Year:
1998
Studio:
AIC
Feature:
4/5
Extras:
1/5
I saw the original "Bubblegum Crisis" with my brother Christopher.
There were only about eight episodes made and it didn't wrap up
anything because it was supposed to be longer. It was also a bit racy
and had some nudity. But overall it was a series I'd heard a lot about
and it was good to finally see it.
"Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040" is basically the same series redone and
going through the whole series. The setting is 2040 Tokyo, some years
after a massive earthquake that destroyed the city. But it was quickly
rebuilt with the help of Voomers (usually people call them Boomers and
in the show I think they're saying Boomers but the one time we see the
name it's Voomer, I guess the translation differs).
Voomers are robots with an advanced artificial intelligence. Equivalent
to being dull, obedient people. Since they're only robots they tend to
be abused by humans. Except for the rogue voomers. Rogues are voomers
who have gone crazy, their cores mutating, making them extremely
violent. There is a special police that has been set up to stop the
rogues, the AD Police (the acronym is explained in the AD Police
series, but I forgot what it stands for).
Unfortunately the AD Police is not all that competent in Bubblegum
Crisis. The real defense against the rogue voomers are the Knight
Sabers, a group of female armor-suited vigilantes that always seem to
get there first and stop the voomers.
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The first
third of the series is focused on Linna Yamazaki (voice of Kelly
Manison), a country girl who has come to Tokyo to work. Secretly though
she wants to be a Knight Saber. And she gets her chance when she is
"befriended" by Knight Saber Priss Asagiri (voice of Christine M
Auten). Linna meets the other active Knight Saber -- and my very
favorite character in the series -- Nene Romanova (voice of Hilary
Haag) and the Knight Saber's semi-retired leader Sylia Stingray (voice
of Laura Chapman).
So Linna joins the Knight Sabers, gets a suit, gets training, and gets
out to fight the rogue voomers. In the second third of the series the
AD Police seriously goes out hunting for the Knight Sabers. Meanwhile
there's is the mystery of the rogue voomers, which Sylia obsesses
about. It's all revealed in the last third of the series, when a threat
emerges that will conquer the world if not stopped by the combined
forces of the Knight Sabers and the AD Police, though mostly it'll be
the Knight Sabers. It's also in the last couple of episodes that all
the nudity finally comes out.
The whole series is a well done multi-part story and would make a great
role-playing game campaign. It's mostly about the personalities and the
big mystery. The action and fight scenes are ok. Especially the second
half ot he series, everything runs together with each episode
immediately following the last one. Overall an excellent series.
What I Liked: Nene!
What I Didn't Like: The bio-organicness of the voomer technology.
The extras on each disk are basically a few static pages with some
descriptive text of the characters and equipment of the show.
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