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:
The 90's are fondly remember as the decade where everything that had graphic violence, language and sex was "cool". Video-games, comic books, movies, the music industry, fashion, and of course, Animé where vastly influenced by this idea of coolness. However, I'd say the Animé industry did it before in the late 80's with a massive collection of OVAs that granted hours of graphic content for the enthusiasts from those days, which became today's seasoned Animé fans.
A.D. Police is a three-part OVA produced by Youmex and animated by Artmic and AIC. It's the direct prequel of the now classic, Bubblegum Crisis OVA series released between 1987 and 1991. The series takes place in 2027, five years before the Knight Sabers arc, which explains their absence and makes room for the AD Police to unravel the origins of the boomers and boomeroids. The series was directed by Akira Nishimori, and Furukawa Toshio performed "Lonely Soldier" the main theme song, while Lou Bonnevie perfomed "Love Me Tonight", "What a Fool I am" & "Cry, Cry, Cry" the ending theme songs.
Unfortunately, due to the legal conflict between Artmic and Youmex, the production of the series was stopped with only three complete episodes made.
Beyond the call of duty.
Nah! it's only a boomer!
In North America, the series is licensed by AnimEigo, who first released the series to VHS and Laserdisc in 1993 in Japanese with English subtitles. They later reissued it in both formats in 1995 with an English dub produced by Southwynde Studios in Wilmington, NC. The show was released to bilingual DVD in 2004, with bonus content featuring music videos for various songs featured in the series as performed by Filipino singer Lou Bonnevie in addition to translation notes and production artwork. Today's review is based upon this version. In the UK, the series was licensed by Manga Entertainment, who produced their own English dub for VHS in 1994, and later issued it onto dub-only DVD in 2004. Their release is now out-of-print.
Moving on to what you're really interested in, I can tell you this prequel is very different from the colorful and light-hearted overall mood from the original series. The AD. Police team doesn't have super powered exo-skeletons to match the menacing power of the mechanical boomers. So, instead of going for the direct approach, which would have resulted in massive deaths for the police department, we're given three small stories set in the same Knight Sabers universe. The only returning character is Leon McNichol who is a rookie witnessing violence unleash first hand. Each episode has a different set of characters, and even though they're supposed to be there for reasons, there's a bigger picture developing within: Is robotics the future mankind needs to consider themselves safe from evil? More philosophical questions raise as each episode develops the dark atmosphere that covers Mega Tokyo.
Dead or alive you're coming with...oh! wait!
Robo hooker.
A.D. Police 101:
Episode 1 幻の女 (The Phantom Woman)
Alles, an A.D. police man, has been killed by a boomer hooker, and investigators suspect the police man convinced/programmed the boomer to kill him so that his family could get the money from his life insurance plan and eventually pay over 3 million he owes to the bank or something. Here's where inexperienced cop Leon McNichol & his veteran partner, Gina Marceau set out to discover the truth and protect their late partner's reputation. Episode 2 ザ·リッパー (The Ripper) Six prostitutes have been murdered the same way. The regular police department can't handle it, and so A.D. Police sets out to find another haywire boomer. Iris Cara enters the game and with the aid of Leon & Gina is set to solve the mysteriously violent crimes. What they find out has to do with the "Boomeroids", which are human beings that have been cybernetically enhanced by replacing malfunctioning parts from their bodies. The problem is these special surgeries become an addiction that can make people go mad and do insane shit. Episode 3 舌を噛む男 (The Man Who Bites His Tongue)
Since boomer & booomeroid incidents are becoming the norm in Mega Tokyo, Billy Famword, captain of the A.D. Police Special Mobile Squad, becomes the first anti-boomer cyborg unit. The only human parts left are his brain & tongue (I'm not kidding). Unfortunately, the little humanity he's left, is swallowed by the cybernetic parts of his body. Can he be a human person once again?, or will he be lost forever inside his technological body?
If you don't kill me, I won't bet horny honey.
Robotic ass.
