Tekkaman: The Space Knight was a 1975 anime from Tatsunoko Productions (the studios behind successful anime, like Mach GoGoGo/Speed Racer and Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets, and would later go on to make Macross), which though popular in Japan, failed to meet their viewership goals and the show ended exacly halfway through the series. Like most of Tatsunoko Production's earlier projects, Tekkaman is a series mainly based on action sequences with episodic subplots of varying qualities, which contribute to the main goal of the series.
The plot is about Johji Minami and his adventures as the space knight, Tekkaman, all while fighting the invading alien race known as the Waldastars. This premise, as simple as it is, manages to carry the show through, though it is the subplots that shine through here.
The characters of this series include the aforemention Johji Minami, heroic in his deeds, he is brash and headstrong and is willing to risk his life to do anything to stave off the Waldastars. Additionally, there is Chief Tenchi, the head of the Earth's space and science program, he developed Tekkaman; Tenchi's daughter, Hiromi Amachi, serves as Johji's helper and pilots the ship from where Tekkaman and its launching mech, Pegas, launch. There is also, the alien Andro Umeda, he is mysterious in nature and refuses to reveal his identity to Johji and Hiromi, but has pledged to be allies of Minami and the forces of Earth. The antagonists include the sadistic General Rambos and Lord Doburai.
The plot starts off with a brand new spacecraft being tested, one which will be able to travel outside of the solar system, among the crew includes the father of Johji Minami. While near the outer reaches of the solar system their scanner array picks up an object identified to be a spacecraft. What ensues is an unprovoked attack on the ship, their last radio communications are broadcast all while Johji listens in. Distruaght from this attack, Johji vows revenge for his father's death. He is soon called in by Chief Tenchi, who discusses the Tekkaman project with Johji and shows him the mech of Pegas then allows him to pilot it so that he gets used to it. During his time piloting Pegas is when Andro Umeda is first intoduced, while this introduction reveals little about him, more will become known about him later. Following these test flights it is Johji's first time going into combat, albeit against Chief Tenchi's orders. Johji steals a battle rocket, with Pegas and, in turn, Tekkaman within and head to battle. The battle is done with relative ease and the animation is good with the depiction of close range combat being done particularly well (as with most of Tatsunoko Production's catalogue). This first wave of Waldastars is eliminated, but upon his return to Earth Johji is worn out and is told to rest. This continues into episode two, where for a portion of the episode Johji is told to rest, he refuses as much as he can, but is not prepared for another mission. In the meantime, Chief Tenchi is discussing planned courses of action in dealing with the fate of humanity with the heads of planet Earth, the popular opinion, though against Tenchi's wishes, is to surrender to the Waldastars and hope they give the Earthlings mercy. Naturally this backfires and by this time Johji is both physically and mentally ready for his next mission. The fighting, again, is well choreographed with some notable sequences being Tekkaman slicing a Waldastar interceptor in half with his sword (he is not known as the space knight for nothing) and causing a one alien carrier ship to crash into the other. Despite this success, the carrier ship was damaged, Andro Umeda says he can fix it and Johji begrudgingly lets him do so. Episode 3 deals with a Waldastar spy, on Earth, the target being a freshly developed technology, a system able to warp the distance of space. The schematics (in microfilm) are stored in a secret filing cabinet. Minamo, Amachi and Umeda are all task in locating the spy and to shoot on sight. The first encounter with the spy, Umeda walks in on the spy, but only after the microfilm schematics were destroyed, Umeda almost manages to get the spy, but an escape was made before the spy was shot. The spy still is around and comes to CHief Tenchi's laboratory, where the spy attempts to murder Tenchi. The spy misses and gets shot on the spot by Umeda. The mission now is to find and destroy where the spy came from, which is from a Waldastar carrier. Another fight scene ensues involving Pegas and Tekkaman with some notable scenes being the fight's climax with Tekkaman punching through a carrier along the entire height of the craft. In the next episode, the Waldastars land on Earth and send a robot to test Tekkaman's strength. Tekkaman wins, but only just. Worn out, Tenchi tells Johji to rest. In the meantime, the robot is analyzed and there was a stowaway onboard, a harmless creature to be named Mutan (Mootan in the subtitles). Mutan is taken in by Hiromu to keep as a pet. In the meantime,
