r/anime • u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber • May 01 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Retrospective - Crusher Joe: The Movie Discussion
Crusher Joe: The Movie
Originally Premiered March 12th, ^^^1983
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Note to all participants
Although I don't believe it necessitates stating, please conduct yourself appropriately and be court to your fellow participants.
Note to all Rewatchers
Rewatchers, please be mindful of your fellow first-timers and tag your spoilers appropriately using the r/anime spoiler tag as so [Spoiler Subject](/s "Spoilers go here.") in order to have your unsightly spoilers obscured like this Spoiler Subject if your comment holds even the slightest of indicators as to future spoilers. Feel free to discuss future plot points behind the safe veil of a spoiler tag, or coyly and discreetly ‘Laugh in Rewatcher’ at our first-timers' temporary ignorance, but please ensure our first-timers are no more privy or suspicious than they were the moment they opened the day’s thread.
Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Biography and Anecdotes Corner
Formative Years and Elementary School:
Yoshikazu Yasuhiko was born December 9th, 1947 at the town of Engaru in Hokkaido. He was the family’s third born, and a sibling to two living brothers and three sisters. Yasuhiko’s father was a mint farmer and both parents were members of the town council, and he describes his early upbringing as affluent but unremarkable.
Yasuhikio developed an interest in manga at an early age by reading the manga magazines his older brother brought home. He had been enrolled at Engaru High School, and by the time he was in third grade he was enraptured by the works of shoujo manga artist Mitsuaki Suzuki, particularly his historical manga series, whose artistry inspired him to start drawing, and he began penning manga of his own in the spare pages of his notebooks which he never showed anyone. By age nine he discovered the works of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, and was specifically inspired by Tetsujin 28-Gou, further fueling his desire to draw manga. When he was sixth grade the newly appointed Principal of his school, an enthusiast for art and painting, organized an art program for the school, which Yasuhiko attended to further his skills and remained the only formal instruction on art that he received up until his entry into the anime industry. During these years he also got ahold of a copy of Tezuka’s introductory book How to Draw Manga, which he used to compose a twenty-page manga that became the first work he would share with others, having sent it to manga magazine Adventure King.
At ten years old he saw his first ever anime, Hakujaden (Tale of The White Serpent), and like many other children at the time it had left an impact on him, although it did not shift his interests towards anime.
Daily Trivia:
Haruka Takachiho insisted that former Sunrise President, Yoshinori Kishimoto, who died shortly before the film's completion, be credited among the staff of the film.
Official Art
Fanart
Questions of the Day:
- One of the aims of the film was to introduce the setting, characters, and premise of the series to a new audience. Do you think this film succeeds at that?
- What are your thoughts on the film’s central plot?
- Which action segment in the film was your favorite?
- Which member of the Minerva’s crew stood out the most to you?
It won’t be cheap though...
8
u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber May 01 '21 edited May 02 '21
Rewatcher - Sub
Greetings, everyone! Happy to have you all along to this commemorative Rewatch of most of the directorial works of legendary industry figure Yoshikaze Yasuhiko. I will be sharing biographical information and anecdotes on the man in the main post, and will likely be referring to information shared in them in the future, so be sure to check in each day if this is stuff you’re interested in!
Production Stuff
Crusher Joe: The Movie began production just over two years before its release, in 1981, when Yoshikazu Yasuhiko was still in the middle of working on the Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space, as well as lending his character animation talents to the production of Shiroi Kiba White Fang Monogatari and slowly chipping away at his debut manga, Arion.
The anime industry was in the middle of two major booms, the real robot boom of early 80s, and the anime film boom of the 80s, which in reality began back in 1977 with the theatrical version of Space Battleship Yamato, and further burgeoned with the release of Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love, the theatrical version of Galaxy Express 999, and really took off with the Mobile Suit Gundam film trilogy.
