Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040

The original Bubblegum Crisis is an iconic and stylish OVA that everyone should watch. It seems logical that remaking something that is so stylish would be going in waaaay over your head. And yet here we are! A good remake! Instead of trying to copy everything that made the original good and surely failing. It found its own strengths by taking the core of the original and doing something different, like a good remake should. The year is 1998. Bubblegum Crisis 2040 was made into a 26 episode show presumably after AIC won the whole legal rights debacle by slicing the head of their formerco-producers and absorbing their powers. Priss and the gang are back. Although obviously looking a bit different time around. They're still fighting boomers. And they still aren't exactly fans of the shady mega corporation Genom. That's the familiar core brought back. A lot of the characters have changed though. With 26 episodes to work with there's no shortage of time to characterize them all. Unlike the original who only really bothered to characterize Priss and Nene properly. In this adaptation those two are more or less the same as the original. Priss being the cool and somewhat detached ace and Nene being the cutesy hacker working as their inside man in the AD Police. Linna actually gets to have a character this time around! Not only that but the show starts it's very first episode from her perspective as the idealistic small town girl going to Tokyo to get the most cyberpunk job of all. A shitty office job. High tech low life indeed. Still she wants to join the Knight Sabers that she heard about on the internet. As the devious Genom makes sure that the news don't report to them they're just a rumor. Sylia is given a new lease on life as a more mysterious ( with a mystery that's actually clearly explained this time around ) and tortured character with a seemingly personal vendetta towards boomers that plays a big part into the story. Yes! You heard me right. Story! This show actually tells a complete story from beginning to end unlike the original. Now I absolutely don't want to spoil any of it because it's quite a ride once it's set everything up. Although if you're at all familiar with the works of Chiaki Konaka who had a hand with the script of this series you can probably guess that it occasionally goes in some weird and dark directions. Not only that but they finally finished reading the "world building 101" book that they only briefly looked at in the original by actually showing the boomer working class that was so critical to the rebuilding efforts this time around ( although Crash did show some worker boomers as well ). Showing the general disdain that regular people seem to have towards boomers. Additionally Genom and Mason's motivations are a little more clear this time around too instead of just infinite resources to throw at anything and zero strategy other than being shady and shadowy for the sake of it. The story and characters is the one place where the remake clearly and unequivocally beats the original as it actually bothers to explain itself and expand on things rather than just bringing things up and then forgetting about it such as Priss' hatred for the AD Police for example. Even though now AIC is way too busy coasting on it's former glories and IPs to make new and original shows. A fate that is tragically too common with old school studios. Back then at least it seems the studio had some smarts and probably knew they couldn't make this show as ultra stylish as the original, and instead playing to it's strength in the writing department. After all the OVA had months in between episodes to perfect its Blade Runner worshiping aesthetic instead of a TV schedule to deal with for one. If they tried I have no doubt it would've failed completely. Instead they settle for the tried and true classic 90's realism for their character designs. Although your mileage may vary when it comes to the redesign of the classic characters. I think the Priss redesign with the kind of spiky hair and sharper eyes captures the rebellious spirit of the original fairly well. The boomer designs are also more creative than the bootleg Terminators hidden in Genom secret service types that the original was so fond of. Everything from waitress boomers to Metal Gear style military boomers go mad. As they go mad they also grow monstrous and even eldritch looking at times. Liquid metal. I guess they updated from Terminator to Terminator 2 now that I think about it. Just because it's nowhere near as stylish as the original doesn't mean it looks bad. I prefer the 80's aesthetic of the old show and it's more detailed and alive looking take on the city. But it's certainly not without it's visually striking moments however. Though they mostly save those for around the end. The show is at it's most stylish when it's visually darker and shadowy in an almost horror-like manner. Perfectly complementing the monstrous boomers and making the Knight Sabers' opponents much more intimidating. Besides everyone knows sunlight and