Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040

In the wake of an earthquake that devastated most of the city, Tokyo has been rebuilt in record time due to the development of humanoid robots known as boomers. After the disaster, these machines now service the city as cheap labor. Genom Corporation is the mastermind behind the boomers, having become so rich and powerful that they have extended its influence into space.

However, all is not well with the boomers. Random breakdowns in their neural structure are causing some of them to go berserk, destroying property and killing humans in violent rampages. To combat this, Tokyo has formed the Advanced Police, a peacekeeping force with jurisdiction over boomer matters. There are also rumors of a second group known as the Knight Sabers, a vigilante unit operating from the shadows.

Trying to investigate the Knight Sabers, the adventurous Linna Yamazaki travels to Tokyo in pursuit of her heroes. There, she finds the enigmatic singer Priscilla Asagiri, the beautiful entrepreneur Sylia Stingray, and the exuberant Nene Romanova, each with their own reasons for coming together. As the struggle intensifies, the girls learn that the boomer problem might delve deeper than any of them could ever imagine.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Asagiri, Priscilla Main

Asakawa, Yuu Japanese

Romanova, Nene Main

Konishi, Hiroko Japanese

Stingray, Sylia Main

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Yamazaki, Linna Main

Natsuki, Rio Japanese

McNichol, Leon Supporting

Yanada, Kiyoyuki Japanese

Mason, Brian J. Supporting

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

Stingray, Mackey Supporting

Miyata, Kouki Japanese

Wong, Daley Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Nordberg, Ellen Supporting

Hikami, Kyouko Japanese

Nordberg, Bill Supporting

Weaver, Brett Japanese

Hayashi, Hiroki Director, Storyboard

Nakazawa, Kazuto Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Date, Hayato Episode Director

Awai, Shigeki Episode Director

Reviews

Jul 15, 2008

Echelon

Recommended

Bubblegum Crisis 2040 is quite an oddball series, it was something I really enjoyed watching simply for the fact that it's rather unique and there's just not a lot out there quite like it. Simply put it was a nice break from your everyday typical anime, harem, mecha, comedy, fantasy, whatever.

2040 is an indirect sequel to the original Bubblegum Crisis (sometimes with the additional "2032" or just "OVA" thrown at the end there). They're alternate versions of each other therefore nothing is really connected, other than the fact that they're different stories with some of the same characters in the same setting and whatnot. ... Because of this I'll make a few comparisons here and there between the two. The biggest difference between them is that the OVA was mainly episodic based and 2040 is not, containing more of a single overarching plot.

STORY: The year is obviously 2040 where Tokyo has been reborn after a devastating earthquake that took out the majority of the city, to rebuild such a complex place once again humans needed something to help them. A powerful company by the name of Genom comes into play here and introduces the "Boomers", humanoid mech's built with the sole ideal to help rebuild and restore the most technological advanced city in the world, in which they ended up calling Mega Tokyo. These Boomers came in many packages, some would look like giant trackers of sorts that handled construction, while others would look totally identical to human beings, handling jobs such as a receptionist and whatnot. However being built in such haste the Boomers were not without their fault and at times, went berserk causing chaos and destruction throughout the city, but Genom had such a strong hold on Mega Tokyo that nobody could bring about the end of the Boomers construction. In an attempt to stop these outbreaks the Advance Police Forces, or AD Police for short, was born. Genom ends up taking things even further by diving into illegal trade and develops combat Boomers and various other things, eventually becoming quite an issue. Can the AD Police alone stop this crisis?

In comes Sylia Stingray, daughter of the infamous Dr. Stingray who helped build the foundation of the Boomers in the first place. However, she wants nothing more than to see the end of their production and very existence for unknown reasons. She is an incredibly wealthy billionaire with a close friend Nigel whom is an incredibly skilled engineer and mechanic. She gives birth to the powerful mobile armor dubbed "Knight Sabers" that can only be worn by a very select few women. Fate eventually brings all these girls together in an effort to fight against the Boomers. Originally it was nothing but a friendly competition between the AD Police and the Knight Sabers, but eventually things start to go deeper. What really caused the earthquake that happened many years ago? Is their a source to all the Boomer outbreaks? Where exactly do the Knight Saber suits come from? What is Sylia's true motive? All these questions eventually come into play as the story becomes more than just straight up action against Boomers.

But that's also where the series slightly derails, about a 3rd or 4th of the way in they throw the philosophical card at you and the show ends up trying to be "deep". Luckily, it doesn't seem to go too over the top with this and doesn't try to shove tons of silly ideas or anything down your neck. The ideals and questions presented are nothing that'll really make you scratch your head over, but at the same time they shouldn't completely bore you out of your mind either. Regardless I clearly believe they could've taken a different route and thrown out the last arc of the story here for something much better. The main thing I got out of these last parts was the emphasis on self discovery.

