Overview
Chargeman Ken! (チャージマン研!) is a 1974 science fiction anime that gain a cult following in Japanese internet culture. Animated by Knack Productions (now ICHI Corporation) the anime has a total of 65 episodes that where aired on TBS.
The anime was barely known till 2007 where DVDs was released by Line Communications, 33 years after it's original airing. Of this it became a viral hit on 2channel and Niconico due to it's bizarre stories and poor quality.
Plot
The story takes place in the year 2074 where technology and life has improved greatly. Despite this, a alien race known as Juralians plan on invade Earth. Ken Izumi, the protagonist fights the Juralians to protect Earth as his alter ego, Chargeman.
Characters
See List of Chargeman Ken! Characters
Production
The production was done by Knack (now ICHI), but despite the heyday of TBS, it was made on a low budget of about 500,000 yen per episode, so the content, style, sound effects, and direction were all too appropriate, not to mention the stray words. Moreover, one of the staff members went to the beach without permission in the summer of the time of production, and it is said that the production progress at the studio was severely affected by the situation.
Incidentally, 500,000 yen at that time was roughly equivalent to 2 million yen in today's prices. The production cost of a 30-minute animation today is said to be 15 to 20 million yen for high-definition and about 5 million yen for standard definition, so it is easy to understand how low the budget was, despite the difference in scale and time period.
Broadcast
For some reason, several documents on Chargeman Ken are inconsistent on the date and time of the broadcast, not knowing whether it was in 1973 or 1974, and there are discrepancies in the testimonies of the staff who were involved in the project at that time.
In recent years, the program attracted attention and was released on DVD, but the order of the subtitles on the DVD and in the original broadcast are not in the same order.
Voice Actors
In this anime, the voice actors are only listed as Kindaiza Troupe (劇団近代座 Gekidan Kindaiza) and it is unclear who exactly is voicing whom. Although various voice actor names are mentioned in materials such as the complete anime collection, they are considered to be horseshit because they do not sound like the person's voice by any stretch of the imagination. The DVD states that Kazuko Sawada voiced Ken, but this is incorrect.
In 2012 it's stated the actors were found by Chargeman Ken! Research Report. On the English and Japanese Wikipedia page has conflicting information on Ken.
Of the April 1979 issue of Animage, Takemoto Miyakawa is listed as playing Ken, and Hiromichi Mogaki, the producer of the show at the time, testified that the voice actress who played Ken was "A girl called Miya-something". On the English Wikipedia page it lists Ken's voice as Setsuko Takemoto. This is because one of the actors, Noboru Sato, testified this during Charge Man Ken! Live Cinema Concert Vol. 3.
Sato also claims: Kiyoshi Kawanishi voices Ken's dad Hiroshi Izumi, the robot Barican is voiced by Fuyuki Takahashi, and Aida Yuki voices Ken's mom Saori Izumi (She had also voiced Fuyuko Amamo from one of Knack's other anime, Dame Oyaji).
These credits are also on the concert website.
Sato himself voices General Maou, leader of the Juralians is and Hoshi from episode 4. He was identified in the October 8, 2018 Chargeman ken! Live Cinema Concert Vol. 2. Sato also voiced for Dame Oyaji as a ninja.
Kiiko Nozaki has confirmed on her website that she was the voice of Ken's teacher Ms. Nagisa. As for Ken's sister, Caron Izumi still remains unknown.
Related Articles
Related Links
English
Chargeman Ken! (Anime) - TV Tropes
