By Tekyu ^_^
Following Bubblegum Crash, This series marked a new beginning for the Knight Sabers set about ten years later in a city known as "Megalos" or as the rebuilt tokyo following the great earthquake. The unique thing about this series is how we have a few very familiar faces, but now we see them in a whole new light. The AD Police hate Knight Sabers with a passion. The Knight Sabers are considered urban myth. And the secrets behind the corrupt power that is Genom is... weird, to say the least.
Why it sucks: While it opens strong, after Episode 4, it sort of choked, lost track of its predecessor's "rebellious eighties punk" feel, Crappy dubbed over songs hurt to hear (not that a substantial portion of the original japanese songs weren't great themselves. The opening and ending songs rocked though.) and quality of animation is constantly changing from exquisite, to sufferable, to crap. All very shiny mind you, but it still rotates around looking rather plain. Character designs are pretty good, could look better in the series though. The boomers are where it hurts most; As opposed to the Bio-humanoid robot thingies as in the original... the knight sabers fight monsters... not Boomers gone rogue, boomers turned into MONSTERS. And the "Rogue boomers" look stupider as the series progresses (especially that one fused to the race car!!! That whole episode was so lame!). A cool concept, awesome music, great character designs by the same fella who handled ARMITAGE III... However, much of the story is laughably predictable (until the latter half of the series), poorly animated when stacked next to its predecessor and your hopes get way too high from seeing the opening as far as quality and content. This series had such great potential that I was sadly dissappointed to see how little was used.
Why it rules: Despite its smooth, glossy, yet often poor quality of animation (though admitedly a cut above your average anime and even some OAVs) the new BGC came through and delivered a monster of a great series! The fleshed out and far more believable characters are great and while I will die hating the process of boomers turning into monsters and merging with stuff, the secret behind it blew my mind! I never saw half of the stuff coming! A great story plowed forward making this more than just a TV series made on a whim like SOME franchises I could mention and the dubbing makes this one of the best anime series around! Here are some minor examples:
Can you say DVD? The DVD naturally features both English dub and original Japanese dialogue along with subtitles. Unfortunately the "extras" on each disc amount to either brief character bios, voice actor character list, vehicle sketches and... well that about does it. And the extras vary with each disc. As usual, the special features are pathetic when ADV is involved. Sad.
I smell Tie-in! This series set off a semi-juggernaut of merchandising in Japan! Posters, Pencil boards, keychains, but nothing to go truly nuts over such as videogames, action figures or such. Following the TV series of Tokyo 2040, there was a brief OAV series (God no! No another Crash!!!). I know absolutely nothing about the OAV series unfortunately, but I do hope to see it hit our shores sometime. Also, There's the Original Bubblegum Crisis, The Original AD Police Files, Bubblegum Crash and the New AD Police TV series.
Overall: The big question that was on my mind long before it ever came to the USA and was only a rumour was... "Is it better than the Original?!?"
What we have here is the BGC in a new package with a complete story from start to finish that plays on many of the plot twists fans theorized and debated. While you'd almost think this was as lame as the Re-doing of Elhazard and Tenchi Muyo (let's face it, those series were fine just as they were. I mean come on... Tenchi in tokyo was horrible!) the BGC never really had any real form (well, decent anyway) of conclusion.
Nene Romanova - While her voice could easily break glass with its strained, nasal, high pitch, she pulls more than her fair share of the story about midway through the series when she begins investigating Sylia & Mackie's past. Nene's hacking reveals a lot, but also proves how essential she is to the group later on, other than that she really shines when she's taunting Leon, calling everyone else "OLD", bullying Mackie, harassing her fellow ADP associates and talking to her weasel
Linna Yamazaki - She hogs a substantial portion of the screentime like Priss, but Linna is just plain likeable for being what she is: A sweet, wide-eyed country girl with dreams of being a hero. Her great looks and athletic build are what make her a strong member of the Knight Sabres from the start as she instantly takes a stand against Priss for being the top dog the team. Competition makes everything, including paint drying, cool. Dammit.
