is a 1987-1991 Japanese

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

(OVA) series produced by

Youmex was an anime production company and record label (under their label Futureland) established in 1985 as a subsidiary of Toshiba EMI and founded by Junji Fujita (formerly of King Records). The company was absorbed back into Toshiba EMI in 1998, ...

and animated by AIC and

Artmic was a Japanese animation design studio formed in 1978. It went bankrupt and was liquidated in 1997. AIC RIGHTS now holds the intellectual property of most of Artmic's titles. The studio was founded by Toshimichi Suzuki after he left Tatsunoko P ...

. The series involves the adventures of the Knight Sabers, an all-female group of

mercenaries A mercenary is a private individual who joins an War, armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rath ...

who don

powered exoskeleton An exoskeleton is a wearable device that augments, enables, assists, or enhances motion, posture, or physical activity through mechanical interaction with and force applied to the user’s body. Other common names for a wearable exoskeleton in ...

s and fight numerous problems, most frequently rogue robots. The success of the series spawned several sequel series.

Plot

The series begins in late 2032, seven years after the Second

Great Kantō earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

has split

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

geographically and culturally in two. It also forced the United States of America to

annex Annex or annexe may refer to: Places * The Annex, a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. * The Annex (New Haven), a neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, United States. * Annex, Oregon, a census-designated place in the United ...

Japan with the legitimate goal of keeping the peace and preventing it from descending into anarchy. In the first episode, disparities in wealth are shown to be more pronounced than in previous periods in

postwar Japan Postwar Japan is the period in Japanese history beginning with the surrender of Japan to the Allies of World War II on 2 September 1945, and lasting at least until the end of the Shōwa era in 1989. Despite the massive devastation it suffered ...

. One of the series' themes is the inability of the department to deal with threats due to political infighting,

red tape Red tape is a concept employed to denounce excessive or redundant regulation and adherence to formal rules for creating unnecessary constraints on action and decision-making. The occurrence of red tape is usually associated with governments but a ...

, and an insufficient budget. The main adversary is Genom, a

megacorporation Megacorporation, mega-corporation, or megacorp, a term originally coined by Alfred Eichner in his book ''The Megacorp and Oligopoly: Micro Foundations of Macro Dynamics'' but popularized by William Gibson, derives from the combination of the pre ...

with immense power and global influence. Its main product are

boomers Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that fol ...

—synthetic

cyborg A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

Setting

The setting displays strong influences from the movies ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'' and ''

Streets of Fire ''Streets of Fire'' is a 1984 American action crime neo-noir film directed by Walter Hill, from a screenplay by Hill and Larry Gross. Described on the poster and in the opening credits as "A Rock & Roll Fable", the film combines elements of ...

''. The opening sequence of episode 1 is even modeled on that of the latter film. The humanoid robots known as "boomers" in the series were inspired by several movies, including

Replicant A replicant is a fictional bioengineered humanoid featured in the 1982 film ''Blade Runner'' and the 2017 sequel ''Blade Runner 2049'' which is physically indistinguishable from an adult human and often possesses superhuman strength and intellig ...

s from the aforementioned ''Blade Runner'', the titular cyborgs of the '' Terminator'' film franchise, and the Beast from the film ''Krull''. Suzuki explained in a 1993 ''

Animerica ''Animerica'' was a monthly magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), ...

'' interview the meaning behind the cryptic title: "We originally named the series 'bubblegum' to reflect a world in crisis, like a chewing-gum bubble that's about to burst."

Production

The series started with Toshimichi Suzuki's intention to remake the 1982 film ''

Techno Police 21C , also known as simply ''Techno Police'', is a 1982 Japanese mecha police anime film made by Wiz Corporation (later renamed Artmic) and released on 7 August 1982. It was dubbed into English by Hong Kong voice actors. The anime film's premise in ...

''. In 1985, he met Junji Fujita and the two discussed ideas, and decided to collaborate on what later became ''Bubblegum Crisis''.

