Anime Review: Tekkaman***1/2 out of *****Shortly before the release of Tatsunoko vs Capcom, I came across a box set of one of the characters at a comic book shop in Salem MA. Picking it up, all it took was to see the lead hero, Tekkaman and his giant robot, Pegas. Shelling out the money for it, I made it home in record time and popped the DVD in. But before I get into the review, I'll tell a little bit about the anime company that made the series.
Tatunoko Productions was founded in 1962 by Anime producer Tatsuko Yoshida and his brothers Kenji and Toyoharu. Maybe it's just me, but I think that would pretty much be the best family business ever. Anyways, Tatsunoko's first major hit was Mach Go Go Go, known as Speed Racer in America. This started a long chain of animation films being brought over from Japan to America with new voice overs and edits. Other series Tatusnoko licenced to America were Gatchaman (known as Battle of the Planets and G-Force), Time Bokan (the OVA was released on DVD in America) and Tekkaman Blade (known as Teknoman, no idea how they came up with this moronic name). They also provided the animation for Neon Genesis, Robotech as well as Samuri Pizza Cats...I'm not making that up.
Tatsunoko's biggest hits were, in my opinion, that of the Sci-Fi genera. They pretty much invented every cliché in Anime. The teams of 5, the incredibly long moves, the constantly repeated transformation scenes, and the yelling of the name of every super move. Pretty much there would be a lot less awesome anime nowadays if it weren't for Tatsunoko.
Anyways, back to Tekkaman. The series focuses on the planet Earth, which is heavily polluted and rapidly dying. Knowing the Earth only has 10 years left before all resources are exhausted, Scientists create the "Green Earth Project", a plan which will send out ships to find a new planet that Humans can inhabit (and quickly bring said planet to a rapid decline which will only end in its destruction, but that's only my opinion). One of the first ships sent out, the Space Angel, is destroyed by a group of aliens known as Waldaster. Earth is crushed, and it seems all hope is lost.
However, Dr. Amachi creates a giant robot, named Pegas. Inside Pegas is the "Tekset System", which allows humans to sync up with a certain wavelength and become the super human Tekkaman. However, the Tekset system does not work for every human, and if the wavelengths do not sync up, the human will die. A human known as Joji Minami, whose father was killed on the Space Angel, pleads with Dr. Amachi to let him become Tekkaman, but Amachi says that it is too risky. However, this doesn't stop Joji from trying, and luckily for Joji and Tatsunoko, his wavelengths match and he transforms into Tekkaman.
Now onto the Anime, which is a good piece, but there are several key elements missing. First of all, the ending is super lame. Granted it leaves you with hope that things will work out for the heroes. But there are too many questions left unanswered. I will not go into said questions because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. But it's most likely safe to say that this Anime has Japan's first Cliff hanger ending, which has become commonplace in Japanese animation nowadays.
Second of all, the story is non-exsistant as far as a continuing story line goes. Which works to it's advantage in one way, because the series is only 26 episodes long you don't have to worry about spending close to a grand to see the entire series. However, it lacks the basic connectivity to the characters. The plot that Joji's father was killed by Waldaster is quickly forgotten maybe 8 episodes in. The support characters have a somewhat running plot line. Andro and Mutan are from another planet which Waldaster took over, and all they want is to put a stop to Waldaster and go home. This creates conflicting emotions in Andro, but they are not consistent and only appear once in every 7 episodes at best.
The animation does have it's plus sides, however. The action is pretty intense and it's really cool to watch Tekkaman plow through wave after wave of space craft. Using his space lance, he pretty much cuts though anything in his path. This creates some comical moments, for example during a later episode Tekkaman cuts the bottom of an opponents space craft, pops up to say hello and jumps out before the ship explodes.
Another thing that gives the series a new feeling is that no two episodes are the same. One episode you'll have a space battle, the next you'll have a giant robot try and invade earth, and the next you will have a rescue attempt on one of Waldaster's ships. This really give the series a feeling of the unknown, and It gives the short lived series the ability to compete with longer, well established series such as the Mazinger series.
In closing, the series does have its weak points, but that is most likely because it is one of Tatsunoko's shortest Action anime (tied with Hurricane Polimar at 26 episodes each). There has been a re-telling of the original series, released as Tekkaman Blade in Japan and America (You can get it unedited on DVD), but the US TV version was a bastardization by everyone's favorite company Sabian, and released as Teknoman in 1993. You can get Teknoman on DVD at Best buy for $13. For the entire series. If this was a few years ago, I would have already picked it up, but nowadays I'm not stupid and know a $13 product would probably give you $13 of enjoyment. I'd rather spend my money at an Arcade.
For more information on Tatusnoko's products, check out the english website: http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/english/index.html