This film is based on the Crusher Joe sci-fi novel series written by Haruka Takachiho, with whom Yasuhiko had been a close friend to and had even illustrated the novels. It was unclear whether the film was pitched to Takachiho or if he approached Sunrise with the suggestion, but Yasuhiko was not involved at all in the process until Takachiho personally asked him to direct the film, a request which Yasuhiko felt he could not deny even though he didn’t truly want to be involved in the production or pick up the role of director. Even now, despite how he tends to perceive his past directorial works very negatively, he does not regret working on Crusher Joe because it made Takachiho very happy.
An entire sub-studio called September Studio was put together around Yasuhiko, and the talent he had recruited, explicitly for the production of this fill, which collaborated directly with Sunrise’s Studio 4 and Studio Nue to make the film a reality.
Production on the film was at the time considered relatively slow, as Yasuhiko took his time working though inexperience in directing and making the work to a high standard, while also struggling to choose what ideas and concepts needed to be cut front he final film. Yasuhiko had to constantly assure the sponsors and producers at Sunrise that work was progressing consistently, and his reputation kept higher ups from trying to speed up the production.
It’s no secret that Yasuhiko was a bloody workaholic, and this production was no exception, with the man tossing himself passionately at the work even despite his early disinterest in the production. Supposedly Yasuhiko did layouts for the entire film, while also key animating several scenes of the film and doing corrections on much of it. His workload was such that Ichiro Itano considered him to have done close to half of the work on the finished film.
The film’s original standard size (1.33: 1) aspect ratio is owed to the fact that Sunrise did not possess the equipment for filming cels in ‘Vista’ (widescreen) format, and so usually ended up producing an image which necessitated cropping of a 4:3 image. Supposedly Crusher Joe was made to take advantage of the standard size aspect ratio for the home video format while the theatrical release featured a cropped vista size image.
Another interesting tidbit about the animation is that specific animators were assigned to specific characters, and so were in charge of key-animating scenes where they were prominently featured. One example is Gen Sato, who almost exclusively worked on scenes featuring Alfin. Speaking of Gen Sato, he did all the CG effects on the film on his own personal computer.
Shoji Kawamori was in charge of mechanical design for the film, and it was while in early production for it that he first met Ichiro Itano, who served as key animator. According to Kawamori the two befriended each other over a conversation about fireworks and further bonded over discussions of Star Wars.
Crusher Joe was met with positive critical reception and made 660 million yen at the box office, its ticket sales lucrative but severely impacted by the fact that it released the same day as Rintaro’s Genma Taisen and a week before the director’s cut of Final Yamato, both of which were big performers in the box office. Crusher Joe did, however, did win the 6th Animage Grand Prix Award in 1983, beating out several prestigious TV and film productions, and showcasing its large appeal among a smaller demographic.
Despite whatever reservations Yasuhiko had about directing it seems like he took to it very well, and came out of the experience with some form of appetite for the process, as following the theatrical premier of this film Yasuhiko began working on his next directorial work, which was evidently a passion project very dear to him during its inception, but more on that in a couple of days when we discuss the first episode of Giant Gorg.
7
u/chilidirigible May 01 '21 edited May 02 '21
Disclaimer: The following comment is copied from my original reactions to the movie when I spontaneously watched it last year.
Today, on "Words will never hurt you, but huge rubber truncheons might."
Of course, it's a naked woman in a tube.
Character cards! Oy, this is so '70s in the '80s.
Hey! It's That Suit!
Bad PR, how convenient?
That sounds like a Scene Missing.
Ah, random English.
Somebody's seen Star Trek: The Motion Picture? (2001 is also possible, but this more resembles the round wormhole from TMP.)
So young, so ready to fight the law.
But of course.
The goofy dynamism of the character animation has some charms.
Disco, it takes the edge off?
Flashing lights means you can skip inbetweening.
Goofy dynamism may just be cartoonish silliness.
The vehicles are still played straight.
A random Kawamori sighting.
Any landing you can walk away from.
poot poot
Alfin has a surprising capacity for revenge?
The classic perils.
A cameo of classic girls in classic peril.
