YMMV / Chargeman Ken!

• Accidental Innuendo: Ken refuses Hoshi's request to see his "Charging Go" because Ken considers it unacceptable even among friends, but Hoshi tells him that it doesn't matter because he took him to where no one can see. It results in an Accidental Innuendo-induced Ho Yay because most Japanese audience mishear "Charging Go", "tomodachi (friend)", and "Boku zettai shaberanai yo (I won't talk about it to anybody)" as "Charging Bō (Charging Stick)", "homodachi (homosexuals)", and "Boku zettai shaburanai yo (I won't suck it)" respectively.
• Awesome Music: The Opening Theme, "Chargeman Ken", is a powerful song that encapsulates the heroism of the titular character.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The Chinese deliveryman from the 29th episode, mostly due to the fact that he literally only appears in one scene, where he shows up to deliver a Cat Scare to Ken and the titular model, and then question what's happening before never appearing for the rest of the episode.
• Canon Defilement: Played for Laughs^note  (and therefore tolerated most of the time). Many fanworks make Ken a bigger bastard than he is in the actual series. Others make Hoshi go from having some Ho Yay with Ken to being a full-out pedophile.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • An unintentional example, but the portrayal of mentally ill people in the 23rd episode "Mental Hospital Terror", is so shallow, dated, and all round offensive that it loops around to being hilarious, due to first three inmates seen on screen being a man with an air-headed smile on his face laughing, a happy-looking man curled up against a wall with his arms wrapped around his legs, and an extremely muscular old man wearing nothing but a wrestling singlet and a bra who roars animalistically, as well as Ken's attempt at impersonating a mentally ill person literally just being him acting and speaking sluggishly being another hilariously offensive thing as well.
  • The Chinese delivery man from the 29th episode Eliminate the Fashion Model, due to his overly stereotypical eastern Asian features, from his slanted eyes and Fu Manchu mustache, as well as his outdated outfit and broken grammar.
• Designated Hero: Ken, which is part of why the show is so hilarious. He basically goes around doing horrendous and needlessly cruel things, and he gets no reprimand or punishment because it's all supposed to be in the name of justice and defending Earth from the Juralians. It's almost like he does stuff like that so often that no one is surprised by it anymore.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Hoshi and Dr. Volga are extremely popular among MAD makers, far more than the hero is. Both only appear in one episode.
• Fan Nickname: The muscular man in a wrestling singlet who wears a bra from "Horror! Mental Hospital!" is named マッチョブラ (Macho Bra) by the Japanese Fandom, and he even has his own page on Pixiv's dictionary that refers to him as this.
• Fridge Horror: Seen here.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Crossovers with Touhou Project are so common that they have their own tag on Nico Nico Douga, 東方充電男^note (Touhou Juuden Otoko, including a "Blind Idiot" Translation of Chargeman into "Electric Charge Boy"), with nearly 600 videos.
  • Many modern fans of Chargeman Ken! also like Astroganger, which also has a reputation of So Bad, It's Good because of the floppy animation and was also made by Knack Productions. Though, it is universally agreed that Astroganger has a much higher production value, and much better writing. It helps that in some parts of the world (like Syria) it's unironically enjoyed.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The series title in that Capcom would eventually create characters named Charge Man and Ken.
• Ho Yay: In the fourth episode Hoshi drives Ken to a secluded place, and the closest he gets to explaining why before they get there is saying that "You have admirers, Chargeman Ken"^note Although the Discotek Media subtitles would later render the line as "I've always wanted to see Chargeman Ken". Then he immediately starts begging a disinterested Ken to show him his "Charging Go" technique once they are alone. By the point Ken gets fed up with this and decides to leave, Hoshi reveals himself to be a Jural and attacks him. While Hoshi is trying to find out how Ken's techniques work, the scene can easily be interpreted as Hoshi having a romantic interest in Ken and not liking the fact he got rejected.
• It Was His Sled: In the fandom, it is well-known that Hoshi and many, many other one-shot characters are Jurals.
• Lost in Medias Res: The very first episode gives no explanation whatsoever for what the Juralians are, why they want to conquer the world, or where Ken got his powers.
• Memetic Mutation: The entire damn series. The number of videos uploaded to Nico Nico Douga and YouTube ^note with YouTube uploads both covering re-uploads from Nico Nico Douga and fansubs published for accessibility and fan art devoted to the series just keeps increasing. For the more traditional meaning of meme, many lines have mutated in Japan. Here are some examples:
  • How dare you sell such a schizo record?! (よくもあんなキチガイレコードを!)
  • Europe is our TARGET!
  • "Dr. Volga, forgive me!" (from the most popular episode, "Dynamite in the Brain".)
  • A single phrase from Maou, "Never mind!" (気にするな) turned Episode 47 into the one episode Chargeman Ken fans normally think out when they hear about him.
  • Knife Fight Friday! ^ExplanationEpisode 45 involves a plot in which a Jural posing as Caron's piano teacher hypnotizes her into killing Ken. A gag sub of the episode has Ken respond to this by saying "This isn't fucking knife-fight Friday", suggesting that Caron attacking Ken with a knife is a regular thing in their household.
