Bubblegum Crisis

I have listed my brief thoughts and score with a rating on every episode. I then averaged them to receive the score above. It's accurate. I liked it mostly, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, unless you are a hardcore cyberpunk completionist.

PROS

+ Beautiful still artwork. Constantly thinking how great certain ones would be for gifs or wallpapers. + Great action. Not too over the top, and always fun. + Kick-ass music. Lends itself to an 80's cyberpunk action setting perfectly. I believe all the soundtrack was original. Worth a listen! + Good for watching idle. It has a Saturday morning cartoon (but for adults) feel. worth watching with your breakfast and coffee.

CONS

+Terrible Writing. Plots are often contrived and events and actions frequently make no sense. +Horrible dialogue. The amount of exposition is so high and so unnatural feeling that every character may as well just look at the viewer and break the fourth wall directly. +Predictable. Each episode is very formulaic. You have your relevant side plot and your ending action sequence. +Story never truly advances. The first episode tells us about the AD Police, Knight Sabers, and the Boomers. After that, they are all in perpetual war, same s**t different episode. Each episode the boomer is more "powerful", but this never truly makes a difference. Once in awhile a character gets new equipment that is "better" despite being visually equivalent to the previous. One wonders how this was a sustainable long term plot model.

If you want plot, look somewhere else. If you want action, there's better anime to scratch that itch. I really wanted to like it. I came out just not hating it.

Music still kicks ass, though.

I like Scots. Hell, I am a Scot. But the guy above me is nuts. We all know that you can't just jump in the middle of a series. It's a cardinal sin of animé-watching, and something that will get you mocked mercilessly. And he did this.

The ep he's referring to is 'Revenge Road', and relies on you knowing who Priss, Linna, Nene, and Sylia are. Want to get a better picture of this animé without watching all eight episodes? Watch 5 and 6, 'Moonlight Rambler' and 'Red Eyes', respectively. You'll see some of the best drama, action, and plot to come out of animé ever.

/rant over.

Anyway, this is definitely worth a view. The premere babes-in-battlesuits animé, and home of the Knight Sabers (the most ass-kickin' group of mercs in animé.)

Following the Knight Sabers, a highly elite group of female mercenaries living in a futuristic cyberpunk Tokyo, where they take down machines known as Boomers, many created by the evil mega-corp Genom. This whole series screams 80s anime and I loved it. The original series is only 8 episodes released over multiple years, produced more as OVAs (Original Video Animations) rather than a series, meaning each episode tends to be longer, typically at 44 minutes, and is considerably higher budget than the traditional 26 episode 22 minute standard we often see. This also means each storyline, while generally disjoint from other episodes, is a bit more involved or complex than other anime shows of the time, and I was quite impressed by its visuals. The art and aesthetic is perfect though and through. If you're one to have nostalgia from any of that sci-fi anime future punk era: Akira, Mobile Suit, Robotech, etc, you're going to love this. Definitely adult, there is nudity, violence, and swearing, the plots are generally good, again with each narrative being self contained per episode and each slowly clueing us in on the futuristic city, its technology, and how society now functions. Its not all great, plot-wise we never really get as much explained as we'd like, characters don't really develop, and with transforming vigilante heroes a la Charlie's Angels meets Power Rangers, there's a lot of tropes presented, some great, some not the best. I don't know enough anime history to say which if these tropes the series pioneered vs simply reenforced, but overall I did constantly have fun and felt vested in the characters. Unfortunately the english dub of this series is also not the best, with a lot of line delivery being very questionable if not laughable, but if you're like me it somehow only added to the charm and nostalgia. Also something not an issue if you watch the original subbed, so I can't fault it for that anyway. Fortunately for those wanting more there's multiple other spin-offs and reboots since this original, and for all this series was it deserves them, I'd already consider this a classic.

"Bubblegum Crisis." Those are words you hear said with reverence from just about every anime fan. It's one of those shows that inspired so many imitators and so many fans. When you hear so much good stuff about anything you really have to wonder if it can live up to the hype. In my opinion it does.

One thing that surprised me was just how much time was spent on characterization. While you hear mostly about the action, BGC does devote a good amount of time to its characters. Even one-shot characters like Irene Chang and Vision are well drawn. But the focus is on the Knight Sabers and each of them get at least one very good moment.

BGC also comes with an array of fun secondary characters like sleazy informant Fargo, who's always hitting on Sylia, cops Leon NcNickel and Daley Wong, Dr. Raven, and Slyia's perverted little brother Mackie. These guys also have their little moments and add some comic relief.

One thing that surprised me was that this show wasn't as dark as I'd expected it to be. You hear a lot of talk about how Mega Tokyo is really grim and gritty and stuff like that. But except for Genom running just about everything, Mega Tokyo doesn't seem that bad to me. It's really no worse than New York during a high crime year.

While it may look a little silly now, for 1985 BGC was really something big. Besides, what doesn't look goofy after fifteen years? In the end its formula of four really cute women, some really great mecha, good villains, cool VAs and some pretty decent music works. This is one for any anime fan.

I have recently finished watching 'Bubblegum Crisis' for the second time, on DVD, and I found myself both entertained and impressed.

The problem with most sci-fi and robot anime is that they are too heavy-handed and dark; as well, they often suffer from plodding and boring plots, to the point where they are not enjoyable to watch. Not so with 'Bubblegum Crisis'. The series is actually divided into two main storylines which comprise six episodes, and two side stories for the other two episodes. While the main stories require some concentration, they are interesting without being convoluted. _BC_ does not try to ponder the human condition or find the meaning of life, as other SF stories do, but simply creates stories that the viewer can enjoy. As well, there are some plot threads that are developed throughout the series, making events and characters more significant and more part of the story. While some may argue that 'BC' is nothing but science fiction lite, it keeps the viewer absorbed, which is more than I can say for most of the sci-fi anime I have watched.

I'd say that this series's greatest strength is its characters. Not only are they well developed, but they interact wonderfully with one another. Their differing and often conflicting personalities make the viewer identify with them, their lives, and their problems. We see people trying to cope with violence and destruction on a daily basis and simultaneously keep their humanity somehow. I believe that too many anime fall into the trap of trying to impress the viewer with things such as animation, sex, and violence, forgetting more important things such as character development and interaction. Like all the other best anime, however, 'BC' not only avoids this trap, but defines new standards.

'Bubblegum Crisis' also succeeds in its use of rock music, integrating it into the series and drawing the viewer in. Even though the songs are in Japanese, I still enjoyed them and was impressed by the quality of the songwriting. I should point out that these songs are some of the few I remember from any anime.

I thought the animation was excellent, especially for an OVA. The inevitable darkness of Neo Tokyo was nicely balanced by the brighter colors of the interiors of homes, shops, etc. This was another thing that kept the series from descending into sci-fi boredom. As well, the characters are animated according to their personalities, helping to develop them.

So I would call 'Bubblegum Crisis' a success because it manages to entertain all audiences, not just sci-fi and robot fans. In fact, it even entertained me.