A.D. Police the review:
While Bubblegum Crisis is largely recognized as one of the most important Animé from the 80's, its many sequels tend to be overlooked. A.D. Police is obviously a must watch if you were intrigued by these boomers that widely populated Mega Tokyo city. Why are the going rogue? what's their role in human society? Are they necessary? and ultimately, can they be more human than human beings?. Despite all the gory violence and sex this little 3 episode Animé has, the essential viewing factor is not connected with the obvious but with what's inside of every episode. If you're a Blade Runner fan look no more! Because most of the questions raised there, are also discussed here in A.D. Police. The boomers were created to make people's lives easier, but most of them, at least in 2027, are malfunctioning to the point they need to be hunted down. Predictably, most of the boomers we see are prostitutes that for some reason go nuts, and get turned on if you kill them. Yes, you read that right. Moreover, if you don't kill them, they will kill you! But do these sex workers have feelings? are they happy?
Can robots feel love?
Lady boomer is dead.
Another intriguing story is that of the Boomeroids. Normal people that require a special surgery to replace a malfunctioning organ. The only problem, they may or may not go crazy and become a murdering menace just like the original boomers. All of these takes place in episode 2, which some people find quite disturbing, while I think it's perhaps the best story out of the three episodes. The question raised by this story is basically how far a person would go into enhancing/replacing their body parts just so that they can fit a work profile. Yes, a fucking work profile! Caroline, a successful businesswoman doesn't get the position she deserves because her bosses find her to be inefficient while she's menstruating!! As if women didn't have enough shit in real life, poor Caroline replaces her female parts so that she can be more efficient. Obviously, this will cost her everything, since later she'd fall in love and get married without the chance of giving birth. The high levels of sexism Caroline is exposed to are just criminal! Do you want a better job? Get rid of your femininity! Do you want to get married? You'd be unhappy because you won't have any children! So you don't have a real vagina? Fuck it! Your husband will fuck a boomer and find it to be more human than you'll ever be! But wait,! there's more! Since the A.D. Police discovers boomeroids are going the same path of the boomers, poor Caroline becomes an obvious target after the mysterious death of her husband. Even though Caroline did kill her husband, the amount of sexist atrocities committed towards her, are the real imprisonment she's facing, and honestly, she's more innocent than every other citizen from Mega Tokyo. Her finale is the worst man made crime...
I am not a number! I'm a freeman!
She used to be my wife!
The question of whether boomers are more human than human beings is once more studied in the last episode, but from a very different perspective. Billy Famword starts the final episode, and as many reviewers & friends have discussed, the episode is a darker remake of Robocop. While on duty, captain Famword sustains a heavy amount of injuries that would put him six feet under in no time, that is unless he takes part in a pilot program to become the very first Anti-Boomer Cyborg Unit!, and since he's completely comatose, the choice is made and voila! Unfortunately, Billy struggles to adapt to this new body and easily succumbs to an inexplicable thirst for murdering boomers and boomeroids in the most violent ways you can think of. Since these robots are considered mere machines servicing mankind, nobody gives a flying fuck about Billy's obsessive behavior until the deaths become so morbid, that his human counterparts begin to fear he's becoming the very thing he swore to destroy. Strangely enough, the doctor that "built him" becomes sexually attracted to his new cybernetic being and whenever she can, she fucks the machine. Sadly, Billy only has a human brain and a human tongue, so there isn't much to enjoy there. When madness hits the ceiling, this doctor (I can't remember her name now) helps him stand the pain by providing him with DA-27, a drug tranquilizer of sorts. Obviously, he becomes and addict, and loses control completely, killing everyone in his way. Here's where we can make a Robocop 2 parallel, since the bad guy from that movie is also a junkie. So, the lesson the final episode delivers is "don't combine robotics with living organisms, and drugs ever".
I want your wires inside me.
C'mon be a good boy, and help a lady get off.
