This week, after an absurdly long delay, I’m continuing with Crusher Joe with the two OVA sequel episodes.

Cast & Crew

Hiroshi Takemura as Joe
Issei Futamata as Dongo
Kiyoshi Kobayoshi as Talos
Noriko Ohara as Ricky
Run Sasoki as Alfin
Iemasa Kayumi as Hume
Yoshiko Sakakibara as Tanya
Yuzuru Fujimoto as Gellstan

Directed by Toshifumi Takizawa
Written by Fuyunori Gobu
Adapted from the novels by Haruka Takachito
Animated by Sunrise & Studio Nue

The Premise

In The Ice Prison: The Planet Ooro is under threat. The colony had placed a comet in orbit to provide water during terraforming, and turned it into a prison once terraforming was complete. However, an accident on the prison has shifted its orbit and setting it on a collision course with the planet. Joe’s team is sent to stabilize the comet’s orbit. However, there are forces in the Ooro government that want to see the Crushers fail.

In The Ultimate Weapon: Ash, a military courier transporting a weapon of mass destruction for disposal is shot down by rebel forces on a hostile planet. Joe’s team is called in to get the courier and the weapon before they can fall into the hands of rebels. However, to get off the planet, the rebels and Crushers alike will face the planet’s perilous wildlife.

High Points

The animation in these episodes is even better than the animation in the film.

Low Points

The show pits a big flashy eyecatch at every… single… scene transition. Sort of like the bat-logo thing from the 1960’s Batman TV show, but longer, more abrupt, more obnoxious, and more frequent.

Scores

Originality: As before, this is based on a book series, and is spun off of a film. 3/6

Animation: Very good. The warp effect is also a step up from the movie. 5/6

Story: Both chapters are very well written with great concepts and set-pieces. 4/6

Emotional Response: The stories are a bit more suspenseful, in a “how are they going to get out of this one” sense. There’s also some pretty good humor as well, and some of the villains get wonderful Karmic deaths. Particularly the villain in Planet Ooro, who tries to take out our heroes and ends up hitting an Alliance space battleship instead, when the battleship has “crossed the T” with them. 5/6

Acting: The acting is generally good, though the villains still end up being excessively hammy at times (or rather doing acting more exaggerated than is necessary) but not exaggerated enough where the overacting becomes part of the appeal (like with the performances in Flash Gordon). 4/6

Production: Still quite excellent for an OVA. 4/6

Overall: A really fun show, that makes me wish there was more to watch. 5/6

In total, Crusher Joe the OVAs gets 30 out of 42.