Bubblegum Crisis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Bubblegum crisis)
Jump to: navigation, search
 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (April 2008)
Bubblegum Crisis
バブルガムクライシス
(Baburugamu Kuraishisu)
Genre Cyberpunk, Action
OVA
Director Katsuhito Akiyama
Studio Anime International Company
Episodes 8
Released 25 February 1987 - 1991

Bubblegum Crisis (バブルガムクライシス Baburugamu Kuraishisu?) is a cyberpunk-style anime set in a future, post-disaster Tokyo, called "Megatokyo". The series has a manga adaptation.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The eight-episode series begins in early 2032, seven years after the great Kanto earthquake which split Tokyo — and its people — in two. During the introductory scenes of the first episode, disparities in wealth and power were shown to be more pronounced than in previous periods in post-war Japanese history, and over all loomed the shadow of the mega corporation Genom's babylonical tower.

Genom is a fictional corporation that was shown to have immense power in the Bubblegum Crisis world. Genom's main merchandise were the Boomers — artificial beings used in place of humans for manual labor. But while the Boomers were intended to serve mankind, they also became deadly instruments in the hands of ruthless individuals working for their own goals, as shown throughout the OVA series. The AD Police were employed to deal with matters that the regular police departments could not, and this included Boomer threats. A recurring theme of the series was the inability of the department to deal with the threats, owing to political infighting, red tape and an insufficient budget.

With the sub-title, "The Story of Knight Sabers", the viewer could be certain that a new force would appear in order to deter the attacks of the various boomer and super-powered criminal organizations. The Knight Sabers are analogues of the all-male sentai fighting teams, and as such were depicted as having tremendous combat abilities (though these were thanks to their powered armor hard-suits), along with secret identities. Throughout the OVA series, they battled against long odds to overcome grave threats and preserve the overall safety of Megatokyo, though we are shown tremendous destruction to the surrounding environs on numerous occasions (most notably in Episode 6, where we see the destruction of an R & D facility, and in Episode 1, where the abandoned "Aqua City" facility was destroyed entirely in a complex and likely expensive animation sequence).

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Bubblegum Crisis characters

[edit] Production

The OVA series was eight episodes long. It was originally slated to run for thirteen episodes, but due to 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 brought on by the series' lackluster sales in Japan. In North America, however, the series did comparatively well, and has remained a fan favorite.

In Japan, a number of manga were produced that featured characters and storylines based in the BGC (a common abbreviation for the series name) universe. Some were very much thematically linked to the OVA series, others were "one shots" or comedy features. A number of artists participated in the creation of these comics, including Kenichi Sonoda, who had produced the original Knight Saber character designs. A North American comic based in the Bubblegum Crisis Universe was published in English by Dark Horse Comics.

The series involves the adventures of the Knight Sabers, an all woman group of superheroes/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 "Sexaroid", 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 Crisis was notable also in that it was one of the few early anime series that were brought over from Japan unedited and subtitled with English captions that still have a great deal of popularity today. While anime has become much more popular in the intervening years, in 1991 it was still mostly unknown as a storytelling medium in North America.

In 1997, a new series was created, titled Bubblegum Crisis 2040, but was not a sequel to the original OVA series. Headed by Chiaki J. Konaka, it was a standalone television series, and while it used similar themes to the original, it employed new designs for the characters and the mechanical devices. This series ran for twenty six episodes. Some discussion has taken place between the production companies for a second season, tentatively titled Bubblegum Crisis 2041.

Despite the age of the original series, a non-Japanese fandom still exists for it (further research is necessary to determine the size of a possible Japanese one), and throughout the years there have been many debates on parts of the series that were unclear or deliberately arranged as to provoke discussion. The community of fans have produced large quantities of "fan fiction" and "fan art" based on both the OVA and television series with the current estimated count of fanfiction in English language alone well exceeding 400 texts [1][2][3], though there is a preponderance of works and discussion based on the original series.

Bubblegum Crisis has many features that have proven attractive to many viewers of anime. The mecha designs, cyberpunk characters, and post-apocalyptic city of Megatokyo are well-realized and leave a lasting impression. The storylines are varied and complex, and are (sometimes deliberately, sometimes not) filled with parts that have multiple possible interpretations. The series was also one of the earliest anime to have a strong yuri fandom.

The music throughout the original OVA series is one of the most recognizable in anime fandom and generates a strong feeling of 1980's nostalgia. The opening song and sequence for the first OVA, as well as many of the other songs throughout the series, clearly draw inspiration from the 1984 movie Streets of Fire. Nearly all of the music is available, as there are 8 soundtrack releases (one per OVA).

