»

minayuri's Bubblegum Crisis Ova Review

Bubblegum Crisis

Bubblegum Crisis ova Review

Story & Playability

I'll be reviewing the OVA universe of Bubblegum Crisis

First off, there was the back story of Leon McNichol's beginnings as an ADP rookie officer and his partner then was Jeena Malso, a woman with a mechanical arm she ripped off from a Boomer. There were three episodes in all and character designs were done by different people than BGC's character designer, Kenichi Sonoda, but notable animation directors of ADP Files was Hiroyuki Kitazume of ZZ Gundam and Masami Obari, whom worked on the animation direction of BGC episodes 5-6. These three episodes also detailed the world of MegaTokyo before the rise of the Knight Sabers and the sole people that handled Boomer incidents were the ADP. It also was quite darker than BGC with graphic violence and sexual situations. I liked this set of episodes and wished there had been more.

Now we get to BGC and 5 years had passed and the BGC OVA details events surrounding the Knight Sabers from the years 2032-33, the Knight Sabers led by Sylia Stingray, and joining Sylia on her quest to befend MegaTokyo from Boomers are rock singer Priss Asagiri, aerobics instructor Linna Yamazaki, and Nene Romanova, one whom works in the AD Police. Leon is also present with a new partner, Daley Wong and Wong is presented as a homosexual man that often tries to get straight Leon into bed with him. Yet Leon himself has the hots for Priss, but usually she plays hard to get with him. The enemies in this series are Quincy, head of Genom and his right hand man, Brian J. Mason and eventually Largo, Largo being a Super Boomer, yet somehow has a part of Mason within him. Another character worth mentioning is American rock singer, Reika "Vision" Chang, whom had a younger sister murdered in the second OVA episode and comes in the seventh episode to take vengeance against Quincy for her beloved sister's death. BGC was made into an 8 episode series, however like ADP Files, I wished there could have been more BGC episodes made. However I enjoyed the dazzling 8 episodes. Each of these storylines in each OVA episode were well planned and enjoyable to watch.

Rating: 10

Graphics

For ADP Files, I preferred the artwork done in the 2nd and 3rd episodes over the look used in the first. In BGC episodes 1-4, the designs of the characters looked close to Kenichi Sonoda's own character designs. Episodes 5-6 looked more close to Masami Obari's own style, episode 7 looked closer to Satoshi Urushibara's style, and episode 8 looked closer to the style of Hiroaki Gouda. Boomer designs when not in human form, looked similar to Terminators, of which the design of the Boomers were modeled after. Even though taking place in the future, the style of things looked more like a Neo 80's world, with the exception of the advancements in robotic technology. Overall it looked pretty good.

Rating: 9

Sound

The sound is what I expected off a mid 80's to early 90's anime with background music done by Kouji Makaino for the BGC OVA. Notable voice actors in the roles of the characters were Yoshiko Sakakibara as Sylia, Michie Tomizawa as Linna, Akiko Hiramatsu as Nene, Toshio Furukawa as Leon, Kenyuu Horiuchi as Daley, Shuuichi Ikeda as Mason, and the talented Kinuko Ohmori as Priss. I found Kinuko's performance as Priss to be a dazzling one and it's too bad that she never pursued any other voice acting roles after BGC, or even o reprise the role of Priss in Bubblegum Crash, something I don't consider a worthy sequel to BGC, due to Kinuko's absence as the role of Priss and the animation quality not being superior as its' predecessor and ADP Files. Kinuko Ohmori has quite the passionate singing voice in the songs she performs for the series, each song she sung is why I love Bubblegum Crisis, especially songs such as Konya Wa Hurricane, Mad Machine, and Victory. I also enjoyed the music to ADP Files and its' songs, the songs sung in English by Lou Bonnevie. The only thing BGC lacked was a listenable English dub, though a few of the English voices I did like, but overall I listen to it only in Japanese. BGC could've been a better dub if done by another anime dubbing studio.

Rating: 8

Fun

BGC and ADP Files was a great anime experience for me, both are great classic anime titles to enjoy. The DVD's that were released are filled with bonuses, such as music videos and a video special inculded in the second disc of the BGC collection of the voice actresses of the Knight Sabers and Vision(voiced by the talented Maiko Hashimoto, famous for Vision's songs Say Yes! and Never The End), the video special was also fun to watch and see the voice actresses act in character. The BGC universe can be best described as a mix of Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Streets of Fire; three films that inspired the creation of BGC . I reccommend BGC and ADP Files to any fan of the cyberpunk genre and to anyone looking to see something different from the types of anime that are currently being shown today. Both titles have great songs, great performances done by extremely talented Japanese voice actors and actresses, and a true anime masterpiece.

Rating: 10

Final Verdict

9.5000 (excellent)

Reviewed by minayuri, Jan 10, 2010

Comments

  1. Chitose-Bloodmoon Jan 10, 2010

    HAHA~~~~
    2003works~~~The story is very attractive~~
    Should watch~~~

  2. Kikiyo Jan 10, 2010

    I've always wanted to see this~!

  3. rukasu04 Mute Member Jan 20, 2010

    Nice review

  4. Kan-tastic Apr 09, 2010

    I enjoyed part of this series.... but it lost me with episode 5.... lesbian-vampire-boomers? And Priss falling for one of them? Gag me with a spoon.

  5. SchRita May 01, 2010

    Thanks for the review!

page 1 of 1 5 total items

Only members can post replies, please register.

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Read more.