Ask John: Why is Tekkaman So Unknown?

Question:
How come not many people know about Teknoman (Tekkaman). On AnimeNation.com they have the Tekkaman II but they don’t have anything about Teknoman (Tekkaman) even though it is a Japanese anime. Why is this?

Answer:
The Tekkaman franchise is simply very old, and its American distribution has never been particularly strong. The original 26 episode Space Knight Tekkaman TV series aired in Japan in 1975. The franchise was revived in 1992 with the 49 episode Tekkaman Blade television which was followed by the 6 episode Tekkaman Blade II OAV series, released in 1994. Probably unknown to many anime fans, half of the original series was localized for American television broadcast in 1984, but the broadcast and home video release were overshadowed by competing programs like Voltron and Silverhawks. In 1995 the infamous Saban company released 43 out of the original 49 Tekkaman Blade episodes to American television under the name “Teknoman.” The broadcast was popular among fans at the time, but Saban never released the series to home video and the status of its distribution rights now are unknown, at least to me. Urban Vision then released the Tekkaman Blade II OAV series on American VHS in 1998.

Considering that the American television broadcast of Teknoman occurred nearly ten years ago, a large percentage of today’s anime fans probably didn’t even know what anime was a decade ago. The American home video release of Tekkaman has been out of print for almost 20 years; Tekkaman Blade/Teknoman was never released on American home video; and Tekkaman Blade II has never been particularly successful in America in part due to minimal promotion from Urban Vision, and in part because it’s just not that good. Even in Japan the Tekkaman Blade and Tekkaman Blade II anime has gone out of print on DVD. (But the 2001 Japanese DVD release of the 1975 series is still in circulation.)

I honestly can’t explain exactly why the Tekkaman franchise never quite earned the respect or attention it deserved in America, but at this point in both America and Japan it seems as though the peak of the show’s popularity is already behind it, and the odds of the series being revived on American DVD seem slim, at best.