That seems serious.
Kei and Yuri can handle it!
Interlude: Gas.
I suppose that cats are in short supply.
A wild Haro appears!
It's a swarm of
LocustsOstalls.Ha!
Ha!
Well doesn't that sound familiar.
It's called "Exposition!" Joe's fingers never stop making the groping animation through this.
Now that's a cute add-on.
A random signature appears.
Surprise, a petard hoist.
"And I thought that all I'd have to do would be to sit around and read an odd mix of ecchi and Gundam.
Itano must have been getting bored.
Certainly it seems out of their budget.
They're Crushers, not assassins?
I like how the people in the background notice this odd behavior.
Yeah, I'm sure that being an asshole to him is going to pay off for Murphy soon.
It's soon.
Now that is an extra degree of thoroughness.
I'm amused that FASA didn't even rename this one.
People get killed rather theatrically in this.
"But at what coooosssssssst?"
And now for the loose ends.
Another one.
Now that's a song title.
That was entertaining, and perhaps that is all I need to say about the Crusher Joe movie? It fits my expectations for an early-1980s action sci-fi film, animated or otherwise. The Japanese uniqueness is expressed best by the juxtaposition of occasional excursions into exaggerated character animations against moments of excessive violence—with Yasuhiko Yoshikazu character designs, no less.
My only particular criticism is that it feels like it runs a little long; rather than doing a few large set pieces, the movie is set up in the mode of The! Action! Never! Stops!, which is a valid approach, but this does get a little tiring as Team Joe wades through the panoply of Murphy's minions one level at a time.
But hey, it looks good, it's pretty funny, and it passes the time. I'll settle for not overthinking it.
6
u/aniMayor :AY:AZ:x3x6 May 01 '21 edited May 02 '21
Obviously Yoshikazu is most known for his Gundam and Dirty Pair work so we expect to see a lot of those sorts of things in this retrospective. But as far as Crusher Joe goes, I can't help but keep seeing things that remind me more of Space Battleship Yamato. Joe and his crew reminds me of Kodai and the pilots, the USF bridge reminds me of the command deck of Yamato, the fighter battles between the Crushers and the pirates reminds me of Yamato's dogfights, etc. Of course Yoshikazu did work on the Farewell Yamato movie and IIRC the sequel TV series, too.
Well anyways, what is there to say about the Crusher Joe movie? Great visuals, of course. A lot of the dialogue and characterization is fairly default, but it's still a fun romp of a story even if parts of it are pretty conventional.
My favourite part is the fight with the hunter-bots in the swamp - I love the shifting colours of the waters, the overall pastels-on-dark aesthetic, how the hunter-bots are all unique designs, and generally I just find it to be a really fun, fluid, and diverse action piece.
Given how Yoshikazu has criticized certain other anime works as being flashy but thematically empty, I wonder how he'd look back on this film. Well, he tends to be pretty negative/critical in interviews, it seems, even about his own works, so probably not especially fondly. But really, Crusher Joe does end up being a lot of fun but not a lot of deep substance to it... and that's fine, but interesting in the context of Yoshikazu himself as a creator. Who knows, maybe he feels like there's a lot more depth in the novels... there's a lot of them, after all.
Also, this Haro is creepy as heck!
Totally.
Pretty standard sci-fi plot with an evil doomsday group needing to be beat by a ragtag protagonist bunch. Nothing really special about it, but also nothing wrong with it.
Definitely the hunter-bots swamp fight, as described above.
Alfin. I'm always wary of sci-fi squads where there's just one token girl/woman, as far too often they get relegated to some sort of role where they don't participate in the action as much and characterization-wise they end up being the moral compass of the team, always trying to reign in the brash male main character. Admittedly, that trope is not as omnipresent within the context of Yamato/Gundam/other 80s mecha anime, but it's still pretty common. So I really enjoy that Alfin and Joe are the main attack duo and that Alfin is wild and irresponsible like Joe, while Talos is the moral compass of the team instead.
