In another coincidence, Shurato had armor that was white and red, while Gai sported a set of black and red armor, which likely influenced Blade and Evil's color schemes in the final product. Shurato proved to be popular with female viewers, but the plastic model sales were not, so this series was created for males with model kits in mind, and the only element that would appeal to females was Shinya. Character designs were done by Hirotoshi Sano and Tomonori Kogawa (credited under the name TOIIIO in the opening and end credits), however, due to a busy schedule, Sano was only able to draw the main protagonist, heroine, and three female characters. Kogawa was originally requested to join as a director, but when he was invited, he was asked not only to direct but also to design and thus drew the remaining characters in place of Sano. Kogawa was also involved in the series as an animation director under the pseudonym Aiba Kouu. Yutaka Izubuchi was originally going to provide the Tekkaman designs, but due to him also being busy, he was only able to draw a couple of rough design sketches. The rough designs were then done by Yoshinori Sayama, an apprentice of Izubuchi's who had been working with Izubuchi to help make design materials to present to the series' sponsors and producers. When Ueda saw the rough designs, he was convinced that Sayama could do it, but Bandai couldn't decide whether they could sell the designs or not, so a competition was held among more than a dozen designers, which Sayama ultimately won. Sayama was not familiar with the original Tekkaman's design, but Ueda suggested that he work on it without looking at the original design, and would only gave him his impressions. Finally, Kaoru Wada, who was the composer, was told that he did not need to be familiar with the music from the original Tekkaman when composing the series' score. Episodes Tekkaman Blade Tekkaman Blade was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo and 50 episodes were aired between February 18, 1992, and February 2, 1993. It uses four pieces of theme music: two opening themes and two ending themes. The first opening theme is "Reason" by Yumiko Kosaka, which is used from the first through twenty-seventh episodes. The second opening theme is by Yumiko Kosaka, which is used from the twenty-eighth episode onwards. The first and