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), 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. Some of the OVAs even appeared after Tomica VHS tapes. A second television series, Denkō Chō Tokkyū Hikarian (電光超特急ヒカリアン), 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 decide 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. The series depicts them operating as normal trains during times of peace.

Hikarians

In episode 35 of the TV series, he is dissatisfied with his lack of screen time, and chases after Dozilas and Ukkary, saying, "I'm the main character." After episode 105 of the TV series (when Nozomi returns to Earth), he has grown so much that he can no longer transform with the same energy as before, and he can only transform when he is traveling at a speed of 275 km/h, which requires more energy to be supplied. Weapons include Hand Sword, Sky Sword, Sun Shield, Star Shield, and Perfect Shield. When he appears, he is usually doing desk work, but he has also played hide-and-seek with the younger group of West Tsubasa and Tetsuyuki.

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). In July 2011, Chinese viewers of previews were shocked that it was a shot-for-shot knockoff of Hikarian. After Pat Lee was sued by TV Tokyo & Takara Tomy when they found out about the cartoon being a rip-off of Hikarian, Pat Lee created a revised version called Train Heroes (トレインヒーロー) which began airing in Japan in April 2013.