good lighting are the most un-cyberpunk thing in the world. It's animated well enough and fairly consistent. I only noticed one very odd slip up with Genom's chairman occasionally not moving his lips while talking for some strange reason. I guess Genom works in mysterious ways. Otherwise it's clear that care, polish and talent went into the series. For the soundtrack you're getting served up some rock music. Just in case episode titles such as "Are You Experienced" "We Built This City" and "Shock Treatment" didn't clue you in. Although more alt rock and even sometimes industrial than the dad rock that the titles would suggest, some of them even being dad rock back in 98'. But atleast they didn't reference REO Speedwagon. I'm pretty sure it was mandated by international law to downtune your guitar in the 90's so you're getting a lot of that. For garnish you might get some acid bleeps and bloops that sounds like they came straight from a 303. Since Priss is still in a rock band she gets to play some songs too. But here I have to absolutely stress that you're not getting some sort of Konya Wa Hurricane showstoppers or even sequences where she gets to play a whole song while other stuff happens in some sort of montage. And even though I find the soundtrack to this show to have some good songs and it fits the tone of the show quite well ( I really like the OP song Y'know. The suspiciously sampled drums are delicious ) it comes up painfully and even embarrassingly short when compared to the lavish soundtrack of the original where the hits just kept on coming. AIC was probably aware of this and made the soundtrack more low key than the 80's excess original to avoid comparisons. Although I doubt it helped their case all that much. Priss' preformances are instead kept very short, presumably just as some sort of lipservice to the original. Or maybe to show that she has a hobby other than riding her officially mandated red cyberpunk motorcycle and being aloof. I did love this show though. I was very fascinated by the mysteries that the series set up very early on. Such as Sylia's past and her volatile reaction and emotions towards boomers. And that even almost 10 years later Nene is still best girl. Of all things they even gave an explanations for why the Knight Sabers are all female, y'know besides the fact that they're more marketable that way. It's pacing is kind of deliberate in the beginning . And it keeps some of it's cards close to it's chest until the very end. But it all leads up to something special let's just put it that way. As much as I love 80's anime aesthetic. And I know there's a lot of people out there that does too ( although they're not really to be found on great numbers on MAL ) keep in mind that not everything has to be made exactly like they did back then. There's joy to be had in exploring the different takes of different eras has on genres. It's a beauty that all mediums hold, not just anime. Ignorant nu schoolers that only watch seasonal stuff should definitely go back and watch the classics to actually get some sort of basic understanding of the medium they claim to love and it's rich history that might be lost if the community keeps going the way it is right now. And bitter old schoolers obviously needs to stop the Miyazaki style rambling and actually watch some good shows instead of just cherry picking the high school slice of shlock shows as examples. Unless they're mech-heads ofcourse then I'll pass them a 40' and bow my head with them in remembrance of when Sunrise used to be good studio.

At a glance, Bubblegum Crisis seems to be just about girls with suits kicking butt, but in reality this is one amazing anime. The story takes place in a post earthquake Tokyo where robots are used in mass amounts to assist with everything from being waiters to construction workers. Of course these robots dont always do what they're told, and its up to the knight sabers to step in. The characters in this show are all amazingly created and very distinct from each other. The four main girls are have very different personalities which makes for great character interaction not only in battles but ineveryday life. the story starts off as some "vigilantes" beating up some robots but the story stretches very far beyond that to tell what becomes a very epic sci fi/action tale that for the most part has a serious tone to it, the more the show goes on, the darker things get. The battles are usually pretty cool to watch, especially with all the neat things that the knight sabers can do. The overall art work is done exceptionall well, it has a very clean look to it, and everything has details. the sound experience is pretty good, everything from the mechanical noises to the rockin soundtrack helps enhance the show. This show will keep you watching until the end, and its a great ride all the way there. And for those wondering wtf the title has to do with anything, a bubblegum crisis is a problem that starts off small but gets bigger and bigger like a bubblegum bubble until it bursts and all hell breaks loose, which is a very fitting title for the show.