  • WEIIII!!!^ExplanationHoshi makes some strange noises twice in episode 4 while playing rugby; once when jumping high and once when effortlessly throwing another player aside. Both of these sounds are very commonly used in YTPMVs and Nico Nico Douga videos.
  • The hair. ^ExplanationEvery so often, a hair that was caught on some of the animation cels and not cleaned off before filming will appear in some shots. This isn't exactly unheard of in cheaply-made animation in general, but it happens so frequently in this show that it became a meme. When a live action stage play was made of the show in the 2000s, they put a hair on the poster as a nod to this meme.
• Memetic Psychopath: Ken himself is often exaggerated in memes and fanworks to be a much worse person than he is in the show. This is largely due to how Ken constantly guns down the Juralians in the name of justice, with nobody ever questioning if he really needs to be that brutal.
• Nightmare Fuel: Among all the No Budget induced hilarity, every time Ken's transformation sequence is played without the Theme Music Power-Up is actually quite eerie with only the wind sound effects being audible (and being largely the only sound effect in the sequence).
• Orphaned Reference: The main reason Ken is so bloodthirsty towards the Juralians is because he's an expy of Knack Production's prior protagonist, Kantaro of Astroganger. Kantaro hated the Blaster alien race for killing his mother as well as repeatedly attacking earth, and swore to kill them all as revenge. His father Dr. Hoshi often told him to calm down and assured him there were good Blasters amongst the bad ones. But Ken has no such motive, which makes him come across as needlessly brutal towards his enemies, and this isn't helped by the episodes being too short (5-10 minutes runtime) to explore his backstory.
• One-Scene Wonder: Many, many characters, up to and including, but not limited to: the Chinese delivery man◊ in Episode 29, the mentally disturbed, muscular man in a bra◊ from Episode 23, Hitomi◊, a girl and Maou-sama's disguise who appears in Episode 10, and Mr. Matsumoto◊, an agricultural complex worker from Episode 62.
• Padding: Prevalent throughout the series, with one of the most blatant examples being Episode 37 that begins with 36 seconds of a plane flying. Even more baffling due to each episodes’ 5-minute runtime and the plots needing all the time they can get.
• Rooting for the Empire: Many fans root for the Juralians because Ken is such a Designated Hero.
• Self-Fanservice: Fairly common in the fandom, and not just in Rule 34. Aged up versions of Caron and Yuuichi (or even their usual selves) are especially prominent in this respect. Meanwhile, characters that were supposed to look good but fell short due to Off-Model animation (like Ms. Nagisa... and Hoshi) tend to be drawn as even more beautiful than intended.
• Signature Scene: Ken dropping Dr. Volga as a human bomb to destroy a Juralian spaceship.
• So Bad, It's Good: The art and animation are godawful, even by mid-70's standards (the animators couldn't even draw a net properly, and that's just a bunch of lines!). Recording quality is bathroom level; 95% of sound effects are missing (Ken's laser gun is often the only exception). The pacing is horrendous; episodes can and do switch from too-quick to sluggish on a dime. The episodes are only five minutes long and typically fail to tell an engaging story within that amount of time, so the plots of each episode are utterly nonsensical. Finally, the "hero" is a certified jackass. This show is terrible. And it's glorious.
• Ugly Cute:
  • Barican was certainly intended to be a cute character but the art and animation are so bad this is the best way to describe him.
  • The Juralians, as there is something oddly charming about their design, and due to how unintentionally psychopathic Ken comes across, and how not all of them are shown to be evil can make them quite sympathetic. There's also a downright endearing shot of one with the killer butterflies perched all over its body◊.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Close-ups of the characters' faces (especially Ken and Caron's faces) are often drawn in a very realistic style that ends up looking more creepy than anything. It's particularly noticeable with their eyes and lips.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Despite being a cruel Evil Overlord, some fans actually find Maou to be a way more likable character than Ken, if only because Ken is somewhat more one-dimensionally ruthless and thorough in his hatred of Juralians.
  • Miyuki, from Episode 20. A nice girl who actually shows concern when Ken ditches Barican to take her to the place she was going to. Upon being revealed as a Jural, Miyuki simply flees. Ken chases her down and coldly shoots her in the spine.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Ken himself. Despite being the hero of the series, his brutality and sheer ruthlessness makes it hard to cheer for him, especially considering that he'll kill Juralians who are perfectly harmless. Like Miyuki as an example, who tries to run away from him instead of trying to fight him off.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The villain in Episode 23 commits suicide. This wasn't so bad back then, but would be downright unthinkable to depict in a children's anime today, given Japan's notoriously high suicide rate.
  • The show's occasional and outright use of the word kichigai ("crazy", "lunatic", "loony", "crackpot") can be quite shocking for a modern Japanese audience, because the word is considered a discriminatory slur against people with intellectual disabilities. Modern networks in Japan forbid the use of this word for almost any reason, let alone in shows aimed at children.
• Watch It for the Meme: Most people have only heard of Chargeman Ken! from the infamous "Dr. Volga, forgive me!" scene. And safe to say, the entire fanbase is basically there to meme relentlessly on the series.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It's targeted towards children, but has blood, violence towards children (including a sister almost stabbing her brother), animal death and more than one on-screen suicide, all handled in a very juvenile way.

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