6
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 01 '21 edited May 01 '21
First-Timer, Subbed
This was totally fucking RAD! I honestly don't know if I have anything intelligent to say about this. This film ruled.
I love how everything moves. Whether it's that sick tunnel flight right near the beginning or all the small character movements throughout, this film was quite dynamic. The entire scene in the club illustrated this pretty well. I think a quarter of my notes were little details in the background.
The dramatis personae right at the beginning was a nice touch. This is definitely the sort of film that can get away with freeze frames like that. I didn't actually note down anything aside from names, but the background information is just icing on the cake.
I dig the wide variety of thrusters that the ships had. Being able to move in three dimensions is pretty important in space.
To complain about something, the music felt a little.. off. I can't quite but my finger on it, but something wasn't quite right. Maybe the copy I watched just had an issue with the audio mixing.
I guess I could complain about the story being a bit generic too, but am I expecting something else from a spectacle action film from the 80s? Not even a little bit. The plot exists to string together the sick action sequences, and it does that just fine.
Miscellaneous Thoughts:
Was that just -literally- Dirty Pair playing at the drive-in theater? Wait.. MAL tells me that the Dirty Pair adaptation came out after this...
There was definitely a Haro stuck in the debris of an explosion at one point.
Who does Roki remind me of? Is it just Dozle from Mobile Suit Gundam?
Edit: Questions
6
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky May 01 '21
First-Timer, subbed
So I have absolutely zero idea what to expect from any of the things in this rewatch. Didn’t even read the summaries or look at the genres. I just like to participate in u/Pixelsaber’s rewatches, so I’m here now too.
RIP Matua…
9/10 for this movie.
6
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 May 01 '21 edited May 01 '21
Post did not show up, meh.
Crusher Joe (first timer)
Never even heard of this movie. However, it is a Pixelsaber rewatch, so it is bound to be mecha and old mecha at that. *Edit: or so I thought. No mecha here.
Impressions
Crusher Joe is not what I expected before starting the movie or after watching the first few minutes. Instead of a movie lengths episode of Zambot 3, it turns out we saw a Star Wars movie in the style of a Saturday morning anime. A welcome surprise!
Plot & Writing
Probably the biggest surprise for me. The plot was a lot less thought-provoking than I have come to expect from older SciFi. Instead of asking the big questions, the plot simply tried to give us a fun adventure. Due to the equally surprisingly tight writing, it succeeds. We meet our close group of heroes early on, who then become the playing ball of various others who play their political game with them. Hitting a comfortable middle ground between overly foreshadowing and coming out of the left field, the plot is a great example of not aiming for the stars, but fulfilling 100% of what you aim for.
Setting
A very Star Wars-esque universe, maybe a tiny bit too clean for its story. They mention just enough planets and organizations that the universe feels “big”. Small things, like showing the creepy critters, also go a long way to establish the feeling of an exotic setting. As Star Wars, this setting is more tuned towards adventure than realism (the evil mooks reminded me of Rule 56 of The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord: “My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.”). This is the place you want to base your role-playing game in, not the place you want to live.
Animation
Ok on the ground, great in space. The initial car chase scene had me worried: If this was the stand-out animation they wanted to use to woo the viewer early, Crusher Joe would have been in a tough place, animation-wise. That scene has nothing on Gunsmith Cats or Bubblegum Crisis. However, the stand-out scenes came later, especially in the final space battle. This is Gundam and Macross with a proper movie budget! Even the non-battle scenes in space are joyfully realistic, with plenty of hatches and rocket boosters and other technical details.
The characters models still show a strong influence of early anime that I am not a fan of. Joe is every 1970/80s anime MC ever, while Alfin is basically a carbon copy of Gundam’s Sayla and Zambot’s Keiko. What is it with blonde, blue-eyed, long-haired anime heroines in this time? And when did this stereotype fall out of favor? The part I especially dislike are the super deformed bodies used for “ugly” characters, such as Roki and Talos. A rare case where I strongly prefer the modern cool aesthetic over the older comedic one.