CHARACTER: The character development is definitely a huge improvement compared to the OVA and overall done very nicely. However (I'll blame the last story arc), you are kind of left wanting to see them develop a little more towards the end, like they were just a little unfinished or something. But anyways, each main character here definitely has their own traits: Priss is the rogue whom does as she pleases and doesn't like people holding her back, Lina comes off as the strong willed girl who will do anything to get to the top, Nene is the odd and spunky younger one that should never be underestimated when it comes to the technical stuff, and Sylia is the cheerful yet oh so mysterious leader whom might leave you in the dark at times, but you'll get your answers eventually. Okay, so they all don't sound incredibly interesting on paper here but they certainly do change throughout the series mainly for the better and the odd bunch does manage to eventually cope together very well, they make an excellent team. At first the series focuses entirely on the rookie Lina and I actually liked this direction, however the focus later shifts back to Priss and is handled pretty smoothly, but it's almost annoying that in the end Lina is the one character that you're kind of left wanting to know more about, not to mention she ends up being "alone" unlike the rest of the crew. Also I have to stress the fact that while Priss may seem like the typical ignorant "I don't speak to you because I don't care" kind of character done way too much in anime, she does soften up a bit and let out emotions, she does develop and change. Also, every character got a makeover and in all honesty I prefer them all over the originals, just simply put I guess. Though yeah, Lina's headband was awesome.

Aside from this a handful of other characters return like the mysterious villain Mason, Sylia's younger brother with a lost past, and most noticeably the head of AD Police, big shot Leon whom loves to hate the Knight Sabers. Just like the rest of the main chicks here, Leon's character gets fleshed out a lot more here than it did in the OVA and even in the spinoff AD Police Files. There's actually a lot of humor revolved around him and Nene's interactions (with her being a AD Police operator of sorts). Just don't call him "Leon-chan"! And overall, you can expect some great humorous moments throughout the show. Some might be really cheesy at times, but they never feel too tacky or pointlessly thrown in. Along with this you can also expect some romances though the scenes with these elements are a hit or miss, some worked, and some just felt really awkward.

ART/ANIMATION: In all honesty I was really impressed with the animation here and the character designs mainly for its time and for being a full length normal series. I really don't think there's a lot of late 90's early 00's releases that faired too well in the art/animation department. This was the time when some companies were trying new things, some were throwing in horrendous CG (at the time especially), a lot of the hand drawn detail was being lost, but none of that is really the case with 2040 here. They did an excellent job with the fight scenes, never throwing in some of those annoying panning images, or repeating scenes relentlessly, and this isn't an older show where you'll get the characters mixed up or anything like that, I'm sure we've all seen some of those?

Being a cyberpunk series one should definitely expect a darker, futuristic, more downbeat, gritty setting and they definitely nailed that aspect pretty well. The atmosphere is easily there. Overall though, it's not quite as inspired and incredibly detailed like the original OVA. I'm assuming it could be because of budget differences with this being a longer series or just the fact that, a lot of older cyberpunk shows are superior when it comes to the art and detail even compared to newer releases, a lot more hand drawn stuff when into them. If you're expecting some epic Blade Runner-esque influences here, well you'll see some here and there, but influences are not nearly as prominent as they were in the OVA and other older cyberpunk anime. All in all, the series manages to give off a great darker and even sometimes depressing vibe, which is good enough.

Boomers/Mech Design: Unfortunately this is another slight downfall when compared to the original. The Boomer designs in this one were really not that inspiring at all and rather generic, even when they got bigger and more powerful, they weren't that detailed or interesting as the stuff you'd see in the OVA. In the OVA there was typically a single super powerful Boomer per episode and they were always incredibly detailed and really creative, but here you could almost classify all the enemies as just "typical robots" or whatever. After watching the OVA and then this afterwards, this was probably one of my biggest disappointments actually. The same can be said about the Knight Sabers second suits that they end up getting here towards the end of the show... not to mention the way they had to put them on, was just downright weird.

MUSIC: Everyone who knows anything about the Bubblegum Crisis OVA series knows that it was pretty infamous for having a rockin' big hair styled metal soundtrack with tons of vocal tracks that, while aged and so "totally 80's", really gave the series a lot of its charm and character. Sadly, this is where 2040 suffers quite a bit. Fans of the original going in expecting anything to match up to "Hurricane Tonight" or whatnot will probably be very disappointed. Yes, Priss does have a few vocal tracks here and there and while they're certainly fun, they don't stand out very much on their own unlike a lot of the tracks from the original OVA.

The actual background OST here is mainly a mixed bag. I thought some of the darker and slower tracks typically played at more dramatic, mysterious, or emotional segments fit the mood pretty well, but there's really nothing offered here in this department that manages to be really memorable when it's all said and done. It's certainly not bad but, after something like Bubblegum Crisis' OVA you'd surely expect to find a top notch OST here and sadly that's not really the case.

