Directed by Hiroki Hayashi Studio AIC | Written by Chiaki J. Konaka Original network TV Tokyo | |
Genre Cyberpunk, Action, Mecha Licensed by Madman Entertainment
FUNimation Entertainment
ADV Films UK (expired) |
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 (バブルガムクライシス TOKYO 2040, Baburugamu Kuraishisu TOKYO 2040) is a Japanese anime series produced by Anime International Company (AIC). A retelling of the 1987 original video animation Bubblegum Crisis, the series premiered on TV Tokyo on October 8, 1998 where it ran for 26 episodes until its conclusion on March 31, 1999. Toshiba EMI released the episodes on both VHS and Laserdisc across 13 volumes, each containing two episodes. The first volume was released on January 21, 1999; the final volume was released July 26, 2000. The series was later released on DVD, however the Japanese versions were simply the American DVD releases encoded to play for Region 2.
Contents
Plot
The story takes place in Tokyo where much of the manual labor is done by robots called Boomers, which are run by a mega-corporation Genom. Linna Yamazaki, a new office worker, observes a Boomer that has “gone rogue”, causing destruction and attacking people. Although the AD Police are called in to stop the rogue Boomers, a renegade group called the Knight Sabers dressed in cybernetic, armored Hardsuits appear and save the day. Yamazaki joins the group which consists of: Priss, a rock star; Sylia, a boutique store owner and the group’s leader; and Nene, a computer whiz who also works within the AD Police as a dispatch operator.
Over the course of the series, the Knight Sabers go after the rogue boomers, which frustrates the AD Police officers Leon McNichol and his partner Daley Wong. Genom is not happy with the development. its leader Quincy Rosenkreutz and advisor Brian J. Mason seek to unlock more boomer technology. Meanwhile, the girls must deal with Sylia’s younger brother Mackey. Leon pursues Priss with romantic intentions, but does not know of her connection to the Saber Knights.
Mason uncovers and reactivates Galatea, a humanoid based on Sylia’s DNA who is able to control all boomers. Genom cuts AD Police’s funding, resulting in a strike, however, Galatea’s influence causes boomers everywhere to go rogue, trapping the Knight Sabers and the AD Police folks inside their own building. The Knight Sabers follow and defeat Galatea at a satellite orbiting Earth.
Characters
Many of the characters are similar to those in the OVA series.
List of Hardsuits
Hardsuits are powered battle armour developed by Sylia Stingray and Nigel Kirkland. Initially they are suits of armour that the four Knight Sabers step into while wearing body stockings as close contact with skin and "plumbing" connections are required. Sylia states that the reason there are no male knight sabers is because it was easier to find women who shared a similar shape to her than to redesign hardsuits for a different anatomy. After the suits are lost the replacement suits are instead applied to the naked women as a viscous liquid silver-coloured 'biometal' that morphs into the coloured hardsuit. The hardsuits and the motoslave are revealed late in the series to be a form of boomer, that the very first set of suits (not seen in the series) were all lost due to their wearers not being well suited for their use and that Sylia had to find people like her whose consciousness could meld with the boomers' nascent consciousness (itself based on Sylia's consciousness due to her father's development process) in order to optimise their function. This requirement is revealed when the Knight Sabers receive psychic messages from Galatea and at times the four women are sometimes able to communicate telepathically. Sylia notes that the highly limited power supply of the hardsuits was to prevent them going rogue.