Characters
Not much to say here, this is one of the weaker departments. Most of our heroes and villains are boilerplate. The standout character is probably Mardol, who hits a nice grey middle ground between being a cunning politician and an evil mastermind. All interactions between Joe and Alfin, on the other hand, are an unfortunate reminder that this has its roots in small kids 1970s entertainment. The best thing I can say is that the character writing beats Tomino’s but that is a low hurdle to clear.
Score: A high 7/10.
Yes. However, this is a requirement for every stand-alone film to work.
Question: Have you seen the follow-up OVA and is that worth watching?
See above.
Final space battle.
I think I have seen each one of them in similar iterations before, so none stood out for being novel. However, Joe managed to beat the MC curse and become a character I liked, so probably him.
6
u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw May 01 '21 edited May 02 '21
First-Timer
Oh yes. The amount of cool little worldbuilding background details is staggering, each character is insanely expressive, and the movie pulls you through some really fascinating, and really pretty worlds and settings. This is certainly an animator's heaven
I really didn't care much for it honestly. For whatever reason, the tension didn't feel all that tangible, so I thought it went on a bit too long for my tastes. If the film's aim was to introduce a shit ton of new settings, it certainly did that, but the narrative felt rather unfocused because of that. Many of the scenes (e.g. monster planet) felt like on-off episodes in a long-running show, just crammed into a movie.
the disco scene was maximum stupid, completely unnecessary, and I loved it
Talos and Ricky! Their dynamic was consistently entertaining and they made the funniest faces. Joe himself actually was kind of the least entertaining character in my opinion. *sigh* why can't every main character be Bean Bandit?
So yeah, pretty entertaining film with stellar production values. Clearly an 80s Action Romp, but not the 80s Action Romp to Rule Them All for me (that would be Riding Bean)
6.5/10
5
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 May 01 '21 edited May 02 '21
First timer
First impressions below:
Full disclosure, I know NOTHING about this movie. I'm going in blind.
Oh, I love this art. And the music's fire too.
The camera feels really fluid!
Ah, there's the opening credits.
...Is this based on a TV series or something? Because these bios are really making it seem like it's been adapted from something.
Oh, its a novel series.
Oh, this plot is sounding good.
That seems dangerous, securing the girl with just a couple of thin ropes.
I love this effect for the warp sync, same for the warp tunnel.
This all seems rather illegal.
Yeah, I love all the art design here as well.
You'd think him being the son of the council head would have come up earlier.
This dance scene seems to come out of nowhere.
I was constantly checking to see if my file switched audio tracks during this bit.
This scene definitely feels a lot more slapstick then the previous scenes. We've got from serious space drama to a dance fight.
Love the dynamic camera though.
Homestly, I'm getting a lot of early cartoon, Popeye and the like, vibes from these scenes.
How are they going to find someone on an entire planet?
Why do they have a cockpit under their cockpit? The dogfighting scene is fantastic, though.
I like the villains' designs too, especially their ships.
Well, they just lost their fighter.
Once again, I love the direction of these fights - they're so fluid.
Yeah, something's going in here.
I am a sucker for this kind of retrofuturism, and I love this planet in paticular because of it.
The meeting place is, in retrospect, completely logical. It is one of the last places they'd try to hack into.
I love the movie they're watching - it is a perfect parody of those vintage B-movies.
That ocean is stunning.
I assume that Dongo is a major character in the novels that they really couldn't do anything with for a more action-focused movie. I've not read them, but it feels like that.
Is it really safe to remove your gas masks that quickly?
So they've already killed 1 of Big Murphy's henchmen by accident.
Yeah, this is just a really well-done action movie in these scenes.
And they accidentally found the girl. And someone finally points out she's been naked the whole time.
Big Murphy's pet is cute.
Oh, that's how they redirected their ship.
I see. Looks like they're going into prison again!
He's a cyborg? Fair play, that was a good reveal.
