Tekkaman: The Space Knight

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Tekkaman: The Space Knight
宇宙の騎士テッカマン (Uchū no Kishi Tekkaman)
Genre	Adventure, Mecha, Science Fiction, Shounen
TV anime
Directed by	Hisayuki Toriumi
Studio	Tatsunoko Productions
Network
Original run	2 July 1975 – 12 December 1975
No. of episodes	26

Tekkaman: The Space Knight (宇宙の騎士テッカマン, Uchū no Kishi Tekkaman^?) is an anime produced by Tatsunoko Productions in 1975.

Released in the mid-1980s in the United States, Tekkaman the Space Knight received excellent ratings on television in the U.S. and generated lots of positive fan mail.

As syndication sales grew, television was suddenly bombarded with toy-driven "robot series" including:

• Challenge of the GoBots (first released on 8 September, 1984).
• Voltron (first released on 10 September 1984).
• The Transformers (released on 17 September, 1984).
• Robotech (first released in March, 1985).
• Silverhawks (first released on 8 September 1986).
• several lesser known.

This flood of bartered ("free") programs, all produced by large multi-million dollar corporations, destroyed future sales of Tekkaman (regardless of the excellent ratings) because at the time, William Winckler Productions was a small independent company without a major toy company behind it.

Over forty-thousand original Tekkaman the Space Knight VHS video cassettes were successfully sold throughout the U.S. to major retail stores by Congress Video Group (the largest video distributor at the time), and later by L.D. Video. Congress Video sold half-hour episodes, whereas L.D. Video sold the two 96-minute movie compilations.

Winckler attempted to stay as true to the original Japanese series as possible, doing as little editing of violence as possible, and leaving all the original Japanese music and sound effects in. This was very unusual at the time, considering how shows like Science Ninja Team Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets were handled in their 1970s releases.

In fact, at the time, Ted Turner was considering buying Tekkaman for his giant cable network, but turned the show down due to the heavy battle scenes. Tekkaman is the last of the four hero shows from Tatsunoko Productions, and has a huge cult following worldwide. The opening theme, Tekkaman no Uta is sung by Ichiro Mizuki, written by Tatsunoko's Planning Department (lyrics) and Asei Kobayashi (music) and arranged by Bob Sakuma, who composed all the music for the series.

[edit] Plot synopsis

(From the original Japanese story) The Earth has entered the 21st century and it is in peril. The "Green Earth" project has been abandoned and scientists look to the stars to find a "Second Earth".

The Space Angel, on its mission to find this "Second Earth" is attacked by a group of aliens named the "Waldaster", The Space Angel is destroyed and with it the hope of mankind.

Suddenly, Dr. Amachi manages to create "Pegas" and the "Tekset" system, designed to combat the aliens by augmenting a human with certain wavelengths into a Tekkaman. Test pilots Joji Minami and Hiromi Amachi, along with two alien beings from the planet Sanno, Andro Uemeda and Mutan, rid the dying Earth from the threat of the "Waldaster" (Or GANDER) and continue to research the "Leap Flight Engine" to reach a new home for humanity.

[edit] See also

• Tekkaman Blade
• Tekkaman Blade II

[edit] External links

• Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Uchû no kishi Tekkaman at the Internet Movie Database
• Tekno-mania
• CDJAPAN DVD RELEASE
• Tekkaman Profile