Anime: Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman Blade

Tekkaman Blade contains all the trappings of a mecha anime of its era. The warriors throw a yell in order to begin the transformation sequence (which uses a stylized crystal as a catalyst), and activate the special abilities of their suits with similar yells. And female pilots always ride mechas with high heels. There is no attempt at pretension or self-parody; all such elements used to be commonplace and played with a straight face back in the ‘90s, after all. And yet, I think the series manages to remain charming despite such infusions of cheesiness. The dark mood definitely helps very much to up the ante. The setting of the series is post-apocalyptic or, more accurately, set during the apocalyptic event itself. There is a general sense of delapidation and abandonment, as much of the population has died and the survivors have left their old habitats behind in order to gather into tougher and more protected settlements. This gives lots of areas full of ruins or wasteland where the mecha battles can take place to great effect. There are also some pre-conflict settlements and constructions shown during some episodes, and those serve as a familiar link to our world. The Aiba family manor especially, with its general state of ruin and partially run over by Radam pods, evokes both familial and haunting feelings, as a token of what has gone awry with the state of humanity. In contrast to all the ruins of the past, there are ultra-futuristic military bases, replete with laser rifles, supercomputers and fashion-forward sunglasses. The setting runs the whole gamut from struggling pastoral life to Dyson-esque space stations, and is convincing on most fronts.

The plot goes through a whole range of motions. There is an initial phase of wonderment where the series takes its sweet time to introduce the various primary and secondary characters in the context of the ongoing conflict; fortunately, the plot picks up the pace after the initial arc. For the most part the series does not exhibit secondary plots, instead preferring to bring one thematic unit to its end before moving on to the next one; there are some exceptions of one-shot episodes pausing the ongoing plot in order to explore other events and characters in more depth, but those are relatively few and far in-between. As far as the main arcs are concerned, there is a little bit of everything: some are more esoteric and deal with the characters’ inner conflict and personal relationships; others display a sense of urgency concerning the fate of humanity and are heavier on the battle scenes. There is a set formula involving at least some dialogue and angst and at least some mecha fighting, which is implemented in almost every episode. But in spite of this formulaic approach on an episode level, on a greater scale the series presents much variation in the sci-fi themes it explores, so it avoids stagnation (even though the series is longer than what modern viewers are accustomed to). There are some plot elements which are out of place or don’t make sense in the context of the general plot, and sadly there is no effort made to reason with them or explain them away, but I don’t think that those detract much from the quality of the story.

Personally I found most of the characters to be very enjoyable. I especially liked the villains and the time taken aside in order to develop their characters (including the use of many flashbacks) to the point where it is shown that their actions are the result of bitter and human sentiments that everyday people harbour, driven to an extreme. Although only a handful of villains have more than a couple of episodes’ worth of screen time, they show great depth of character, and they viewer can empathize with their struggle. The members of the earthbound military group also show much depth and variance, from the stoic leader to the travestite engineer; there are even some standalone episodes dedicated to exploring their past and present them as more well-rounded characters, so there are no complaints there. One point which did nag me was the origin stories of some of the supportive Tekkamen; the protagonist’s origin is very deliberate and limiting as a unique exception to the general process, and having additional characters also appear as exceptions stretches credibility a little.

Designs are definitely at their best when dealing with the techno-organic; the human houses and other constructions run over by alien fauna have a sense of haunt about them that feels as if taken straight from a horror film. Almost as good are the space battles; admittedly there are only so many ways one can draw explosions and laser beams against a starry background, but they are nicely choreographed. The rest of the graphics varies from mediocre to good. Animation is handled by studio Tatsunoko, which used to have the annoying tendency to intermittently botch their own designs. In the case of Tekkaman Blade, there are various examples where the proportions and perspective angles of characters and objects are messed up, making the scenes appear lopsided. It doesn’t happen often, but it is annoying where noticeable. Fortunately the studio improved considerably in the following years; among the DVD specials are included some outtakes where episodes or scenes are redrawn from scratch, and the designs there are richer and more detailed.