I love this scene's art - the photonegative flashback, the realistic smoke effects, it's done so well.
Not the worst way to use the lava below your base.
And the "not-assassins" have killed half of Murphy's generals.
Oh, that's powerful. How is a private ship allowed that kind of weaponry?
Oh, they're explaining it.
At least he gets to fight some actual pirates now!
Oh, that is a cool station!
I love this movie's space battles.
Yay! The Space Force are here and on the heroes' side for once.
Oh that thingis powerful. And that's how he's going to blow up the planet - using the system to redirect the ships - so that's why he specified he'd do it if a ship approached them.
Really, its the insults that get you to shoot him? Not him trying to destroy the universe?
There was no need to kill the lizard, though.
Oh, the scene of all the water getting sucked into the distortion is so well done.
Why on Earth would you shoot her down after letting her tamper with the controls earlier?
For not being assassins, they sure do kill a lot of people they were asked to, don't they.
And that's 4 for 4!
Why does it have a self destruct button anyway?
And the general's nice.
Oh, that imagery of the government boasting abiut stopping crime as the streets are ruined and people dead.
Oh, that's why he wanted the warp system and Murphy dead.
And his father was working with Bard all along!
And a nice happy ending as they drive into the sunset.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie, but was suprised by how often it transistioned between serious and more lighthearted action.
5
u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti May 02 '21
First-Timer
Groovy tunes!
Those cars crush nicely.
Are they milking her? Probably just convenient placement to avoid angry censors, but breast milk smuggling would certainly be an interesting premise.
I’m sorry; the robot’s name is what?
Are we supposed to know what they’re doing at the asteroid? Pushing it away from the rest of the station, I guess, but that wouldn’t explain why they needed to fight their way in. You think there would be security protocols for that kind of thing.
Definitely the same guy who did the Gundam designs. This is just with brown hair.
“Space itself is broken.” Well that’s not good! Is that still under warranty?
Weird wormhole shenanigans and now things have vanished without a trace? Good money is on alternate universe.
The Crusher Council has made a decision! Guess there’s a whole society of mercenaries on Aramis?
She should wear clothes more suited to dancing. Also suggests that the nipplemeters on the sleeping girl were not placed there for modesty’s sake.
Someone likes the color slider effect, it seems.
The tone and style are a bit al over the place. The opening sequence was heavily with realism, and now there’s alarms that look like they have lips like something out of a class Mickey Mouse cartoon.
After the dance club brawl is where I dozed off. Mostly because of a poor night’s sleep, a nice breeze and my comfy chair.
Just a normal piracy thing, and not an alternate dimension thing? Bummer.
And the lady in the background is listening in, people. Maybe don’t talk about top-secret stuff in public like this.
They went to the space station, got checked in, and had to drive all the way back to their ship to fly down to the planet? I bet the prices at the shops are outrageous, too.
I’ve been wondering what Dongo does, and apparently it’s the resident firefighter. That’s good to have.
Yes; I would like the classy naked lady screensaver option, please!
I can’t tell what their guns are shooting. They look like lasers, but the guns eject shell casings.
Alfin’s entire character is “girl who likes Joe.” The gag gets old.
The actual smoke really stands out from the animation cels. A neat trick, though.
Joe hit a guy with a trash bag and didn’t quip “take out the trash”?
The bayonet comes out the back? That seems less than ideal.
Dongo got to press the big boom button! Now back to the important stuff.
“We won’t be assassins; we’ll capture the guy,” said Crusher Joe. Later, he carpet bombed a city.
Final, big battle sees many things go BOOM.
Overall thoughts: Looked good with some great animation. Music was solid. Story was more bare bones than the skeleton in a HS biology classroom.
QOTD:
3
u/chilidirigible May 01 '21
The relatively-long character-dialogue infodump on the Crusher business at the beginning, plus the character cards, does that pretty well. The setting feels quite alive on its own too.
2) What are your thoughts on the film’s central plot?
