Crusher Joe

Crushers: intergalactic Jacks-of-All-Trades who will take on any assignment for the right price. Crusher Joe heads a small team of these outer space troubleshooters that includes the cyborg Talos, the beautiful Alfin, and the obligatory kid sidekick Ricky. A routine assignment escorting a cryogenically frozen heiress to a medical facility goes awry when the girl goes missing and Joe and his team are left holding the bag. It seems space pirates are trying to play the Crushers for patsies, but Joe doesn’t take kindly to the setup and tracks the pirates to their home world. The four heroes not only have to rescue their human cargo but take down the pirates in the process, which involves a heck of a lot of space dogfights, explosions, and good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat.

(Source: AniDB)

Joe Main

Takemura, Hiroshi Japanese

Alfin Main

Sasaki, Run Japanese

Talos Main

Kobayashi, Kiyoshi Japanese

Ricky Main

Ohara, Noriko Japanese

Kei Supporting

Yuri Supporting

Kowalski, Colonel Supporting

Naya, Gorou Japanese

Matua Supporting

Mutou, Reiko Japanese

Yasuhiko, Yoshikazu Director, Script, Storyboard, Character Design, Animation Director

Chiba, Kouichi Sound Director

Hamatsu, Mamoru Storyboard, Assistant Director

Toriyama, Akira Character Design

Reviews

Oct 8, 2017

AnimeTopScholar

Recommended

Crusher Joe is a sci-fi action movie was produced by studio Sunrise and directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko who's not really done much in terms of directing, but more in terms of animation direction and character designs on series such as Mobile Suit Gundam. It's adapted from a series of sci-fi light novels Haruka Takachiho that were initially published in 1977.

In this movie we follow a team of Crushers comprised of Joe, Alfin, Ricky and Talos. Crushers are intergalactic jacks-of-all-trades who will take on any task for the right price. Joe and his team are tasked with helping escort a cryogenically frozen heiress to a medical ... facility. However, something happens during warp and they end up nowhere near where they were supposed to go, and the heiress and the people who hired them are nowhere to be found. The pirates have been playing them for fools in order to escape, but Joe doesn't like being fooled and goes to track the pirates down to get his revenge and to rescue the human cargo.

I have to give props to the animation in this movie. The movie was pretty well animated. I also really love the more cartoonish stretch and pull techniques they use to make the characters so much more expressive and alive. I am a huge sucker for things like that and I really liked that in this movie. The space dogfights and general hand to hand combat was also animated pretty well, so I have no real complaints in terms of the visuals of the movie.

The music in this movie let me down a little to be honest. I can not really remember any music at all. It almost felt like it wasn't even really there at all. Some better music definitely would have helped out during the fights and could have made the entire movie seem a lot more epic.

Overall I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie. I had been told before hand that I was probably gonng to like it, but I did not think I was going to like it as much as I did. The action in this movie was really good. They did a nice job making it so that our main characters felt strong and good at what they are doing, but at the same time they managed to keep them from being so overly strong and cool that no one would ever be a threat to them. This was shown especially during a fight at the disco where they would both beat people and get swarmed and overpowered. Other things I thought the movie did really well was the animation. The way they portrayed expression in the characters using more cartoonish animation techniques really did wonders for this movie. I also really liked that instead of having what the characters were thinking and feeling show through inner monologue, they used the animation and expressions of the characters to get that through to the viewers.

Now I have a lot of praise for the show, but I also have a few complaints. One of the complaints which you could read earlier was in the music department. I don't really remember any music from the movie, cause it really did not make an impression on me. I wish they would have got some better music cause it really could have elevated some of the scenes in this movie. Other than that it's just minor things that I think they could have explored a bit more, such as the whole Crushers organization and some more villain motivations and how they were connected to the events that took place, but I think they did an ok job at that. I would really recommend people give this movie a watch. I don't understand why it's got such a low rating on MAL, cause I think it's a lot better than what it's given credit for. I know I enjoyed it a lot.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 6, 2010

peroxid

Recommended

Introduction:
Crusher Joe: The Movie, is a Movie from 1983, by Studio Nue. It was adapted from the Crusher Joe light novels, written by author Haruka Takachiho. Directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, who had already worked on the 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam, it won Animage Anime Grand Prize in ’83.

