Bubblegum Crisis was a series that I always had my eye
on. I promised myself if I ever got a
hold of the series, I’d give it some review time. Well, the time has finally come. This was one of those early Anime titles I
saw on a preview montage on a random DVD.
I liked the intro theme and the sight of four beautiful women in Iron
Man style armor kicking ass. So, being
able to finally dive into it, did it live up to any expectations.
As with most intro sets of episodes for a series, the
answer is both yes and no.
First off, despite what the opening animation might make
you think, the animation style is very much mid 90s in execution rather than
digipaint. Not a bad thing but it is a
bit misleading if you expect the actual series animation to mirror the amazing
intro. There’s always been a charm to
hand drawn Anime from the past, for me especially in the 80’s and 90’s where a
lot of my first Anime come from. It just
works. And then there’s the obvious
cyberpunk and definitely Blade Runner inspirations running about. Working class robots, an overcrowded city,
neon lit skies, the lead character is actually named PRISS. If you’re a fan of this genre, the mere look
of the show will grab you instantly. I
also hear this Anime had some inspiration from the 80’s rock opera, Streets of
Fire (no it’s not a take on Streets of Rage, sorry folks). Look for no further evidence of that than the
hard rocking tunes both in the soundtrack composition and the vocals of Priss
herself. This is definitely shaping up
to be a soundtrack I should have on my shelf somewhere.
But what of the Knight Sabers themselves? Well half are great and half are
puzzling. Priss and Linna easily steal
the show in whatever scene they show up in, even making up for the faults of
their teammates. Priss is the loner, the
bad ass, the definition of an Anti Hero and I cannot wait to get to her
backstory. “I’m no superhero. There’s no wings on my back.” Even if a line like that sounds a bit cruel,
how can it not be cool at the same time.
Priss is literally a heroine for hire, kind of a nice change of
pace. Her opposite is Linna, the pretty
new girl who wants to be a Knight Saber AND take Priss’ spot as top dog on the
team. There’s definite naievety to
Linna’s character but she’s got plenty of wildfire. I love how she chased down Priss after their
first (literal) run in with each other.
She doesn’t want to take any crap from anyone, but Linna still remains
so darn likeable. I think the show is
going to benefit a lot from her and Priss alone…is it wrong to start shipping
them?
And then there’s the other two Knight Sabers. Nene started off cute and bubbly, offsetting
Priss’ no nonsense attitude. But she
quickly became grating and annoying. I
don’t know if it’s because of the voice actress or the way her character is
written. Nene just likes to whine about
everything, especially when Linna starts getting preferential treatment for a
rookie. Nene may be cute but I’m hoping
her character gets an overhaul and fast cause right now I’m kind of wondering
why she really is hanging around here.
As for Syllia…could there be a more shifty leader? This girl goes from perky fashion store owner
to crazed, borderline psychotic at the drop of a hat when she gets word of
rogue Boomers. Clearly she’s connected
to the Boomer crisis in a way no one else knows or realizes yet. But the way she changes tunes from sweet to
psycho is almost like watching Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending…except she
doesn’t whisper as much but she shouts for no reason at random and loves
breaking crap to vent. And this girl is
the leader? If I were Priss idve taken
the suit and GTFO ASAP and just done my own thing.
I do like the designs of the Knight Sabers suits. They’re like a cross between Iron Man and
Power Rangers. They’re sleek and sexy,
but tough and formidable. They have a
ton of gadgets but users like Priss can get by with brute strength alone. They more than match some of the grotesque and
downright scary mutations that the Boomers go through. The one from Episode 3 was scariest of all,
taking a degrading command from a disgruntled customer and turning it into
borderline Hentai territory. While not
billed as a horror style Anime, the monsters of the week in BGCT2040 do give it
that kind of vibe.
There are a couple more side characters thrown into the
mix as well. The most entertaining are
Leon and Wong, two AD Police Officers determined to stop the Knight Sabers as
well as the Boomers (The Knight Sabers aren’t exactly a sanctioned team btw so
theyre kind of criminals). Their
comraderie was believable and I got a couple of good chuckles out of it. Mayyyybe Leon could’ve used a less gruff
voice actor but that’s kind of being nitpicky.
There’s also Neigel, who seems to be the builder of the Knight Sabers
Hard Suits. There’s something weird
between him and Syllia but I think he’s more interested in the machines than
the hot girl…in the case of Syllia’s raging insanity im not sure that’s a bad
thing. Lastly there are our supposed
villains of the series, Rosenkroitz and Mason.
Not much to say about them besides cryptic talking from their Ivory
Tower (in space?) and knowing they can somehow predict when Boomers are going
to go berserk (when Syllia comes to the same conclusion she has a flip out…is
she jealous?)
All in all, for an intro set this isn’t bad. BGC Tokyo 2040 is old school 90’s cyberpunk
at its finest with hot leads, good music, fun action and impressive visuals
(though they do try to merge 2D and 3D animation a couple of times and it
fails). If nothing else, the combination
of Priss’ devil may care attitude and Linna’s optimism make this show worth the
watch. This is only the beginning, I’ll
see you all next week as the crisis continues.
BTW was Nene playing Star Fox 64 while on the job? I gotta admit, that’s pretty cool.
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