Tekkaman Blade

Tekkaman Blade

In the United Earth Year 192, Earth is under attack from an alien race known as the Radam, which consists of bug-like monsters and armored warriors known as Tekkamen. The Radam's spaceship lies dormant on the dark side of the Moon where the Radam wait for it to be repaired.

Fighting against the Radam is a special defense force called the Space Knights. The group consists of Heinrich von Freeman, the group's commander; Noal Vereuse, the pilot of the Space Knights' ship Blue Earth; Aki, the Blue Earth's navigator; Milly, the communications operator; Levin, a computer mechanic; and Honda, the group's mechanic.

Before the start of the Radam invasion, the exploration ship Argos discovered the dormant Radam spaceship in the outer rings of Saturn. While exploring the ship, the crew were captured by pods and converted into Tekkamen. Before he was fully converted, Takaya was freed by his father and placed into an escape pod; his father then activated the Argos' self-destruct. The Radam crashed on the Moon and began their attacks on Earth.

After spending six months drifting toward Earth, Takaya (called Blade when in Tekkaman form) bursts free from his escape pod and attacks the Radam forces, entering into a fight with Tekkaman Dagger. After the fight, Takaya crashes on Earth and is found by Noal and Aki, who take him back to their headquarters. Takaya is initially hostile towards the Space Knights. As time progresses, he begins to respect the Space Knights for their dedication and develops a romantic interest in Aki. With Takaya’s help, the Space Knights begin to repel the Radam until Blade's transformation crystal is shattered during a battle with Dagger. Levin develops a battle robot named Pegas which houses the shards of Blade's crystal and enables him to transform again. In his first transformation using Pegas, Blade challenges Dagger and kills him.

Meanwhile, Earth's military leader, General Xerces Gault, becomes obsessed with acquiring the Tekkaman armor for his own use. He attempts to attack the Space Knight's base during an emergency, but is forced to withdraw by order of Earth's President. He later sends in the spy Balzac, posing as a journalist, to infiltrate the Space Knights. Balzac acquires data on the Tekkaman armor system and Earth's military create their own Tekkamen armor, which are worn by Balzac and Noal; however, they are not as powerful as the original Radam version.

Four more Tekkamen—Tekkaman Lance, Tekkaman Axe, Tekkaman Sword and Blade's twin brother Shinya (Tekkaman Evil)—arrive on Earth to challenge Blade. Blade's sister, Miyuki, Tekkaman Rapier, also arrives on Earth, but like Blade she is not under the Radam's control. Evil, Lance, Axe, and Sword attack the Space Knights' base and attempt to kill Miyuki. Although outnumbered, Miyuki self-destructs in an attempt to destroy the four Tekkamen. Blade manages to kill Lance and Axe and he later gains the power to attain Blaster Tekkaman mode, although he loses more of his memories whenever he uses it. Evil is given the same ability as the last line of defense for the Radam's leader, Tekkaman Omega.

At the end of the war, Blade and Evil meet for the last time, where Blade kills Evil. As he dies, Evil is freed from the Radam's mind control. Balzac kills Sword and they both burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

Blade takes Pegas to the Moon, where he confronts Omega, who reveals that he is Takaya's older brother, Kengo. Omega launches the repaired Radam spaceship and heads for Earth. Blade attacks Omega, who easily defeats Blade. Omega is about to kill Blade when Pegas steps in front of the killing blow and sacrifices itself. Pegas' destruction enrages Blade and causes him to transform into Blaster Tekkaman mode for the last time. Blade kills Omega and causes the Radam spaceship to explode. The remnants of the Radam spaceship fall to Earth along with Blade, now stripped of his armor. As a result, Blade is left bound to a wheelchair and is completely amnesiac, cared for by Aki.

Tekkaman Blade II

See individual episode summaries below.

Tekkaman Blade

Tekkaman Blade was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo and 50 episodes were aired between February 18, 1992 and February 2, 1993. It uses four pieces of theme music: two opening themes and two ending themes. The first opening theme is "Reason" by Yumiko Kosaka, which is used from the first through twenty-seventh episodes. The second opening theme is "Eternal Loneliness" (永遠の孤独) by Yumiko Kosaka, which is used from the twenty-eighth episode onwards. The first and second ending themes are "Energy of Love" and "Lonely Heart" respectively, both performed by Kosaka.^[1]

The series was aired, dubbed in English, in the United States and Australia under the name Teknoman. The English broadcast version was heavily cut compared to the original Japanese version and shortened from 50 episodes to 43. The series was licensed by Media Blasters in 2006, with separate boxsets for Teknoman and Tekkaman Blade.^[2]

The character names were altered for the English-dubbed Teknoman release: Blade's "D-Boy" nickname was dropped in favor of "Blade" (in the edited UPN TV version, it was changed to "Slade") and his full name "Takaya Aiba" became "Nick Carter". Similarly, "Commander Heinrich von Freeman" became "Commander Jamison", "Noal" became "Ringo Richards", "Aki" became "Star Summers", "Milly" became "Tina Corman", "Levin" (an effeminate male in the original Japanese version) became the female "Maggie Matheson" and "Honda" became "Mack". The "Radam" were now called "Venemoids" and their leader "Omega" became "Darkon".

In January 2016, the series was released as a remastered Blu-Ray boxset in Japan. The set contains all 50 episodes of the first series and all 6 episodes of the second series, as well as the OVA specials from the laserdiscs, an unreleased episode entitled "Virgin Memory", and a new video interview with Toshiyuki Morikawa.^[3]

Specials

Tekkaman Blade II

Tekkaman Blade II (宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレードII, Uchu no Kishi Tekkaman Burēdo Tsū, lit. Space Knight Tekkaman Blade II ) is a seven-episode original video animation (OVA) that was released in 1994 by Tatsunoko and serves as a sequel to the Tekkaman Blade anime series. The series was licensed by Discotek Media in 2012 for an uncut home-media release on DVD and Blu-Ray format, with English dubbing and subtitles as options.^[5]

Manga

A single-volume manga based on the series was written and illustrated by Noritaka Suzuki, being published by MediaWorks. Another manga based on Tekkaman Blade II was written and illustrated by Rei Nakahara, and was also published by MediaWorks.

Novels

Two novels based on Tekkaman Blade II were released. The first, titled The Girl in the Crystal Place, was written by Hiroyuki Kawasaki and was published by Dengeki Bunko. The novel is a sequel to the OVA series, depicting a third Radam invasion. The second was written by Katsuhiko Takayama and was published by Sony Magazines.

Video games

A video game based on the anime series titled Uchū no Kishi: Tekkaman Blade was released for the Super Famicom on July 30, 1993. The majority of the game is a scrolling shooter where the player takes control of Tekkaman Blade, whose battles have elements of the fighting-game genre. There is also a two-player versus mode.

Tekkaman Blade also appeared in Super Robot Wars J for the Game Boy Advance. However, the series' inclusion in the game would be controversial due to it not being a traditional mecha series (as the series only has one robot in Pegas).

The first series, along with Tekkaman Blade II would also appear in Super Robot Wars W for the Nintendo DS.

Tekkaman Blade is also a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.^[7]