Tekkaman Blade II

Writing in VL-9/98, I said that this "sequel to the Japanese anime kid-popular Teknoman (U.S. title) series is set in the (further) future, where the space knights known as Tekkaman square off against the alien Radham. When young Yuki Francois, an awkward, inexperienced mechanic, is promoted to Tekkaman, her co-defenders-of-the-universe get a bit miffed, especially when a system glitch (possibly Windows related) causes Yuki to be hard(soft?)wired with a new weapon originally intended for a fellow soldierette. So, when the new starship troopers are launched into battle against the Radham, they must face not only a very nasty enemy (given to rending and tearing asunder), but overcome personality conflicts as well. Some violence and brief nudity make this unsuitable for younger viewers (for some reason--and that reason would probably have to be a sexist one--the female Tekkaman are shown transforming from clothed-human to naked-human to clothed-Tekkaman, but not the males)." What makes Urban Vision's DVD release of the second Tekkaman series notable--beyond the better-than-average animation and solid storyline--is that all six episodes (nearly three hours) are included on one disc, making this a good buy. Recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)