Review of Bubblegum Crisis: Vol. 1

Introduction

Bladerunner was a bolt of lightning when it came to sci-fi movies. Prior to that, we expected sci-fi to mean space travel and ray guns, alien invasions and monsters from the deep. Bladerunner gave us a new perspective, an exploration of future society and what it means to be human. Ridley Scott`s vision also presented us with a rundown, dystopian future, gritty and grimy, and absolutely mesmerising in its depth. To say Bladerunner has been an inspiration for subsequent cinema is an understatement on the order of `the Pacific Ocean is kind of big`.

Japanese animation was quick to embrace this new genre called `cyberpunk` and one of the early series produced still remains highly popular, despite only running to eight episodes. Bubblegum Crisis from 1987 is similarly set in a dystopian future city, where machines work side by side with humans. So-called Boomers are indistinguishable from people, although on occasion a Boomer will go rogue, wreaking havoc and creating mayhem, requiring the attention of the heroic Knight Sabers. Four young girls have access to form-fitting battle-suits and an array of cutting edge weaponry. They can defeat the toughest of opponents where even the military are outclassed. It all seems familiar now, and can be seen echoed in countless other anime, not least of which is the recent Burst Angel series. But Bubblegum Crisis also had its spin-offs. The series was cancelled prematurely, but the story was concluded in the short-lived Bubblegum Crash in 1991. Meanwhile 1990 saw the release of the AD Police OVA (also reviewed on this site), which serves as a prequel. More recently there has been an AD Police series, as well as a revival of the original story in the 1998 television series, Bubblegum Crisis: 2040. While I have long been a fan of the more adult AD Police, this is my first encounter with the lighter in tone adventures of Priss, Sylia, Nene and Linna.

This is an early disc from MVM, evidenced by the NTSC transfer ported directly from the Region 1 version. You get the first three episodes, along with a smattering of extra features.

Ep 1. Tinsel City
Welcome to Megatokyo 2032 AD. In this city rising from the ashes of old Tokyo, man and machine work side by side. But sometimes the Boomers malfunction, and pose a risk to innocent civilians, and the new kinds of Boomers being made are tougher and more destructive than ever, with lethal consequences even for the formidable AD Police. Fortunately the Knight Sabers are more than up to the task, four girls who keep their identities hidden beneath formidable battle-suits and make short work of any troublesome Boomer. But their abilities are put to the test when the military in the form of the USSD, hire their services. Computer tech F.G. Frederick and a six-year-old girl named Cynthia have gone missing, and a ransom demand has been issued demanding the control codes to powerful Particle Beam Satellite weapons. Investigating, the Knight Sabers learn that Boomers are behind all this, but who is behind the Boomers?

Ep 2. Born To Kill
The black box behind the satellite weapon is still missing following the last episode, and isn`t in the wreckage of Aqua City. All leads point to GENOM, but the company has problems of its own, especially when an explosion devastates an important lab. Leon from AD Police and the Knight Sabers both try investigating from opposite directions, but GENOM isn`t forthcoming, and executive Brian J. Mason deliberately forestalls the investigation. Linna tries to help her friend Irene, whose boyfriend was an engineer at GENOM, but died in mysterious circumstances. Irene wants to bring the company to justice, but GENOM`s new superboomers have her targeted.

Ep 3. Blow Up
GENOM has plans for Megatokyo; they are looking to create the city of the future by redeveloping the rundown neighbourhoods. Of course it means kicking out the old residents, which is where top executive/enforcer Mason comes in. But Priss`s friend is in the firing line, and when she stands up to Mason yet again it is the last straw for the twisted executive. There will be reckoning between Mason and the Knight Sabers before the night is out.

Video

Bubblegum Crisis gets a 4:3 transfer, NTSC as I mentioned earlier. It`s an old style hand drawn animation, with the low resolution and soft image indicative of a videotape source. The image is a little faded and there is the odd spot of print damage, understandable in a show pushing its second decade. Having said that, the animation is very good given the age. The character designs, while stylised are effectively realised, and the world of Bubblegum Crisis is a detailed and richly layered one that hints at greater story potential than shown in this volume.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 2.0 English and Japanese, with English and French subtitles. The dialogue is clear and the sound is functional. This is one of those shows in which music plays a great part. Priss is lead singer in her own band, The Replicants (now there`s a Bladerunner reference for you), and as such there are at least a couple of new tracks every episode. In an interesting move, the songs have been translated and re-recorded in English for the dub version, keeping the original tunes. It was successful enough for there to be two soundtrack albums for the series. It`s all very eighties though.

