Chargeman Ken!


Chargeman Ken! is a science fiction anime series created by Eiji Tanaka and animated by Knack Productions. It was directed by Noboru Miura and written by Masaki Wakuda, Toyohiro Ando and Yoshio Tamado. Consisting of 65 7-minute episodes, it originally aired on TBS from April 1, 1974, to June 28, 1974, airing five times a week from Monday to Friday. Discotek Media currently licenses the series outside Japan.

Plot

In a futuristic city, in the year 2074, science has greatly progressed. A race of aliens called the Juralians invade the Earth to steal its resources, and Ken Izumi must become the superhero Chargeman Ken to stop them.

Characters

Humans

; Ken Izumi
; Caron Izumi
; Hiroshi Izumi
; Saori Izumi

Juralians

; Maou
; Juralians

Episode list

Production and cult status

Most of the staff had previously worked on Knack’s Super Robot anime Astroganger, which had a very similar plot and character design. Due to lack of credits, the identities of its voice cast remain unknown to this day.
After its initial broadcast, the show remained obscure until 2007, when it was released on DVD and uploaded to the video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga. The show quickly gained a cult reputation as “so bad it’s good” due to its ridiculous dialogue, limited animation and sound effects, the ineptitude of the villains and the cruelty of Ken, the “hero” of the show. It then became a popular internet meme, leading to dozens of video remixes and MADs. An original soundtrack was released in 2010. 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, in Tokyo.