Although A.D. Police has this dark serious cyberpunk mood throughout the three episodes, it fails in the crusade of expanding the Bubblegum Crisis universe. However, we can't deny they tried. Moreover, the series does succeed in adding more depth to the boomers and especially the A.D. Police department, which seems to be a joke in its original 1987 incarnation. Here, A.D. Police takes the job beyond the call of duty. Once the series was cancelled, Bubblegum Crash came a year after (1991) and was a direct sequel to the 1987 OVAs, leaving A.D. Police as a prequel or an alternate setting. Moreover, in 1998 Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 would be a brand new re-telling of the knight sabers story with the original characters but starting from scratch. The series ran for 26 episodes and it succeeded where the previous ones failed: character development. In addition, A.D. Police, the TV series, had a 12 episode run in 1999, but it fucking sucked.
Anyway, We will be reviewing these sequels later. In the meantime, let's enjoy the A.D. Police video section below: The A.D. Police opening: "Love Me Tonight" by Lou Bonnevie: The Cyberpunk Collection trailer by Manga Entertainment: A.D. Police promo trailer by Manga Entertainment:
Following our latest self-inflicted trend, we continue to look back at some of the most memorable Anime ever created. No matter whether they had a long or short run, if they're archetypal, they're here. That simple.
Today's entry involves one of those unique cases where conveying ideas that were already established, become greater than the original places where they took place. The 80's were a neon-fueled decade accompanied by the rise and fall of some of the greatest pop music acts worldwide. I was born in 1981, I spent nine years there. Nine years where I was lucky enough to find my way into the world of Anime. Today, 36 years later I can state, Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2032 is the most 80's Anime you will ever see.
Bubblegum Crisis (Japanese: バブルガムクライシス Hepburn: Baburugamu Kuraishisu) is a 1987 to 1991 cyberpunk original video animation (OVA) series produced by Youmex and animated by AIC and Artmic. The series was planned to run for 13 episodes, but was cut short to just 8. The series premiered on February the 25th, 1987 and ended on January the 30th, 1991. Six months later (August the 30th, 1991) the series would have its first official US release. So it took nearly four years for it to be enjoyed by a growing wave of Western Anime fans like yours truly.
In North America, AnimEigo first released Bubblegum Crisis
to VHS and Laserdisc in 1991 in Japanese with English subtitles. The
series is notable in that it was one of the few early anime series that
were brought over from Japan
unedited and subtitled in English. While anime has become much more
popular in the years since, in 1991, it was still mostly unknown as a
storytelling medium in North America. Bubblegum Crisis was aired in the US when it first aired on PBS affiliate Superstation KTEH in the 1990s, and STARZ!'s Action Channel in 2000.
Girl power.
Girl armored power!
The series started with Toshimichi Suzuki (writer of the series) intention to remake the 1982 film Techno Police 21C. However, he met Junji Fujita (one of the series producer) and the two discussed ideas, and decided to collaborate on what later became Bubblegum Crisis. Kenichi Sonoda acted as character designer, and designed the four female leads. Masami Ōbari created the mechanical designs. Obari would also go on to direct episode 5 and 6.
The OVA series is eight episodes long but was originally slated to run for 13 episodes.
Due to legal problems between Artmic and Youmex, who jointly held the rights to the series, the series was discontinued prematurely.
Another unique features BGC has, is the fact it has a different soundtrack for every OVA, meaning there are 8 albums full of music from the series. The majority of songs were sung by Kinuko Oomori, Yuiko Tsubokura, Maiko Hashimoto, and The Knight Sabers.
