Tekkaman Blade
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| Tekkaman Blade | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover of Tekkaman Blade |
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| 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード (Uchū no Kishi Tekkaman Burēdo) |
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| Genre | Adventure, Mecha, Mystery, Romance |
| TV anime | |
| Director | Hiroshi Negishi |
| Studio | Tatsunoko |
| Network |  TV Tokyo Star Mandarin (1995-1996) UPN  Solar USA(2001) |
| Original run | 18 February 1992 – 2 February 1993 |
| Episodes | 49 |
Tekkaman Blade (宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード Uchū no Kishi Tekkaman Burēdo?, 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 North America under the title Teknoman, one of the first shows on UPN Kids. The dubbed version has since been released on DVD in North America under the same name by AnimeWorks, while the original, uncut version of the series was released by the same company soon afterwards.
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 Radam. The Radam 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 Radam 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 Radam 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 Radam. 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 Radam 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] Radam
Commanding the alien forces is Omega, a Tekkaman general who leads the Radam 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 Radam mothership and descend to plunge Earth into darkness. To prepare the Earth for Omega's descent, the Radam have planted Tekkaplants across Earth—deadly plants that have the ability to transform humans into Tekkamen.
Also commanding the Radam armies are other Tekkamen. Once human, the Tekkamen were captured and transformed by the Radam 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 Radam 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 Radam place over their captives to make them subservient.
[edit] The Argos
Before the arrival of the Radam there was a deep space exploration ship called the Argos. It was the Argos that first encountered the Radam 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 Radam.
Radam 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 Radam 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 Radam 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 Radam 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 Radam. Fueled by his hatred for Radam, 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, Noal 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 Radam 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 a blast from his shoulder cannons known as the Voltekka.
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 Radam. 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 the form of her own Voltekka) 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 Radam. He manages to kill Lance and Axe and later gains the power to take on the Blaster Form, but at the expense of having worse effects on his body than before. 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. Evil also tells Blade that despite all the events that has led to his death, he is glad to have fought his own brother on equal ground for the first time, and that he is glad that he has become Tekkaman Evil.
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 Noal 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 |
| Levin (also written 'Rebin') | Maggie Matheson |
| Noal Vereuse | Ringo Richards |
| Miyuki Aiba/Tekkaman Rapier | Shara Carter |
| Takaya Aiba/D-Boy/Tekkaman Blade | Nick Carter/Slade/Teknoman Blade |
| Aki Kisaragi | Star Summers |
| Milly | Tina Corman |
| Chief Heinrich Van Freeman | Commander Jamison |
| Barnard O'Toole | Sergeant O'Rourke |
| General Colbert | General Xerxes Gault |
| Kengo Aiba/Tekkaman Omega | Conrad Carter/Darkon |
| Feng-Li/Tekkaman Sword | Catherine/Teknoman Sword (or Rapier) |
| Shinya Aiba/Tekkaman Evil | Cain Carter/Teknoman Sabre |
| Fritz Von Brown/Tekkaman Dagger | Teknoman Dagger (or Gunnar) |
| Goddard/Tekkaman Axe | Grant Goddard/Teknoman Axe |
| Molotov/Tekkaman Lance | Teknoman Lance |
| Radam (also written 'Rahdam') | Venomoids |
[edit] Tekkamen
[edit] Blade
- Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), David A. Thomas (English)
- His real name is Takaya Aiba, although he is more commonly referred to as Dangerous-Boy (D-Boy), a nickname Noal coins based on his recklessness. 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 Radam's influence. Blade swore to avenge the loss of his family and destroy Omega and the Radam.
- Although one of the more powerful Tekkamen, 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 regress into a primal state in which he becomes uncontrollable. The transformation process itself also puts a considerable strain on Blade's body, increasing his metabolism and, later in the series, threatening his life. These effects are aggravated further when he uses a Radam spore plant to evolve into an advanced Blaster 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 and causes temporary blindness. In an ironic twist of fate, while D-Boy faked amnesia early on in the series so as to avoid having to talk about what happened to his family, the Blaster evolution causes him to truly develop amnesia, with him losing memories important to him on a regular basis. First he forgets his time spent with the Space Knights, then later Miyuki's favourite flower, and other important memories; in one episode, he completely forgets that his System Box was destroyed by Dagger, and that he needs to use Pegas to transform into Blade now.