MAIN ISSUE? At times the show probably could've taken itself a little more seriously and done well, instead I thought there was an issue with a few scenes that just ended up being anticlimatic. This happened a lot during difficult situations or when the Knight Sabers took on incredibly powerful Boomers, when you think all was lost, they sometimes end up doing something that seems so incredibly simple you'll wonder why they didn't do so in the first place. But hey, overall this is really just one of those fun laid back shows that's all about the action, the quirky characters and odd humor, and the cool setting. So I wouldn't say that's a huge deal if you go in with a cool head here.

OVERALL: Bubblegum Crisis 2040 was again, a really great break from the norm with some solid production value to back it up. If you're a sci-fi buff that likes a lot of action, especially when it's women kicking some ass, with a fairly straightforward plot that won't make you think too much, then you should definitely be in for a treat here. If you liked the original OVA any bit at all I highly recommend watching this series as well to compare the two. They both have their ups and down when you pit them together but if you liked one at all, chances are you'd get some enjoyment out of the other. Bubblegum Crisis and its sequel are excellent series that surely inspired other cyberpunk anime that followed them, not to mention several spinoffs including stories revolved around the AD Police and Parasite Dolls stemmed from here, while both aren't groundbreaking in anyway, it does go to show how successful the OVA and 2040 were. Good ol' sci-fi anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 25, 2016

BowlingJD

Mixed Feelings

In a reboot of the original series from the 1980’s, Bubblegum Crisis had the background to become a top series. Along with the work from Studio AIC and director Hiroki Hayashi, both whom worked on everything Tenchi from before could go in either direction from classic to bust much like Tenchi.

Set in a futuristic society compared to the likes of Blade Runner, manual labor is done by organic robots called Boomers. These Boomers are made by a corporation by the name of Genom. One fateful day, office worker Lina sees one of these Boomers rage out of control and morph into some crazy monstrosity. Her ... goal from the beginning was employment in the big city and join some Boomer fighting group called the Knight Sabers. Needless to say she ends up joining this group to fight the rogue Boomers as well as escaping the specific police division created to also stop raging Boomers.

The series as a whole still mostly holds up animation wise and plenty of action makes Bubblegum Crisis palatable. Music, plot, and characters are mostly forgettable unfortunately. Music and sound just have not aged well or is better stuck in the late 90’s as the techno-rock fits the show but not the test of time. A plot that just seems to be put on the back end, and suffered from many filler-like episodes until the last few to just wrap up the story hastily. Where Bubblegum Crisis should have been strong in its characters is the most disappointing aspect. The series never develops them properly, and much reasoning behind character’s actions are left with simple reasons with fairly dull results. Lina as the main character gets some backstory, but due to the rest of the female team having almost none makes the viewer just not seem invested enough either with the story or the Knight Sabers.

Basically, this new Bubblegum Crisis is ok for an action series, ok for some strong female characters, fine for attempting a decent plot, and fine as an anime. It’s different in regards to most other anime, but is just missing something in order for it to make the jump from fine to good.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 30, 2024

joemaamah

Not Recommended

The original OVAs are considered absolute classics of the Blockbuster VHS era. There were rumors of a full series coming out any year now, Any year now. Any year now. Any year now. Any year now....ad infinitum,

Then finally, after years of build up and hype, this finally came out. To call it a disappointment would be a kindness. It was like the producers did absolutely nothing to add to, or improve anything, from the original. Were they afraid if they touched a hair on the original, the mad otakus would storm the studio, and force everyone to commit seppuku?

They had over a decade of ... technological advances they could have used to improve the art and animation work. Wrong answer. They had lots of time where they could have added mounds to the Knight Sabers' characters and the world building, but instead it seems they bent over backwards to make sure that never happened. A new character was added that seemed as necessary as an appendix. The plot kept circling through the same old tropes, cliches, and formulas the writers had created years before. "Look! He tried to have an original idea!! Shoot him quick!"

The original VA performance is one of the great acheivements of the OVAs, The actresses for the MCs had some spirit and they played well off each other. Not so here. Especially the VAs for Priss and Sylia. The whole season they sounded like they had just returned to their jobs at the Call Center. The director found no way to motivate them, and with the lack of decent animation, and some poor soundtrack usage, calling his contributions poor would be putting a nice spin on things.

Yep, this turned out to be quite the crisis. I dropped it a couple times before I finally pushed through to the end. If I was grading this, I'd give it no better than a 65/100 D back in the day. But I am sure this has not aged as well as the original, and would drop that to 45/100, a flat out E grade. Forget the Double Bubble and go find yourself some Double Mint instead.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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