Bubblegum Crisis 2040
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Reviewed by: I am Mr 666
Bubblegum Crisis 2040
Four women in powered armor try to save Tokyo from the threat
of rogue Boomers (androids used for manial labor), and save the world
from the clutches of Genom. . .again.
Plot: 4/5
This series is a re-telling of the classic '80s OAV series. The
exception is that here Linna Yamazaki has just moved to Tokyo from the
country to start a new job at Genom--but more importantly, to see the
Knight Sabers in action and to try to join up (she's a bit of a dork at
the beginning of the show). Of course, she's allowed to join and the
action starts from there. Later on in the series, the show does start
to exhibit some similarities with "Evangelion" (mainly just in its
almost "Boomer (Angel) of the Day"/"Day in the Life Of" feel and
with it's mindf*cks towards the end) and "Parasite Eve." But since I
love Eva and PE, I didn't mind. Unfortunately, the ending was bad. I
mean end of "Dracula 2000" (not an anime) bad--which is a shame,
because I REALLY liked this show.
Localization: 4/5
Since this is an ADV dub, the acting is top-notch. However, I would
have liked it more if they had stuck a little closer to the subtitled
script. Now don't misunderstand me, it's not as bad as Grendel says
"Generator Gawl" is, or as bad as I've heard the "Orphen" dub to be,
but it could've been better.
Animation: 4.5/5
AIC did a great job of bringing this show to life. With the exception
of a few brief moments (very brief, thankfully) of horrendous CG and
some other rare moments of bad animation, the show is done beautifully.
The battles are intense and energetic as the Knight Sabers try to stop
rogue Boomers before running out of battery power (apparently, their
HARDsuits use a lot of juice). Just remember to turn the brightness on
your TV up a bit because there are a lot of dark scenes in later
episodes.
Overall: 4/5
This is a great series, but the bad ending definitely hurts (I've got
your "gift" right here). However, this show is still very worth seeing
for all the rest of its kickassness--or at the very least, to see a
goth version of Sylia (watch the end of the show and you'll see what I
mean). Now if only ADV would start putting a decent amount of extras
on its DVDs. I mean what does it say when the VHS gets creditless
opening and ending sequences and the DVDs don't? And not only that, on
the last disk they put profiles for the voice actresses (both english
and japanese) of the Knight Sabres--which was good--unfortunately, they
only listed 3 of the actresses for each language (English: Nene, Linna,
Priss; Japanese: Sylia, Priss, and Linna). If you're gonna list
profiles on actors for the main characters at least have the courtesy
to do it for ALL of the main charaters.