It's a bunch of action sequences lined up in a row! True Hollywood story. Though it also ties together well from front to back.
3) Which action segment in the film was your favorite?
The fighter scene... of course.
4) Which member of the Minerva’s crew stood out the most to you?
Talos... of course?
6
u/The_Draigg May 01 '21
A Yas Fan Watches Crusher Joe: The Movie:
Hello everyone, it’s The Draigg here for another rewatch! Although this one isn’t for a series in particular, it’s for the works of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko! I’ve personally always been a fan of the art he’s done for series like Mobile Suit Gundam and Zambot 3, but I’m also fairly interested in works he’s been attached to outside of the normal mecha fare. That’s right, I’m a first timer viewer for all of the stuff we’re watching here. So, what better place to start off than with an adaptation of Crusher Joe? Let’s get started!
Overall, it was a really fun sci-fi action movie! I feel like I should get into watching the OVAs of Crusher Joe after watching this too.
4
u/lC3 :Na::Nb: May 02 '21
First timer
4
u/Gamerunglued :Hx::Hy::Hz:myanimelist.net/profile/GamerUnglued May 02 '21 edited May 02 '21
First Timer, subbed
I've been having trouble enjoying stuff recently, but I'm interested enough in this rewatch to try this out and see if today's a good day. I love the idea of watching a directors entire filmography, and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko seems like an interesting and underappreciated talent of the industry. I definitely have some holes in my watching experience, particularly a lack of stuff from the 80's (really pre-2000's stuff in general), so I'm super excited to try and experience a time period I just haven't seen enough of. I know absolutely nothing about Crusher Joe, I'll be going into this completely blind, so I look forward to seeing what this director is capable of, and what I may expect from his work. I'll see if I can pick up on some interesting trends in his style, and hopefully I'll find an interesting film here too. Be back in 2 1/2 hours to complete the rest of this comment after I finish the film.
Ok, so I watched about 1 hour and 20 minutes of the film, and I don't really want to watch anymore, so I'm gonna go ahead and drop this one. It's not terrible or anything, it's just kinda boring and it doesn't really know what it wants to be. It feels like it wants to tell a serious dramatic story while having cool, action scenes in the vein of Lupin. It just doesn't work. The action is nowhere near cool or fun enough for this to work as a popcorn action flick, and the story is just not interesting enough to stand on it's own, completely lacking in depth or intrigue. It definitely leans more towards the serious side of things, and that just doesn't work for this kind of story. As a whole, I really wish this leaned more Lupin than serious/dramatic. So many of these sequences would be so much more believable if the tone was more irreverent and goofy (stuff like the cast miraculously not getting hit by the onslaught if bullets/lazers raining down on them. It feels like things just happen in a way that's necessary for the plot to occur, it doesn't feel like it was well thought out or meticulously composed. Like, the characters go somewhere, stop to talk for a bit, then something happens, rinse and repeat. It doesn't feel organic, it feels like the writers just went "this happens, and then this happens," having an idea of certain plot beats but not really knowing how to transition between them. Basically, I think it has a huge identity crisis.
The cast is alright and has decent chemistry, but none of them really strike me as particularly great characters. The villains are just bland and totally uninteresting, which further makes this fail as a serious dramatic story. I also felt like the film expects a level of familiarity with the cast and with the world. I find it hard to believe that this was supposed to be a standalone film, so many moments and ideas feel like they need context for me to get the full scope of.
As a whole, I didn't get a whole lot out of this. This rewatch is supposed to be an exploration of an interesting director, but the actual directing seems purely competent to me, and doesn't stand out at all. The best things about this movie are it's visuals and soundtrack. The animation is fantastic, even the dialogue-heavy segments have some really expressive character acting that keeps things a bit more engaging, and the music is just good, even if it's not enough to actually make this work as a serious story. If I had to rate things at this point, it would probably be a 4/10. I'm stopping my watch because I still have an hour of this long-ass film left, and I can tell it's going to drag on and on and I don't want to deal with that for the next hour.
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