is a 1992 Japanese anime television series produced by Tatsunoko Production and Sotsu Agency. The series was directed by Hiroshi Negishi and written by Mayori Sekijima and Satoru Akahori. The story follows an organization called the Space Knights and their war against aliens known as the Radam. The Space Knights are assisted by Takaya Aiba, who has the ability to transform into an armored warrior known as Tekkaman Blade.
The first series, of 50 episodes (including episode 0), aired in Japan from February 18, 1992, to February 2, 1993, on TV Tokyo. This was followed by two specials. A sequel series called Tekkaman Blade II, which is set ten years after the first series and follows the events of the second Radam invasion, was a series of six Japanese original video animation (OVA) releases from July 21, 1994, to April 21, 1995. A video game based on the series, titled Uchū no Kishi: Tekkaman Blade, was released in Japan on July 30, 1993. The original series was released internationally, including North America, and was dubbed in English as Teknoman. In the English-dubbed versions, the series was heavily cut compared to the original Japanese version and shortened from 50 to 43 episodes.
Plot 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 Kirasagi, the Blue Earths 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 Aiba (Tekkaman Blade) was freed by his father, Kozo, 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, Blade bursts free from his escape pod and attacks the Radam forces, entering into a fight with Tekkaman Dagger (Fritz von Braun). After the fight, Blade crashes on Earth and is found by Noal and Aki, who take him back to their headquarters. Blade is initially hostile towards the Space Knights, but as time progresses, he begins to respect them for their dedication and develops a romantic interest in Aki. With Blade'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 ambitious military leader, General Colbert, 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 Asimov, 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. Eventually, General Colbert is killed by Blade when he tries to use a weapon that would harm both the Radam and mankind.
Four more Tekkamen – Tekkaman Lance (Molotov), Tekkaman Axe (Goddard), Tekkaman Sword (Hun-Ri) and Tekkaman Evil (Takaya's twin brother Shinya) – arrive on Earth to challenge Blade. Tekkaman Rapier (Takaya's younger sister Miyuki) 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 Rapier. Although outnumbered, Rapier 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 after a long fight. 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 him. Omega is about to kill Blade when Pegas steps in front of the killing blow and sacrifices himself. 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 reliant on a wheelchair and is completely amnesiac, cared for by Aki.
Tekkaman Blade II This six-episode series is set ten years after the original series and a new group of Space Knights confront the Radam. The group features Yumi Francois, Aki, Natasha, David and their mysterious leader, D-Boy. Tekkaman Blade joins them to fight the sinister alien enemy, but things become complicated by the appearance of Dead End. He blames the Space Knights for the destruction of the Tekk-plant at Prague after it was conquered by revolutionary generic Tekkamen.
See individual episode summaries below.
Production
The series itself was conceived as being a re-imagining of the 1975 anime, Tekkaman: The Space Knight which was also by Tatsunoko Production. During production, the show was initially called "Space Knight Tekkaman Cyber", and even when it was announced in anime magazines, it was tentatively called "Tekkaman Cyber".アニメージュレーダー, January 1992, pg. 76"Spirits of Anime Fan!" B-Club, Issue 78, pg. 125 The planning for the series was done by Kouki Narishima and Mitsushige Inagaki while Motoki Ueda would serve as producer on Tatsunoko's behalf. The series' main sponsor which was Bandai's hobby division wanted a series that had a lot of name recognition, so Tekkaman: The Space Knight was ultimately chosen amongst other works that Tatsunoko owned. Other potential candidates such as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman were suggested, but Tekkaman was chosen because Gatchaman proved difficult to make into model kits and Ueda himself was more of a fan of the original Tekkaman. Initial plans for the plot were to have the main protagonist's family members becoming his enemies, but was later changed to have his brother be his enemy. This plot point was taken from a prior Tatsunoko anime which Ueda previously produced being Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato, in which the main character fought against his best friend who was brainwashed by the main antagonists. Coincidentally, Takehito Koyasu, who voiced Gai in Shurato, would later voice Shinya Aiba in this series. In another coincidence, Shurato had armor that was white and red, while Gai sported a set of black and red armor, which likely influenced Blade and Evil's color schemes in the final product. Shurato proved to be popular with female viewers, but the plastic model sales were not, so this series was created for males with model kits in mind, and the only element that would appeal to females was Shinya.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 119
Character designs were done by Hirotoshi Sano and Tomonori Kogawa (credited under the name TOIIIO in the opening and end credits),エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 122 however, due to a busy schedule, Sano was only able to draw the main protagonist, heroine, and three female characters.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 119 Kogawa was originally requested to join as a director, but when he was invited, he was asked not only to direct but also to design and thus drew the remaining characters in place of Sano. Kogawa was also involved in the series as an animation director under the pseudonym Aiba Kouu.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 123
Yutaka Izubuchi was originally going to provide the Tekkaman designs, but due to him also being busy, he was only able to draw a couple of rough design sketches.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 119 The rough designs were then done by Yoshinori Sayama, an apprentice of Izubuchi's who had been working with Izubuchi to help make design materials to present to the series' sponsors and producers.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 125 When Ueda saw the rough designs, he was convinced that Sayama could do it, but Bandai couldn't decide whether they could sell the designs or not, so a competition was held among more than a dozen designers, which Sayama ultimately won.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 125 Sayama was not familiar with the original Tekkaman's design, but Ueda suggested that he work on it without looking at the original design, and would only gave him his impressions.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 126 Finally, Kaoru Wada, who was the composer, was told that he did not need to be familiar with the music from the original Tekkaman when composing the series' score.エンターテインメントアーカイブ 宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード, 2020, pg. 128
Episodes 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 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.
In 1995, the series was dubbed in English by Saban Entertainment for UPN Kids, under the name Teknoman. Their dub featured a new theme song and background score by Shuki Levy and Ron Wasserman (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, X-Men, Dragon Ball Z). The American broadcast version was heavily cut compared to the original Japanese version and shortened from 50 episodes to 43. Saban's dub also aired in Australia during 1995 and 1997, on Network Ten's Cheez TV morning cartoon block.
The series was licensed by Media Blasters Entertainment, through its AnimeWorks label in 2006, with separate boxsets for Teknoman and Tekkaman Blade.
The rights to the edited Saban/UPN Kids TV dub version of Teknoman was owned by Disney Enterprises thru BVS Entertainment, after Disney acquired the Fox Family/Fox Kids Worldwide franchise in 2001, while Media Blasters/AnimeWorks owns the rights to the International dub of Teknoman in 2006, after they released this dub, along with the uncut Tekkaman Blade on Region 1 DVD.
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", "Noel" 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", "Honda" became "Mack", and "Miyuki" became "Shara". The "Radam" were now called "Venemoids" and their leader "Omega" became "Darkon".