B'tX

 Looking back shows in the 1990's  could be pretty campy, whether in Japan or the United States. While there were plenty of shows for which this strategy may have worked on both sides of the Pacific, there were an equal number who didn't know what the hell they were doing, either that or they were playing it straight and not realizing how ridiculous their product was. The show we're looking at today falls into the latter category. This anime follows the story of a young man who is bravely trying to rescue his genius older brother (wait, that's different, normally it'd be the younger one) from an evil empire that worships cyber technology with the the help of a mechanized self-aware robot/cyborg/biotech...   thing called a B't. Together they must fight their way to the center of the Empire and save his big bro before it's too late, but troubles are on the horizon that aren't going to make this rescue mission simple, so strap on your pretentiously named fist weapon and prime you're B't's Engrish superpowers, we're taking a look at the anime B't X.

Teppei and X as they search for the next villain of the week.

The anime is based on a manga by the same name which was penned by Masami Kurumada and ran in the magazine "Shonen Ace" between the years 1994 and 2000. There were also two light novels and an OVA but for the purpose of the review we're just focusing on the anime. The show was produced by TMS which had done titles such as Ashita no Joe, Lupin III, and it continues to produce Detective Conan.  B't X ran on TBS in Japan between April and September of 1996, and it ran for 25 episodes, however it has seen no licensed release in the United States. That's okay though, after having seen it, I think I can kind of understand why.

Considering that Kotarou just got attacked by a well endowed fem-bot,
he seems to be doing pretty well to still want to give the presentation.

Our story begins with a reunion as Teppei, our young hero, comes to see his older brother Kotarou at a robotics convention in China. It seems Kotarou, being a boy genius, went away to school in Germany for a time and has been a pioneer in robotics development. However, the happy reunion is totally ruined when Kotarou is kidnapped by goons from the evil Machine Empire, who apparently have some dastardly plans in mind and intend to use Kotarou to put them into practice. They are using some strange robots of their own, and as they ride off on these animalistic looking things, Teppei grabs onto one using the pretentiously named Messiah Fist weapon that he wears on his arm and is dragged along for the ride. After being shaken loose in a junk yard on the outskirts of the Machine Empire, he is wounded and some of his blood is absorbed by one of these strange robots and he not only discovers they are called B'ts, and that they run on blood donations from their designated partners, but that X, this particular B't used to belong to his own mentor, an escapee from the machine empire known as Karen. Together the two new partners must get past countless obstacles in order to get to the center of the Machine Empire so that Teppei can save his brother.

So here's a question, how is it that a tin-pot dictatorship,
in which the majority of the territory is dusty desert with
virtually no capabilities for producing anything of value
or even maintaining a satisfactory slave population manage
to do better than even the stuff the United States could
develop in the 1990's? If you've got an answer to that one,
send it on, because I want to know.

While the world itself appears to be contemporary mid-1990's, it's still pretty crazy how ridiculously advanced the Machine Empire is, especially if you consider the way technical development slows under totalitarian rule (see my notes on Code Geass), given their track record with the scientists they kidnap, (sending them to this horrific place called Underhell if they don't cooperate) I would think they'd have problems finding potential applicants otherwise, not to mention, I kind of get the feeling that if other countries were infringed upon in the Machine Empire's blatant kidnapping attempts, the Machine Empire would have been bombed years ago because of all the countries they picked off. The U.S. would have tried remediation, but I'm willing to bet Russia wouldn't have. Within the country itself, it actually seems pretty lawless and corrupt with the various B't riders staking out points as their own, and pretty much running the place as they see fit. The only reasons they seem to follow the emperor with some noted and trusted exceptions is fear, which is odd, because you never really see the emperor. The two kids that represent him almost seem like it's them who are in charge, and that's a problem no matter how you look at it, because one of them, Nasha is really sick, and the other one, Misha, is just a psychotic brat who goes through killing and exiling his subordinates with the frequency that Vlad the Impaler was rumored to go through victims. So basically this empire would be a tin-pot dictatorship with robots and cybernetics that don't really belong.

Hey, wait a second, is that Orphen? Sure the hair, color scheme,
and weapon of choice are a bit different but... 

The main characters have glaring inconsistencies, not just in the realm of science, but also just in the realm of characterization in general. (Hey wait a second, is that ) In the realm of science, we have the whole blood donor issue. You see, the reason blood donors are such a big deal is because B'ts only accept orders from their original donor, however, X, the B't of the title, has accepted Teppei even though Karen was his original donor. Why? Because Karen apparently gave Teppei a blood transfusion some time in the past, therefore he carries her blood. Should that still work? No. Here's why. This transfusion reportedly took place several years in the past. When a person receives a blood transfusion it's only a temporary fix so the recipient doesn't die of blood loss before his own body replenishes the missing blood on its own. If a few years passed, any residual blood cells from Karen would have long since been flushed out in ways with which we're very familiar, therefore that premise should not work. Other than that, Teppei really just your stereotypical heroic male archetype. He's stubborn and headstrong and plays the fiery warrior to X's more calm and collected reason-based approach (more or less).  X on the other hand may actually be more interesting (relatively speaking) seeing as he was left behind by Karen when she fled the machine empire and has been through a lot more than Teppei has. Even though they play this through flashbacks, they don't take nearly enough advantage of this, I don't think, because X has the potential to be a very angsty or bitter character, but the most they do is make him out to be fickle and something of an arrogant jerk who totally melts around episode ten.

