Review: CRUSHER JOE

Let's go all the way back to the 70s for some rare old-school sci-fi manga.

CRUSHER JOE (Kurassha Jo), based on the novel series by Haruka Takachiho with art by Fujihiko Hosono.  First published in 1979 and first published in North America in 2000.

PLOT:

In the 22nd century, there are a group of interplanetary adventurers who for a price will help anyone in need or investigate any mystery.  They are known as Crushers, and one of the most legendary crew of Crushers are the crew of the Minerva: cyborg strongman Talos, teen genius Ricky, the runaway princess Alfin, and their hot-headed leader Joe.  Together they will take on everything, be it a 'ghost ship' warping at random, a mysterious young woman hiding her scientist father's greatest secret, or a businessman seeking revenge for the events of a lifetime ago.

STORY:

Manga adaptations of light novels are not a new phenomenon.  This book is proof of that, as it came a few years after Takachiho started releasing the books of the same name but four years before it would get its first anime adaptation.  It was also something of a throwback in its own time, as Takachiho's take on sci-fi was a lot pulpier than the big, shiny space epics that came in the wake of Star Wars.  Sadly, the Crusher Joe novels were never licensed in English so I can't speak to how this manga works as an adaptation.  All I can do is look at the stories themselves.

As far as sci-fi action goes, Crusher Joe is alright.  The action and twists are well-handled, even those that seem more supernatural in nature.  There's just a couple of problems.  First of all, the villains tend to be a rather interchangeable lot of space pirates, thugs, and skeezy businessmen.  Maybe that's a more realistic approach to such things, but none of them are distinct enough to make much of an impression.  

Secondly, it doesn't do much to establish Joe and his crew as characters in their own right.  There's very little in the way of downtime in between stories, which would ideally be the place to just let the main cast be themselves.  Sadly, all there seems to be room for is for Alfin, and the most we learn about her is that she's thirsty for Joe and bad at holding her liquor.  Again, it's hard to get too invested in these stories without any real sense of who they are and what bonds them together beyond the needs of their latest job and it never really improves over the course of the book.  It ultimately holds this manga back from being a good introduction to this series as a whole.

ART:

If you're expecting something on par to the original book illustrations or the character designs from the movie (both done by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko)...well, dial your expectations back a bit.  Hosono's art isn't terrible, but it can be a bit inconsistent and seems to take more cues from Rumiko Takahashi than anything else as it goes on.  This is most obvious with Joe and Alfin, who at times looks like they stepped out of Urusei Yatsura than anything else.  Everyone else can be hit or miss.  Poor Talos often gets his head so squared-off that he starts looking like Frankenstein.  

At least he handles the action set-pieces pretty well.  The paneling, the perspective, the backgrounds, the spaceships, the explosions, all of it is well-done.  It's a shame that it's all flipped, but that's just how things were done when this book was localized.

RATING:

Crusher Joe isn't a bad take on an old classic, but it's a little lacking in personality.  You'd be better off sticking with the movie or the OVA,s which will give you all the pulpy sci-fi goodness with a lot more charm and beauty for good measure.

This book was published by Studio Ironcat.  It is currently out of print.