YMMV / Tekkaman Blade

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • The English dub casts a different take on Shinya's character, so Japanese fans see him as an innocent victim of the Radam while English-speaking fans see him rather as someone who was already twisted and relished in the opportunity given to him by the Radam to kill his brother, torture his own sister into suicide and terrorize an entire planet. The Burning Clock special strongly suggests that while Shinya had resentments towards his brother, he did not enjoy what the Radam turned him into.
  • The English Dub also paints Darkon in a different light than Omega. Omega was the Radham Commander of the Earth Invasion but he still showed concern for his underlings. He gives Shinya encouragement when he's feeling inferior to Takaya and imprisons him to keep him from using the dangerous evolution to Blastor Form. He also shows love for Sword. Darkon, on the other hand, is a "Warlord" who doesn't give a damn about those under him and his imprisonment of Saber was a nonfatal case of You Have Failed Me. He also explicitly tells Sword not to assume things due to what they once were.
• Awesome Music: While fan opinions of the changes in the American dub can be a bit... mixed, the theme song is almost universally praised.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Noal. In fact, one of many reason why II is hated are the fact that Noal is killed off screen before the events of II.
• Fan Nickname: "Ballsack" for Balzac — it's used in an endearing manner more than a derogatory one, because he's a badass.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Some fandoms just don't consider II canon, because of all the weird things that happened in between (see above), including D-Boy overcoming some of the known side effects of the Tekkaman transformation with little to no explanation.
• He Really Can Act: Paul Schrier is mostly known for his performance as Bulk on Power Rangers, but in the English dub he plays Tekkaman Saber, a much more intimidating and violent character.
• Memetic Mutation: While not nearly to the point of his predecessor's SPACE LANCE!, VOLTEKKA! and any corresponding joke about the number of microphones Toshiyuki Morikawa broke while belting these words out sees it fair share of usage. The appearance of both Tekkamen in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom only seems to have exacerbated this.
• Moe: Regardless of the reception of II, it's also agreed that Yumi/Hiver is a very adorable girl, with cute voices to match. 'Little sister' feel and klutziness also included in the pack.
• Narm Charm: The U.S. dub replaces the battle music with a block rockin' techno beat, and it is glorious!
• Once Original, Now Common: D-boy's Angst-ridden lone-wolf shtick is a bit grating today, but it was far from common in the era the show aired in, when there hadn't been characters like Cloud Strife or Sasuke Uchiha to emulate off of and eventually become commonplace.
• Referenced by...: Millions of people know of Pikachu's Volt Tackle attack. Very few know it was actually inspired by D-Boy's Voltekka attack, to the point of the Volt Tackle being seen as the original streaming lightning attack.
• Signature Scene: Many remember the final battle between Blade and Evil very well, as well as the debut of Blade's Blaster Form.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Natasha is the only new Tekkaman character that didn't have a subplot on her own; when compared to Yumi trying to prove herself to Aki and D-Boy or David's relationship with Dead.
• Vindicated by History: After the release of Super Robot Wars W, the negative reception of Tekkaman Blade II waned quite significantly since it was one of the most beloved SRW installments and the magic of Super Robot Wars especially works wonders for II (and one particular Tekkaman became quite the Game-Breaker). Sure, the OVA itself is not completely rescued, but at least the concepts and their potential was salvaged over time.

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