Last month, I reviewed the anime series Bubblegum Crash (1991), a sequel to the 1987 OVA Bubblegum Crisis. I hadn’t seen much of Crisis before jumping into Crash, so much to my surprise, this month I received AnimEigo’s Blu-ray for the original series. I already shared my big story regarding it in my previous article, so going into this one, it helped to clear up a few questions I had, confused me a little more, and somehow I still fell in love with this cyberpunk tale that owes a debt of gratitude to Ridley Scott.
Set in a dystopian future, humans and Boomers (basically cyborgs) live side by side. The Boomers look and act human, but every once in a while, they act aggressively. The AD Police are there to try and wrangle them in, but when the Boomers become too hard to handle, the Knight Sabers come to the rescue. Sylia, Priss, Linna, and Nene are the young girls who wear battle armor and risk life and limbs to stop them.
The first thing that stuck out to me was that Crisis is a longer series than Crash. The sequel had only three episodes, while the original had eight. This works for and against it. First, the negative is that the first couple of episodes are slow, making it difficult to get into it. Right around episode three, things begin to pick up, and the story really draws you in.
The positive is that, with more time to tell the story, there’s also the opportunity to flesh out all four Knight Sabers, raising the stakes of their journey. Crisis was traditionally animated using film, so the HD transfer is welcome. The colors pop, and the clarity of the image proves this to be the edition of the series you will want in your collection.
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The series is considered a classic with good reason, and one of those just so happens to be the music. Thankfully, AnimEigo is aware of this and has included it in its special features. There’s the Hurricane Live 2032 and 2033 music video specials, selected music videos recut in HD, the Holiday in Bali concert video, and a new interview with character designer Kenichi Sonoda.
As much as I enjoy modern anime, there was something special about the films and series of the late ’80s that have held up. They were highly influential and continue to inspire those who followed. Bubblegum Crisis wasn’t perfect, but the humor, excitement, and design work were groundbreaking and influential.
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