Priss Asagiri - As moody as she is pale (and man is Priss pale!), Priss is the Alpha Saber on the team when Linna joins and despite the fact that she intentionally led Linna into the group she gives Linna a rough time until she not only stands up for herself but goes out of her way to prove herself to Priss. In this we finally get at least some background on Priss before and after her startling career as a Knight Sabre and Hot Legs songstress. And we see her finally meet that special guy (Who frickin' knew! :P). But much like the original series we see that she has an intense hatred for Boomers and the AD Police, that a man she was in love with before she was with the Knight Sabers died tragically and that she totally hogs screen time along with Linna. My only complaint about that is that... she's awfully pale ^_^; I mean, she looks ill. Very cute, but very VERY ill.
Sylia Stingray - The light haired goddess who runs the high class Silky Doll Lingerae store. When not abusing her butler, seperating her dear brother's head from his shoulders with her teeth or tearing new "plumbing connections" in our beloved Knight Sabres; she likes to swim, wander around in nothing but a robe and slippers, romance the handyman, fly into blind rages, have screaming fits and abuse alchohal and pharmaceuticals. Such an alarming contrast to the original Sylia it often frightens me. However, this Sylia is obviously not perfect like the original seemed and despite her faults (and scary mood swings, beware the crimson tide my children!) you want to know more about Sylia's dark past and her intense desire to take down Genom. Not only that, but she absolutely RULES when she flies into action for the first time ^_^
Leon McNichol - comes to us as a tall beefy badass (Texan maybe?) addicted to coffee (which he beats out of the poor dispenser) and ridiculously shy. That's one thing the original wasn't and I gotta say, it's actually quite funny to see Leon blushing and blubbering around Priss. There's also his strange relationship with Nene in which he usually torments and blackmails her into doing little hacking jobs for him. Speaking of relationships, you can't forget the new and suave Daley Wong! Leon's partner acts as a big brother figure to him humorously points out his flaws and brilliantly devises little plots to go around their boss's authority when he's certain Genom is pulling strings.
Besides the great cast, there's the retrospective transition of how it it turns from a 4 woman team against a corporation to an indescribable nightmare! Something like going from the cool high tech world of Blade Runner to the horror that was Parasite Eve. Something totally unexpected from the BGC series, but well delivered.
The answer is yes, while at the same time, no. This is because Tokyo 2040 explored a LOT more of each individual character and answered (or reacted) to a lot of fan theories (Such as Mackie being a test subject, or Sylia being a boomer, or would Priss and Leon ever be an item) and guesses finally brought to life! We actually have something more than vaguely resembling closure!!! The Original left so much open and unanswered such as Nene & Mackie's feelings for eachother, Whether or not Daley really WAS gay, What Leon would do once he knew for sure Priss was a Knightsabre or whether or not they could in fact stop Genom's attempt for world domination. This gives you all the answers, but in a very different package. Not only that, but it doesn't hold back any punches in terms of violence or truly disturbing secrets giving it a far darker feel than that of the original BGC.
The quality of the show however doesn't have the same strength as the original, the Original BGC had an awesome cast and rotating animation talent of extremely high quality. While I'm aware the original was in an OAV format, there's no reason why the TV series had to look so crappy. And while the dub was magnificent... they even dubbed over Priss' songs... >_< It's actually quite painful to hear and while to be perfectly honest I didn't care much for the Japanese Voice actor's singing either, I miss hear the Original Priss A LOT. Tekyu misses 'Konya wa Hurricane' *shniff*
In the end this is a cheapened version of the BGC and while I'd like to say it rocked my socks, that would be an outright lie! The series looks like crap in general, the dialogue is more often than not flatlining in terms of interest and the series only REALLY takes off when everyone makes the rush to go underground. It was after that when I became glued to my seat because then they begin to expose secrets and the truly horrifying things from Sylia's past. And that's just for starters, after all that the entire problem goes from bad to a freaking nightmare of unimaginable proportions! The ending was a little cheesy, but I enjoyed it nontheless and if you can manage to see past the minor flaws, I heartily recommend this. And While I've been REALLY harsh on this, it's because I love the BGC so much that I hold it to very high standards and even though Tokyo 2040 didn't live up to my ridiculously high standards... It was a great series and is a more than welcome addition in its entirety (even the crappy episodes had some really great moments) to my collection and I'm sure that it will most likely be good enough for yours. Whether you're a crotchety ol' BGC freak (Like yours truly ^_^) or this is your first taste of the "iron maidens" in action, this series is worth watching.