Not-quite-instant-but-still-pretty-short-for-me Review: Crusher Joe (Movie+OVAs)
I’ve started to dig into my pile of DVDs that I really need to watch sooner or later, and I had the brilliant idea of writing normal-length reviews (500-700 words) of most of them. Then I remembered that I’m incredibly lazy, so here are very condensed notes on the Crusher Joe Movie+OVAs:
CRUSH.
General: I’ll start with few things I feel like I can safely generalize about for the 3 installments, the movie and the two OVAs. For one thing, it’s all very 80s. This is of course a wonderful thing, unless you don’t watch things because “they look old,” in which case I suggest that you close your browser window, boot up the Love Hina DVD that is undoubtedly sitting in your player as we speak, and summarily hang yourself. Er, this is supposed to be short. Focus.
CRUSH.
I realize that “very 80s” doesn’t really say much, so here’s a few more specific things! For one, the animation looks very nice throughout the series. Crusher Joe is ultimately an action show, and the action scenes look fantastic. The music for all of it is also great. Light on the cheesy 80s synths (although the soundtrack that was probably composed on a sega genesis is what made overfiend for me) and heavy on the authentic-sounding Film Music. Kind of Star Wars-y at times. Much like a lot of the plot. Speaking of unoriginal plot, there is probably very little in these that will cause you to stroke your neckbeard in contemplation. In fact, chances are you’ve seen more or less all of the plot in one place or another. It really doesn’t hurt the series. Like I said, ACTION.
CRUSH.
Movie:
The movie clocks in at just a little over 2 hours, and it feels like it. Lots of action scenes broken up with humor scenes, all of which feels very cartoony. It’s somewhat strange to see standard comedy devices used in between bloody deaths, but it works! There’s a little bit of introduction to the world of Crusher Joe sprinkled in here, but not a whole lot. I don’t really feel like going into the plot, the AnimEigo page for it does that well enough. It drags a little in the late middle parts, but overall it’s good fun.
CRUSH.
OVAs
Both of these are a lot lighter on the comedy, but you don’t really need it. Where the movie felt like a full-scale movie, these 1-hour OVAs pack about the same amount of action as the movie. The Ice Prison is solid space commando and space navy fun, while The Ultimate Weapon: Ash drags a bit when the Crusher Joe team is running away from the Evil Robots that Tentacle Rape You and then Explode for the 12th time, but it gets a big kick in the ass in the last 15 minutes or so. I saw Ice Prison first, and it was winning out over The Ultimate Weapon until those last few minutes. They’re about even in my book, now. I’m also speculating if working on Ideon psychologically broke the director of The Ultimate Weapon, some of that shit is pretty grim. Anyway, once again, these plots aren’t going to win any awards, and you can probably see most of the plot points coming from miles away, but who cares. If you don’t feel like watching a perfectly good cartoon because it’s not “deep” then just throw all those DVDs of burned fansubs that you own in the trash away (or burn your trashy dvds that are practically fansubs away, if you’re from singapore) and go finish reading that 3rd Dave Eggers book you’re on.
CRUSH.
The AnimEigo release did a fairly good job, from what I can judge of these things. The sub track is pretty colloquial to the point of nearly changing entire meanings of lines around, and some of that can be really hit-or-miss. I saw a few lines in there that I really loved and hope to remember in the future, and also saw a few lines that seemed absolutely terrible. Didn’t really listen to the dub.
CRUSH.
I think that about wraps it up: Good clean sci-fi action fun backed up with solid technical work. Apparently the disc is out of print now, but I picked it up for $5 at a con, and really, it’s damn hard to beat $1.25/hour of this stuff. Recommended to anyone that wants to kick back and just watch some fun cartoons, which should be all of you.
edit: I just did a word count and this was almost 800 words. oops.