Space Knight Tekkaman Blade is a 1992 anime series by Tatsunoko Production, re-imagining their 1970s series Tekkaman the Space Knight. The setup for the series is that the Earth is being invaded by parasitic aliens known as the Radam (Venomoids in the English version). The Radam are led by mysterious armored warriors called Tekkamen (Teknomen in the English version). The Earth military and the Space Knights have been unsuccessful at fighting the invading aliens until the arrival of a mysterious young man known as D-Boy, who can transform into the powerful armored warrior Tekkaman Blade.Tekkaman Blade was dubbed in English under the name "Teknoman" in two versions. The American dub, which only lasted 26 episodes and the International Dub, which was shown everywhere else besides America and Japan. The DVD American release is of the International Dub.A sequel series, Tekkaman Blade II, takes place ten years after the events of the first series. The Radam are invading yet again, and the expanded Space Knights train a team of new Tekkamen to fight them. The first half deals with the continuing Radam war and focuses on Yumi Francois/Tekkaman Hiver, a clumsy mechanic who is nonetheless recruited into the new team. The second half details the appearance of Tekkaman Dead and his struggle with David Kruegel, Tekkaman Sommer, as well as with Blade himself.Though its premise is more like an armored super hero, it still made its way to Super Robot Wars (J and W). Go figure. And if superheroes (and Capcom) are more your cup of tea than giant robots, then you can check out Blade's playable appearance in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars.A character sheet is constantly in-progress.This show provides examples of the following tropes:
Angst: Turning into an alien monster and having to fight and kill your family members and closest friends (Goddard was practically family, and Fong would've been his sister-in-law if the Radam had snared the ship a day later) who still seem to be mostly themselves (they have their personalities and memories, their loyalty is just to the Radam over the human race) is a pretty tall order no matter how you slice it. Add on the fact that he's deathly afraid of getting close to anyone ever again because of it, the fact that if he goes overtime in his Tekkaman form he could become an out of control threat potentially worse than the Radam (and does), the fact that early on he is at best mistrusted by the others and at worst hated and treated like a monster... especially considering his general emotional response is to just run on sheer anger and hate for the Radam and the wangst only comes up when he's out and out overwhelmed, as anime leads go, Takaya's emo moments are pretty damn justified.
Which make his amnesia as the side effect of the Blastor Form more of a blessing than a misfortune, really.
Cain and Abel: Teknoman actually renames one of the brothers "Cain". The first episode of Tekkaman Blade II includes the biblical Cain and Abel story in its title crawl.
Call Back : The end of series speech Blade made to Dead to live on and let Tekkaman Dead to die is a Call Back to the end of the first series where he state that Takaya Aiba is dead before defeating Omega.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique/Deadly Upgrade: In the beginning of the first series, the main character's incomplete transformation allows him to retain his free will, but has a side effect; his constant transformations into his superpowered form are destroying his central nervous system. The upgrade to Blastor Mode fixed this problem, but caused transforming to burn up his memories instead—he even forgets how to transform at one point. And dialogue by the arch-villain, in the Australian dub at least, implied that this Super Mode upgrade would cause a Teknoman to burn out and die within a few months, though this doesn't come to pass.
Darker and Edgier: The original Tekkaman was already pretty grim, but Blade throws Idealism into deep space and space lances it.
Heroic Sacrifice: Miyuki/Shara, already dying, blows herself up in battle with the Tekkamen attacking the Space Knights' HQ at the end of the first season. However, in the second season, it turns out that the evil Tekkamen survived.
Hour of Power: D-Boy can't stay in his Tekkaman form for more than thirty minutes, or he'll go into an Unstoppable Rage that will supposedly culminate in a permanent Face Heel Turn.
Made all the more crushing when he finds out near the end of the series that each Tekkaman is only evil via a Radam parasite, and that he could've gotten through to them if only he'd known to kill the parasite first somehow.
Ill Girl: Miyuki/Shara is a pretty tragic example.
Incredibly Lame Pun: The dub is full of these. Leads to a bit of Mood Whiplash, as Blade will go from joking around to deadly serious in the span of 5 minutes.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Double Subversion: D-Boy apparently has amnesia at the beginning of the series, but it turns out he's lying. Then near the end, he starts losing his memory for real.
Like Cannot Cut Like: A Tekkaman's lancer has never been shown as capable of cutting another one.
Love Dodecahedron: Aki/D-Boy/Yumi, with Hayato having unrequited feelings for Yumi. Also D-Boy/Aki/David, with David eventually establishing some sort of Ho Yay with Dead.
Monster Is a Mommy: A scene in II where Alien Tekkamen mourn the death of one of their own.
Mangst: Despite all the endless and very angst-inducing problems D-Boy seems to have, he doesn't even TALK about them during practically the entire first half of the series, instead focusing all his efforts of kicking the Radam's ass. Pretty damn manly way to deal with angst.
Shout Out: In one of the later episodes of the first series, during the evacuation to the Orbital Ring, we are treated to a child being picked up by their father, whom the scene lingers on while they talk. This father answers the child's concerns with "As long as we have Tekkaman, we'll be fine". Watching the "History Of Tekkaman" featurette on the DVDs, and the appearance of the father is a dead ringer for the 1970s main character.
Spell My Name with an S: Crash Intrude is sometimes spelled as "Crush Intrude" or even odder names like "Crush Interlude" or "Crest Interlude". Likewise with variations of Voltekka such as "Volt Tekka" and "Voltekker".
This also happened between the U.S. and international dubs of Teknoman: it was Ness Carter/Teknoman Slade (U.S.) versus Nick Carter/Teknoman Blade (international).
Stock Footage: Blade's transformations and the launching of the Blue Earth, in particular.
Strong As They Need To Be: Somehow, Blade is simultaneously stronger and weaker in the sequel than he was at the beginning of the original series. No information is ever disclosed to explain this.
Tekkaman Blade II names three Tekkamen after the seasons in various languages: Sommer (German for "summer"), Vesna (which is a poetic word for "spring" in many Slavic languages), and Hiver (French for "winter"). Aki's name already means "autumn" in Japanese, so she fits the theme without even needing a Code Name.
Transformation Trinket: The Tek-set system is composed of a single crystal whose appearance varies between each individual Tekkaman. When Takaya's is shattered, it's later installed in his Humongous Mecha, Pegas.
And somehow regenerated in the sequel without explanation.
The Unfavorite: Shinya/Cain in the Burning Clock special. He felt that his father viewed him as weaker than his older brother and blamed him for his mother's death. It doesn't help that even though Shinya often won the matches, races and other competitions he had with Takaya, his more outgoing twin would unintentionally overshadow him most of the time.
Wrench Wench: Levin... sorta. Really sorta. Also Yumi Francois, who started the OVA as a Blue Earth mechanic but quickly got upgraded to the first half's main character.
0 reviews 