- Despite these weaknesses, Blade is able to defeat Omega and save the Earth at the expense of his mental health as shown at the end of this series. He has, fortunately, shown to have recovered from it by the events of Tekkaman Blade II.
[edit] Evil
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Paul Schrier (English)
- Blade's twin brother. Evil believes that only one of them can exist because of his disillusioned memory; this drives Evil to become more concerned with defeating his brother than with the invasion of Earth, and this gradually becomes an obsession. As Blade becomes more powerful, Evil receives a power increase from Omega.
- The truth is that the source of Evil's grudge against Blade in particular even before the Radam invasion was because he was shown to be resented or looked down on by his father. Not only was he 'helped' during survival training which made him think he only got help because he was inferior, but also during the first extra OVA where he was blamed for his mother's death. Shinya has developed an inferiority/perfection complex far before he was taken control of by the Radam, which only amplified his feelings into direct hatred towards those he held responsible.
- Evil seeks to destroy Blade on an equal footing to prove that he can beat him, and in the final battle, when Blade is overcome 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. Evil redeems himself by handing Blade his crystal, explaining that he will need its power to defeat Omega. It turns out that the Radam Tekkamen were only working for the Radam as soldiers because of a mind parasite implanted to maintain their loyalty to Radam's primary cause.
[edit] Rapier
- Voiced by: Yuko Mizutani (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
- Blade's younger sister. She manages to escape the final part of the Tekkaman conversion process and leaves 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 (which was in fact, an overloaded version of Voltekka) 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. This boost in strength was, however, insufficient for Blade to travel to the moon to fight against Tekkaman Omega.
[edit] Omega
- Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto (Japanese), Simon Prescott (English)
- Omega is the Tekkaman general of the Radam 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 uses a hologram of himself when he communicates with the others. He is eventually revealed to be Blade's eldest brother, Kengo. Omega is also the most powerful and largest Tekkaman, however Blade is able to destroy him by harnessing his rage over the loss of his family and Pegas's death. He is the only Tekkaman that never changes into his human form, though part of it (Kengo's face) can been seen integrated into his final form.
[edit] Dagger
- Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Japanese), John Vickery (English)
- Dagger, real name Fritz, 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. He was, however, responsible for creating the trap which did prevent Blade from Tek-Setting. 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 with a single Voltekka attack.
Unlike all the other Radam-based Tekkaman, Dagger is the only one shown to not have a Voltekka attack of any form.
[edit] Axe
- Voiced by: Yū Shimaka (Japanese), Richard Epcar (English)
- Blade and Evil's martial arts instructor. He's also an electrical engineer and one of the heaviest Tekkamen. 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
- Voiced by: Jūrōta Kosugi (Japanese), Michael McConnohie (English)
- Not much is known about his past except that he was one of the crew on the Argos, and his name was Molotov. 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 Blaster Voltekka in his upgraded form. Lance is capable of shooting darts out of his shoulder as well as being able to cling onto walls and hang from ceilings.
[edit] Sword
- Voiced by: Mari Yokoo (Japanese), Melodee M. Spevack (English)
- Feng-Li, 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 Noal 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.
Sword was the only teknoman/tekkaman not to be killed by blade.
[edit] Space Knights
[edit] Aki
- Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese), Barbara Goodson (English)
- Japanese name: Aki Kisaragi (如月 アキ Kisaragi Aki?)
- 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 Noal, 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 while piloting the Blue Earth and/or as a field commander.
[edit] Noal
- Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese), Kerrigan Mahan (English)
- Japanese name: Noal Vereuse
- English name: Richard (Ringo) Vereuse
- A member of the Space Knights, Noal 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 D-Boy up for indirectly causing 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 paticipates in almost every battle after that, fighting alongside D-Boy and sometimes alone. While the suit is strong, he is more often than not defeated when battling evil Tekkamen, although he puts it to good use against the more vulnerable Radam. Unfortunately, it can't match either the strength or firepower of the Tekkamen, who can easily counter or avoid all of the suit's weapons.
