Chargeman Ken!

Chargeman Ken! (チャージマン研！) is a science fiction anime series created by Tetsuji Suzukawa and Eiji Tanaka and animated by Knack Productions (now ICHI Corporation). It was directed by Noboru Miura and written by Masaaki Wakuda, Toyohiro Andō and Yoshio Tamado, with the characters designed by Tanaka. A total of 65 episodes were broadcast in syndication in various networks (it was broadcast in the Kantō region on TBS) from April 1 to June 28, 1974, in 10-minute slots from 5:30 to 5:40 PM, Monday through Friday. Each episode of the series is a self-contained story. Discotek Media currently licenses the series outside Japan.

Plot
The story takes place in the year 2074, in a futuristic city where science has developed by leaps and bounds, and the Juralian aliens are planning to invade Earth. 10-year-old Ken Izumi disguises himself as Chargeman and struggles to protect the Earth from the threat of the Juralians.

Izumi family

 * Ken Izumi (泉 研)
 * voiced by Setsuko Takemoto
 * The protagonist of the franchise, a 5th grade student at Yoi Elevator school, somewhere in Japan. Ken is extremely powerful, able to inflict debilitating punches on a Juralian who has been credibly disguised as a boxing champion.  He has the ability to transform into Chargeman Ken when exposed to even a minuscule amount of light, though the total lack of it has prevented him from transforming several times. As Chargeman Ken, he has the mount Sky Rod and carries the Alpha Gun, both of which can instantly kill Juralians by a beam-like attack, and wears the Vizum Belt that can make a lethal vortex of wind. He kills Juralians indiscriminately, even if they are not attacking or are running away.  There are several instances of his dispensing with large amounts of hostages in ruthless attacks on Juralian fortifications and transports.  Ken's only admitted weakness per se is mathematics, but his hatred for tomato juice has been used to identify his imposter.


 * Caron Izumi (泉 キャロン)
 * Ken's 7-year-old sister. She has compassion for animals and is often supportive of her brother.


 * Barican (バリカン)
 * voiced by Fuyuki Takahashi
 * Ken's robot companion.


 * Hiroshi Izumi (泉 博)
 * voiced by Kiyoshi Kawanishi
 * Ken and Caron's father. He is described as a physician, though he has never been shown practicing medicine in the anime series.  Indeed, his wife has forgotten his profession, and he himself commented on a mental hospital in a derogatory fashion.


 * Saori Izumi (泉 さおり)
 * voiced by Yuki Aida
 * Ken and Caron's mother and Hiroshi's wife.

Juralians

 * Maou (魔王)
 * voiced by Noboru Sato
 * The chief antagonist of the franchise, leader of the Juralians invading Earth. Atypical for Juralians, Maou has two eyes.


 * Juralians (ジュラル星人)
 * Juralians are vaguely humanoid, maroon-colored, with a slim waist, broad chest, long, tentacle-like limbs, and have a single eye capable of emitting a beam-like attack that can disintegrate any life form it hits and do severe damage to structural members of buildings and towers. They have the ability to transform into other lifeforms, such as humans or horses.  Juralians do not have reflections in mirrors, a characteristic used by Ken and other protagonists to distinguish them from humans and robots.

Production and cult status
Chargeman Ken! features several staff from Astroganger, including Seiichi Nishino, Eiji Tanaka, Toyohiro Andō, and Hiromichi Mogaki. As a result, the anime features similar character designs, story composition and characterization. According to Nishino, the show was produced with the aim of depicting life in the future, based on an illustrated futuristic story by Hiroshi Manabe.

Chargeman Ken! was produced on a budget of 500,000 yen per episode, far lower than the average of 4—5 million yen for a 30-minute episode by 1974. The low budget caused Knack Productions's staff to become apathetic toward the show and largely skip work on it in favor of going to the beach. Much information about the show is still unknown, including the voice actors, who are only listed as "Kindaiza Troupe" (劇団近代座 Gekidan Kindaiza).

Chargeman Ken! remained obscure until 2007, when a two-part DVD box set was released by Line Communications, with the episodes collected on a different order from the initial broadcast. The series became a viral hit on 2channel and Niconico, where users found unintentional comedic value in the show's flaws—including opportunistic and incoherent storytelling, poor pacing, animation inconsistencies, poor voice acting, and artifacts including hairs that appear on the film. It then became an Internet meme, leading to dozens of video remixes and AMVs. On August 20, 2010, almost 40 years after the original broadcast, the first official website for the anime was opened, and on October 27, 2010, the official soundtrack and tribute album "Chargeman Ken! Tribute to Soundtracks vol.1" was released. In response to the boom on the Internet, the show was rebroadcast on AT-X from 2008 to 2009, and on Kids Station from July 2011 to January 2012, with the airing order being the same as that of the original broadcast. Discotek Media released the entire series on DVD in North America on October 31, 2017.

A stage musical based on the series ran from October 31 to November 6, 2019, at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo. The second musical was staged at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo from October 10 to October 18, 2020.

On August 3, 2020, ICHI, the production company of the anime, started a crowdfunding campaign on Readyfor to restore and archive the original film reels, which had deteriorated significantly over the years. A Blu-ray box of the show, published by Best Field, was released on June 30, 2021. The release includes all 65 episodes of the anime, including a bonus DVD containing ICHI's pilot films and a slideshow of the characters' model sheets, as well as a booklet featuring an interview with the producer.