''B't X'' (pronounced "beat x" and stylized as B'ᴛ X) is a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series, written and illustrated by

Masami Kurumada is a Japanese manga artist and writer, known for specializing in fighting manga featuring bishōnen and magical boys. He is the founder of the manga studio Kurumada Productions or Kurumadapro for short. He achieved fame as the creator of popula ...

. It was serialized in

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines ...

's '' Monthly Shōnen Ace'' from 1994 to 2000. The series is set in a fictional universe where science has progressed to the creation of mechanical AI creatures known as B'ts. A 25-episode

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series adaptation by

TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the is a Japanese animation studio owned by Sega Corporation. TMS is one of the oldest and most renowned animation studios in Japan, known for its numerous anime franchises such as '' Detective Conan'', '' Lupin the Third ...

aired between April and September 1996. It was followed by a 14-episode sequel titled ''B't X Neo'', aired between August and November 1997.

Synopsis

Setting

''B't X'' is set on an alternate Earth, where a faction known as the Machine Empire rules a significant large piece of land known as "The Area" in the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

. The Machine Empire invests highly in scientific advancements and schools children from an early age to become striving scientists. Mechanical engineering have culminated in the creation of cyborgs and most recently mechanical beasts, powered by human blood, the Bt. The series mostly takes place in the Machine Empire, but also on Kamui island, where the main characters were born. An island that was created from a crashed meteor and contains a piece of a sun, far underground. A B't (pronounced "beat") is the ultimate form of

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...

designed for fighting - the B stands for Brain, Blood, Bravery and Battler. They have different forms and powers, usually based on mythological creatures. The B't's source of power is a device called BreakHeart, which is fueled by human blood. Once the BreakHeart is inserted into the B't's body, it creates a link between the blood donor and the B't. A B't is also outfitted with the Guard System, which protects its donor from various dangers and environment changes, such as volcanic heat, the crushing pressures beneath the ocean, or even the depths of space. However, the donor must be in physical contact with his or her B't for the system to work for them. Teppei is able to manifest a suit of protective armor called Battle Gear through use of the Messiah Fist. This has the additional benefit of activating the usually dormant wings on X's sides, enabling him to reach even greater degrees of speed and mobility.

Plot

Teppei Takamiya is the caretaker of a farm located in Kamui Island, north of Japan. His older brother, Kotarō Takamiya, leaves to study robotics in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and becomes one of the most brilliant scientists in the world. Five years later, the two brothers reunite at a robotics convention in Mechatopia,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, where Kotarō is to announce his latest breakthrough in artificial intelligence. The convention goes awry when Kotarō is captured by the malevolent Machine Empire and taken to "The Area". Teppei manages to hitch a ride on his brother's capturer and reaches the Machine Empire, Teppei is attacked by Metalface, one of the Empire's soldiers. Unable to win, Teppei is thrown, bleeding, in the Empire's junkyard. His blood reaches the trashed body of X, who was once considered one of the strongest B't of the Empire, and the disgruntled B't awakens. Faced with unanswered questions and imminent destruction, X reluctantly saves Teppei, and the pair flee the Area with soldiers of the Empire in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, inside the Area, Kotarō discovers that he has been summoned by another of the Empire's soldiers, Major Aramis, to find a way to stop the ultimate B't - a creation known as Raffaello (ラファエロ) that has begun a terrifying and uncontrollable evolution. Teppei's main goal is to save his brother, but as he and X venture further into the Area and learn more about the Machine Empire, they start to fight for the survival of the human race. On the way to the center of the Empire, they gain allies that help them prevail over the guardians of the empire. The ultimate B't eventually finalizes its evolution and the Machine Emperor appears. Before the emperor can fuse with Raffaello, Teppei and his allies confront him.

Voice cast

Media

Manga

''B't X'' by

was serialized in

's '' Monthly Shōnen Ace'' from the December 1994 to the February 2000 issues, with the 63 individual chapters published into 16 volumes by

. The manga was released in North America by

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licens ...

. When ''B't X'' was released in America by Tokyopop, all of the

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

in the manga were printed in Japanese, just as in the original version and in most other Tokyopop Manga, with the addition of English captions.

Volumes

The series was also republished by Home-sha, a

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

company, in an edition of more than 300-pages per volume. *Home-sha (''Home-sha manga bunko'') (2002)

Anime

adaptation containing 25 episodes aired in Japan between April and September 1996, this series adapts the first six tankōbon volumes of the manga. A second season, titled , consisted of 14 episodes. ''Neo'' aired between 21 August and 20 November 1997; this season adapts some chapters of the manga but has a derivative storyline and an alternate ending. Originally licensed by Texas-based anime licensing company Illumitoon Entertainment and published on DVD via Westlake Entertainment. Two dual-audio DVDs were released by Westlake, covering the first eight episodes, before being cancelled. The first 14 episodes, the only ones to be dubbed, were available on-demand via the

Anime Network Anime Network was an American video on demand (VOD) network dedicated to anime owned by AMC Networks. History The network was launched in North America in late 2002 and is marketed to multi system operators (MSOs) as both a free and subscr ...

. The license was eventually transferred to Anime Midstream after Illumitoon went defunct. Anime Midstream announced on 14 August 2016 during their panel at the AnimeFest convention in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, that they would redistribute the whole series with the Japanese language track, subtitles, and an English dub. They released the series on DVD with both English subtitles and a new English dub on 3 August 2018. On 12 April 2019, Anime Midstream announced that they would release the OVA series ''B't X Neo'' on DVD in dual audio on 26 April 2019.

Season 1: ''B't X'' (1996)

Season 2: ''B't X Neo'' (1997)

Other media

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Gambling in Japan, Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of l ...

game was released in 2013, with newly recorded music and animation done by TMS. Two toy-lines were produced by

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

in conjunction with the broadcast of the series. The first series consisted of 5 models of four of the main B'ts, and where marketed with the term "Solid Scan". Each Bt had removable armor and an accompanying figure to ride them. A wield-able "Messiah Fist" was also produced with sound-effects and light-up features. The second toyline was produced as action figures and included 14 B'ts with an accompanying smaller figure. 8 non-articulated figures were also released of several main characters under the term "Donor".

Reception

Chris Beveridge of Mania.com reviewed the first DVD volume of the anime series by Illumitoon Entertainment and gave the volume a "C" grade citing that "due to age there isn't a lot to expect" in regards to both audio and visual quality. Beveridge continued to praise the story but also said that it was sometimes confusing. Ilumitoon's decision to use their dubbed script as subtitles for the Japanese audio was heavily criticized as they did not match up.

References

External links

* {{TMS Entertainment 1996 anime television series debuts 1996 Japanese novels 1997 anime television series debuts Adventure anime and manga Kadokawa Shoten manga Kadokawa Corporation franchises Light novels Masami Kurumada Shōnen manga Science fiction anime and manga TBS Television (Japan) original programming Tokyopop titles TMS Entertainment