Features

Once upon a time, DVD drives in computers outnumbered DVD players by twenty to one. I guess back then it made sense for the extra features to be presented in a DVD-ROM format. If you just have a player, then all you will find is a nice set of animated menus, as well as a set of DVD credits. These credits are worth mentioning though, as opposed to the solitary page that we are used to now, these actually contain the English and Japanese cast credits for the episodes.

Insert the disc into your PC, and you`re prompted to install around 40 MB of data, most of it to replicate the disc`s menu design. But you will find Translation and Cultural Notes, which amounts to episodes synopses for all eight episodes in the series. You will also find all the song lyrics, in both English and romanji Japanese (Japanese written using the English alphabet). The staff credits are repeated once again here but this time for all eight episodes, and there is a gallery with some 37 images in, along with the option to print them out.

Finally, and ultimately redundant is the weblink to the M2K homepage, the company that created this software. Unfortunately any mention of Bubblegum Crisis has long since been erased from their servers.

Conclusion

It`s a little hard coming to Bubblegum Crisis almost 20 years after it was made. Bubblegum Crisis was certainly an important anime, it acted as a gateway into the medium for many fans who found anime before me, just the way Akira did for me, and Ghost In The Shell for those who followed. However, age has taken its toll on Bubblegum Crisis, and it really doesn`t hold up as well today, especially when compared to the anime being released now. Yet it is easy to appreciate the scope and accomplishment of Bubblegum Crisis, especially when you consider the more usual animation fare available back in 1987.

It most certainly has taken a leaf or two from Blade Runner with it`s dystopian future world of man versus machine, but it doesn`t attempt to approach the film in terms of depth of thought, preferring to concentrate on action instead. There is homage paid certainly, with a couple of scenes reminiscent of the film, and the character of Priss and her band, the Replicants. The opening shot of the first episode, showing Megatokyo at night is accompanied by music that harks strongly of Vangelis. But the stories tend toward the lighter side, with a rather more frivolous feel to the characters. The idea of a group of women coming together to kick butt is hardly a new one, we have Charlie`s Angels to thank for that, and the Knight Sabers add an almost superhero feel to their team, with all four girls leading lives separate from their secret identities. Priss is the aforementioned pop singer, while Nene works as a traffic cop, Linna as an aerobics instructor and leader Sylia in a clothing store. Yet come the dark and all four strap on multi-million pounds worth of cybertech and go battle the forces of darkness.

The problem with Bubblegum Crisis is that it is the story that drives the characters, and they occasionally act absurdly as a result. The stories are fairly simple as well, yet there is a strong continuity between episodes, occasionally resulting in completely unrelated scenes that are apparently out of place. I just felt that the narrative overwhelmed the characters at times, and by the end of the disc, I hadn`t really gotten to know the main characters well enough to be eager to watch the next disc.

Now would be a good time to add the perennial reminder that just because it`s animated, doesn`t mean it`s for kids. Additionally, this first volume of Bubblegum Crisis may be a PG, but it is the most lenient PG that I can recall. Parents will have to do a lot of guiding with this title that contains nudity, violence and mild profanity. One scene in particular sticks in the mind, where an AD Policeman is on the receiving end of some automatic weapons fire, and he is literally dismembered by the bullets. It is remarkably similar to Murphy`s fate in Robocop, and I guess that it`s because that you only see a few frames of it that it escaped censure here. Frankly I`d think parents would have a harder time explaining away Mackie`s fascination with seeing his older sister Sylia in her underwear.

Bubblegum Crisis is a landmark anime, and for that alone it is worth seeing. For 1987, it had a deep and intricate worldview that was unparalleled, and a storyline and characters that grew and developed over the run. It`s something that was practically unprecedented for the period; it`s just that looking at it now, with 21st Century sensibilities that it seems lacking. It may not sparkle as much today, but fans wishing to bask for an hour or two in the warm glow of nostalgia will be more than satisfied.