Fou: As one of the Empire's spirit knights, normally I'd care about
killing you off, but I'm too pretty...   oh yeah, and I'm not
quite sure I'm on the right side so I'm gonna let you find out for me.

In terms of supporting characters, well, there don't seem to be that many that aren't originally antagonists, with the exception of Kotarou, and the most he does is observe, get abused by the Machine Empires cronies and sit in a cell working formulas. There's also this kid that shows up early on but they don't even bother to give him a graceful exit from the show. They just stop animating him in (so lazy!). There are a couple of random other supporting characters that are two minimal to mention, but the thing about the supporting cast that got me the most, is the total lack of subtlety among the antagonists, in a show that is apparently trying to take itself seriously. Among the big four spirit knights of the machine empire (yes, that what their called) we have Fou, a priest riding around on a phoenix, we have a doctor who has a B't that looks like a turtle, a hotheaded guy with a dragon, and the woman, Karen, rode X, before Teppei ran into him, who was basically a Pegasus/Unicorn...  thing. With some alteration, as X replacing Byakkuya the tiger, we have the four cardinal directions of the Chinese compass. These guys are actually more interesting than Teppei in some ways, as there's a lot of history with Karen and a lot of unresolved sexual tension that's hinted at in the male characters relationship with her. I wouldn't have minded seeing a show about them, honestly. But the subtlety disappears completely when you get to the more outlier antagonists. For example, there's a Sand Pirate named Captain Hook (guess what his personal weapon is? A fish hook.) One of the later antagonists rides a Hydra B't and has a whip with the same properties, except he calls it a Cyber Whip. There are others, but if I went through every single one, we'd be here forever. However, one of the other few interesting points of the show is that the real enemy doesn't seem to be the machine empire, but instead a creation of it. The enigmatic B't called Raphael which Kotarou had apparently been kidnapped to deal with. Apparently it eats things and absorbs them. It's actually somewhat scary compared to the other parts of the show, and actually pretty shocking. I'll get to that later in the article,

One of those rare occasions where it's best to
NOT eat your B'ts.

There's plenty in the anime that is leg-slappingly laughable. There's the blood transfusion thing for one. And then there's all the Engrish. The anime, is a breeding ground for Engrish attack names which they call out all the time. If the Messiah Fist and the Cyber Whip weren't enough, we also have "Batteru Gea...   ONNN!!!!" as well as "NEO BATTERU GEA...    ONNN!!!!", not to mention "DEADLYYYY  CAROLLL!!!" Not to mention a couple of the other character names are pretty funny,  for example one guy that actually has a number of lines is called Metalface, and he's a cyborg. There's even an antagonist who goes by the name of Balzac, and if you want me to explain why that one's funny, you're too young to know. Even so there was one things that did impress me about the show, in a dark and creepy kind of way. For one, the show seems all too willing to put children in danger and in some cases, even kill them off. While from a moral perspective, it's nothing to crow about, it's very unusual and serves as a tiny bastion of realism in that children are affected all the time, which is quite amazing in a universe that in many ways is quite absurd. For instance, in the fight with Captain Hook, Teppei has to go into the belly of the sand worm B't to save a kid that the sand pirate actually allowed the thing to eat. (This environment is filled with acid by the way, but it doesn't go well for the sand worm as you can see in the screencap.) There's a flashback later where Raphael eats several children and causes Karen's younger sister to lose her memory from the terror of witnessing it, which is probably one of the most frightening moments in the show.

The story carries us through mostly a monster of the week format as Teppei and X slowly draw closer to the area, the country's center of power. While learning the truth about the situation, getting power-ups and dealing with antagonists (read glorified circus clowns) and sadly, at least in this anime, it doesn't really go anywhere, as the show ends before we even get to Raphael which is kind of disappointing. Presumably they fix this in the OVA that was released, but I haven't seen it, so I don't know. The animation is somewhat similar to a lot of shows in the nineties, pretty detailed but not as well animated, and no special tricks or anything. The cast is led by Nobuyuki Hiyama, (Lord Azreal in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED). Kotarou is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki (Yuusuke Yuremeshi in Yu-yu Hakusho.) We also even have a contribution from Kappei Yamaguchi in a minor role (the title character from Inuyasha). There's one opening called "Haruka, Sailing for My Dream", and the end theme is called Boku no "Ikikata." Neither of them seem to be particularly notable aside from sounding like generic theme songs. As far as the show overall is concerned, it's watchable, but I would put it at a little below average in terms of quality. Don't worry, my stateside readers, you aren't missing anything, and that's the tiger's two cents.

Images taken from B't X

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