Kenichi Sonoda is a Japanese manga artist and anime, animation character designer. Professional career Born in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Sonoda moved to Tokyo in 1984, at the age of 21, and began work at Artmic, an anime studio. During this time, he worke ...

acted as

character designer Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * Character (novel), ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * Characters (Theophrastus), ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek se ...

, and designed the four female leads.

Masami Ōbari is a Japanese anime director, animation director and mecha and character designer. Biography After graduating from high school in 1985, Masami Obari began his career when he joined the animation studio Ashi Production, where he worked on shows ...

created the mechanical designs. Obari would also go on to direct episodes 5 and 6.

Satoshi Urushihara (pen name) or , the "Master of Breasts", is a Japanese Mangaka, manga artist and illustrator known for his distinctive style of beautiful characters. His work is the basis for anime such as ''Plastic Little'' and ''Legend of Lemnear'', and appea ...

acted as the chief production supervisor and guest character designer for Episode 7. The OVA series is eight episodes long, made as eight separate works, with lengths varying from 26 to 52 minutes.Kakinuma, Hideki. ''Bubblegum Crisis - Remastered Edition'' (Disc 4). 2018
Transcript of commentary
Animeigo.
Archived
on 5 February 2023. A common misunderstanding that has developed, dating back as far as at least the mid-2000s, is that the series was planned and written to be 13 episodes, and that either legal or financial issues resulted in the series having only eight episodes. The prevalence of this belief has resulted in it appearing in discussions of the series, even in

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

articles and encyclopedia, and an ''Otaku USA'' feature from 2011. However, commentaries and interviews with production staff contradict this. Production designer Hideki Kakinuma said in commentary notes that appeared with the 2018 Animeigo release of the OVA series, "At the time there was no plan to make it into a series, each film was going to be made one at a time." Katsuhito Akiyama, director of OVA parts 1, 2, and 3 echoed this in a November 1997 interview, recalling challenges in directing the OVA parts and creating a narrative due to a lack of long-term plan, "...it was not easy to keep on producing episodes without knowing a clear plan of how many total they want us to make."Akiyama, Katsuhito. ''Bubblegum Crisis - Remastered Edition'' (Disc 1). 2018
Transcript of interview
. Animeigo.
Archived
on 5 February 2023. Further the staff don't discuss or mention the existence of these issues hampering the project in these interviews and commentaries, which included directors, voice actresses, character designers, even AIC president Tōru Miura.''Bubblegum Crisis - Remastered Edition''. 2018. Animeigo. Akiyama recalled the experience of working on the production as "fun".

Cast

Additional voices

English: Amanda Tancredi, Chuck Denson Jr., Chuck Kinlaw, David Kraus, Eliot Preschutti, Gray Sibley, Hadley Eure, Hank Troscianiec, J. Patrick Lawlor, Jack Bowden, Jay Bryson, Kevin Reilly, Marc Garber, Marc Matney,

Michael Sinterniklaas Michael Tremain Sinterniklaas () is a French-born voice actor and ADR director based in the United States. He has provided voices for a number of English-language versions of Japanese anime films and television series, as well as cartoons and v ...

, Scott Simpson, Sean Clay, Sophia Tolar, Steve Lalla, Steve Rassin, Steve Vernon, Zach Hanner

Episodes

Release

In North America,

AnimEigo AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to licens ...

first released ''Bubblegum Crisis'' to

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

Laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

in 1991 in Japanese with English subtitles. The series is notable in that it was one of the few early anime series that were brought over from

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

unedited and subtitled in English. While anime has become much more popular in the years since, in 1991, it was still mostly unknown as a storytelling medium in North America. ''Bubblegum Crisis'' was aired in the US when it first aired on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

affiliate Superstation KTEH in the 1990s, and

STARZ! Starz (stylized in all caps as STARZ; pronounced "stars") is an American pay television network owned by Starz Entertainment, and is the flagship property of Starz Inc. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of what is now Starz Encore, i ...

