It's hard for me to believe that the similarity wasn't intentional. I mean, he's even got Luke's amazingly 70's haircut. I don't know anything about the source material here, though.
I suppose it's possible, but I wouldn't bet on anything more than 'inspired by the design.' From what I recall of the source, it was very, very slow, and beyond space and an evil empire, not really a lot like Star Wars at all. There wasn't one main character, in fact there were so many characters it was virtually impossible to remember them all. Still, the story was quite good. Not an anime you'd marathon, but more an anime you spend watching one or two episodes a night.
