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 the 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, an exploration ship called Argos, crewed by the Aiba family and their friends, discovered the Radam spaceship lying dormant in the outer rings of Saturn. While exploring the ship, the crew were captured by pods and converted into Tekkamen while Argos was assimilated. Takaya's father was rejected by the pods and freed Takaya before he was fully converted. Takaya's father placed him into an escape pod before activating Argos' self-destruct, causing the ship to crash land on the Moon. Takaya spent six months drifting back to Earth in his escape pod while the Radam began its' invasion. Takaya burst free from his escape pod and attacked the Radam forces, which drew Tekkaman Dagger's attention and caused the two to fight. After the fight, Takaya crashes down to Earth where he is discovered by Noal and Aki, who take him back to their headquarters, where he takes the name "D-Boy", an abbreviated form of "Dangerous Boy", given to him by Noal.

In the beginning, Takaya is hostile towards the Space Knights. However, 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 take Blade and his armor by force by attacking the Space Knight's base during an emergency, but is forced to back down by order of Earth's President. He later sends in Balzac St. Jaques, a spy who goes undercover as a journalist, to infiltrate the Space Knights. Balzac acquires data on the Tekkaman armor system from Freeman. 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 Tekkaman Evil—arrive on Earth to challenge Blade. Blade's sister Miyuki, Tekkaman Rapier, also arrives on Earth. However, 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 also given the same ability in order to serve 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 as they both burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

Blade takes off on Pegas and arrives on the Moon, where he confronts Omega, who reveals that he is Takaya's older brother Kengo. Omega launches the repaired Radam spaceship and takes off towards Earth. Blade attacks Omega, who proves too powerful and 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

Tekkaman Blade was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo and 49 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.

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 49 episodes to 43. The series was licensed by Media Blasters in 2006, with separate boxsets for Teknoman and Tekkaman Blade.

The character names were altered for the English-dubbed Teknoman release: Blade's "D-Boy" name was dropped in favor of "Blade" (in the edited UPN TV version, it was changed to "Slade") and his true name "Takaya Aiba" became "Nick Carter", "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".

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 six-episode original video animation that was released in 1994 by Tatsunoko and serves as the sequel to the Tekkaman Blade anime series. The series was licensed by Discotek Media in 2012 for an uncut home media release on DVD format, with English dubbing and subtitles as options.

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 is also a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.