Bubblegum Crisis: Remastered Edition (1987-1991)
Animation Production: AIC/Artmic Studios/Youmex
Running Time: 453 Minutes
Released by: Animeigo
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

At long last the original Bubblegum Crisis series has made its way into our secret Japan Hero anime labs and as the overseeing chief of brave animated heroes I decided to take this one on as we go back many years. You see, I first ran into Bubblegum Crisis at a local super market chain in Puerto Rico at the very beginning of the 1990’s. This wasn’t Animeigo’s release though, it was a Spanish dubbed version with no clear indication on who made it! One thing that I still remember about it is that the translators took “Knight Sabers” and literally translated it into “the savers of the night”! Heck even at that young foolish age I knew that was the wrong translation for what was clearly printed on the animation itself.

Despite the bad localization and questionable quality this video re-sparked the anime fan in me much in the same way that FLCL would many years later. It had been some years since I had seen Macross or any of the cool super robot shows from the 70’s they used to play on TV so when I saw what anime had evolved into I knew I had to learn more about it. This led me to a journey of discovery that soon produced a catalog sheet where I could get Animeigo’s release of Bubblegum Crisis, back when they would release one episode per VHS tape at a cost of $30-$35 (and fans complain about the prices for today’s DVD's!) The rest is history as they say and thus Bubblegum Crisis went on to become one of my all time favorite OVA titles.

The Story

“It is the year 2032 A.D. Like a Phoenix, the city of MegaTokyo is rising from the ashes of a devastating earthquake. In the twisted canyons of the megalopolis, the Knight Sabers, a small band of high tech mercenaries, fight a lonely battle against the evil GENOM Corporation and its sinister androids, the Boomers.” - Animeigo's Bubblegum Crisis Page

Review

Animeigo's Remastered Edition box set of Bubbleguum Crisis includes all eight episodes in the original series run, including:

Episode 1: Tinsel City
Welcome to MegaTokyo, the home to the conglomerate known as Genom, a company that leads the world business scene in a variety of industries and is the force behind Boomer robots, humanoid-like machines that help people by carrying out difficult or mundane tasks. In recent years however Genom's Boomers have become more and more unstable and they’re starting to become a nuisance to the population, to the point where a special police force has to be setup to deal with the problems that arise from out of control boomers, the AD Police. However, even this elite group is beginning to struggle against increasingly powerful boomers.

This is where a small group of female warriors donning advanced armor outfits known as hardsuits come in. Led by Sylia Stingray, Priss, Nene and Linna are all that stands in the way of Genom’s boomer robots!

Episode 2: Born to Kill
Our heroines are asked to recover a secret military technology from the bottom of the sea that may prove to be deadly if it were to fall in bad hands as it helps connect boomers to orbiting satellite laser cannons, which gives them the ability to destroy virtually anything on the surface of the planet with nothing more than a well calculated thought.

Episode 3: Blow Up
Genom’s desire to expand its presence in MegaTokyo has pushed it to buy property from the government and in the process of evicting everyone they kill a friend of Priss. This is the last straw for our heroine and so she decides to finally take on the elusive second hand to Chairman Quincy, thankfully the rest of the team is at hand to help out. This is good because Mason waits for them atop of Genom tower with a power suit of his own!

Episode 4: Revenge Road
It’s up to the Knight Sabers to stop another street vigilante who is taking down motorcycle gangs using a customized Griffon car. However the car quickly becomes an entity of its own and begins to take control of its creator. Will our armored heroines be able to save the day and put a stop to this new threat and save the man behind the wheel?

Episode 5: Moonlight Rambler
A group of young women are making a run for it onboard an orbiting space station. Their only chance is to escape using the space shuttle, but only two of them manage to make it aboard and escape with their lives. After the spaceship arrives on Earth several attacks start taking place at night time and their attributed to a vampire-like creature due to the nature of the incidents. Meanwhile Priss has become good friends with one of the girls who escaped from the space station. Is there some type of connection here between the fugitives and the rash of attacks in the city?

Episode 6: Red Eyes
Largo, the evil mastermind behind the events of episode 5 is now poised to make his grand entrance and become the master of the world. The only thing standing in his way are the Knight Sabers!

Episode 7: Double Vision
To get revenge for the killing of her younger sister (as seen on episode 2) the famous singer, Vision, returns to Japan for an all new concert, while behind the scenes she works tirelessly to assassinate the chairman of Genom.

Episode 8: Scoop Chase
A scientist has developed a new type of boomer and he wants them to be stronger than the Knight Sabers so he sets out to collect battle data by engaging his creations in combat versus our armored-clad heroines. While this is taking place a young reporter discovers that Nene is in fact one of the Knight Sabers! What ramifications will this have for our heroines in the final episode of the original Bubblegum Crisis run?

Along with Project A-ko, Akira and a handful of other titles Bubblegum Crisis helped establish what would many years later flourish to become today’s up and coming U.S. anime industry. When first released the series was heralded for its Blade Runner-inspired Cyberpunk stylings, its amazing action sequences, the beautiful character designs by Sonoda Kenichi, unbelievable animation, rocking soundtrack and fun stories among many different factors. In short, it not only arrived at the right time and the right place, but managed to have the perfect ingredients for an audience thirsting for professionally subtitled anime.