's Action Channel in 2000. An English dub of the series was produced beginning in 1994 by AnimEigo through Southwynde Studios in

Wilmington, NC Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 census, it is the eighth-most populous city in the state. The county seat of New Hanover County, it is the principal cit ...

, and released to VHS and Laserdisc beginning that year. A digitally-remastered compilation, featuring bilingual audio tracks and production extras, was released on DVD in 2004 by AnimEigo. The company later successfully crowdfunded a collector's edition Blu-ray release through

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

in November 2013. The series was released on a regular edition Blu-ray on September 25, 2018. The series is currently available for streaming on

Night Flight Plus Night Flight Plus is a video-on-demand service offering original episodes of the 1980s USA Network TV show '' Night Flight''. In addition to archived episodes of the show, the service features films in the music documentary, concert, horror and c ...

Soundtracks

There are eight soundtrack releases (one per OVA), as well as numerous "vocal" albums which feature songs "inspired by" the series as well as many drawn directly from it.

Reception

Critical reception of ''Bubblegum Crisis'' has been generally positive. Raphael See of

THEM Anime Reviews THEM Anime Reviews, otherwise known as THEM or T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, is an anime review website that writes about current and past anime in any form, including OVAs and ONAs. The website offers reviews, editorial content and hosts forums. ...

gave the series a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, praising the quality of the animation, the soundtrack, and the series' sense of humor. However, he suggested it was held back by a low quality dub, a lack of character development, and an inconsistent plot, saying that while some episodes were "really solid", others would leave out many major details, forcing the viewer to make their own assumptions: "Overall, not a bad watch. In fact, at times, ''Bubblegum Crisis'' can be really good. Unfortunately, oversights and carelessness here and there keep this series from being all it can be." Tim Henderson of

gave the series an A− rating, praising the animation, soundtrack, story, and characters. He states that the series gets better with every passing episode, and that the final two episodes are the best of the series.

Legacy

Masaki Kajishima Masaki Kajishima (梶島正樹 ''Kajishima Masaki'', born March 16, 1962) is a Japanese animator and storyboard artist who works for AIC in a freelance capacity. He is best known as the creator of ''Tenchi Muyo!'' and ''Dual! Parallel Trouble Ad ...

and

Hiroki Hayashi is a Japanese animator and director associated with AIC. He is best known as the director of the first ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki'' OVA series and co-creator of '' El-Hazard''. Biography Hayashi got started in animation on ''ThunderCats'' and '' ...

, who both worked on the ''Bubblegum Crisis'' OVAs, cite the show as being the inspiration for their

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

series ''

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki , known as simply ''Tenchi Muyo!'' in North America, is a collection of Japanese Original video animation, OVAs created by Masaki Kajishima and animated by Anime International Company, AIC. Initially released in 1992, it marked the begin ...

''. In an interview with AIC, Hayashi described ''Bubblegum Crisis'' as "a pretty gloomy anime. Serious fighting, complicated human relationships, and dark Mega Tokyo." They thought it would be fun to create some comedy episodes with ideas like the girls going to the

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

, but it was rejected by the sponsors. He also said that there was a trend to have a bunch of characters of one gender and a single one of the other gender, and asked what if Mackey (Sylia's brother) was a main character, reversing the ''Bubblegum'' scenario. This idea then became the basis for

Tenchi The following is a list of the major characters from the anime and manga series ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki'' and its spin-offs ''Tenchi Muyo! GXP'', ''Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar'', ''Tenchi Universe'', ''Tenchi in Tokyo'', and ''Ai Tenchi Muyo!''. ...

. Hayashi said that Mackey is "sort of" the original model for Tenchi.

Kevin Siembieda Kevin Siembieda (born April 2, 1956) is an American artist, writer, designer and publisher of role-playing games. Career Siembieda is a third-generation Polish American. He attended the College for Creative Studies in Detroit from 1974 to 1977 ...

