バブルガムクラッシュ / Bubblegum Crash!

The knight sabers return!

Bubblegum Crisis was one of the big names in animé  in the late 80's. The perfect combination of an easy to follow story, cyberpunk, 80's pop rock & a team of girls with state of the art power suits. Evidently, the success of the series spawned several sequel series (we reviewed A.D. Police , the prequel, some weeks ago). However, the first and only direct sequel was the three-part OVA バブルガムクラッシュ! AKA, Bubblegum Crash!. After the split between Artmic and Youmex, Artmic proceeded to make the sequel on their own, Bubblegum Crash, which ran three OVA episodes and is conjectured that it was a shortened version of how Crisis was to end. Youmex promptly sued Artmic, cutting Crash short and tying the entire franchise up in legal issues until the late-1990s, when ARTMIC went bankrupt and Youmex was absorbed into Toshiba EMI. Bubblegum Crisis and most of ARTMIC's titles are now property of AIC.AIC ended up owning everything related to the franchise, thus releasing Bubblegum Tokyo 2040, a 26 episode reboot in 1998. Talks of a live action movie took place in 2009 but so far, nothing has happened with the project.
 

Bubblegum Crash! is set in 2034 (two years after the original), and the Knight Sabers seem to be finished; each of its members - except Nene - have seemingly drifted off to pursue their own goals. But at the same time, parts of a unique artificial intelligence are stolen by several villains acting under the orders of a mysterious voice. Unexpectedly, Sylia resurfaces and prepares her teammates for battle. And as a gigantic machine drills its way to Mega Tokyo's main nuclear power plant, they meet again with an old and deadly enemy. 

Girl power!

80's hair will return in 2032.

The review

For fans of anime in the late 80s and early 90s, Bubblegum Crisis was the show to watch. A dark cyberpunk adventure featuring girls with guns and huge robots designed to kill, it was unavoidable for a very long time. Eventually, fandom moved on to newer and cooler shows (not me, I'm stubborn), but Crisis is definitely one of the reasons many fans discovered the world of anime.

However, the three-episode sequel known as Bubblegum Crash! was treated like the ugly duckling, a show that was neither loved nor respected. The typical claim was that "they got the whole thing wrong". Obviously, bullshit has always been a part of the fandom. Most naysayers are usually turds that didn't even watch the series, and are basically getting on the bandwagon of somebody else's experience. I for one, watched every Bubblegum Crisis series, save for Crash! because I just couldn't find any copy of the VHS tape when it came out. Not even a bootleg copy.  Fortunately, the DVD released by Animeigo made its way into my hands and I couldn't be more happier of seeing the Knight Sabers kick ass once again.

The PC game.

16 bits of futuristic justice.

The world of Bubblegum Crash! has changed for the better since the last adventure of the Knight Sabers two years earlier (2032). Boomers are everywhere, but the androids are serving mankind, not rampaging through MegaTokyo. In fact, the members of the group aren't even sure if they are needed anymore, and a couple of them expect that they'll disband. Priss has gone on to score a chance at a recording deal, and Linna is making a fortune working for a brokerage. But then a mercenary group starts hitting banks with powered mecha, and the money they take is only a smokescreen--they're stealing industrial secrets behind a powerful AI that can make Boomers act and think humanly. The Knight Sabers are called back into action to stop this threat that will pit them against an unknown mastermind determined to bring down MegaTokyo for good.

Since Bubblegum Crash has been trashed for so long, I figure it's best to acknowledge its "problems" right up front. First, the animation is good, not great but good enough as to resemble the original series. There are some repeated animation sequences that annoy me to no end, but these not only existed in the original series, but are common practice in the Animé industry. The budget for this thing just wasn't that huge. Second, the music that elevated the original in the eyes of its followers just doesn't hack it here. The first show had 80's pop music, certainly, but it was 80's rock pop with both melody and edge. This one's music it's not bad, but it doesn't really play a "role" in the story, unlike what happened in the original series. Moreover, there's fewer songs. The opening theme song is "Hatenai Tabi: Hajimari no Toki (果てない旅 ~始まりの時)" by Ryouko Tachikawa. Each episode gets its own ending theme: 
"Cool Eyes" by Ryooko Tachikawa (ep 1), "Saigo Ni..." by Nanami Hayase (ep 2), and "Over the Pressure - Toki o Koete" by The Knight Sabers (ep 3)

The series director is  Hiroshi Ishiodori,  who's work in many Animé series throughout the years. The storyboard director is Hiroyuki Fukishima and the script was written by the infamous John Woskel (Angel Cop, Mad Bull 34, Violence Jack).