- According to the Tekkaman Blade Drama CD, Noal's hobbies are soccer and hitting on girls.
- After the events of the first series, Noal's fate is unknown though it is hinted that he is killed between the events of the first series and Tekkaman Blade II.
[edit] Milly
- Voiced by: Chisa Yokoyama (Japanese), Julie Maddalena (English)
- Japanese name: Miletta Le Rouge
- 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 condition 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 Radam 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] Heinrich Van Freeman
Voiced by: Hirotaka Suzuoki (Japanese), Michael Forest (English)
-
- 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. Freeman seems to suffer from a form of albinism: he has red eyes and white hair, although his skin is not unusually pale.
[edit] Honda
- Voiced by: Shozo Iizuka (Japanese), Richard Epcar (English)
- Japanese name: Honda (本田?)
- English name: Mac MacElroy
A wide, caring mechanic. Extremely down to earth, he often snaps Levin 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, Noal and Rebin to destroy the Tekkamen.
He is also known to have a pastime of making Kites, in which he even encourages D-Boy to participate in. He is also fond of Natto; a bean-based Japanese dish infamous for its smell according to the Tekkaman Blade Drama CD.[original research?]
[edit] Levin
- Voiced by: Shigeru Nakahara (Japanese), Mari Devon (English)
- English name: Maggie Matherson
Levin 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 Noal in the land vehicle, the Green Earth.
According to the Tekkaman Blade Drama CD, Levin's interests outside of Blade and mechanics is building Garage Kits; a fitting hobby for this genius mechanic.
NOTE: While male in the Japanese version, this character is female in the English dubs. Levin's fascination with Blade was one of the more notable characteristics carried over to the English dubs. As a result, Levin 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 in the Sol-Tekkaman 1.
[edit] Pegas
- Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Japanese), Tom Wyner (English)
- 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 named "Pegas" from the beginning in the original version, but the dubbed versions instead state that O'Toole named him "Pegus" after the mythological flying horse Pegasus. His trademark is singing a soldier's song (The Irish "Danny Boy"), a tune which O'Toole always sings; to Rebin's annoyance, O'Toole saves the song in Pegas' memory banks, although D-Boy requests that it be left in, much to the surprise of the other Space Knights. In the English dub, Pegas sings the same tune, but with different words.
- Pegas is destroyed by Omega in the final episode. In the original Japanese version and International dub, an oil tear floats from his eye when saying his final goodbye after he is killed, but this was removed in the US dub. He is later rebuilt and used by Aki in Tekkaman Blade II.
[edit] O' Toole
- Voiced by: Masaru Ikeda (Japanese), Bryan Cranston (English)
- Japanese name: Barnard O' Toole
- English name: Sgt. Miles O' Rourke
The leader of a special commando unit, who was stranded on the Space Ring. At first, he didn't believe in Tekkaman Blade's abilities until he was saved by him. He teaches D-Boy about how soldiers have lives too. When he lost three 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 song "Danny Boy". Unfortunately, he is killed by Lance in order to give Tekkaman Blade the time needed to upgrade into Blade's Blaster form. He was buried in the flower field hidden deep under the Antarctic Space Knight Base.
[edit] Balzac
- Voiced by: Kenyuu Horiuchi (Japanese), Steve Bulen (English)
- Japanese name: Balzac Asimov
- English name: Balzac St. Jacques
An arrogant soldier who was a spy for General Colbert who maliciously taunted Blade and the Space Knights. Freeman intentionally gave him the data on Tekkaman, implying that the Space Knights will need all the help they can get. He led a strike team on the Orbital Ring thinking it was the main base; however, it wasn't and fell into a trap set by Evil, who proceeded to annihilate Balzac's team. 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 Noal. He and Noal still show rivalry towards each other, but without a sense of grudge against each other unlike before. Near the end, both he and Noal take on Tekkaman Sword. Balzac used Noal's suit to use a special cannon designed by Freeman to negate the Tek Set. He managed to take out Sword; however, she grabbed Balzac at the last moment, taking him along with her. As they descended, Balzac thought of Rachael one last time before blowing a hole through Swords chest. As they both plummeted towards earth, Balzac burned to death on re-entry, with Sword burning up along with him.
