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Crusher Joe - All Your Favorite Creators on One Anime

by Dylan Acres



Crusher Joe was created by Haruka Takachiho who founded Studio Nue in 1972 while he was a college student. Takachiho is perhaps best known for creating the Dirty Pair, and was awarded the Seiun Award multiple times for his Dirty Pair novels. [1] Through his fame as a noted writer of science fiction he was able to recruit other mangaka of the early 80s well known for their contributions to the field of sci-fi.



Crusher Joe is a co-production between Studio Nue and Sunrise and more specifically, two important figures at those studios, the aforementioned Haraka Takachiho and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko.

The first piece of Crusher Joe animation is a who’s who of luminaries of the animation field. Takachiho chose the character designer and animator Yoshikazu Yoshihiko to do illustrations for his Crusher Joe novel series, and so it made sense for Yoshihiko to work on the anime as well. Ultimately, for Crusher Joe: The Movie Yoshihiko served as director and animation director, script and screenplay writer, storyboard artist, and character designer.

Additionally, the rest of the anime staff contains a shocking number of future luminaries of the field. Shoji Kawamori, perhaps best known for his work designing the Valkyrie in Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, and creating series like The Vision of Escaflowne, Earth Girl Arjuna, as well as mecha and tech designs for all of the Patlabor films, Cowboy Bebop, Eureka Seven and so much more.

Animators for the film include Ichiro Itano, creator of the missile barrage styling from Macross known as the “Itano Circus” and animator of such classics as Mobile Suit Gundam, Space Runaway Ideon: Be Invoked, Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Megazone 23 while directing action packed series like Violence Jack,, Gantz, and Angel Cop,.

Gen Sato who would go on to provide character designs for many SD Gundam, projects, and animation director and key animator on series like Galaxy Express 999, and Space Warrior Baldios, to Naruto Shippuden, and its and Sailor Moon Crystal.

Yorihisa Uchida who worked on Birth and Char’s Counterattack, before going on to have a stellar career in the hentai genre with works such as The Legend of Lyon, F3, Guy, and The Karma Saiyuki,.

Toshiki Hirano acted as animation director for episodes of Urusei Yatsura, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, and Dr. Slump, before going on to create Vampire Princess Miyu, going on to direct its OVA and television series as well as working on its manga.

Kumiko Takahashi should be well known to fans of Rumiko Takahashi’s works, as she was a key animator on Urusei Yatsura Movies 3 and 4 before handling character designs and acting as animation director for Urusei Yatsura Movie 6, the Mermaid Scar OVA, and handling animation for many of the opening and ending themes of Inuyasha. More of her character designs can be seen in Birdy the Mighty, Witch Hunter Robin, Ouran High School Host Club, and Snow White with the Red Hair.

What makes the movie very special, and of interest to us as fans of Rumiko Takahashi, is that in addition to the staff, several manga creators were brought in to work as special “guest designers.” These are some of the brightest science-fiction creators of the early 1980s who were all friends of creator Haruka Takachiho and specifically chosen by him for the project. Until recently, only the names of the creations were published, which offered little help in visually identifying the guest designs within the film itself. However, the Crusher Joe Designers Note artbook from 2016 not only identifies each of the creations but also shows the artists original illustrations as well. [2]

First is Hideo Azuma. Azuma is likely best known as the father of lolicon with his 1979 dojinishi Cybele, but created Nanako SOS and the award winning Disappearance Diary as well. Azuma designed the bulging eyed creature known as Group Ouch. The notes on his design label it as expressionless with mismatched eyes and salamander limbs that can run fast.

Shinji Wada is best known as the creator of the iconic Sukeban Deka series, and created numerous other shojo manga such as Pygmalio and Shojozame. His creature is named Goby, and has webbed appendages. Wada notes that his front fins act as hands and that its belly and back have suckers that it uses to eat, as it lives in the mud.

Satomi Mikuriya created the beastial Rudora, but it seems that Yoshikazu Yasuhiko for the film itself. Mikuriya is the creator of the Nora manga, of which the infamously cheap anime also known as Twinkle Nora Rock Me was based on. He actually directed the anime and provided character designs. Additonally he directed one of the earliest CGI scenes used in the Golgo 13: The Professional movie as well. His original drawing shows a much more werewolf like beastial face with pointed ears. Yasuhiko changes the shape of the ears and transforms the Rudora into a single eyed ape creature. [3]

Rumiko Takahashi designs the cute little one eyed Chug that gives off similar design vibes to Kirara in Inuyasha years later.

Yumiko Igarashi created the adorably weird toucan like creature, Boo Boo. Igarashi is best known for illustrating classic manga like Candy Candy, Georgie!, (and ending up in lawsuits with her co-creators on both series). [4] [5]

Fumiko Takano designed Anessa, the immigration agent robot. Takano is best known for Zettai Anzen Kamisori and Lucky Jo-chan no Atarashii Shigoto. More recently she is responsible for the character designs for the 2021 anime The Heike Story. In her notes she makes special note of her extendable ears to make her look more robotic.

Katsuhiro Otomo needs no introduction, he’s the creator of Akira and the director of its anime adaptation, as well as Steamboy. He designed the Arachne for Crusher Joe, and the name gives away its spider-like design. Its eight legs meet in the center with a gun mounted pod. Otomo even draws a little strip to show how to defeat the mech as well as different stances for when it is at rest, and when it should be approached with caution.

We have Akira Toriyama, most famous for Dragonball, but publishing Dr. Slump at the time. Toriyama created what he calls the space station MAX-310, and its designs definitely share some of his trademark, fun mechanical designs.

Tori Miki designed the floating bladder known as Bagpiper. He notes that it is a jungle animal and his designs show that it produces sound from its tube like appendages. He is best known for the manga Anywhere But Here, Terrible Shonendan in Shonen Sunday and Dai Honya.

Fujihiko Hosono is the original artist for the Crusher Joe manga and a member of Studio Nue. He would go on to create manga like Gu Gu Ganmo in Shonen Sunday as well as Gallery Fake and Dokkiri Doctor. He created the tentacle plant monster Nightwalker for the film.







Footnotes

You can watch a video by Dylan Acres via the embedded clip above that has illustrated examples of each manga creator's character, and the creative team that worked on the film.

Cover

Rumic World
Published: July 25, 2023
Author: Dylan Acres
Translated by: ---
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ISBN/Web Address: https://www.furinkan.com/ features/articles/crusherjoe.html
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