Teknoman

Tekkaman Blade (宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード Uchū no Kishi Tekkaman Burēdo), titled Teknoman in the English dub, 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.

Synopsis

The year is 2087 when the Venomoids invade Earth. Though human technology has built an orbital ring around the planet, they are no match for the hordes of Spider-Crabs besieging them. Incredibly powerful Teknomen lead the monstrosities and soon the orbital ring has fallen into enemy hands. Death rains down upon human cities and the military is hopelessly ineffective. Only the Space Knights, an autonomous military think-tank, are Earth's final hope with their advanced weaponry and cool heads.

Blade, a renegade Teknoman, appears and battles the Venomoid hordes and their lieutenant, Dagger. He bears an all-consuming hatred for the Venomoids and their leader Darkon. After crash landing on Earth he is taken in by the Space Knights. Blade's single-minded mission of revenge makes him a difficult ally and he regards the Space Knights with cold indifference despite his obvious need for human companionship.

Now humanity has a chance against the Venomoids with Blade and the Space Knights on their side. Too bad Blade isn't the only Teknoman and soon a group of them show up to kick him and the other Space Knights around. Why are the Teknomen human and how did they gain their terrible powers? We learn all of the chilling secrets of Darkon and the Venomoids as Blade travels his road to vengeance. Can he save the Earth, but at what cost to himself?

Dubbing History[]

The series was aired, dubbed in English, in the United States and Australia under the name Teknoman by Saban Entertainment. Two versions of the dub were made; one referred to as the International Dub was done first and aired overseas, the other is known as the UPN dub, which aired in America, and featured various changes and more content edits. The UPN edit featured various other changes, including referring to Blade as "Slade" and changing Blade and Ringo's voice actors. The International version was the one released on Media Blasters' 2006 DVD release. Both English versions were heavily cut compared to the original Japanese version and shortened from 49 episodes to 43.

The character names were altered for the English-dub: Blade's "D-Boy" nickname was dropped in favor of "Blade" 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". As typical of all Saban dubs, a new music score by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy replaced the original score.

Cast[]

Image	Character	Original Name	Seiyū	Dub Actor
Image	Character	Original Name	Seiyū	International	UPN TV Edit
	Teknoman Blade / Nick Carter	Tekkaman Blade / Takaya Aiba	Toshiyuki Morikawa	David A. Thomas	Bob Bergen
	Teknoman Blade / Nick Carter	Tekkaman Blade / Takaya Aiba	Toshiyuki Morikawa	David A. Thomas	Bob Bergen
	Star Summers	Aki Kisaragi	Megumi Hayashibara	Barbara Goodson
	Ringo Richards	Noal Vereuse	Yasunori Matsumoto	Kerrigan Mahan	Michael McConnohie
	Commander Jamison	Heinrich Van Freeman	Hirotaka Suzuoki	Michael Forest
	Tina Corman	Milly	Chisa Yokoyama	Julie Maddalena
	Maggie Matherson	Levin	Shigeru Nakahara	Mari Devon
	Mac Mackleroy	Honda	Shōzō Iizuka	Richard Epcar
	Balzac St. Jacques	Balzac Asimov	Kenyū Horiuchi	Steve Bulen
	Balzac St. Jacques	Balzac Asimov	Kenyū Horiuchi	Steve Bulen
	General Xerxes Galt	General Colbert	Shinya Ōtaki	Mike Reynolds
	Pegas		Nobuo Tobita	Tom Wyner
	Teknoman Dagger	Fritz Von Braun		John Vickery
	Teknoman Dagger	Fritz Von Braun		John Vickery
	Teknoman Saber / Cain Carter	Shinya Aiba	Takehito Koyasu	Paul Schrier
	Teknoman Saber / Cain Carter	Shinya Aiba	Takehito Koyasu	Paul Schrier
	Teknoman Rapier / Shara Carter	Miyuki Aiba	Yūko Mizutani	Wendee Lee
	Teknoman Rapier / Shara Carter	Miyuki Aiba	Yūko Mizutani	Wendee Lee
	Teknoman Axe	Goddard	Yutaka Shimaka	Richard Epcar
	Teknoman Axe	Goddard	Yutaka Shimaka	Richard Epcar
	Teknoman Lance	Molotov	Jūrōta Kosugi	Michael McConnohie
	Teknoman Lance	Molotov	Jūrōta Kosugi	Michael McConnohie
	Teknoman Sword	Feng Li	Mari Yokoo	Melodee Spevack
	Teknoman Sword	Feng Li	Mari Yokoo	Melodee Spevack
	Teknoman Omega (Darkon)	Kengo Aiba	Norio Wakamoto	Simon Prescott
	Sergeant Miles O'Rourke	Barnard O'Toole	Masaru Ikeda	Bryan Cranston
	Narration	N/A		Tom Wyner

Additional Voices

Notes[]

Episodes 11, 26, 34, and 38-40 were the episodes cut from the dub.
UPN's dub was less polished, having many edit problems such as accidental occurrences of "Slade" still being referred to as "Blade" and pieces of the original voice actors for Blade/Slade and Ringo slipping in.

Transmission[]

Date(s)	Channel	Country
1995	Network Ten	Australia
1995-1996	UPN (UPN Kids)	United States

Video Releases[]

Distributor	Year	Contents	Region	Country
Media Blasters	2006	The Complete Series	1 NTSC	United States
	2006	3 Volumes
	2008	The Complete Series
	2008	6 Discs

External Links[]

Teknoman at the Internet Movie Database
Tekkaman Blade (anime) at the Anime News Network