Having had mixed perceptions of the original Bubblegum Crisis and hearing of the Tokyo 2040 spinoff expanding on what the 1988 OAV series didn't do, I decided to give BGC Tokyo 2040 a shot. While this take on Bubblegum Crisis didn't really wow me, there were aspects of it which made me enjoy it more over the OAV series. The series still features Sylia and the Knight Sabers dealing with mad boomers and corrupt activity within the Genom corporation with the girls still a likeable bunch. The characterizations with many of the prominent characters have changed a bit from their 80s counterparts with how you enjoythem depending on how you liked them ten years earlier. Here are some examples: 1. Sylia mostly works in a supporting role with the Knight Sabers for this series and isn't so stoic in this spinoff as she has angry mood swings whenever the subject of Genom is brought up. 2. Priss is more aloof in Tokyo 2040 as she keeps distant from the other Knight Sabers throughout much of the series, along side potential love interest and AD Police officer Leon who isn't as smooth-talking as he was in the OAV. 3. Sylia's brother, Mackie, is more polite, plays a bigger role in this series and isn't prone to perversion as his 80s counterpart. The series does expand on its back story on Sylia so we come to know what connects her to the boomers, why she opposes Genom and how she formed the Knight Sabers, a major improvement over the OAV. The major characters that represent Genom aren't completely evil either as the chairman of the company aspires for humanity and boomers to coexist, Brian Mason having enough depth where he has justification for his actions against the chairman's orders and boomers being used for more mundane purposes besides military use. The series starts off at first as a "monster of the week" type plot where the Knight Sabers deal with a random mad boomer in each episode. However as Mason's goals slowly start to unravel, his plans kick in during the second half of Tokyo 2040 to start off an engaging ongoing plot as said plans jeopardize more than the people of Mega Tokyo. With the original Bubblegum Crisis being notable for its soundtrack, the music for Tokyo 2040 is given as much love here with its mix of rock and techno musical tracks that blend in quite well with the everyday and tense scenes seen throughout the series. And while shortcuts with the animation were apparent for me, character designs and scenery were well drawn with a good amount of detail. The series isn't without its flaws however. Like the original series, I still found the other Knight Sabers to be quite underdeveloped compared to what we learn about Sylia. In addition, the quality of the plotting for the final episodes to the series left quite a bit to be desired for me as deus ex machina seemed to take place for the Knight Sabers to overcome a seemingly powerful foe and it becomes a bit too centered on making Priss into the heroine who saves everyone in the end. I was also left with some questions over what happened in the series finale with events and characters. While not the major improvement I was hoping to get out of the Bubblegum Crisis franchise, Tokyo 2040 still offered enough with its plot and characters to give it a better quality feel for me than the more style-driven OAV series.

In a reboot of the original series from the 1980’s, Bubblegum Crisis had the background to become a top series. Along with the work from Studio AIC and director Hiroki Hayashi, both whom worked on everything Tenchi from before could go in either direction from classic to bust much like Tenchi. Set in a futuristic society compared to the likes of Blade Runner, manual labor is done by organic robots called Boomers. These Boomers are made by a corporation by the name of Genom. One fateful day, office worker Lina sees one of these Boomers rage out of control and morph into some crazy monstrosity. Hergoal from the beginning was employment in the big city and join some Boomer fighting group called the Knight Sabers. Needless to say she ends up joining this group to fight the rogue Boomers as well as escaping the specific police division created to also stop raging Boomers. The series as a whole still mostly holds up animation wise and plenty of action makes Bubblegum Crisis palatable. Music, plot, and characters are mostly forgettable unfortunately. Music and sound just have not aged well or is better stuck in the late 90’s as the techno-rock fits the show but not the test of time. A plot that just seems to be put on the back end, and suffered from many filler-like episodes until the last few to just wrap up the story hastily. Where Bubblegum Crisis should have been strong in its characters is the most disappointing aspect. The series never develops them properly, and much reasoning behind character’s actions are left with simple reasons with fairly dull results. Lina as the main character gets some backstory, but due to the rest of the female team having almost none makes the viewer just not seem invested enough either with the story or the Knight Sabers. Basically, this new Bubblegum Crisis is ok for an action series, ok for some strong female characters, fine for attempting a decent plot, and fine as an anime. It’s different in regards to most other anime, but is just missing something in order for it to make the jump from fine to good.