's becoming aware of "Boomers" being already in use in this caused him to change his planned name for the ''Rifts'' RPG which he had named after the "Boom Gun"–wielding power armor which was also renamed to ''Glitter Boy''.

Other entries

* ''

AD Police Files ''AD Police Files'' is a 1990 three-part original video animation produced by Youmex and animated by Artmic and AIC. Set in 2027, it is a prequel to the ''Bubblegum Crisis'' OVA series, focusing mainly on AD Police officer Leon McNichol, the ...

'' is a three-part original video animation prequel produced by Youmex and animated by Artmic and AIC, released in 1990. It takes place in the original ''Bubblegum Crisis'' universe, and is a prequel to the original OVA series. * ''

Bubblegum Crash is a 1991 OVA anime series produced by Artmic and Artland. It is the sequel to the 1987 OVA series ''Bubblegum Crisis'', taking place a year after the series. The Knight Sabers seem to be finished, as each of its members except Nene Romano ...

'' is a sequel to ''Bubblegum Crisis'', released in 1991. It takes place one year after the events of ''Crisis'' and follows a dissolved Knight Sabers as they try to figure out their paths in life before being forced to join forces one more time to take down a powerful enemy. * ''

Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 is a 1998 Japanese cyberpunk anime television series produced by AIC. It is a reboot of the 1987 OVA series ''Bubblegum Crisis'', which focuses on the Knight Sabers, a rogue vigilante group made up of four women who use powered suits to fig ...

'' is a 26-episode anime television series broadcast in 1998–1999. It is a

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

of the original series. * '' A.D. Police: To Protect and Serve'' is 12-episode anime television series released in 1999. It is a prequel to ''

''. * ''

Parasite Dolls is a three-part original video animation produced by AIC and Imagica Entertainment, and written by Chiaki J. Konaka and Kazuto Nakazawa. The series is set in the ''Bubblegum Crisis'' universe and takes place after the events of the origin ...

'' is a three-part original video animation series by AIC, released in 2003. It is set in the original ''Bubblegum Crisis'' universe, taking place after the events of the original OVA series.

Crossover appearances

In 1993, it appeared on '' Scramble Wars'', a crossover event between ''Bubblegum Crisis'', ''

Gall Force is a metaseries of science fiction anime OVAs by the studios Artmic and AIC, with production by Youmex. The original character designs were by Kenichi Sonoda, though these were dropped for the ''Gall Force: The Revolution'' remake. C ...

'', ''

Genesis Survivor Gaiarth was an anime OVA series produced by AIC and Artmic in 1992. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future, chronicling the story of a young man named Ital Del Labard and his partner, the war-roid Zaxon. It was licensed and dis ...

'', ''AD Police'' and ''

Riding Bean is a 1989 anime original video animation following the exploits of courier-for-hire Bean Bandit and his partner, gunwoman and ace investigator Rally Vincent. A manga was also published in the Japanese magazine that was left unfinished (due ...

''. In 2023, the theme song "Konya Wa Hurricane" appeared in the series ''

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off ''Scott Pilgrim Takes Off'' is an anime adventure television series developed by Bryan Lee O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinski for Netflix. The series is based on the ''Scott Pilgrim'' graphic novels written and drawn by O'Malley, with the entire ...

''.

Other media

RPGs

* ''

Bubblegum Crisis is a 1987-1991 Japanese cyberpunk original video animation (OVA) series produced by Youmex and animated by Anime International Company, AIC and Artmic. The series involves the adventures of the Knight Sabers, an all-female group of Mercenar ...

'' role-playing game produced by

R. Talsorian Games R. Talsorian Games (RTG) is a designer and publisher of role-playing game books and accessories. Originally based in Berkeley, California, the company was moved to Renton, Washington, in 1997. Their titles include the ''Cyberpunk'' series and sev ...

