When this showed up, I was busy watching a 90s rerun of Robotech. Didn't really catch it all too often, but the theme song and Tekkaman designs never left me. Made sure to get the title for future reference. Now's my chance to see it from the get go.
Media Blasters got a hold of it and released it to DVD in 2011 as 3 volumes. However the UPN cut is just full of Nostalgic cuts and pacing. Love it. Superb work.
Gotta say, I actually kinda prefer how they changed the line from the Japanese. In the Japanese after Marlo dies, Balzac basically just calls D-Boy a loser and brags about how he “defeated” him. But in the dub them changing it to Balzac blaming Blade for Marlo’s death is honestly way better in my opinion.
After seeing some of the Japanese version Teknoman and reading some forums people gauge Teknoman as being around 92% like it's Tekkaman Blade Counterpart. What's missing is alot of the filler episodes that just have Darkon/Omega discuss the Aliens in a bit more detail. And Levin being changed to Maggie because of issues in the 90s with LGBTQ+ I do like the changes though, in the UPN version specifically it drives home Blade/Slade's attempts to try and reason with his former friends/family to save them whereas in the International and Japanese versions his interactions are straight forward responding to them. There's quite a bit of changes to note that would make my reply absurdly long but to shorten it as best I can. I did like how they kept Darkon's identity a secret till the very end whereas in the original version they spill the beans not even half-way into the series. I feel that alot of the dialogue changes work despite it because the western take wanted to make Blade a tragic hero and they didn't want to make it too sad by stripping Blade of his sanity at the end like in the japanese version. Balzac doesn't die in the english script and Darkon's lines at the final battle show him to still want Blade to join and that it didn't have to come to them fighting to the death. Overall I think that despite the censorship Western changes weren't all bad and were creative. Afterall it was geared towards kids which alot of us were when this was being aired on TV. These days modern woke garbage rhetoric is being purposefully put in which is faaar worse than having to creatively dumb things down for the sake of a TV-Y7 or G to PG rating.
Man just imagine being a kid, watching this on TV and it ends on this huge cliffhanger and you’re just waiting for it to get resolved…… and then it never does.
Yes, that's the international version of the English dub. This is the American version of the dub which has more violence cut out and has a few different voices (including Ringo) and names.
😭😭😊😊 omg so glad u had recorded upn verson its so much enjoyable to watch this verson than the japanese verson this is the verson from my childhood why i feel in love with this show
I've seen three versions of this series, and this episode exemplifies why I prefer the UPN version. The background music when Shara self destructs just fits. Then there are Saber's lines, because seriously? "You won't stop me, but trying to WILL be the last thing you do!"