A roleplaying game based on the series was published by R. Talsorian in 1997 under the Fuzion system. It contains many original sketches of the characters, mecha and settings, as well as detailed background information about them. A supplement detailing the 1997 series was planned, but could not be completed before RTG's license expired in 2002.

A digitally-remastered compilation of the original series' episodes, featuring bi-lingual tracks and production extras, was released on DVD in 2004 by AnimEigo Inc.

[edit] Media

[edit] Episodes

# Title Original airdate
1 "Tinsel City"   1987-02-25
The Knight Sabers are hired to rescue a little girl from a group of kidnappers, but the girl is far more than she seems... 
2 "Born to Kill"  
A friend of Linna's threatens to expose Genom secrets that led to the death of her fiancé, but Genom plans to silence her, first. 
3 "Blow Up"  
The Knight Sabers attack Genom Tower to put an end to the machinations of Genom executive Brian J. Mason. 
4 "Revenge Road"  
A racer modifies his car into a weapon of vengeance against the biker gangs of Megatokyo, but the car soon develops a mind of its own. 
5 "Moonlight Rambler"  
A killer is draining victims of their blood, but this is no vampire. And what do a pair of escaped love-doll androids, Priss' new friend Sylvie and the D.D. super-weapon have to do with it? 
6 "Red Eyes"  
A group of fake Knight Sabers are ruining the group's reputation, leading to a fight against a returning foe. 
7 "Double Vision"  
A singer with a vendetta comes to Megatokyo, and brings some heavy firepower with her. 
8 "Scoop Chase"   1991-11-30
An ambitious technical scientist and an aspiring reporter both plan to make their names at the expense of the Knight Sabers, and of all people, Nene is caught right in the middle. 

[edit] Related media

[edit] Video games

  • "Crime wave" game for PC-88, set in Megatokyo and featuring Knight Sabers as the main characters (an overview of the game can be found here)
  • "Bubblegum Crash" game for TurboGrafx-16 (an overview of the game can be found here)

[edit] Comic book

[edit] Other

  • Bubblegum Crisis role-playing game produced by R. Talsorian Games. It introduces an alternate setting named "Bubblegum Crossfire", basing on a premise that data units with hardsuit blueprints have been sent to more individuals than just Sylia Stingray, resulting in that by 2033 there are numerous Knight Saber-like groups spread all over the globe. RTG's license to produce this game has expired and at present all copies of back stock have been sold.
  • "Bubblegum Crisis: Before and After" (covering material from A.D. Police Files and Bubblegum Crash)
  • "Bubblegum Crisis EX" which includes completely new materials (also incorporating early design concepts for BGC mecha and hardsuits as new variants)
  • Knight Sabers
  • Boomers (actually BU-55 combat boomers)
  • A.D. Police officers
  • "GENOM bosses" (pack contains Quincy, Mason and GENOM battlesuit)

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Bubblegum Crisis Fan Fiction Guide" (2000). Retrieved on 2007-03-28. Last version of the guide names 350 texts
  2. ^ "Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction archive". Retrieved on 2007-03-28. The BGC fanfiction repository on eyrie.org archive has over 400 texts. These do not fully overlap with ones named in the Fanfiction guide.
  3. ^ "fanfiction.net Bubblegum Crisis category". Retrieved on 2007-07-19.The Bubblegum Crisis category on fanfiction.net lists further 292 texts, although it is unknown how many of them overlap with previously mentioned sources.
  4. ^ http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.bgcrisis/msg/410d605a4d858007?q=group:alt.fan.bgcrisis+author:trebor%40animeigo.com&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&as_drrb=b&as_mind=27&as_minm=6&as_miny=2000&as_maxd=29&as_maxm=6&as_maxy=2000&rnum=1&ic=1
  5. ^ Product Listing - BGC

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Bubblegum Crisis
Bubblegum Crisis - Bubblegum Crash - Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
A.D. Police Similar setting
A.D. Police Files - A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve Parasite Dolls
Characters
Knight Sabers: Priss Asagiri - Linna Yamazaki - Nene Romanova - Sylia Stingray
A.D. Police: Leon McNichol - Daley Wong - Chief Todo - Jeena Malso GENOM: Brian J. Mason - Quincy Rosencroitz
Other characters: Mackey Stingray - Fargo - Nigel Kirkland - Galatea - Boomers
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubblegum_Crisis"
Personal tools