What I liked best about the music was the fact that each character party had its own musical theme, which could be heard in most scenes depicting them; in fact, there were themes even for some specific characters! Some of those were very good, and the whole attempt complemented the experience very nicely. Voice acting was very competent, with no real surprises or let-downs. At times the dramatic dialogue sounded a bit sappy, and the war cries had a certain amount of camp in them, but I suppose that it is the lines themselves, rather than the actors voicing them, which are to blame. Finally, the OP and ED alike are very well done; although not memorable, they are pleasant to listen during the course of the series.

The ending of the series brings closure to the whole saga, while leaving ample room for a sequel. However, the series itself is self-contained and can be watched without any knowledge of sequels or alternative versions (which is a nice way to say “please don’t watch the sequel, it was bad”). Overall I found that watching Tekkaman Blade was an surprisingly pleasant experience. It sounds like a banal story of yet another mecha anime of the ‘90s, but in truth it is amongst the best of its kind.

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR83jBjH7lU

PRODUCTION VALUES

Although old, the graphics are still very good. And I’m not talking about the human figures or the spaceships; to hell with them; they are one of the same. I am referring to the bioorganic alien Tekkaman suits. Many series have bioorganic suits in them (Guyver being the most known) but none were that imposing. Slick drawings, cool to look at, awesome to watch them fight. They are the main attraction that keeps you watching even through boring episodes.

Tekkaman had great battles by combining mecha elements with martial arts in an era were almost all science fiction series had simply bulky robots throwing missiles and fighting with swords. The only anime that I can think of that has better action scenes of this kind is the much recent Karas.

As for the rest of the non-action time, there is still enough to keep you optically interested. There are gorgeous women to look at, villainous-looking, scheming military men and detailed spaceships/futuristic bases. Anything a classic title deserves to have.

As for the bad part, there is unfortunately plenty of repeating footage going around. Many battles repeat the same action clips in very obvious ways, which is infuriating.

The sound department is also very good. Decent voices that allow you to easily bind with the characters and hard pop music themes that increase the adrenaline sky-hi. More specifically, the second opening song is amongst the best I have ever heard (and I have heard a lot).

SCRIPT

A weak point of the series. In the future, insectoid aliens attack Earth and a man possessing (or better say, has been possessed by) alien technology tries to stop them. Tekkaman is a bioorganic suit with an alien parasite that uses a human host as a main body. Anyone who is trapped inside an alien cocoon-like tube for a long time, is turned into a mindless killing machine, bind on destroying humanity. The protagonist escapes before the transformation is complete and thus can use the suit without loosing his sanity. He is aided by friends in military Earth staff, who help him feel human again after every transformation.

Most of the scenario elements are pretty typical in superhero series. The protagonist uses an energy crystal to transform, yells sound activating special attacks and even fights with far-east-like style of fighting. There are several plot twists that prevent the story from being stale. The protagonist’s past is slowly revealed, old friends-turned-rivals appear, he tries to have a normal relationship with the leading woman, he gets weapon upgrades, he tries not to loose his sanity, and not to turn into a mindless weapon for some treacherous military men. But still, the plot moves rather slowly and has several unimportant battles with secondary uninteresting villains, becoming boring half the times.

SCRIPT
All the series revolves around the protagonist, D-Boy, as he struggles to save the Earth, avenge the aliens for what they did to (I’m not revealing that! It’s a spoiler!) and have a relationship with the leading female. The other strong characters in the story are the woman he loves that continually reminds him of what it means to be human and his main rival who (what a surprise!) is the strongest enemy Tekkaman. These three are so memorable that make up for all the rest who don’t really have a personality or character development. There is sadness, anger, angst, and laughter, enough to consider the series a space opera at the non-action points. Some really fake characters and the overusing of melodramatic scenes spoils a perfect mark but in general, the characters are good.

LEGACY
It’s still amongst the best action/science fiction series. It has cool battle suits. It’s partially centered on love, hate, sadness and the human psyche. It is not repeating the same stuff over and over. What more could someone want? Many parts will feel repetitive or fake but then the battle begins and you forget everything.

And now for some excused scorings.
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