Story (6/10):
Crusher Joe follows the adventures of Crusher Joe and his team, Alfin, Talos and Ricky. Our main characters are the so-called Crushers, a kind of legal and controlled mercenaries. The movie revolves around a group of Pirates, which have stolen a highly dangerous weapon, while Crusher Joe and his team are fighting the Pirate faction. The ... Story overall is quite generic and is something that one would expect from this kind of movie. And although it’s not a complex story, it’s intelligent.

Art (9/10):
The Art is stunning in this Anime. While I was watching this, I forgot that it’s almost 30 years old. There were quite an amount of awesome fight scenes, and the design was splendid. Crusher Joe is without a doubt, one of the best-looking Anime’s from the early 80’s.

Sounds (8/10):
The Music in this Movie was always a crucial point, to create the perfect ambient. There wasn’t a moment where I thought the Music was misplaced, even when there wasn’t any. I don’t have any complains about the Voice Acting (Japanese Version), where the seiyu’s did a flawless job.

Characters (8/10):
All Characters are the most 80’s cliché possible, but everyone is likeable. They are all funny, serious and distinctive. The relationship between the 4 main Characters is very interesting, where they despite being all friends have the occasional fights, which can bring a good laugh.

Enjoyment (9/10):
With great fighting scenes, funny situations, enjoyable characters and a bit of romance, this Movie is really a great joy to watch. Even with its 120 minutes, you won’t ever feel bored, because there is always something happening.

Overall (8/10):
This is really an underrated and especially underappreciated Movie. This is one of the best Movies I have seen from the early 80’s and I don’t understand why it’s so underappreciated. A good way to sum this movie is to say that it’s a generic 80’s Anime at its best. So if you like more old school stuff or you just like a good action/comedy anime, than this is definitely one for you.

Note: If you don't know where to watch this, PM me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 31, 2022

Kamezuki

Mixed Feelings

This movie is too long. It was hard to sit through the entire thing. The plot is serviceable; it's a relatively simple plot with predictable twists that's been done before, but they really stretch it out over the two hour-plus runtime. Direction-wise, there are often shots that seem repetitive or that linger on nothing in particular, probably in an attempt to pad the film. Some scenes look like they were inspired by iconic scenes in "Star Wars." (This came out around the same time.)

The animation itself is good, especially for the time it was made. It's clear and fluid, with vivid colors. The character designs ... are kind of generic, though, and the proportions on some of the characters seem to be a little off, making them look noodle-like in some scenes. There are some cartoonish elements in the animation, especially during the fights and comedic parts. The alien animals that pop up in the background throughout the movie look unique.

As for the sound, this movie has an orchestral soundtrack, which sounds good enough on its own, but often doesn't fit the scenes it's paired with. For instance, suspenseful or dramatic music will start playing in scenes that aren't suspenseful or dramatic at all. The ending theme is average. The voice acting isn't anything spectacular; it's not terrible, but there's nothing memorable about it.

There isn't much background given on the characters (just a brief intro at the beginning), or much at all about the universe they're in or how it works (like what exactly being a "Crusher" entails), so it's hard to empathize with the characters or really get into the story.

As for explicit content, there is a lot of violence and death; people get killed in a variety of ways in this one, but mostly by getting shot. There is also a fair amount of nudity -- basically brief shots of breasts being shown here and there randomly (like on the cover of a magazine in the background, etc.), and there is a cryogenically frozen woman who is kept naked for about half of the movie.

This anime movie wasn't the worst I've ever seen, but it wasn't that good, either. If it had been about 30 minutes shorter and more compact in its direction, it probably would have made for a more agreeable watch. As it is, I would recommend it only to people who think they have the patience to sit through it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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