Here is every opening theme song:
#1: "Konya wa Hurricane (今夜はハリケーン)" by Kinuko Oomori (ep 1)
#2: "Mad Machine" by Kinuko Oomori (ep 2)
#4: "CRISIS ~ Ikari wo Komete Hashire" by Yuiko Tsubokura (ep 4)
#5: "Mysterious Night (ミステリアスナイト)" by the Knight Sabers (ep 5)
#7: "Say Yes!" by Maiko Hashimoto (ep 7)
#8: "Bye Bye My Crisis" by the Knight Sabers (ep 8)
And the respective ending theme songs:
#1: "Mr. Dandy" by Bluew (ep 1)
#2: "Kizudarake no Wild (傷だらけのWild)" by Kinuko Oomori (ep 2)
#3: "Wasurenaide (忘れないで)" by Oomori Kinuko (ep 03)
#4: "Twilight " by Tsubokura Yuiko (ep 4)
#5: "Omoide ni Dakarete (思い出に抱かれて)" by Tsubokura Yuiko (ep 5)
#6: "Rock Me" by Yuiko Tsubokura (ep 6)
#7: "Never the End" by Maiko Hashimoto (ep 7)
#8: "Chase the Dream" by Kinuko Oomori (ep 8)
Neon colors, pop idols and fast bikes.
And graphic violence!
BGC opens with what might be one of the best opening 7 minutes of an anime
ever, this OVA opens with a montage of the future, a dark sprawling
Mega-Tokyo. (Many have noted the similarity between the opening of the first episode and the start of the 1984 film Streets of Fire)
Immediately Ghost in the Shell comes to mind, some scenes look almost
identical, the Oshii vibe so thick, the possible influence on the man
(and even Masamune Shirow himself) is made more and more questionable throughout
the OVA with many stylistic choices bringing the GitS franchise to mind. Moreover, some people consider BGC the archetype used for Akira.
After the introduction of the various comings and goings of the city, a
concert suddenly begins, introducing a blonde wigged character Priss,
and is intercut with the appearance of a boomer wrecking
havoc. The direction and editing, and hell even the music are
all excellent and ensure the OVA gets off to a cracking start. 80's
cyberpunk at its best!
The story follows four plucky young women with nothing better to do in
their spare time than to don cyber-outfits and blow crap up, preferably
those pesky rogue boomers who keep appearing all over the city. The
combined IQ of these four women finally figures out that Genom
corporation, which apparently holds accounts for 68% of the world's
cars & robots, might have something to do with these incidents and so
Bubblegum Crisis delivers 8 episodes of pure unadulterated fun in a way
only 80's anime can.
Priss, you're a pop star!
While some are dancing, some are hunting.
Mega-Tokyo, 2032. This is the future, but seen from the eyes of the
80's. Each decade's vision of the future is idiosyncratic, and so each
decade produces strange and brilliant works of genius or garbage, with
Bubblegum Crisis firmly in the strange and brilliant camp, albeit
lacking both genius and garbage, though still retaining quality
production and vision. Plenty of great directorial choices, POV shots,
pans, zooms, it's all dynamic and makes up for the dated, yet still
decent, animation.
No matter the humor or clunky dialogue or 80's sprinkled aesthetics in
hair styles and clothing, this is cyberpunk at its peak. Everything
associated with the genre is present, the connective nature of society,
the paranoia of having satellites hovering above your head with the
capability of blowing you up, biotech suits, corporate power run amok.
In a sense Bubblegum Crisis is more cyberpunk than a lot of cyberpunk
anime out there which sometimes jettison a lot of the genre's traits and
settle for dystopic hijinks with the occasional robot AI thrown in.
Bubblegum Crisis revels in the genre and doesn't leave
anything out.
Front and center.
The looks of stardom.
The anime came out at what might be seen as cyberpunk's peak of
influence and exposure in the mainstream, and as such is worth a watch
for its historical significance, in terms of impacting the genre of
cyberpunk in anime and also being a window to the time. It's so classy
it even has time to throw a shout out to The Third Man!
It's flawed, but packed with so much creative ideas and flair,
you can't help but bop along to the 80's tunes. Each episode
starts with a cinematic musical montage of 80's soft rock/pop and
narrative-advancing imagery. This isn't on-par with cyberpunk
like GitS, you have to accept the humor and gaping plot-holes as part
of the charm, or you'll just not be involved and will tune out. The AD
Police are written as what a 12 year old imagines the NYPD are like,
complete with the gruff black police captain arguing with the rookie
cop.
