Before Ghost in the Shell, and before Akira, when Japanese animation fans wanted cyberpunk, they turned to the eight-part Bubblegum Crisis OAV (Original Animation Video) series. The name may sound odd, but it’s not without reason; the situation in the
Blade Runner-esque MegaTokyo of 2032 is so tense, it’s like bubblegum, a mere pinprick away from popping.
The "situation" is the increasing presence of Boomers--artificial cyborgs--running amok in the city. (These have been referred to as "illegal" Boomers, but we never see a legal one throughout the series. Go figure.) These Boomers are not-so-secretly controlled by the predominant Boomer manufacturer, the omnipresent and untouchable Genom Corporation. The AD (Advanced Defense) Police has been formed to deal with rampaging Boomers, but they’re outnumbered and outgunned.
This is where the Knight Sabers come in--a vigilante/mercenary quartet of four cute (naturally) women with plenty of high-tech gear and some free time to spend kicking Boomer butt. They are: Priss Asagiri, rock star and the team’s spiritual leader; Linna Yamazaki, aerobics instructor; Nene Romanova, traffic cop and the group’s communications officer; and Celia Stingray, the group’s founder and leader, whose lingerie store acts as a front for the Knight Sabers’ headquarters.
Despite its atmosphere, nods to
Blade Runner, and various man-machine interfaces,
Bubblegum Crisis is really more of a "lite" cyberpunk production. It has many of the surface features of cyberpunk, but never really takes them any further. (Of course, some say that cyberpunk is all about style over substance, so I suppose in that sense it might qualify.)
The true key elements to
Bubblegum Crisis are music, angst, and action--all of which it delivers in spades. The score is, for the most part, significantly ahead of most anime; while hardly orchestral, the synthesizer-driven techno score generally fits the mood of MegaTokyo as seen by our heroes, far better than the recycled, repetitive soundtracks of many other productions. Most of the songs sung by Priss’ voice actress, Kuniko Ohmori, are a cut above the standard Japanese-pop idol singer fare.
Between Priss’ moodiness and Celia’s grim determination, there’s enough angst to fill a month’s worth of Marvel comics. Even though Linna seems perennially optimistic and Nene is a bit of a throwback to the "cute anime chick" school, the two team leaders and the unfortunates they try to help have plenty of angst to spare. But if you’re used to Japanese animation you’re probably used to melodrama, so it’s only a problem if you’re attempting to watch more than two episodes in one sitting.
As for the action, it’s hard to complain. Let’s face it: if you’ve got big, ugly cyborgs, four women in power armour with cool weapons and fast motorcycles, and a futuristic urban environment, you’ve got the raw ingredients right there.
Bubblegum Crisis goes the extra mile and delivers not only good action scenes but great ones, with animation and editing ranging from competent to stellar, combined with very effective choreography. The Knight Sabers fight very convincingly as a team.
The only problem is, the action scenes might be a little too good. In many cases, particularly in the first three episodes, it appears as if so much care is put into the action scenes that everything else suffers. Camera pans across static images substitute for actual animation; character movement drops to only a few frames per second; dust is clearly visible on the cels; need I say more?
Still, after the third episode things pick up in terms of animation quality and story direction. Though it has a few rough edges,
Bubblegum Crisis holds up as an enjoyable SF action series.
