Crusher Joe (1989) (V)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Toshifumi Takizawa

Writers:

Fuyunori Gobu (writer)
Haruka Takachiho (story)

Genre:

Action | Animation | Sci-Fi

Plot Keywords:

Anime

Cast

Shaun O'Rourke	...	Ricky (Dub), voice
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Arnold	...	Staff Officer (voice: English version)
Micheal Brady	...	Joe (voice)
Nat Burton	...	Worker (voice: English version)
Juliet Cesario	...	Alfin (voice: English version)
Floyd Clapton	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Jim Clark	...	Gabbuuru (voice: English version)
Stacia Crawford	...	Matua (voice: English version)
Lyndon Daverwood	...	Worker (voice: English version)
Masashi Ebara	...	Captain
Shôji Ehara	...	Hoira
Akifumi Endô	...	Prisoner
Rick Forrester	...	Dongo, Jimenes (voice: English version)
Mark Franklin	...	Prisoner 2 (voice: English version)
Yuzuru Fujimoto	...	Gellstan
Issei Futamata	...	Dongo
Daisuke Gôri	...	Figaro
Tyson Harris	...	Guard (voice: English version)
Hiroshi Hashimoto	...	Pilot
Robert Hodge	...	Pilot (voice: English version)
Patrick Humphrey	...	Captain (voice: English version)
Minoru Inaba	...	Warden
Masako Katsuki	...	Female Newscaster
Iemasa Kayumi	...	Hume
Kiyoshi Kobayashi	...	Talos
Ronnie Lamana	...	Prisoner 3 (voice: English version)
Jim Leonard	...	Prisoner 4 (voice: English version)
Peter Lockard	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Naoki Makishima	...	Prisoner
Lanelle Markgraf	...	Announcer (voice: English version)
Marc Matney	...	Pigaro (voice: English version)
Mark McCoy	...	Prisoner #5
Yasuo Muramatsu	...	Carlos
Bill Nixon	...	Soldier (voice: English version)
Patt Noday	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Sean P. O'Connell	...	Prisoner 6 (voice: English version)
Noriko Ohara	...	Ricky
Shinya Ôtaki	...	Male Newscaster
Jordan Rhodes	...	Barney (voice: English version)
Robin Dale Robertson	...	Additional Voives (voice: English version)
Thomas Roday	...	Guard 2 (voice: English version)
Yoshiko Sakakibara	...	Tanya
Run Sasaki	...	Alfin
Ikuya Sawaki	...	Captain
Tony Schnur	...	Communications Officer (voice: English version)
Sara Seidman	...	Female Newscaster (voice: English version)
Mitsuo Senda	...	Kabul
Bill Shank	...	Male Newscaster (voice: English version)
Scott Simpson	...	Reporter (voice: English version)
Hiroyuki Suzuki	...	Enlisted Man
Katsumi Suzuki	...	Officer
Hiraku Takemura	...	Joe
Daniel Taraschke	...	Communications Officer (voice)
Mikio Terashima	...	Elgarno
Michael Titterton	...	Hume (voice: English version)
Larry Tobias	...	Staff Officer (voice: English version)
Masaaki Tsukada	...	Barney
Dave Underwood	...	Talos (voice: English version)
Kenji Utsumi	...	Mardo
Michael S. Way	...	Ghellstan (voice: English version)
Pamela Weidner	...	Waitress (voice: English version)
Steve Wilkins	...	Prison Robot (voice: English version)
Jerry Winsett	...	Various (voice)
David Woods	...	Assastant (voice: English version)
Keiko Yamaoka	...	Waitress
Kiyoyuki Yanada	...	Jimenes (as Kiyoyuki Harita)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Soundtrack:

Hishou (Never End)

The continuing adventures of the Japanese animated space hero

CRUSHER JOE, the 1983 theatrical animated feature from Japan, introduced to audiences a group of characters created by Haruka Takachiho—-a team of "Crushers," independent civilian contractors hired out for dangerous space work, led by 19-year-old Joe and including 17-year-old blonde female Alfin, 15-year-old Ricky and, for muscle, the massive middle-aged cyborg, Talos. The team returned in two 1989 hour-long OAV (original animated video) episodes, "The Ice Prison" and "The Ultimate Weapon: ASH." Both are available in the U.S., along with the movie, as part of a 2-disc DVD set released by AnimEigo.

While the movie was long enough (130 min.) to allow us to spend time with the characters and follow their often humorous interactions and offered a sprawling story with endless twists and turns that went all over the galaxy, the OAVs are concentrated more on narrowly focused plots which tend to take place in one locale and deal with confrontations putting our heroes in tense life-or-death situations. They're well-written, offer excitement and genuine suspense and are marked by high quality animation and design that's as good as any theatrical space anime we've seen.

"The Ice Prison" starts out on a planet run by an autocrat ruler who sends dissidents to an orbiting icy asteroid used as a penal colony which is then knocked out of orbit by a laser "accident" and threatens to plunge to the planet's surface. Crusher Joe and his team are called in to set things right but soon find they've been set up in a power play by the corrupt regime. "The Ultimate Weapon" finds a female army officer, Major Tanya, who is cuffed to a case containing a life-destroying new secret weapon, held hostage on a deserted planet by renegade officers seeking to undermine a peace process set to end an ongoing conflict between two warring systems. The Crushers are assigned to rescue Major Tanya and destroy the weapon. On the planet, not only do they have to fight the military but a hidden menace as well. Thousands of "Cloakers" appear-—basketball-sized killing machines left over from an abandoned research project, which are self-replicating and target any and all humans.

The first episode mixes a compelling sci-fi premise—-how to stop an asteroid from hitting a planet—-with conspiracy-type political intrigue and climaxes with rousing space combat that's as good as anything of its type seen in, say, the Gundam and Macross animated space series. The second episode is virtually nonstop action and suspense and is just so masterfully done that one wonders in frustration why no more Crusher Joe stories were ever animated and why there's been so little fan praise of these films, which rank with the best of anime space opera. Crusher Joe himself is a worthy successor to the whole Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers tradition of space-hopping pulp heroes, but with significant differences. He's younger, more quick-tempered, a bit more arrogant and money-hungry and notably reluctant to engage in noble heroics for their own sake (although he always does). In short, he's more human.

The production crew includes character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (who directed the Crusher Joe movie, as well as ARION and VENUS WARS), mecha designer Shoji Kawamori ("Macross Plus") and composer Keiichi Oku, whose sweeping, full-bodied orchestral themes might recall the work of John Williams.