Priss's Hardsuit is specifically designed for the alley-style, hit and run fighting tactics she prefers. Her red-accented dark blue suit's main weapon is a set of "knuckle bombs". These are essentially shaped-charge explosive devices on the knuckles of her gauntlets, with which she beats against a Boomer until she can tear inside where its "core" (its heart) resides and destroy it from the inside out. Until Linna's arrival, Priss was the primary combatant of the team and it is her suit that is used in Linna's first test simulation. Linna's hardsuit is a green color accented with orange trim, and is extremely maneuverable. As the newest suit of the group, it has some of the most advanced features, including a pair of long, ribbon-like cutters with nanometer-thick mono-molecular edges that can slice through almost anything. This newness is a double-edged sword however, for it fails on its first mission with almost tragic consequences for its owner. Linna's suit also has heavily armored gauntlets, but she does not carry the knuckle bombs that Priss's suit has. Designed more for field support and data acquisition than for combat, Nene's hardsuit is an unusual reddish-pink and purple. Her weaponry includes a railgun that can shoot high sectional density armor-piercing metal spikes into her opponents, armored gauntlets, and an incredibly powerful computer system and scanner array that lets her handle almost any field intelligence operations required of her. Nene tries to prove herself as a fighter several times but overestimates her physical prowess and endangers herself and others. Eventually her suit is upgraded with several automatic functions that greatly increase her ability as a fighter. Sylia's Hardsuit is not often seen in the series, as Sylia does not engage in actual combat as often as the other Knight Sabers. However, when she does, her hardsuit is equipped with a retractable Katar (कटार) style sword blade that she uses to inflict fatal damage to any boomer who makes the mistake of getting too close to her, and her combat style is even more savage and brutal than Priss's. Her suit is primarily a silver/white color with teal and pink accents. It also sports active stealth systems, and she is known to carry remotely detonated explosive charges.Episode list
Each episode was named after an album or song by a rock/punk band. Many songs were also the title tracks of their respective albums and thus shared the same name as the album. The songs were never played in the episodes themselves. Two pieces of theme music are used for the series. The opening theme, titled "y'know", is performed by Yu Asakawa. The ending theme, titled "Waiting for YOU", is written and performed by Akira Sudou.
The twenty-six episode anime series is directed by Hiroki Hayashi and features character designs by Hidenori Matsubara and Masaki Yamada. It premiered in Japan on October 7, 1998 and aired weekly until December 23, 1998. The remaining thirteen episodes premiered on January 13, 1999, with twelve new episodes airing weekly until the series concluded on March 31, 1999. The original video animations (OVAs), were released directly to VHS and laserdisk. The series was licensed for English-language broadcast and distribution in English by AD Vision [1] and premiered their English dubbed version of the series on May 19, 2001.
As of November 3, 2010, the series has been re-licensed by Funimation Entertainment.
Episode title references
- "Can't Buy a Thrill" (album by Steely Dan)
- "Fragile" (album by Yes and the name of a song by Sting, and an album by Dead or Alive)
- "Keep Me Hanging On" (song by The Supremes from the album The Supremes Sing Motown; covered by Vanilla Fudge and Kim Wilde, among others)
- "Machine Head" (album by Deep Purple, also the name of a thrash metal band and a song by the band Bush)
- "Rough and Ready" (album by Jeff Beck)
- "Get It On" (song by T. Rex; covered by The Power Station, various bands have also released songs with the same title)
- "Look at Yourself" (album by Uriah Heep, also the title track of the same album)
- "Fireball" (album by Deep Purple, also the title track of the same album)
- "My Nation Underground" (album by Julian Cope)
- "Woke up with a Monster" (album by Cheap Trick, also the title track of the same album)
- "Sheer Heart Attack" (album by Queen, also the name of a song from the Queen album News of the World)
- "Made in Japan" (album by Deep Purple)
- "Atom Heart Mother" (album by Pink Floyd; also the title track of the same album, a six-part suite)
- "Shock Treatment" (song by The Ramones from the album It's Alive)
- "Minute by Minute" (album by The Doobie Brothers, also the title track of the same album)
- "Surrender" (song by Cheap Trick from the album Heaven Tonight)
- "Moving Waves" (album by Focus, also the title track of the same album)
- "We Built This City" (song by Starship from the album Knee Deep in the Hoopla)
- "Are You Experienced?" (album by Jimi Hendrix, also the title track of the same album)
- "One of These Nights" (album by The Eagles, also the title track of the same album)
- "Close to the Edge" (album by Yes, also the title track of the same album)
- "Physical Graffiti" (album by Led Zeppelin)
- "Hydra" (album by Toto, also the title track of the same album and the name of a southern rock band)
- "Light My Fire" (song by The Doors from the album The Doors)
- "Walking on the Moon" (song by The Police, from the album Reggatta de Blanc)
- "Still Alive and Well" (album by Johnny Winter)