There's lots of subtle visual flair in this OVA, the directors knew what
they were doing. (Except for episode 5 and 6. That director probably
went to the school of Koichi Mashimo, though he wasn't helped
by the screenwriter for those episodes either) Too often in
post-millennium anime there are tons of 'arty' shots that are
meaningless and the camera either flies around the place like a Steadicam-operator on crack, or pans laboriously across the screen as if
directed by an old age pensioner, but back in the 80's/90's they knew
how to pace episodes just fine while choosing narrative-coherent
viewpoints to the action. I guess I'm harping that old
cliche; of modern day anime being too shallow with emphasis on
looks rather than content, but considering that this anime is packed
with very cliched jokes that were old even back when this was
released, the argument is kind of moot.
There's always time for lingerie in the future.
No flat LED screen TV in Mega Tokyo.
If you want to go extra deep you could propose that Bubblegum Crisis is
yet another exploration of the relationship between man and machine and
clearly veers on the side of external mechanics and views
bio-implementation, or to be simple about it: cyborgs, as a threat to
the world. Even though boomers (not the ones from the Left 4 Dead games) are technically robots, though the
distinction is rarely made clear especially when they all have such
charming personalities, their humanoid form isn't a random
creative decision. Here's where I'd say BGC was clearly inspired by some Hollywood blockbusters from the decade: Blade Runner, Streets of Fire & The Terminator. Each film, gives its own view on the future of mankind, and BGC is the blended result of the combination of all three.
If I were to choose the best part of BGC, I'd pick the characters, because they were a new breed of tough woman leading the fight in
mechanized combat suits. That was barely common to have only woman as
leads in the action genre. Though with only 8 out of the 13 episodes completed they did what they
could with depth, but its what the characters represented that was most
special.
They covered a broad spectrum of female heroines, Priss a tough, bike
riding, battle hardened fighter who happens to be a singer, Linna the
represented average aerobics girl of the 80s but with the ability to be
able to transform that athleticism into fighting prowess, Sylia a smart wealthy elite who isn't afraid to drop the high class lady act and
dirty her hands when she needs to, and lastly Nene a computer and
electronics specialist willing to put herself in the battle zone.
Heroes wear no capes.
...And no underwear apparently!
What made them even more special though, was they all had their
weaknesses, and the designers wanted us to know they were not perfect
individuals and this added something to the characters that was largely
absent in other action movies of the time.
Priss is poor and has had a rough life, its also implied that she never
was well educated but she does what she can to get by and enjoy her life
and improve the life of people she knows...or at least exact justice on
their behalf. Sylia is seen as the cool headed leader, but secretly she has an immense
hatred for Genom Corp inside her which is strong enough to impair her
judgement and cause her to lash out at others. Linna although generally up beat is not living the life she wants, she
would love a glamorous life and a great boyfriend but she is stuck in
the mediocrity of being a below middle class person in Mega-tokyo, a
cycle she cannot break out of. Then there's Nene, she desperately wants
to be more physically imposing and it frustrates her that she isn't given
much respect, she doesn't just want to be known as a computer geek at a
police department and really would like people to know what she's really
capable of.
Art and character design, I think the
series is excellent by 1980's standards. Personally, I think it's a
masterpiece of it's era, using methods an approaches that will never been
done again since they would be unfeasible today. It's a testament to
what human artists are capable with just simple tools and hundreds of
hours of painstaking work that they simply poured to their hearts into.
If you're an artist or have ever worked with professional artists you
will understand it and appreciate it for the true paramount achievement
that it was. If you're not an artist, just look at it like this, BGC artwork is very much like a Lamborghini Countach, it's not the best car ever made,
but it's the embodiment of 1980's cool, and for that it will never be replicated again because the
technology changed, people have changed and the mindsets have changed.
For that reason its look will always be unique and special.
Suit up!
Clean up!
The sound, for me the music production was the best id ever come across,
in both English and Japanese the production quality was supreme, the
musical ability of the producers and the vocal ability of the singers is
as good as it got for any form of entertainment in the 80s, and that's
saying a lot considering how great an era for music and movies the 80s
is considered as being.
