Summary: Polished, coeval remake of anime's timeless clad-metal dames places a group of stellar crime-fighters amidst the iniquity and corruption of a futuristic metropolis. This pleases fans of the original with it's hard-hitting style, often colorful characters and glossy animation.
Title Aka:	N/A
Company/Distributors:	A.D.V. Films
Year:	1998;1999
Length:	26 Episode Series
Rating:
Genres:	Science Fiction, Action
Format:	T.V. Series
Content Level:	Violence: Mild Sex: Mild Nudity: Mild Profanity: Moderate
Comments:	N/A

Synopsis: The setting is new "Mega-Tokyo" in the year 2040. A new booming industry of large skyscrapers, corporate business leaders as well as the many madmen who inhabit this newly found megalopolis. The city is engulfed in what are known as "Boomers", advanced "cyborg-like" robots which serve for construction perposes throughout the large city. They were created by the somewhat enigmatic and powerful organization known as "GENOM", which distributes the robots for use throughout "Mega-Tokyo". Just when production and technological advancements with the "Boomers" begin to creep within the mainstream of society, several incidences begin to occur. This however, is not for the good of the city; it is soon found out that the robots begin to go berserk and wreak havoc. Out of the depths of the large city arise the "Knight-Sabers", swift and powerful female warriors who contain advanced weaponry and armor to battle the robots. Knowledge of the "Knight-Sabers" is result of only speculation by the news, fans and the general public. When a young woman named Lina Yamazaki learns of the heroic team, she attempts to join and is accepted by the group as a new member. This is due to the connections Lina has through the organization she works for (Who manufacture "Boomer" parts). While fighting for justice and the peace of the city, Lina and the rest of the Knight-Sabers soon uncover the dark secrets of the "GENOM" organization; as well as the fate which may balance the future of the city. Review: In the 80s, anime fans witnessed what was to be a new wave in the success of Japanese Animation. The release of "Bubblegum Crisis" redefined the meaning of the heroic team of anime superheros. Highly popular, influential; stellar animation and a riveting soundtrack made it a hit. "Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040" takes anime fans up for a second time around. Familiar characters (along with some new ones) enlighten the screen in addition to new animation, action and storyline. For the most part, this newer version does a pretty decent job of living up to the charm of the original. The characters for the most part, are interesting enough. You have your classics like Priss, who still remains as the level-headed, singer of the "Knight-Sabers". Characters Like Lina, Sylia and "Nene" make up the rest of the group. We are introduced to many new characters and personalities within the "BGC" universe. However, unlike the original series Tokyo: 2040 relieves many of the flaws which the original contained. The animation is a bit more polished, the music more crisp, and the atmosphere more dynamic. I guess it's sort of a compromise considering the nature of the series. Bubblegum Crisis does contain all the corny-flaws, premise holes and offbeat anime themes to furthur exuberate the Bubblegum Crisis feel. However, there seems to be only one problem which really bothers me about this series. Like many animes of this sort, "Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040" doesn't seem to know what it's trying to accomplish. The show is a sort of cluster of bad things all cramed into a potentially good anime series, which turns out to be rather mediocre. Other series such as "Blue Seed suffered the same problem as BGC. Though the difference between "Blue Seed" and "Bubblegum Crisis" was that Blue Seed rather shined in comparison. First off the entire premise of the series is most likely doomed to repeat the many other flaws which so many titles of this sort came to pass. This premise of misfit friend superheros fending off madmans doesn't really seem to work. It often offers no depth to a storyline with considerably decent characters. In this case, "Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040" does contain these aspects. The characters are in fact, highly appealing and original. They deserve to be in a better storyline, which doesn't waste time with pointless sub-plots and poorly executed action-sequences. For the most part, the series does a considerably good job at this; though action scenes often seem too random to be impressive. Indeed the characters contain their share of good and bad aspects, unfortunately most of them are bad. Characters such as Priss don't seem to surface as much as they should, characters like Nene and Lina end up being more annoying than interesting. The main problem with this is that, BGC doesn't know how to distinguish good action and character development. All are thrown into the mix at once. You begin to wonder whether the show is going anywhere at all. Bubblegum Crisis takes too long to redeem itself, even with it's relatively likable characters and atmosphere. And with animes like "Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040" being released, I don't hope to see any more things resonant of a decent improvment on an original. That is, until the remake of "Vampire Hunter D" comes along. Click Here To See Overview!

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