Game OVA Episode 6: Bubblegum Crash
By Mento 3 Comments
I've been looking for something to help me through the hot 'n' humid summer months and what better way to beat the heat than to stay indoors watching questionable anime and playing questionable games based on said anime? For a rundown of this little project, check out the first episode.
The Property
A staple of any early anime fan's VHS collection, Bubblegum Crisis helped codify an image of anime being this cool and occasionally violent underground sci-fi amusement park for teens and adults that greatly contrasted from the mostly kid-friendly animation being produced for western audiences (ironically, often by Japanese animation studios working on contract). Its broad appeal world-wide can be partly contributed to its familiar story structure and themes for sci-fi genre fans of the late '80s: the OVAs liberally borrow from near-future dystopian sci-fi like Blade Runner and Terminator for its premise of an all-female mercenary force called Knight Sabers, empowered by cutting-edge exosuits, who protect a 2033 Mega Tokyo by hunting down rogue "Boomers": androids frequently posing as humans that, in the wrong hands, can become effective assassins and heavies due to their superhuman strength, hidden weaponry, and total lack of empathy. Man, if you were to tell me Boomers were responsible for the world's dismal state in ten years' time I don't think I would be at all skeptical.
Even the name Bubblegum Crisis is evocative: said by its creator Toshimichi Suzuki to be a metaphor for how its setting's fragile peace is about to burst, like bubblegum, due to rampant technological advancement it instead brings to mind the colorful confectionary that matches the bright hues of the Knight Saber suits, juxtaposed against the anime's darker themes, bursts of violence, and mostly nighttime setting. (Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but as an action sci-fi show aimed at young men (shounen) with an all-female cast, it sure does conceive a lot of scenarios where they're nude or close to it. Not going to say that didn't also contribute to its appeal.)
Bubblegum Crisis was written by Toshimichi Suzuki, created by his animation studio Artmic in conjunction with AIC (Anime International Company), and produced by Youmex, a Toshiba EMI subsidiary. The character designs came courtesy of a young Kenichi Sonoda, the self-professed gun-nut that would find solo success with Gunsmith Cats, while the exosuits and other mechanical designs were the product of an equally young Masami Oubari, who'd go on to direct the Fatal Fury and Battle Arena Toshinden anime among others (he also directed two episodes of Bubblegum Crisis). Artmic made a handful of other OVAs prior to their dissolution in 1997 including possible future Game OVA candidate Detonator Orgun and the notorious five-part series Genocyber, which almost needs to be seen to be believed (but, uh, not if you're the squeamish type).
However, what we're actually focusing on today is the short-lived sequel series to Bubblegum Crisis: Bubblegum Crash. As a direct continution that ties up some of the loose threads of the original run you can't really watch Crash without seeing Crisis first, so while the bulk of the following anime and game reviews will be focused on Crash I'll be sprinkling in bits of Crisis lore where appropriate.
Major Characters:
- Priscilla "Priss" Asagiri: Moody and hotheaded, Priss is a loner who tends to act recklessly. When not on a mission she performs as the lead vocalist for the rock band "Priss and the Replicants" (yeah, yeah, we get it). Her VA, a real-life singer, is frequently performing songs in the backgrounds of montages and other major scenes. As a Knight Saber, Priss is the team muscle and vanguard that uses a railgun and laser rifle at range and "knuckle bombers" (explosive knuckle dusters, essentially) for close-quarters fighting.
- Sylia Stingray: A genius scientist and tactician, Sylia acts as the Knight Sabers' leader and was the one to create all the armored suits the Sabers wear. She's a business tycoon outside of her mercenary work, the profits from her many enterprises helping to subsidize the expensive gear of the Knight Sabers along with their mission payouts. Her father was a major researcher for massive tech conglomerate Genom - the man responsible for the Boomer androids - until he was assassinated by the upper management, and part of Sylia's motivation for creating the Sabers was to fight against their ruthless corruption. Her Knight Saber suit is geared for flight, and she uses her aerial manueverability to control the battlefield and direct the others.
- Linna Yamazaki: The "normal" one of the group, who was recruited to the Knight Sabers due to her exemplary physical skills from her background as an aerobics instructor and professional dancer. Despite being relatively more down-to-earth than the rest of the team, she's obsessed with earning money and willing to take on any mission if it pays well enough. As a Knight Saber, she tends to approach enemies with hand-to-hand weapons like laser ribbons and knuckle bombers, using her speed and agility to close the distance unscathed.
- Nene Romanova: The bubbly and ditzy Nene is the youngest member of the team. Her day job involves being a member of the AD Police, a special division of the metropolitan cops set up to handle Boomer-related crimes: she's effectively the Sabers' mole on the inside of the city's elite law enforcement branch. A talented hacker, she's called upon whenever a situation calls for electronic warfare or data recovery. As a Knight Saber, she mostly serves as a distraction, maintaining distance to use remote hacking on her robotic foes.
- Mackie Stingray: Sylia's younger brother and an inveterate horndog. He acts as support for the Knight Sabers, working on mission control at Knight Saber HQ or driving the truck that carries their gear and motorcycles. He's also capable of fighting in his own armored suit in an emergency.
