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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 15 August 2005 12:39 |
 Here's another one of those series where the title makes no sense - Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040.
The "Tokyo 2040" past I follow, but I've yet to figure out when the
bubblegum comes into things - but strange names are all part of the fun
of anime. With that mystery left hanging, it's on to the main
event - the adventures of the Knight Sabers, a vigilante group fighting
to protect Tokyo from the dangers of 'mad boomers'...
1 - Can't Buy a Thrill
It's Linna Yamazaki's first day as an office lady in Tokyo - with the
city having been essentially destroyed in an earthquake six years
earlier, she's impressed at how quickly the city has been
rebuilt. That's mostly thanks to the Genom Corporation and their
'boomers', androids which have been used to take care of menial or
difficult jobs like cleaning or construction. Humans are as much
trouble as ever, though, as Linna quickly discovers - first when a
biker nearly runs her down, and again later when one of her new
colleagues takes her to one of the seedier parts of the city. Her
evening comes to a premature end when a mad boomer (which officially
don't exist) attacks the restuarant she's at, and takes a particular
interest in her. Fortunately, the Knight Sabers - high-tech vigilantes dedicated to dealing with boomers - are on hand to
take the boomer down and help her out...
2 - Fragile
AD Police SWAT team member Leon has a problem - the Knight Sabers, who
keep beating him to the scene of any crime that involves boomers.
As an illegal vigilante group, he needs to do something about them, but
he just can't seem to get any breaks on tracking them down - and his
superiors are getting impatient. What he doesn't know is just how
close his is to one of the Knight Sabers every day. Linna,
meanwhile, is determined to meet the Knight Sabers again for a
different reason - she wants to join them, and has much better luck in
making contact with them than Leon ever has. The hard part is in
persuading the Sabers to take her in, but leader Sylia is at least
willing to test her out...
3 - Keep Me Hanging On
Leon's still digging for information on the Knight Sabers and turns to
Nene for help in looking through the AD Police video records, unaware
that Nene is a Knight Saber herself and isn't likely to show him
anything that'll be too useful. Linna, meanwhile, is coming to
terms with her experience in the hardsuit simulator, while Sylia takes
the first steps towards getting Linna's hardsuit built. Its
constructor, Nigel, builds a few new tricks into Linna's hardsuit, and
when a mad boomer is detected it gives Linna her first opportunity to
show off - but with so little experience with handling a hardsuit
(read: none), success is far from guaranteed, especially with Leon and
the AD Police on the scene...
4 - Machine Head
With Priss stuck in the building with the mad boomer & without her
hardsuit, it's a race against time for Nene and Linna to get to her
before any harm comes to her. Once on the scene, Linna gets off
to a good start, but no sooner is she in a position to finish off the
boomer than her hardsuit's battery metal runs flat, leaving her
defenceless. Sylia arrives just in time with Priss' hardsuit
& she's able to clean up the mess, but she's not at all happy that
Linna was allowed to fight without any training. Later, Linna
tries to talk to Priss about what it takes to be a good Knight Saber
and begins training herself up, while Nene's able to dig some useful
information from Genom's servers - seems they'be been keeping a list of
boomers that are supposed to have gone berserk, but not all of them
have yet - could it be that Genom know in advance which boomers will go
mad..?
 
Okay, so it's one of the older series that I'm currently covering, but BGC2040
fans will tell you the show is pretty much timeless - and you know,
they may have a point. It's not the first series to be set in
this 'universe' either - the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, the sequel Bubblegum Crash OVA, and AD Police
spin-off together form the basis for a nicely detailed and believeable
world. The characters are a mixed bunch, though - Sylia suffers
from major mood swings making her very unpredictable, while Priss'
hardnosed attitude just doesn't rub well with me (that ought to bait
the fans a bit!). Nene and Linna are more appealing and easier to
watch, although not without their own flaws.
The story revolves around the boomers, and their tendency to go berserk
- not that anyone will officially admit that can happen. Sylia
appears to have had bad experiences with boomers in the past which is
fuelling a fiery hatred of them, which in turn led her to form the
Knight Sabers and protect the city from them. Genom Corporation,
meanwhile, is a shady beast who seem to be fully aware that there are
problems with their creations, but are quite happy to let them run amok
on occasion as long as they can keep the media from making a deal of
it. Decent amounts of character development for the various
characters is punctuated with battles between the Knight Sabers and mad
boomers, and the mix results is a show that's quite easy to watch but
has enough under the surface to keep you thinking.
Overall, then, not bad at all for a first outing. I've no doubt
the rest of the series is just as good, but I'm looking forward to
seeing it for myself.
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