GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Cortechba Overrated

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

David Roggenkamp How about an anime with a difference? This one comes in at over twenty-six episodes, has transformation sequences involving humans and mecha, and has very little in the way of sexual gratuity and fan service. The whole point is to tell the tale of a haunted male, a group of individuals bent on saving the Earth, and the trials the species must undergo due to an enemy invading force. Sounds simple, but it spans in at close to fifty episodes total.Teknoman – Tekkaman Blade in Japan – came out at an odd time in US television. When the UPN (United Paramount Network) was formed, it was best known for delivering the "Star Trek Voyager" and "Star Trek Deep Space Nine" science-fiction programs at different times during the week; the network was also a complement of other similar programs such as 'Seven Days' and 'Hackers'. Not exactly cyberpunk, but many of their programs involved a dark future with a science fiction style atmosphere. Like many networks, UPN also featured a cartoon block; but being a rebel put it on Sunday instead of Saturday; arguably a good maneuver so as not to compete with other networks. One of the programs in their lineup was this anime.At the time, it was fairly obvious that Teknoman was different than other anime. It was namely darker, futuristic, and had many adult themes in it. The series takes place towards the end of the twenty-first century as an enemy invading force sets their sights on Earth. One of there methods includes an invasion force consisting of mutant spider crabs; these things are ruthless and conventional firepower cannot take them down. The other is a type of organic pod that captures alien lifeforms and turns them into slaves for the invading force. These slaves are endowed with super powers that turn them into mechanical warriors known as technomen. Technomen have the ability to puddle-jump from a planet and its moons, they have blade weapons endowed with quantum energy, along with the ability to fire off massive beam blasts that can obliterate most obstacles in their path. These pods play a central point to the series; because the enemy invading force is merely biding time while these things infect the Earth until they can convert -EVERY- living thing on Earth into a Venemoid warrior loyal to the invaders cause.Sometimes the transformation sequence is avoided in full; either because someone is forcibly removed, leaves the pod by choice willingly and early, or simply because they are rejected when they are not strong enough to serve the Venemoids' purposes. Either way, the central hero, Blade, is one such example and he is practically the only thing stopping the Venemoids from taking over. While the series does focus heavily on Blade, it also focuses on key plot points involving his family which are now his enemies; the military plays a central role, but the main secondary focus of almost all episodes is the go-between – a group called the 'Space Knights' are there to stop Darkon (the enemy warlord) and his minions. There is plot progression as time goes on and a conclusion; there are many plot elements that take place and many attempts fail to stop Darkon, but he does ultimately lose. The problem is, many of the characters do die. This is unprecedented in an anime for the time, but it did happen. Many of the elements between the family members are very akin to the premise of the relationship between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.Acting between characters is that of a prime time drama; it is not natural, but is as natural as acting can get. This is okay, because it helps push the series along. However, as far as acting is concerned, it is not necessarily obvious (at first) that this series is a dub. It looks more like a science fiction series with an anime style. The Japanese anime influence here, save for the art-style, is very minimal – and the creators of the series did a wonderful job here. There is almost no rehashing of scenes save for the transformation sequences; there was probably a high budget for this series while it was being produced. The American acting probably has a few tweaks along the way, but it seems to otherwise go with the overall plot as the series progresses. The moments there are jokes seem to progress with the original Japanese scenes; so I am lead to believe that the series does not otherwise butcher the original plot all that much. This series also features at least one fanservice shot, one ongoing romance, and otherwise features the trademark 'magical transformation sequence', but rather than blotted out nudity it is shown in its full glory. Characters do appear in the nude at times, but it is entirely due to circumstances and nothing else.Lastly, despite the series having many clichés as the basis, along with many of the token characters associated with anime (they are pretty generic); Blade does have one stark contrast compared to many heroes – he is has a mullet, it is messy and still manages to maintain a realistic look as far as anime is concerned with the more traditional spiky hair and all. That's pretty cool if you ask me.The series does have two down points; much like American cartoons spread out over time, the series' animation either changes between episodes or in key scenes or suffers depending on the quality of the art use at the time. The other is that later on, the teknomen become more expendable as Darkon's desperation increases. One would thing the mutant spidercrabs would take center stage here, but at best they are fodder throughout the entire series.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/?p=9144).

wang_jim_best OK, this was a sequel, a really bad sequel, if you have the chance to see the first one, go see it, it's 10 times better .Please do not watch the first one if you are into anime that has good graphics, because the first one does not. What makes it a classic is that it shows human nature like no other anime has.The first one shows an 18 years old, who is put into the unfortunate fate of having to hurt everything he wanted to protect, father, older brother, and the younger brother and sister whom he deeply loves.Personally, this anime has touched me more than any other shows that has been on TV in the past 20 years.

mike_charger I saw the version of this show aired on UPN years ago; I was young and into science fiction like that. However years later I purchased the Japanese DVD collection as well as the sequel OVA.Having watched the entire series subtitled. I can honestly say a lot of emotional impact was lost when brought over to the USA. However this show has a pretty decent plot set up and generally propels you into a drama that has action to spare.The story takes place at the end of the 22nd century in the Japanese version. And centers around an invasion by an alien race that first takes over an orbital space ring. This ring has solved many of the problems caused by manufacturing on earth (pollution woes being one of them). And enabled mankind to set forth for the stars.A mystery man appears battling on the space ring one day using weaponry that is not Earth manufactured and eventually becomes key to winning the war against the alien invaders.This series is worth the time spent getting into it. Though the animation is of the quality one would expect from when it was released over a decade ago. If you like action series with character motivation that is believable, then this show is for you.

turnjet This beats all the mecha Oav's on the planet, hands down. From Gundam, Guyver and even the childhood favourites Tranformers, this rocks! The actual plot isn't really original, you know epic war, protagonist warrior to rid the Earth from destruction. But if you take away all the cliche attachments, you get a thoroughly enjoyable series of pure anime action. A must see for all manga/anime fans!I think the second and concluding series was only aired in Japan and America and was titled Tekkman Blade, however i dont think it used the Teknoman continuum as all the characters were designed in a more child-like orientation, quite sad really...