This one gets in your chest because the transformation is a countdown, not a power-up. Joji yells "Tek Set" and becomes Tekkaman, but he can only hold the form so long, and he can only do it at all because Pegas is in range, so every fight is a boy racing a clock he didn't set. Tatsunoko draws the Waldaster invaders as genuinely grotesque, wet and insectile, not toyetic, and the space lance work has real weight to it in a year when most heroes just fired beams. Then Andro Umeda shows up out of nowhere to pull him out of the fire, the mysterious ally who knows more about this war than Joji ever will. It's the show that later became Tekkaman Blade, and the DNA is right here: a kid grinding himself down to buy Earth another day. Slept on for decades, and the people who found it never shut up about it.

Tekkaman lives an ordinary life as a bright young boy, but modern science can change him into a mighty warrior of space. That ability is put to the test when hostile aliens arrive to invade Earth. Wielding a space lance, he bravely takes the fight to the grotesque creatures from beyond the stars. In the course of his battles he meets a mysterious young man from another planet, who comes to his aid whenever he is in danger. The 26-episode TV series from 1975 combines action and adventure with mecha and science fiction.