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TEKKAMAN BLADE COLLECTION 1 (ADVANCE REVIEW) |
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Thursday, 08 February 2007 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | MEDIA BLASTERS | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 1.33:1 FULL FRAME | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | JAPANESE DD 2.0 W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 400 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 13UP | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 03/27/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/09/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
SYNOPSIS:
It is the near future, United Space Calendar Year 192. The evil alien Radam has besieged the Earth, gaining control of the enormous Orbital Ring that surrounds the planet and raining down mysterious spores that fill Earth with alien plants.
Aki and Noal, two pilots from the Outer Space Development Group, find one of the alien lieutenants who crash-landed on Earth. The stranger claims to have no memory, and is determined to fight to protect humanity! His name is D-Boy, and he appears to be a normal human - until he transforms into the bio-mechanical warrior, Tekkaman Blade!
The first 16 episodes are collected on 3 DVD discs.
REVIEW:
Finally for fans here it is, the Tekkaman Blade series uncut and uncensored the way it was meant to be seen. The space opera of Blade, the Tekkaman, is known to many people in the Western world as Teknoman and by the name Slade in the dubbed Enlgish version. In this original Japanese anime, you’ll finally get the chance to see the series in its entirety, all the episodes without a single one edited, truncated or simply left out as was done in the English dubbed version. Here it is at last with the original names, the original story, the original anime. It includes episodes never before seen in North America.
The first 16 episodes cover the arcs of D-Boy’s explosive arrival on Earth, his meeting of the Space Knights and his joining the fight against the alien Radam Forces out to overtake the Earth. We see D-Boy’s fight to retain his humanity which he risks losing every time he transforms. There are also the first evolutions of his relationships with the Space Knights and his growing bond with each of them. It is through his strengthening ties wit them, particularly with Aki that he rediscovers his human soul and regains his heart. These first episodes also see the arrival of Evil, Blade’s most daunting enemy to battle yet. It is followed by a betrayal within the Space Knights itself.
This is space opera in high fashion. The original Japanese story is even more dramatic and suspenseful than its translated English Teknoman counterpart. It has intrigue, suspense and action. The video transfer is very clean. The English subtitles use the original Japanese character names (Unlike the English dubbed version) and although there are a couple of innocuous typos, the overall subtitle stream itself is clear and easy to read.
EXTRAS:
The set itself comes in a spiffy case that opens like a book to the three discs inside. Bonus features on the DVDs include textless opening and closing animation, previews of other Media Blasters titles, a bonus episode “Twin Blood” and a History of Tekkaman featurette. The bonus episode focuses on Evil/Shinya and his meeting his brother again for the first time after the Radam encounter and subsequent transformation. It sports some very different animation character designs and styles for the characters than the series, particularly Aki. It’s an interesting look at things from Shinya’s point of reference and the animation was very appealing. The History of Tekkaman takes a comparative look at the original Tekkaman TV series and the newer Tekkaman Blade storyline and animation. It has original character and design sketches as well as character profiles.
IN SUMMARY:
Tekkaman will thrill anime purists of the space opera genre while delighting Teknoman fans with the opportunity to see the original anime uncut with its story and characters completely intact. |