"Mamma Mia! Thisa boomer doesn't worka!"

Max Headroom's son.

To some extent, and according to some fans, what hurts the show the most is that it sometimes feels like it exists in a parallel dimension to the original, instead of a direct follow-up. MegaTokyo is no longer the dark, brooding world that reminded us of William Gibson novels but rather a shiny city of the future not all that different from modern Tokyo. The girls are no longer bikers in truth or in attitude. Priss, for one, is completely different. She's subdued and mellowed. Can you imagine those as descriptors for that character? And though I promised not to compare the original voice actress to the substitute they got for this series, Ryoko Tachikawa is a terrible seiyuu (voice actor/actress) for the character, with a gravelly voice that's downright painful to listen to. But beyond that, Priss is no longer a leader, a hothead, or even moody; she's not Priss from the original Crisis. This puts the show in the awkward situation of focusing on the other characters, primarily Nene and Sylia. It shifts the focus of the show radically away from the original's purposes. Ultimately, it's much more of a team show than Crisis, but with the downside that the team just doesn't feel like it used to. We also are treated to some goofy humor totally devoid of the atmosphere Crisis tried to create. However, I think this move was made purposely as to provide both characters and the series, a sense of development that ultimately could have led into more episodes.

In a nutshell, Bubblegum Crash! feels like you're watching Tim Burton's Batman movies (Batman & Batman Returns) while then shifting into Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" & "Batman & Robin". The characters are still the same, the city is still the same, yet personality changes and overall mood can either be liked or hated but, you still know you're watching Batman & Co. kick some ass. Moreover, thinking about what's canon or not, is definitely an obsession the Japanese don't have, so it would be a great idea to stop applying western fans labels to a series that is clearly part of the Bubblegum Crisis universe whether you like it or not. Same thing for Star Wars. The Last Jedi might have sucked ass to some fans, but it's still an official episode, so not because you don't like something, you immediately set it aside and side "that's not canon", duh! 

Boomers look less scary now.

Amnesia.

With those complaints--which are not minor--out of the way, I want to discuss what this show does right. First off, it's very clear that the show was written with the ending in mind all along. The plot keeps moving and keeps us interested all the way through, making each episode essential to the next. This is a welcomed relief from Crisis, whose plots were usually unrelated. It's amazing how many times they reused the same stories in only eight episodes! Whereas Crisis had a meandering, incomplete storyline, the three episodes of Crash tell a full, meaningful tale that ends the series effectively. If screenwriter Emu Arii had problems with making the characters feel right, he had no problem with creating a bang-up narrative that almost--and I stress almost--makes us forget the problems with atmosphere and setting the sequel has.

Just how important is the plot to the quality of the show? It's immense. I could forgive many of my issues because I finally felt that the story, which previously had been dragged out way too long, was going to be resolved. I enjoyed seeing the characters again, surprisingly enough. Though I didn't like what they'd done with Priss, she is actually more likeable here. It just takes getting used to. Once I could deal with the fact that this was not the same world as the original, that for all intents and purposes the characters had grown up, I could settle in and enjoy that it was solidly written and well paced.

Who you gonna call?

Boomer busters!

Ultimately, I give Bubblegum Crash a B overall, the same rating I gave Bubblegum Crisis. This isn't to say that the best parts of Crisis aren't better than this show, because they are. But Crash never repeats itself, never gets even close to as bad as Crisis's worst episodes, and resolves the story effectively. If you loved the atmosphere of Crisis above the storylines, you'll hate Crash. But if you had wished as I did that Crisis had been more skillfully composed and can handle the changes between the two series, you'll find this a decent ending to the legendary show.

Here's the opening:



Here's the English dubbed opening:



Here's the second opening:



Here's the "suit up" scene from the first episode: