During the late 70s and as one of the founding fathers of Studio Nue, Takachiho decided that besides being a sci-fi designer he would try his hand at penning sci-fi novels. The result was Crusher Joe, a Star Wars inspired story about a group of anti-heroes who were not the typical self-sacrificing types but noble in their own right nonetheless.
Enter the tale of the "Crusher Council", an organization formed by spacecraft crews known for dangerous assignments ranging from transportation to terraforming and everything in between. In the early days of space exploration the Crushers took on the job of destroying asteroids and defining space lanes. Because of their work, they were nicknamed "Crushers" which eventually became their business moniker.
Crusher Joe was made into an animated film in 1983 and a 2 episode OVA in 1989, both created by Sunrise. The film version won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1983.
Kawamori Shouji and Miyatake Kazutaka from Studio Nue (famous for their work in Macross) made several spacecraft and mecha designs for the first film, and these have been used since then in all the manga and anime adaptations of the novels that have been released afterwards.
