him to destroy enemy targets by crashing into them. Miyuki (Tekkaman Rapier) also used this technique one.

[edit] Episode list

Episode Number English adaptation Japanese version Episode Number English adaptation Japanese version
01 Friend or Foe The Skywalking Superman 30 Lady in Waiting A Father's Memory
02 Invasion Lonely Warrior 31 Reformation The Town of Vengeance
03 Power of the Space Knights Treachery of the Defense Force 32 Axe Trap Lady in Waiting
04 Falling Star A Senseless Desertion in The Face of The Enemy 33 Axe Attack Wilderness Reunion
05 Time's Up Kill Me 34 On Ice Siblings of Dark and Light
06 Shattered Crystal Tek Set Disabled 35 Fifty-Fifty Enemy in the Midst
07 Teknobot The Launch of the Mobile Unit Pegas 36 Evolution Bloody Battle! Axe!
08 Snapshot The Mysterious War Journalist 37 Reflection Wearing Down, Mind and Body!
09 Convoy Rescue! The Jupiter Crew 38 Amnesia Labyrinth of Death
10 Bold Soldier Boy A Lullaby in the Flames of War 39 Metamorphosis Extreme Warrior, Blastor
11 Brother Beware D-Boy File (recap episode) 40 Sword Strike The Fight and Love of Two (recap episode)
12 Sibling Rivalry The Red Terror, Evil 41 Battle of the Space Ring Evil, Devil that Revives
13 Family Feud The Destined Siblings 42 Beginning of the End Collision! The Red Foe!
14 Saber Strike A Devil Divides the Ties of Blood 43 Final Battle The Bullet of Separation
15 Spy Game Demon God Reborn 44 The Approaching Darkness
16 Sword and Steel Portrait of Treachery 45 The True Colours of the Invaders
17 The Visitor The Steel Savior 46 The House in which Time Stood Still
18 Battleground The Price of Glory 47 Battle of the Space Ring
19 Resurrection Warrior with a Caged Heart 48 Final Battle
20 Mind Game Resurrected, the Transformation of Rage 49 The Burning Life
21 Decision A feeling of Love and Death
22 Reunion Miyuki's Decision
23 In the Beginning Bloody Reunion
24 Shara's Secret Ripped Open Past
25 Forget Me Not New Demons
26 Chronicle Life Risking Battle
27 Red Savior Title Unknown (recap episode)
28 Resurrection The White Majin
29 Running on Empty Flowers in the Battlefield

[edit] Tekkaman Blade specials

There are also three OVAs set outside the official continuty of the series (unofficially called The Missing Specials by the fan community). These specials are difficult to find, although all three have been unofficially subtitled and released by the fan community on the Internet:

  • The first OVA, Burning Clock, tells the story of the Aiba family, goes into further detail about Shinya and Takaya's rivalry and shows how Kengo, Shinya, Takaya and Miyuki's mother died.
  • The second, Twin Blood, is an alternate version of Blade and Saber's first battle, with drastically different character and mecha designs from the rest of the series. Blade/D-Boy also does not need Pegas to transform and the armor resembles the Radam humanoids from Tekkaman Blade 2 more closely.
  • The third, Missing Link, deals with the events between Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Blade II, including the second Radam wave, the Prague Rebellion, Blade's restoration, and Aki's transformation into the Red Tekkaman.

[edit] Video games

There have been a total of three video games based on Tekkaman Blade.

The first one was on Game Boy, and is a simple scrolling action game. The next Tekkaman Blade game was on Super Nintendo and is a scrolling action game mixed with 1vs1 fighter scenes. The final game was released on the Japanese home computer system the PC98 and is a strategic game.

Tekkaman Blade has also recently been incorporated into the Super Robot Wars series, a long-running series of turn-based strategy games operating under the premise of one massive crossover of various mecha anime. Despite the controversy of including Tekkaman in a series that almost exclusively involves mecha combat, Tekkaman loosely falling between mecha and costumed hero in terms of genre, the game remains relatively faithful to the original storyline, incorporating all major plot points if only slightly reorganized for time. To date, Tekkaman Blade has only appeared in SRW J.

[edit] Trivia

Two separate English versions exist. The first one produced, known as the International Version among fans because it was broadcast in Europe and Australia, was less severely edited than the second, which was only shown in the United States.

Differences between the two dubbed versions include the following:

  • Different opening sequences, one created by Saban for UPN and the original Japanese Opening.
  • Different title cards.
  • Slightly different voice casts; specifically the voice actors for Blade and Ringo.
  • Additional name changes.
  • Tekkaman's transformation scene (rarely shown in the Japanese version) was reinserted into most episodes.

The American version had more cuts for "objectionable content" such as:

  • Nudity; during Miyuki's transformation scene, the viewer is given a somewhat clear view of her breasts as the camera pans up to her face.
  • Cross-dressing; which caused the effeminate male character Rebin to become a female character named Maggie in the English dub.

The US-English dub was cancelled after 26 episodes, while its international counterpart was shown in its relative entirety. Due to the merging of certain episodes, the episode count was cut down to 43 from the Japanese version's 49.


With the exception of a few changes (for example, Blade is called Slade in the US English dub and Dagger is called Gunner), most Tekkamen names are retained from the original Japanese series. However, in the US Dub, Tekkaman Lance is referred to as Teknoman Rapier and Tekkaman Sword was changed into a male and called Teknoman Lance

Characters resembling Joji and Andro Uemeda from the original Tekkaman: The Space Knight appear various times throughout the story.

[edit] DVD release

The first volume of Teknoman has been released on DVD in the United States and Canada containing the first fourteen episodes. Although most of the changes made for the American version have been kept (the aliens are still "Venomoids", their leader is still "Darkon", and Maggie is still a woman), the protagonist's name has been changed back from "Slade" to "Blade", and "Teknoman Gunner" is once again "Dagger". These differences prompt the possibility of the dub in question being the International Version. Additionally, the DVD release uses the Japanese opening theme. Volume 2 was released on July 25, 2006. Volume 3 has a tentative release date of September 12, 2006.

Another Tekkaman Blade release will be a subtitled special edition version with remastered video and all the extras from the Japanese LD and DVD sets. It is currently scheduled for release on September 19, 2006.

[edit] Theme songs

[edit] Japanese version

Openings

  1. "Reason" by Yumiko Kosaka (Eps. 1-26)
  2. "Eternally Lonely" by Yumiko Kosaka (Eps. 27-49)

Endings

  1. "Energy of Love" by Yumiko Kosaka
  2. "Lonely Heart" by Yumiko Kosaka

[edit] U.S. version

  • "Teknoman Theme" by Saban

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

In other languages