The streets of Tokyo 2040 are filled with heat, violence
and music as the action heats up for the Knight Sabers. With Linna now officially on board, the
Sabers are stronger than ever…or are they?
Despite some much needed upgrades, the team finds themselves up against
equally stronger and nastier Boomers.
Will these new foes be too much for the beautiful defenders to
handle? And who is this mysterious young
boy who claims to be Syllia’s sister?
The mysteries of the future, and the past run deep, in the next chapter
of the Bubblegum Crisis saga
This show loves to tease sometimes. I’ll admit in Part 1 last week, I kind of
liked the idea of Priss and Linna becoming a thing. But given this weeks developments im sure
that Priss and Leon might end up a thing instead…damn you Nene for being coy
and teasing Linna about Priss’s romantic interests. Ok, that little bit of playful shipping out
of the way, let’s get to this weeks review.
After a decent starting premiere, this week continued
strong, making solid progress on a few fronts…while others remained stubbornly
the same. The team feels pretty solid
and I like the sense of comraderie between the leads. Still, characters like Syllia and Nene
continue to frustrate.
Syllia is more my main source of misery than Nene. The introduction of Maki, her “younger
brother” (yeah anyone who buys that from the get go is well…not that smart),
and some brief glimpses of her childhood show just how messed up Syllia is as a
person. Clearly, her dad had something
to do with what’s driven the Boomers to their fits of mutation and rage and
whatever he did, scarred Syllia for life, to the point where she seems to hate
all machines and the idea that they have feelings. I dare say it’s a borderline racist
attitude…no not borderline it is racist.
The counter point is Maki. His
mystery aside, he’s a fun, energetic guy who enjoys working with machines and
wants to help but Syllia wants him to shut up about his views on machines and
follow her mindset. It’s no wonder Maki
eventually moves in with Nigel, the Sabers chief mechanic. Living with Syllia would be a tremendous pain
with her way of thinking and emotional outbursts…I don’t care if she is a cute
fashion designer. Also, Syllia is
totally jealous that Priss and Neigel hang out together, have more in common
and would probably be a decent pair if that were the case…so ha there.
With Nene, it’s more her “I’m the best cause I’ve been
around longer” that rubs me the wrong way. It amazes me she and Linna can even
be friends and that she and Priss can even work together. It’s pretty clear that Priss is the ace of
the Knight Sabers but Linna is coming in close behind her through determination
and natural talent. Nene’s compensating
for the fact that she isn’t nearly as bad ass gets on my nerves quite a bit. Sure she’s got a good friendship with Linna
but that can only get you so far. That
being said, the three are a solid team and got some good action in together as
a unit. Even when they were outmatched,
they never left each other behind and played well off of each others
attitudes. Surprisingly, even Syllia got
in on the action (not too big a shocker she has a suit since it is in the
intro). Priss’s highway showdown with
the hot rod Boomer was the highlight of the action this week. It oozes Akira (it’s practically an updated
version of Kaneda’s legendary bike from the movie). Plus adding to the whole Power Rangers motif,
it’s clear Priss’s new ride was always intended to be an upgrade for her suit
if need be.
Speaking of Priss, she was the focus of one of two great
stand alone episodes this week. Her “day
in the life” tale showed us a bit of her mindset, in life, song and action as a
Knight Saber. She’s got a very dark view
on the world and channels it into everything she does. While we don’t know what exactly wounded her
so to make her this way, it’s clear to see it’s never been easy being
Priss. Her pain aside, God is this woman
a total bad ass. Priss always impressed
me with her character design (so much better than her poofy haired counterpart
in the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA), Devil May Care attitude and fighting
spirit and this week we were able to see it in every frame she was in. Plus we got to hear her sing a lot, including
a solo vocal performance of the shows end theme. The “Streets of Fire” inspiration rings true
here as I couldn’t help but see a bit of Diane Lane’s character from the film
in Priss’s performances and on stage outfits (maybe she could have played her
back in the day if they did a BGC live action movie). The music has always rocked and the vocal
performances are stand outs everytime we get a chance to hear them. Really, this show could be all about Priss
alone and I’d still watch it…Linna can tag along too I guess, I like her too.
The second of the stand alone highlighted an interesting
aspect of the Boomers. These things are
diverse and their reasons for mutating are all different. Last week, a Maid Boomer took a twisted
customers orders right into Hentai territory.
This time, an Underwater Boomer went after his dead operators wife after
the operator found out she was cheating on him.
It’s fascinating and kind of reminded me of the second episode of Ghost
in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which had an engineers mind in a tank
seeking to find his parents. The end
result is a tragic tale of loss on all ends as the Boomer was destroyed and the
wife mourning his loss, it was actually not that hard to feel bad even if she
did cheat. The varying Boomer abilities
were also cool as well. The hot rod
Boomer was a stand out but the Boomer from the factory battle was absorbing
other Boomers into it. I bet that will
definitely come back into play somewhere down the line. And what if it gets its hands on one of the
Sabers?
All this praise and yet I have to dock some points
because the villains are…well not seeming that interesting or intimidating…or
even really villain like in the case of Rosenkroitz. He wants to world to love Boomers but is he
really behind the mutations? Mason seems
more the guy to pin that on, what with his sadistic smile and how he treats his
female Boomer assistant like a sex toy.
I feel there’s something deeper at play here and it’s not going to
involve either of these two posers.
Given her state of mind, I’d expect Syllia to do something stupid that
puts the world in jeopardy before these two do.
All in all, it was a good second week for the Knight
Sabers and their allies. If Syllia could
get her mess cleaned up, Nene could dial back the posturing and the villains
could be a bit more intimidating, we’d have a perfect show. Right now, it’s still pretty good. The animation looks great, I’ve talked a lot
about Priss and the music and action.
I’m still on board and definitely ready for more.
No comments:
Post a Comment