Let's Watch Chargeman Ken!

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

it makes sense ken would use them, as he is a horrible child and loves murder

[W.T. Fits]

That scientist's evil plot was to blow up Europe. Just...Europe in general, not a specific country or anything.

I don't know what he hoped to accomplish with that.

What's especially baffling is that rather than build up a huge stockpile of missiles and launch them all at once, apparently his plan was to just fire them off one at a time as soon as they were finished.

[Aria Genisi]

maybe the one rocket would be enough?

[Mr. Big]

Gonna leave this here

[Mr. Big]

[Mr. Big]

I was watching a clip of "Don Chuck", a talking animal anime that Knack did about a year after "Chargeman Ken" aired. One of the episodes reused at least two background music from "Ken". The ones heard in the mental hospital episode, specifically.

I don't know what it says about "Ken" that I was able to pick up its stock music library the instant I heard it in a different anime the same studio did, and associate it with that one episode.

[Mr. Big]

Here



Listen to the background music in the first four minutes or so. It's the same music from Ken.

[Orange Fluffy Sheep]

Hey ofs, is chargeman ken still normal?







yeah

[Orange Fluffy Sheep]

I like making gifs of chargeman ken because it shows off how there are no in-betweens, just key frames, and that every shot is too long to pad out their 5 minute episodes

[Madeline]

it makes sense ken would use them, as he is a horrible child and loves murder

chargeman ken is the worst boy

[Mr. Big]

There's a Japanese crowdsourcing campaign to restore "Chargeman Ken" to 2K due to the original film masters deteriorating.

They already raised 61% of the fund as I write this.

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

i hope it succeeds

[Gloomy Rube]

all must know chargeman ken lest we forget chargeman ken and bring him forth.

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

all must know chargeman ken lest we forget chargeman ken and bring him forth.

[Mr. Big]

While on "Chargeman Ken", I was reading about another show that Knack did a year before it with much of the same crew, "Astroganger". It was one of the first Super Robot anime, and differed from others in that the robot was sentient, who could talk, think, and feel pain. The anime was seen as bad, too, although unlike "Ken" it was an actual half-hour show. 26 episodes were made.

The final episode had Astroganger defeating the main baddie once and for all, but this resulted in him being killed in an explosion, and it was, frankly, horrifying. Because anime likes to traumatize kids, I guess

[Mr. Big]

Brief update. They raised 18% over their goal so far!

and the campaign's still going for another month!

The series is saved! Weeee

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

[Mr. Big]

So I bought a 16mm anime from a Japanese seller today. While I do own a few anime on 16mm, this is the first time I bought one directly from Japan.

And it's a Knack anime. Specifically, "No Good Father", the anime where the punchline is "spousal abuse is hilarious"



This show aired the same time as Ken, so there's another connection there besides the production company.

[Mr. Big]

The film arrived. I posted some screengrabs

[Mr. Big]

Also, I was pointed out the evil wife character in the anime looks familiar

[Mr. Big]

So I have an idea on what to do in 2021



I'm trying to gauge interest, so any RTs are appreciated!

[Mr. Big]

Was browsing around the Japanese sites for info I can find on the production of "Ken".

The budget for each episode was 500,000 yen (about US$5,000) in 1970s money, likely a reason they went with the 5 minute running time (an average half-hour anime at the time was about 5 million yen). The animators were also unenthusiastic about the production, and would often skip work to go to the beach without letting their bosses know.

[Orange Fluffy Sheep]

I refuse to believe that chargeman ken was somehow only 60% as expensive per minute than the average

they musta took a lot of beach vacations on the clock.

[Mr. Big]

Also, we never really know who did the voices in the show because voice actors were never credited.

Some of them were eventually ID'd, however:
Fuyuki Takahashi was the occasional narrator
Kiiko Nozaki was Ken's teacher, Miss Nagisa
Kiyoshi Kawanishi was Ken's Dad

Noboru Sato played several characters. Not only was he the Juralian King, he also voiced Dr. Volga, plus Hoshi (the Mysterious Handsom Boy), Piano Teacher, and few others.

Note that we still don't know who voiced Ken. The surviving actors were asked but they don't remember her name.

As for the known actors, most of them did very little voice work in anime, mainly on other Knack shows and nothing else. The exception to this is Kiiko Nozaki, who would do several voices, mostly secondary characters, well into the 1980s.