. It introduces an alternate setting named "Bubblegum Crossfire", basing on a premise that data units with hardsuit blueprints have been sent to more individuals than just Sylia Stingray, resulting in that by 2033 there are numerous Knight Saber-like groups spread all over the globe. RTG's license to produce this game has expired and at present all copies of back stock have been sold. ** "Bubblegum Crisis: Before and After" (covering material from ''A.D. Police Files'' and ''Bubblegum Crash!'') ** "Bubblegum Crisis EX" which includes completely new materials (also incorporating early design concepts for BGC mecha and hardsuits as new variants)

Novels

The series' creator Toshimichi Suzuki wrote two novels: * ''Bubblegum Crisis Vol. 1: Silent Fanfare'',

Fujimi Shobo , formerly , was a Japanese publisher that specialized in light novels, manga, Japanese role-playing games, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at ...

* ''Bubblegum Crisis Vol. 2: Break Down-48'', Fujimi Shobo * A third novel titled ''Bubblegum Crisis Hard Metal Guardians'' was also later written by Hajime Shima and released in 2012

Comic book

In Japan, a number of comic books were produced that featured characters and storylines based in the same universe. Some were very much thematically linked to the OVA series, while others were "one-shots" or comedy features. A number of artists participated in the creation of these comics, including

, who had produced the original Knight Saber character designs. A North American comic based in the ''Bubblegum Crisis'' universe was published in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

. * ''Go! Go! Sabers!'', a comic by Tokio Kazuka. * ''AD. Police: 25:00'', a comic by

Tony Takezaki is a Japanese mangaka born on July 15, 1963, in Osaka. Selected bibliography Manga * A.D. Police 25:00 (1988) * A.D. Police: Dead End City (1989 - 1990) * Dr Kishiwada's Scientific Affection (1992 - 1998) * Genocyber is a 1992 Japanese ma ...

* ''Soldier Blue'', a comic by Toshimichi Suzuki. It serves as a prequel to ''Bubblegum Crash!'' It was also made as an

audio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

. It was translated into English language in 1997 by R.Talsorian Games
A copy of the translated dialogue can be found here
* ''Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal'' produced by Adam Warren via

Video games

* ''Crime Wave'': a game for

PC-88 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the four major Japane ...

, set in Megatokyo and featuring Knight Sabers as the main characters. * ''Bubblegum Crash'': a game for

TurboGrafx-16 The TurboGrafx-16, known in Japan as the , is a home video game console developed by Hudson Soft and manufactured by NEC. It was released in Japan in 1987 and in North America in 1989. The first console of the fourth generation of video game con ...

Live-action movie

In May 2009 it was announced that a

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

movie of "Bubblegum Crisis" was in the early stages of production. A production agreement was signed at the 2009

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. The film was expected to be released in late 2012 with a budget of 30 million. The production staff was said to have consulted with the original anime's staff members,

Shinji Aramaki is a Japanese anime director and mechanical designer from Fukuoka Prefecture. He graduated from Fukuoka Prefectural Fukuoka High School and Okayama University. He was a member of Artmic and is currently the Chief Creative Officer (CCO) at ...

and

, to help maintain consistency with the world of the original. However, no further developments have been announced.

References

External links

AnimEigo's ''Bubblegum Crisis'' website

''Bubblegum Crisis''
– AIC's official ''Bubblegum Crisis'' page * *
''Ravens Garage: The Technology of BGC''
{{Portal bar, 1980s, 1990s, Speculative fiction, Video games 1987 anime OVAs 1991 anime OVAs Fiction set in 2032 Action anime and manga Anime International Company ADV Films Cold War fiction Cyberpunk anime and manga Dengeki Comics Fiction about artificial intelligence Fiction about robots Girls with guns anime and manga Madman Entertainment anime Mecha anime and manga Science fiction anime and manga Seinen manga Superheroes in anime and manga Television series set in the 2030s