Following the trend of the character portrayals in the Tekkaman Blade Drama CD, it is shown that despite his hostile characteristics shown before the time gap in this series, he does get along well with the rest of the Space Knights as shown during their day off in the Drama Tracks.
[edit] Analysis of armor
| Japanese name | English name | Height (m) | Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sol-Tekkaman 1 (Original & Custom) (Balzac Asimov) | Balzac Saint Jaques | 2.30 | 181 |
| Sol-Tekkaman 2 (Noal Vereuse) | Ringo Vereuse | 2.30 | 181 |
| Miyuki Aiba/Tekkaman Rapier | Shara Carter | 1.95 | 70 |
| D-Boy/Takaya Aiba Tekkaman Blade |
Nick Carter/Teknoman Blade | 2.32 | 81 |
| Blaster Blade | Super Blade | 2.38 | 87 |
| Kengo Aiba/Tekkaman Omega | Conrad Carter/Darkon | 2.41 | 108 |
| Shinya Aiba/Tekkaman Evil | Cain Carter/Teknoman Sabre | 2.36 | 90 |
| Fritz von Brown/Tekkaman Dagger | Teknoman Gunner | 2.40 | 89 |
| Goddard/Tekkaman Axe | Teknoman Axe | ?? | ?? |
| Molotov/Tekkaman Lance | Teknoman Lance | 2.42 | 86 |
| Feng-Li/Tekkaman Sword | Teknoman Sword | 2.20 | 70 |
| Pegas | 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 ground zero without apparent ill effect. Even in human-form they have enhanced speed, strength, and accelerated healing demonstrated by Lance and Blade in "Tekno Trap" and "Evolution" 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 System Box. 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 spear-like weapon called a Tekk Lancer (テックランサー Tekkuransā?) (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 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 gauntlet as was shown at the end of episode three when he tows the Blue Earth. Miyuki and Evil are later shown using similar tools.
All Tekkamen have access to Voltekka (ボルテッカ Borutekka?) (known as Teknopower Blasters and later Tekno-Bolt in Teknoman), massively powerful energy cannons. Evil is capable of using his blasters to power a controllable "ball lightning" blast known as a "Psy-Voltekka", and Blade is later able to boost the power of his blast using Pegas' expansion to create the "High-colt Voltekka" attack. It should be noted that Dagger never once used Voltekka or ever implied that he had one at his disposal. Considering the situation involving his final battle and destruction it is likely that he lacked the ability.
Blade and Evil later evolve into a Blaster Tekkaman (known as Super Teknoman/Teknoman Plus/Penultimate Embodiment in Teknoman). During battle, they can change their armor into an enhanced form which boosts their Voltekka weapons and speed considerably, and in Blade's case, he is able to perform variations of the Voltekka such as the Lancer Voltekka where he throws a Voltekka charge using his Tekk-Lancer and the powerful Blaster Voltekka, where the energy is built up in front of Blade before he unleashes it in the same manner as his original Voltekka attack. This form is temporary, as they are shown reverting to their original armors either when they don't need the boost in power anymore, or when they simply lack the strength to uphold it. This enhancement also has serious neurological effects for both of them, especially D-Boy as he was suffering from excess fatique and strain before he even gained this ability.
Blade had a technique called Crash/Crush Intrude (クラッシュ イントルード Kurasshu Intorūdo?) (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) is also shown using this technique.
[edit] Episode list
[edit] Tekkaman Blade specials
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There are also three OVAs set outside the official continuty of the series (unofficially called The Missing Specials by the fan community). All 3 specials have officially been released on the American dvds of Tekkaman Blade. Twin Blood is on Collection 1 while Burning Clock and Missing Link are both on volume 3
- 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 Evil's first battle, with drastically different character and mecha designs from the rest of the series. Blade/D-Boy does not need Pegas to transform and the armor more closely resembles the Radam humanoids from Tekkaman Blade II.
