Hikarian

Hikarian
超特急ヒカリアン
(Chō-Tokkyū Hikarian)
Genre Mecha
Original video animation
Heroic Super-Express Hikarian
Directed by Hiroyuki Fukushima
Chikae Kuwahara
Produced by Iori Suzuki
Written by Hiroyuki Fukushima
Music by Takumi Kusanagi
Studio Artmic
Released 1996
Episodes 3
Anime television series
Japan Hikarian Railroad
Directed by Shuichi Kazuyuki Hirokawa
Yoshikata Nitta
Produced by Tomy
Iori Suzuki
Written by Toshiki Inoue
Hideki Shirane
Music by Yuzo Hayashi
Studio Tokyo Kids Co.,Ltd.
Network TV Tokyo
Original run April 2, 1997 March 29, 2000
Episodes 156
Anime television series
Lightning Attack Express
電光超特急ヒカリアン
Directed by Hideaki Ōba
Produced by Tomy
Iori Suzuki
Written by Toshiki Inoue
Music by Yuzo Hayashi
Studio Toho
Tokyo Kids Co.,Ltd.
Licensed by
Network TV Tokyo
Original run April 1, 2001 March 31, 2002
Episodes 52

Hikarian (ヒカリアン), also called Hikarian: Great Railroad Protector, is a Japanese anime and toy franchise by Tomy.

The first television series, Chō Tokkyū Hikarian (超特急ヒカリアン, lit. "Super Express Hikarian") is about a series of bullet trains that are turned into robots. The robots, along with two humans named Tetsuyuki Shinbashi (新橋 テツユキ Shinbashi Tetsuyuki) and Minayo Kanda (神田 ミナヨ Kanda Minayo), have to stop an alien invasion.

A second television series, Denkō Chō-Tokkyū Hikarian (電光超特急ヒカリアン, lit. "Ultra Lightning Express Hikarian"), was later created. The new series stars a new Hikarian, Lightning West, and a new human lead, Kenta Hijiribashi (聖橋 ケンタ Hijiribashi Kenta).

Enoki Films has licensed the series for an English release. The company has suggested name changes (e.g. Tetsuyuki becomes Terry and Minayo becomes Mina) but the series is not yet available in English, and Enoki may sublicense the series to another company who may decided to keep the original Japanese names, use Enoki's suggested English names, or use original English names.

Characters

The main characters in Hikarian are the Hikarians who fight against the Blatcher gang and their plan operation Darkness. All of the characters, except the Black Express, are based on real life trains. Interestingly, the series depicts them operating as normal trains during times of peace.

Hikarians

Humans

Blatcher Gang

Chinese CGI knockoff

In January 2011 it was announced Pat Lee would be working with Carloon Animation to create a CGI cartoon about trains called Train Hero (高铁侠).[1] In July 2011, Chinese viewers of previews were shocked that it was a shot-for-shot knockoff of Hikarian.[2][3] After Pat Lee got sued by TV Tokyo & Takara Tomy when they found out and got really shocked about this Chinese cartoon being an absolute Rip-off of Hikarian, Pat Lee created a revised version called Train Heroes (トレインヒーロー) began airing in Japan on April, 2013.[4]

References

  1. "TV Tokyo, Pat Lee, China's Carloon Make Train Hero Show - Interest". Anime News Network. 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2014-06-26.
  2. "Chinese Show's Similarities With Hikarian Anime Identified - Interest". Anime News Network. 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2014-06-26.
  3. celeron533. "同步率爆表《高铁侠》—在线播放—优酷网,视频高清在线观看". V.youku.com. Retrieved 2014-06-26.
  4. "あにてれ:トレインヒーロー 再始動!". Tv-tokyo.co.jp. Retrieved 2014-06-26.

External links

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