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.[9]
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.[9][10] 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.[11] It then became an Internet meme, leading to dozens of video remixes and AMVs.[12] 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.[13] In response to the boom on the Internet, the show was rebroadcast on AT-X[14] from 2008 to 2009, and on Kids Station[15] 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.[16]
A stage musical based on the series ran from October 31 to November 6, 2019, at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo.[17][18] A second musical was staged at Shinjuku FACE from October 10 to October 18, 2020.[19]
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.[20][21] 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.[22]
Discotek Media released the series on Blu-ray in North America on November 28, 2023.[23]
