Click this image to get back to reviews.

Bubblegum Crisis-The Best Came First

Ah, the 1980s. When Reagan was President, rock music was dominated by big hair and synthesizers, and greed was good. In anime, that means that blowing up the world was still fun, theme music was kewl, and that plots didn’t necessarily half to be ten feet deep. In other words, no preachy Miyazaki or “Fly Me to the Moon” in sight.

Bubblegum Crisis will always have a place in my heart, because it was the first true anime (i.e. not Robotech) that I saw, in the halcyon days of 1989. Most of you youngsters were still playing with blocks at that time, of course, which means that this review will be seen in the veiled sight of nostalgia, of an old timer (*snort*) like me remembering the shock of seeing an animated character yell “Shit!” after nearly being cut in half by a laser. And the naked women didn’t hurt.

The Premise Sure, you kids have Bubblegum Crisis 2040, but I guarantee that after seeing the original BGC, you’ll know why Sonoda had nothing to do with its second incantation. The series hits you between the eyes from the beginning…the long pan across a half-ruined Tokyo, slowly meandering to the Hot Legs club, and then…WHAM! The guitars and drums of “Konya Wa Hurricane” slam you back into your sofa and you begin to salivate at Priss Asagiri, she who was fanservice before Faye Valentine and Ryoko came along. As Priss sings, you also get to watch Tokyo’s finest, the AD Police, get creamed by a Terminator-like Boomer. The Knight Sabers, undeniably females in power armor, show up to kick ass and chew…uh…bubblegum, and away we go.

Bubblegum Crisis (which refers to Japan’s “bubble” economy) takes place in the near future, after Tokyo has gotten hammered by the Second Kanto Earthquake. The result is that half of the city is ruined slums, and it’s all controlled by the megacorporation Genom, manufacturer of the Boomer. Boomers are robots intended to help man, but there’s just one problem: they tend to go insane and kill their owners. Genom doesn’t like to admit that, especially as psychotic machines might cause a real problem in their quest to own the planet. The local AD Police, designed to fight Boomers, is underfunded and underarmed. The only line of defense against Genom and its Boomers are the Knight Sabers, consisting of four young women and one oversexed male teenager. The women are Sylia Stingray, Priss Asagiri, Linna Yamazaki, and Nene Romanova; the guy is Mackie Stingray, Sylia’s little brother.

Priss is the star of the show: she is beautiful and a talented singer (if you like 80s style J-pop, anyway), but she also is a loose cannon, hates almost everybody, and loves to kick ass. Priss also serves as a pin cushion for Boomers for most of the series, with the result that her lovely body would probably look more like Vash’s than Cindy Crawford. Sylia is the leader of the band, the daughter of the man who invented the boomer, with a personal vendetta against Genom; besides also being beautiful, she is charmingly mysterious. Mackie, her brother, is the resident tech whiz and fixer, brilliant though overhormoned (he spends most of the series trying to catch the ladies sans clothing, including his sister…ick). Linna is the resident martial artist, who is boy crazy and eager to get rich quick. Nene is the comic relief, Sylia’s source inside the AD Police; Nene’s a computer genius, which is a good thing, since she can’t fight very well, and she also serves as the butt of a lot of jokes. Combined, the girls make a pretty good team.

How bad is Genom? These guys are a heavily-armed version of Microsoft with none of the government oversight or scruples. Whatever you may think of Bill Gates, he’s pond scum compared to the evil that is Genom, including the head man Quincy and his able-and disloyal-assistant, Brian J. Mason. Mason is bad enough that he remains the prinicipal antagonist even after he’s killed halfway through the series. Genom also controls the government and, to a certain extent, the AD Police. To say that the Knight Sabers have an uphill battle is an understatement.

The supporting cast is quite something as well, including AD Policemen Leon McNichol, his gay (literally) partner Daley Wong, and their overworked Chief Toto. Leon, who raises smug to a new level, constantly tries to score with Priss, and gets his plow cleaned every time he steps into power armor, is nonetheless good at his work, and has no love for Genom-though, unlike the Knight Sabers, he has to obey the law.

Nine episodes long, BGC weaves a intrigue-laden tale that ends up mostly being about Sylia and Mason’s vendetta. Sylia suspects Mason killed her father, and wants revenge, and how she goes about getting it is one of the more unique parts of the series. Intertwined with the Sylia-Mason rivalry is Priss’ near breakdown and inability to love herself, leading to a very poignant moment for a woman who is not all twisted steel and sex appeal after all. It all wraps up more or less at the end, though enough loose ends are left for the three-episode sequel, Bubblegum Crash.

The Good What makes BGC more than a sexy-gals-in-armor series is the character development. At least one episode is given to spotlight each of the Knight Sabers; if Priss and Sylia get the meat of the story, Linna and Nene get their chance to shine as well. Each of the ladies have strength and weaknesses, and it does a good job of striking a balance between an uber-powerful cast (i.e. Gundam Wing) and overly weighing down the cast with neuroses (i.e. Evangelion). Even Sylia gets her butt kicked a few times. There is enough humor to keep it from becoming too dark (for instance, the Knight Sabers being based out of a lingerie shop, and the openly gay Daley kidding with his definitely straight partner Leon), but on the whole, BGC is seen in shades of gray. Even the Knight Sabers’ intentions are not wholly pure, as they are essentially mercenaries. Sonoda acknowledged William Gibson and Blade Runner as being inspirations for the series, and it remains true to its source material. The series can be watched as indivdual episodes without too much trouble, though subplots do run throughout; watching Bubblegum Crash, BGC 2040, or AD Police is not necessary except for purists. Ecchi who want fanservice can count on seeing every one of the Sabers nude on at least one occasion (except for Sylia…you have to watch Bubblegum Crash for that). Finally, BGC’s score is superb, surpassing all other anime series with the exception of Cowboy Bebop and Macross Plus. Any child of the 80s will love the series on this basis alone. Yes, Tim, even with the slightly drunken rendition of “Mr. Dandy.”

The Bad Sadly, BGC is beginning to show its age in the animation department. It is nowhere near the quality of BGC 2040, though it gets noticeably better as the series goes on and is much better than most of its contemporaries. This is one series that has to be seen in original Japanese; the English dub uses the voice actors from 2040, which, in my humble opinion, suck. Sylia is quiet, but she is not meant to sound like she’s on quaaludes. It also kills any enjoyment of the music, which sounds godawful in English. BGC is not the best series to show a first-timer, as it can get confusing. No backstory is provided on how the Knight Sabers came together-the only hints are given in one of the Hurricane Live music video tapes, and even there you have to make a lot of assumptions. (Leon, at least, has a very strong backstory in the AD Police prequels.) The story also more or less ends by episode 7; 8 and 9 are more fillers than anything else. Lastly, new otaku might get put off by some of the stuff in the first episode, which ends with essentially a boomer version of a tentacle monster, and by Priss’ actions around the Sexdroid Sylvie later in the series. The Knight Sabers are not closet lesbians, but the way Priss acts might make you wonder. Of course, there are those out there that like that sort of thing.

The Verdict Despite the ravages of time and some plot holes, Bubblegum Crisis still holds up pretty well. While not in the class of some later anime, namely Bebop and Evangelion, in quality and plot, it is still a superb series that is easily watchable. I’ll give it seven pocky sticks out of ten.