Chargeman Ken!

About

ChargeMan KEN! (known as チャージマン研!, “chāji man KEN!”) is a Japanese animation series of 65 episodes, first broadcasted by TBS KNACK the 1st April in 1974.

Because of a low budget and its poor direction, this anime has a lot of flaws : The episodes are 10 minutes long, including the opening, ending and commercials, which leaves only 5 minutes of story development. Because of this, there’s only few things explained. The enemies are very weak so that they don’t take much time for the hero to kill. and each episode is filled with Deus ex machina when time’s up. To add to the worse, some of the hero’s choices are unscrupulous. There’s also almost no sound effects, and sometimes it’s out of sync with the video, and there are 4 diffrent GBMs that reapet theself again and again.

History

When it was broadcast in 1974, it received very little attention in Japan, except for a few animation lovers.

in 2007 the DVD box came out with all the episodes, and since someone shamelessly uploaded those episodes on Nico Nico Douga (NND), it became more known and the first MAD was produced on the 8th of August 2007. Since then, more and more MADs were produced, which spans from 2 to tens of MADs in a month.

The popularity of ChargeMan Ken on the internet was introduced on the Japanese TV program “The Net Star” on 5th September 2008.

The 25th April 2009, with RED_ZONE’s popularity, CHARGE_ZONE was made, a MAD for ChargeMan KEN! with RED_ZONE as a base. Its popularity reached its highest, and it finally became a meme.

Plot

In future, when science is greatly progressed, Aliens from a planet called “Jural” attacks a city with an ambition to conquer the Earth.
Main hero, Ken Izumi "disguise"s himself as a “Charge man”, and fights with the Jurals.

Material

There are 4 main episodes used as sources:

Episode#35 “Dynamite in the Brain! (頭の中にダイナマイト)”

The most notable episode filling with Ken’s unheroic attitude. Ken’s dialog appearing in this episode “Doctor Volga, forgive me! (ボルガ博士、お許し下さい!, Volga hakase, oyurushi kudasai!)” is one of the most famous and symbolic lines of this animation.

Episode#23 “The Mental Clinic of Terror! (恐怖！精神病院)”

This episode is famous for its full of prejudiced description of mental disorder and its patients. What is worse, Ken’s father said a mental hospital as “such a place.”

Episode#16 “A Murderer Record’s Melody of Terror (殺人レコード 恐怖のメロディ)”

Very popular dialog “How dare you sell such a lunacy record! (よくもあんなキチガイレコードを! , Yokumo anna kichigai record wo !)” appears on this episode.

Episode#4 “A Mysterious Beautiful Boy (謎の美少年)”

A mysterious, beautiful boy “Hoshi” who is much more popular than the hero of this animation appears on this episode.

Characters

Ken Izumi (泉 研, Izumi Ken)

He’s a 10 years old boy and disguises himself as “Charge Man” to fight against invaders “Jural”.
Because he must save the world within extremely short time, he doesn’t care a small sacrifice. He also doesn’t hesitate to kill any Jurals. Even if they disguise themselves as a human, he shoot them quickly. He sometimes does that without checking if they are Jurals or not.

His unheroic speech and behavior is striking on every episode, especially in the episode 35 : “Dr.Volga, Forgive me!”, when he’s about to launch his friend turned in cyborg with dynamite in his head by the Jurals on them as a human bomb.

Jural (ジュラル星人, Jural Seijin)

Following their president, they came from outer space to conquer the earth. They appears on every episode with various costumes and attacking plans.

They claim that their science and technologies advance for 500 years than that of the earth. However, their attacking plans are always roundabout and never effective.
They are never killed by handgun’s shot. But they are killed easily with only one shot by Ken’s laser gun. Therefore, it’s uncertain if they are strong or weak.

Because of their guileless foolishness, transient lives and funny dialogs, they are loved much more than Ken by many people.

Satan (魔王, Maō)

The president of Jurals. he looks diffrent then other Jurals.

Though Jural is an alien and is neither a devil nor a daemon, he is called “Satan” by his subordinates. The reason why he is “Satan” is one of the biggest mysteries of this animation.

He has planned a funny mission to approach to Ken with disguising himself as a beautiful girl (Episode#10) and is sometimes unexpectedly kind to his subordinates.

So, he is loved as well as them as the fans.

Caron Izumi (泉 キャロン, Izumi Caron)

Ken’s seven-year-old younger sister.
She is always implicated in Jural’s intrigue without going to school.

Barikan (バリカン, Barikan)

Ken’s friend robot that doesn’t have any special ability.
Nobody knows the raison d’être for this junk.

Doctor Volga (ボルガ博士, Volga hakase) [Episode#35]

Great scientist from West Germany. He got a epic death because of Ken’s tact and circumstances of the TV program.

In episode 35, Ken drops Dr. Volga out of his spaceship on the Jurals : Dr. Volga’s scream became a very used source in MADs.

Director of the mental hospital [Episode#23]

Although he is a ordinary people, he builds missile to smash the world and construct his own empire on the earth with Jural’s help. Of course, he is a doctor and is never a patient of mental disorder.

His famous line is “Our target is Europe ! (我々の目標はヨーロッパだ!, ware ware no mokuhyo wa Yōroppa da !)”.

Hoshi (星君, Hoshi-kun) [Episode#4]

Mysterious, beautiful boy appearing in front of Ken as rugby opponent. he looks ok but he is disguised Jural.

His strange shout “Eeeei! (エ゛エーイ!)” and “Wei! (ウェイ!)” are used in many MAD movies.

MADs

Today, there are nearly 600 MAD movies on Nico nico douga and over 150 movies on YouTube.

First MAD movie.

Most notable MAD movie. It scores over 300,000 views on Nico nico douga.

Another big hit. It was posted on the 21st January 2010 and has scored 300,000 views within a month on Nico nico douga.

Crossovers / Others

• 東方充電男(Touhou Jūden Otoko) “Chargeman ken” x “Touhou project” crossovers

There are nearly 100 crossover-MADs on NND.
“Jūden(充電)” means “(battery) charge” and “Otoko(男)” means “Man” in Japanese. So, “Jūden Otoko(充電男)” is equal to “Charge Man”.

• smooooch ・∀・
  

• Miku Miku Dance

• M.U.G.E.N

• Music Remixes

Resource

English resources:

• Nico nico douga encyclopedia : ChargeMan KEN!
• Videos on YouTube under chargeman ken
• Videos on YouTube under チャー研
• YouTube user: Zindryr

Japanese resources:

• Japanese Wikipedia : チャージマン研!
• Nico nico douga encyclopedia : チャージマン研!
• Videos on Nico nico douga : チャージマン研！ (sorted by views / date)
• Nico nico douga encyclopedia : チャー研MAD [article about MAD movies]
• Videos on Nico nico douga : チャー研MAD (sorted by views / date)
• Nico nico douga encyclopedia : 東方充電男 [article about “Chargeman ken” x “Touho project” crossovers]
• Videos on Nico nico douga : 東方充電男 (sorted by views / date)
• Japanese Uncyclopedia : チャージマン研!
• Japanese Wiki page : チャージマン研！＠wiki
• Nico nico MUGEN wiki : ジュラル星人