Though the Japanese version is better overall as expected, the English sung tracks are also very good, and you know that is rare for an Anime from the 80's where most of the dubbed into English was awfully bad. A quick good example of this, is Lynn Minmay from Macross & Lynn Minmei from Robotech...
Voice acting though is just average for both English and Japanese
versions. Nowadays we have near Hollywood quality (or Japanese film
industry quality) voice acting in games and anime. So BGCs voice acting
is a couple notches below, it just lacks the substance that you get with
newer productions that really drive home the characters intentions. The
relative background silence you get during speaking is typical of the
sound production of the time, that is one area I am glad is gone these
days.
No rest for the Knight Sabers.
No means no!
In terms of enjoyment, if you're a person of the era there is no way you
would say this is anything less than a 9 (I say 10), because you simply
hadn't seen anything like this at the time, especially if you were
outside of Japan. Taking nostalgia out of it and looking at it just as
an Anime fan...a knowledgeable anime fan would certainly understand what
was achieved here and in that case its an 8 or even 9 still.
Overall, its a 9/10 for me, and if you grew up in the 80's and are an anime watcher you absolutely must watch Bubblegum Crisis.
Here's the original Japanese episode guide plus the first US air dates
#
Title
Japan
first release dates
English
first release dates
1
"Tinsel City Rhapsody"
"(Runtime:
45 minutes)"
February
25, 1987
August
30, 1991
The Knight Sabers are hired to rescue a little
girl from a group of kidnappers, but the girl is far more than she
seems...
2
"Born to Kill"
"(Runtime:
28 minutes)"
September
5, 1987
September
27, 1991
A friend of Linna's threatens to expose Genom
secrets that led to the death of her fiancé, but Genom plans to silence her,
first.
3
"Blow Up"
"(Runtime: 26 minutes)"
December
5, 1987
October
10, 1991
The Knight Sabers attack Genom Tower to put an end
to the machinations of Genom executive Brian J. Mason.
4
"Revenge Road"
"(Runtime: 38 minutes)"
July
24, 1988
December
19, 1991
A racer modifies his car into a weapon of
vengeance against the biker gangs of Megatokyo, but the car soon develops a
mind of its own.
5
"Moonlight Rambler"
"(Runtime: 43 minutes)"
December
25, 1988
January
23, 1992
A killer is draining victims of their blood, but
this is no vampire. And what do a pair of escaped love-doll androids, Priss's
new friend Sylvie and the D.D. super-weapon have to do with it?
6
"Red Eyes"
"(Runtime: 49 minutes)"
August
30, 1989
February
27, 1992
A group of fake Knight Sabers are ruining the
group's reputation, leading to a fight against a returning foe.
7
"Double Vision"
"(Runtime: 49 minutes)"
March
14, 1990
March
19, 1992
A singer with a vendetta comes to Megatokyo, and
brings some heavy firepower with her.
8
"Scoop Chase"
"(Runtime: 52 minutes)"
January
30, 1991
April
2, 1992
An ambitious technical scientist and an aspiring
reporter both plan to make their names at the expense of the Knight Sabers,
and of all people, Nene is caught right in the middle.
Here's the Bubblegum Crisis trailer:
The Anime Eigo trailer for their release of BGC:
Unboxing of the deluxe 2017 blu-ray box:
a fan made "Megamix" with the music from BGC:
And last but not least, do you why the show is called "Bubblegum Crisis"? Simple, When you start blowing up a wad of bubblegum it inflates and inflates.
Eventually the bubblegum is stretched so tight around the air inside it
that it reaches the "crisis" point. That is, the slightest influx of air
into the bubble will cause it to pop.
Bubblegum Crisis, therefore, refers to the fact that in the world the
situation with Genom v Knight Sabers has reached that "crisis point" the
slightest addition will cause it to explode.
Why specifically did the creators use that term? The Japanese like funky metaphorical names, apparently.