- The third, Missing Link, does not appear to be an actual episode, but rather a preview or trailer for a program (seemingly never produced) that would provided a "bridge" between the TV series and OAVs.
[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 Metal 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. Tekkaman Blade has been a featured series in Super Robot Wars Judgement and Super Robot Wars W.
In Super Robot Wars W, the story follows that of the series up until Rapier's appearance. Instead of self-destructing, Miyuki is captured by the Zonderians and fused into a Zonder Robot {EI-15}, in order to study the reason why the Tekkaman conversion can resist the Zonder Metal. She is Safely extracted by Gao Gai Gar's Goldion Hammer, and her condition is stabilized, but she is thought to be killed by Evil during the onset of the Bloody Valentine War. The story then skips to the events of Tekkaman Blade II, which take place only six months, rather than ten years later, and picks up again with the conclusion of the battles against Omega, where Blade is thought to be killed when the Zaft superweapon GENESIS is fired upon the Radam ship. Near the end of the game, Blade turns out to be alive, as is Miyuki, who was recovered and healed by the GGG, and saves both D-Boy's life and mental health using Shinya's crystal.
[edit] English translation differences
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:
- In the UPN Kids/Saban version, Teknoman is named "Slade"/"Ness Carter", while in the International release, he is called "Blade"/"Nick Carter".
- Different opening sequences, one created by Saban for UPN, and one for "International Version"; they both use the same song (although slightly different remix of it is used in US version), but with different video clips and narration.
- Different title cards.[citation needed]
- Different voice actors for Blade and Ringo.
- Additional name changes.
- Tekkaman Blade's transformation scene (rarely shown in the Japanese version) was reinserted into most episodes.[citation needed]
- In the UPN version, a reverb effect is sometimes added to Slade's voice-- usually when he is calling out his attacks.
Both versions had some 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, while in the dub we see only her face in a loop;
- Cross-dressing; which caused the effeminate male character Levin to become a female character named Maggie in the English dub.
The US English dub was cancelled after twenty-six episodes, while the International release was shown in its 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 were retained from the original Japanese series. However, in the US dub, Tekkaman Rapier is referred to as just Shara (her human name), while Lance was referred as Rapier in his first appearance and Blade's sister in-law (Conrad's wife) takes on the name of Lance for her first appearance. She was later referred to as Sword.
Characters resembling Joji Minami and Andro Uemeda from Tekkaman: The Space Knight, which Tekkaman Blade was a loose remake of, appear various times throughout the story.[citation needed]
- The characters Freeman and Colbert appear to be subtle homages to Gerry Anderson's UFO television series. Freeman in both appearance and character resembles Straker (as played by Ed Bishop in that series) but appeared to be named after Straker's right hand man Colonel Freeman. Similarly, Colbert resembles General Henderson, Straker's superior but was named after Colbert who was Henderson's superior.[original research?]
[edit] DVD release
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
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, albeit with different music. All 3 volumes that collect episodes 1-43 have been officially released.
Another Tekkaman Blade release, this time under Media Blasters' "Anime Works" label, is a subtitled special edition version with remastered video and all the extras from the Japanese LD and DVD sets. Volume 1 has the uncut episodes 1-16, textless openings and endings, the Twin Blood OVA and a "History of Tekkaman" Featurette in a three-disc set. The episodes are subtitled only with Japanese dialogue. All 3 collection sets that have episodes 1-49 along with all 3 Tekkaman Blade specials are out.
[edit] Theme songs
[edit] Japanese version
Openings
- "Reason" by Yumiko Kosaka (Eps. 1-26)
- "Eternal Loneliness"(永遠の孤独) by Yumiko Kosaka (Eps. 27-49)
Endings
- "Energy of Love" by Yumiko Kosaka
- "Lonely Heart" by Yumiko Kosaka
[edit] U.S. version
- "Teknoman Theme" by Saban
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and References
[edit] External links
- Tekno-mania
- Tekno-Crystal
- Space Knight: Tekkaman Blade TV - review summaries for each episode of Tekkaman Blade
- Tekkaman Blade (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
- Tekkaman Blade Editing Report
- Uchû no kishi tekkaman bureido at the Internet Movie Database
