parent nodes: anime | Bubblegum Crisis | OVAs
Bubblegum Crisis is an anime OVA Series that takes at least part of its inspiration from Philip K. Dick's Blade Runner. Bubblegum Crisis is a mecha style anime that takes place in the future in a post disaster Tokyo, now known as Megatokyo.
The original OVA series was eight episodes long. It was originally slated to run for thirteen episodes, but legal problems between the two studios who jointly held the rights to the series, Artmic and Youmex, the series was discontinued. The problems may have been bought on by the series' lackluster sales in Japan.
Artmic proceeded to make a sequel, Bubblegum Crash which ran three OVA episodes and is conjectured that it was a shortened version of how Crisis was to end. Youmex promtply sued Artmic, cutting Crash short and tying the entire series up in legal issues for the next several years.
The series involves the adventures of the Knight Sabers, an all woman group of vigilantes/mercenaries, who don powered armor and fight various problems, most frequently rogue Boomers. Boomers are humanoid robots designed to perform a variety of tasks, from construction and firefighting to combat; a particular model of Boomer, the BU-33s, is designed for sexual purposes.
One of the central themes of the series, showing its Blade Runner influence strongly, is the exploration of what “human” really means. As in Blade Runner, this is often done by using the mechanical characters, especially focusing on BU-33s.
Bubblegum Crash is the sequel to Bubblegum Crisis, but many fans reject it. They maintain that the storyline of Crash was inferior, the characters were transformed into two dimensional caricatures, and the character development was nonexistent. Other fans maintain that Crash was at least as good as Crisis, and complemented the series.
One of the major complaints of critics of Bubblegum Crash is that the voice actress for Priss changed. This was due to her obligations as a professional musician, but did lead to Priss having a voice the fans were not used to.
Crash was directed by a different team than Crisis, which naturally produced differences between the shows.
AIC obtained the rights to the series when Artmic dissolved in November of 1997. Although the original series had not sold well originally, it had done rather well in the US market of the early 1990, being one of the earliest works of anime to be commercially subtitled there. The US anime-importing company ADV funded the creation of an all new Bubblegum Crisis, this time as an alternate-universe TV series which ran for 24 episodes and two OVAs.
Other BGC material
Two music video collection
Holiday in Bali special
AD Police spin-off series (OVA and TV)
Major Characters
Warning spoilers below
Note: all character information is for the original OVA series. There are some differences in character background for BGC 2040.
Sylia Stingray
An enigmatic billionaire, and the founder of the Knight Sabers. Sylia frequently engages in close combat with boomers. Sylia is the daughter of Dr. Katsuhito Stingray, the man who invented Boomers. Several questions about Sylia and her origins are raised in the series, and never answered. Some fans believe that Sylia is a boomer herself, or at least enhanced with boomer technology. The manga by Adam Warren “Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal” revolves around Warren’s idea that Sylia has an enhanced brain. Suzuki Toshio, of Artmic has been quoted as saying that Sylia has an augmented brain, and is said to have approved of Warren’s manga.
Original OVA voice actress: Yoshiko Sakakibara.
Bubblegum Crash voice actress: Yoshiko Sakakibara.
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 voice actress: Yukino Satsuki
Nene Romanova
A perky hacker, employed as a dispatcher for the AD Police. She is also a member of the Knight Sabers. Nene does little fighting, focusing on sensor ops, battlefield communications, ECM and ECCM.
Original OVA voice actress: Hiramatsu Akiko
Bubblegum Crash voice actress: Hiramatsu Akiko
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 voice actress: Hiroko Konishi
Linna Yamazaki
Works various jobs including aerobics instructor, Linna once hoped to pursue a career in professional dancing. She is a member of the Knight Sabers, focusing on combat. Compared to the other major characters, Linna got very little character development in the original series. However in BGC 2040 Linna was perhaps the most developed character.
Original OVA voice actress: Tomizawa Michie
Bubblegum Crash voice actress: Tomizawa Michie
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 voice actress: Rio Natsuki
Priscilla S. Asagiri
Priss, as she is most often called, is a rather angry, violent person. She is a member of the Knight Sabers, specializing in close combat. She is the lead singer in the rock band “Priss and the Replicants”, a Blade Runner reference.
Priss’ voice actress in the original OVA is, in real life, a singer in the rock band which did the music for Bubblegum Crisis.
Original OVA voice actress: Oomori Kinuko
Bubblegum Crash voice actress: Tachikawa Ryoko
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 voice actress: Yuu Asakawa / singing Akira Sudou
Leon McNichol
AD Police officer. Leon is a dedicated cop, with a tendency to rush in without thinking. He has a crush on Priss, which she does not like since she has reasons to despise the AD Police. As the series progresses he discovers that she is a Knight Saber, but does nothing with the knowledge.
Original OVA voice actor: Toshio Furukawa
Bubblegum Crash voice actor: Toshio Furukawa
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 voice actor: Yanada Kiyoyuki
Daley Wong
AD Police officer. Daley is Leon’s partner, and a highly skilled investigator. Daley is also openly homosexual, which is worth noting because at the time the original OVA was produced male homosexual characters were quite rare in anime. Daley is not developed much in the series.
Original OVA voice actor: Kenyuu Horiuchi
Bubblegum Crash voice actor: Kenyuu Horiuchi
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 voice actor: Ueda Yuuji
Brian J Mason/Largo
Executive in Genom. The primary villain of the first three episodes, Mason is the man who killed Dr. Stingray and stole his Boomer technology. As with Sylia, certain mysteries are created around Mason which are never resolved in the series. It is generally accepted that Mason somehow transferred his personality into a Boomer body some time prior to his death. Largo resurfaces to become the primary villain of episodes 5 and 6.
Original OVA voice actor: Shuuichi Ikeda. Largo: Kazuyuki Sogabe
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 voice actor: Nakata Jouji
Spin Offs
Spin-offs of the popular series include a prequel series, AD Police Files, and a sequel, Bubblegum Crash!, as well as the AD Police television series, and several manga, comic books, and a Role Playing Game.
Crew
Original OVA
The original character design, was done by Kenichi Sonoda, a manga artist most known for his Gunsmith Cats series.
Directors: Katsuhito Akiyama, and Hiroaki Goda.
Bubblegum Crash
Directors: Hiroshi Ishidori, Hiroyuki Fukushima
Produced by Youmex entertainment in Japan, translated and distributed in the US by AnimEigo.