This is why even now, 15 years later, this OVA series is still highly regarded and sought after by anime fans. Bubblegum Crisis just has that indefinable “it” factor that few anime productions have, the kind that make them timeless and true benchmarks for others to stand against. So what is it that makes this OVA such a classic? One could argue many elements elevate the series to that status, but there are some definite ones that stand out and immediately come to mind. Amongst these I would say the overarching storyline that touches each episode in the series combined with the characters are what make it something truly special.

At its heart, the central plot of Bubblegum Crisis revolves around the quick advancement of civilization and how one day this may lead to the ultimate conflict as mankind achieves what now may seem like nothing more than a dream, the creation of an entirely new species, one made up of sentient humanoid robots that ultimately rebel against their human creators. This is a simple idea to explore, but it presents many possibilities that are further elaborated on in each episode, with the ultimate symbol of this evolutionary war being Largo in episode six, probably the one episode most fans would consider to be the best in the series, as everything we’ve seen to this point comes to a dramatic climax that leads to some of the most intense moments in the entire series as well as the best realization of the core ideas of the show. Interestingly the main character, Priss, was slated to die at the end of this episode and replaced by Vision in episode seven, but due to her popularity with fans she is allowed to make it through her ultimate battle.

Supporting this central plot and giving it a much needed human point of view to make it relatable to us as viewers are the four main characters, the Knight Sabers, who are made up by Sylia, Priss, Linna and Nene. Sylia, the leader of the group is the person behind the Knight Sabers' weapon systems and advanced technology, which is hinted at as being inherited from her father, a leader in the development of Boomer technology, who was killed by Genom. Priss is a singer at a local underground club, she is the team’s hot headed member and possesses a high degree of mental & physical strength. Linna is an aerobics instructor and the best balanced member of the group. Nene works with the AD Police and helps the team with her amazing technical expertise and law enforcement contacts.

So after so many releases and re-releases of this series what makes this one special? Is it better than the set that came out in the 90’s? Is it better than the laserdiscs? Should you really invest in this edition and accept it as the final perfect release of Bubblegum Crisis (until the next digital media format comes out that is)? The short answer to these questions is YES!, go out to the store right now and buy this remastered box set! The longer answer is that this is without doubt the perfect box set for fans of this cyberpunk classic. No previous version of Bubblegum Crisis even comes close to touching this one in terms of quality, completeness and packaging. Let’s take a closer look and see what makes up this set.

Let’s start with the outside and work our way inwards. The set comes in nicely decorated box with various pieces of familiar Bubblegum Crisis artwork adorning all sides, including the inside (that was a neat surprise!). The front side shows all four of our heroines in their hard suits with the title boldly printed on top of the box, with the Japanese version of it hidden behind it. The back side is jam-packed with information on everything that is included with the set on a disc by disc basis, that way when you’re trying to determine what to watch or where something may be found you can easily look it up on the box. Contained within are the four DVD’s that make up this release.

Disc one includes episodes 1 through 2, six music videos, a line art gallery, text comments/interview with Akiyama Katsuhito (Director), Sonoda Kenichi (Character Designer) and Miura Touru (AIC president) as well as program notes. Disc two comes with episodes 3 & 4, the long lost “Holiday in Bali” special, one music video, the original Japanese promo for “Revenge Road”, a line art gallery, text comments/interview with Hayashi Hiroki (Director) and program notes.

Disc three comes with arguably the best episodes in the series, 5 & 6, as well as 4 music videos, the original Japanese promo for “Moonlight Rambler”, a line art gallery, text comments/interviews with Aramaki Shinji (Director) and Oobari Masami (Director). Finally, programs notes are also included. In the fourth and final DVD we get the last two episodes in the series as well as 2 music videos, a line art gallery, text commentary/interviews with Urushibara Satoshi (visual effects), Gooda Hiroaki (Director) and Kakinuuma Hideki (DARTS President). As with all the previous discs program notes are included with this fourth one.

With so many transfers of the series to various media, including the last batch of DVD’s, it’s a bit difficult to tell how the video transfer looks here compared to those, but I’m inclined to say that this set contains the best looking transfer I’ve seen of Bubblegum Crisis. The image is very sharp looking and the color reproduction while not 100% perfect is quite amazing as is, in addition, there really aren’t any aliasing issues that I could pick up on aside from some very small instances.

The audio portion of the show was as good as I was hoping for it to be and that’s important given the series’ heavy emphasis on music. The source material is quite dated by today’s standards so the audio mix plays in standard Dolby Digital stereo and as such it comes through beautifully with no real problems or issues I could hear or pick up on. I’m glad they didn’t try to artificially enhance it and add things that were not there from the beginning. This is how Bubblegum Crisis should sound.

Final Thoughts

Bubblegum Crisis has a very special place for me as an anime fan. I’m glad that after all these years it still holds it own and somehow manages to pull off some surprises. To see it packaged and released in this amazing fashion with all things Bubblegum Crisis included makes it all the more special.

This is the release we’ve all been waiting for. If you’re a Bubblegum Crisis fan and don’t yet own this set get out to Animeigo’s website right now and order it, you’ll be glad you did. Very highly recommended for all fans of anime and action shows with a distinguished sci-fi flavor.

Jeffrey Couto