Movielogr

Crusher Joe (1983)

Directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

Action | Science Fiction | Animation

Overview

Enter the tale of the Crusher Council, a group of rugged individuals known for assignments ranging from transportation to terraforming and everything in between. In the early days of space exploration the Crushers took on the job of destroying asteroids and defining space lanes. Because of their work, they were nicknamed “Crushers” which eventually became their business moniker. Despite the rough and ready nature of the Crushers’ work, they subscribe to a few steadfast rules. Unethical and illegal assignments are taboo, and any Crusher accepting one is barred from the Union. Of course, this presents problems for shady clients who try to trick the Crushers into accepting misleading assignments. They know that once the Union accepts a case the Crushers are honor-bound to follow it through. Among the various worlds, the Crusher Council has a stunning reputation, and among the Crushers, the most elite team is the one led by Crusher Dan and his successor, Crusher Joe.

Length 132 minutes

Actors

Hiraku Takemura | Noriko Ohara | Kiyoshi Kobayashi | Issei Futamata | Gorō Naya | Akira Kume | Kazuyuki Sogabe | Nobuo Tanaka | Daisuke Gouri | Hidekatsu Shibata | Kazuko Yanaga | Takeshi Watabe | Run Sasaki | Reiko Mutoh | Osamu Kobayashi

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Date ViewedDeviceFormatSourceRating
08/07/2020TVBroadcastOther8.5 stars
 

Viewing Notes

Holy crap is this an excellent movie. It was a good pairing with GATCHAMAN THE MOVIE via DKUTV since it’s also team-based but it’s a real feature film and not a few episodes mashed together. This movie has it all for a big sci-fi action adventure thriller. Plus it has that early 80s anime look that I love.

First off, the characters are really great. I love the idea of Crushers and this rag tag team being hired for jobs based on that occupation. Secondly they get pulled into a story that has them facing off with space pirates and weird space creatures which is awesome (lots of one-eyed creatures in this universe!). It starts as a rescue mission then turns into a save-the-planet situation.

There are a lot of similarities to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy comic book, and by extension, the MCU movies. Really had me wondering if the creators of the GotG comic had seen this and borrowed a few ideas when they developed the comic book. The core team is there with a similar dynamic and banter; they are hired for missions and face space pirates. The space station in the finale is called “Gomora”. One of the space ships in the final battle looks like a ship I’ve seen in the comics. Added an extra layer to the viewing as my mind was spinning w/these thoughts.

This was also a very nice transfer with solid subtitles so I’m wondering where this release exists. I definitely would like to own this movie. It’s so fucking good and one of the best *old* movies I’ve seen this year.

Update: just saw the pitiful rating on TMDb for this movie. I don’t get it. This movie is a blast.

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