- Leon McNichol: A loose cannon detective in the AD Police as well as a womanizer, he has a love/hate relationship with the obstinate Priss due to being a fan of her music. Despite his jackassery, he can be a valuable ally to the Knight Sabers albeit often unknowingly.
- Daley Wong: Leon's partner in the AD Police. Competent and personable, Daley's a rare case in early anime of a heroic openly gay male character. In Bubblegum Crisis he has an easygoing working relationship with Leon, flirting with him out of jest, though that aspect of their friendship is played down in Bubblegum Crash.
- Fargo: An underworld informant that works with Sylia, often being the one to surreptitiously arrange new missions for the Knight Sabers. A running joke is that he keeps setting up meetings in date spots, like a Ferris wheel or drive-in movie theater, assuring Sylia that they make for less conspicuous rendezvous.
The Anime
Bubblegum Crash was written by a returning Toshimichi Suzuki, created by Artmic only this time with Artland as their collaborators, and released in three OVA episodes across the second half of 1991 starting just a few months after the eighth and final Bubblegum Crisis OVA. As with Crisis, it was curtailed early in its run due to various legal troubles behind the scenes between Artmic and their original production partners Youmex.
Bubblegum Crash is set several months after the end of Bubblegum Crisis, in the year 2034, and sees the former Knight Sabers having all but disbanded and gone their separate ways (besides Nene) with the lack of business. However, a new Boomer threat rears its ugly mechanical head and the Sabers are once again called back into action.
(I've summarized the events of the eight episodes of Bubblegum Crisis at the bottom of the blog, but as they're not wholly essential to following Crash I'll be spoiler-blocking them.)
Episode 1: "Illegal Army"
Already, this show is jumping on board the then-burgeoning CGI train with a 3D model of Mega Tokyo. It looks expensive, because they spend a few seconds looking around it while a voiceover re-introduces the near-future world of Bubblegum Crash and its reliance on Boomers: androids built to take on the majority of dangerous and difficult physical labor, as well as perilous space exploration. (C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate, etc.) It also reiterates that, for the most part, people are happy with Boomers (unlike the Boomers of today) due to their utility and the way they make life easier for the younger generations (also unlike the Boomers of today). It's only when those Boomers go berserk, or are being controlled by a villainous sort, that they become a nightmarish menace. It doesn't help that Boomer endoskeletons are very not human once the outer layer of flesh has come off: many even have sharp animal-like teeth that aren't apparent in their human form. It's not apparent why this is, but it sure is grotesquely flashy when they burst from their human shells and grow a foot taller.
The episode then moves to a bank robbery performed by a group wearing armored suits: at this point it's impossible to tell if they're humans in exosuits or automated Boomers. They slip the AD Police by crashing their getaway vehicle and flying away with a chopper built to accommodate their suits, making it clear they have some serious support on their side. We're also shown that in the time since Bubblegum Crisis, cheaper model Boomers - which are more humanoid except for their metallic skin, rather than those that switch from near-human to monster forms - are now everywhere in Mega Tokyo; a faulty one serves Leon a cup of coffee powder as he complains about the risk-averse new ADP chief.
Ten minutes in, the show suddenly remembers it's supposed to be about the Knight Sabers, so we get caught up with what the four gals have been up to: Priss Asagiri is still focusing on going pro with her music (she has a new huskier VA now by the way, since the previous had also quit to focus on her music); Linna Yamazaki has switched careers from physical fitness to being a stockbroker, befitting her avaricious streak; Sylia disappeared after her businesses were relocated by city zoning; Team Mascot Mackie is studying abroad in Germany; and Nene is still with the AD Police and is the only one longing for the Knight Sabers to return, though they've mostly given up the exosuit vigilantism - she suggests chasing the bank robbers, but Priss and Linna don't see the point without a payout. Right on cue, the villains hit a second bank. Working with Leon, Nene digs up info on these armored thieves: they belong to a PMC of globe-trotting mercenaries called the Illegal Army who were supposedly wiped out on their last mission in the Philippines, including the death of their C.O. Colonel Landa. The next scene shows Landa is alive and well: he now has Boomer parts integrated into his body and is working for some shadowy associate to steal top-secret AI tech kept in these banks, using the gold bullion thefts as a smokescreen.
Sylia surreptitiously communicates with Nene through an arcade game that she wants to talk to the whole team in her hotel room. Dreading an official break-up of the Knight Sabers, Nene freaks out but is quickly assured by Sylia that their work will continue, especially now that the most recent suit upgrades are finished. Their next mission of course involves the bank robbers, and Sylia fills in some gaps in an expository scene: the villains are looking for four pieces of AI tech that will only work when all pieces are combined, and have two of them already due to the robberies. Sylia has already set up traps for the remaining two pieces, though given the mercenaries immediately steal another one without issue it's not clear what these failsafes are. As if to honor the old status quo, Priss and Linna immediately quit their jobs: Priss growing ever more agitated by her scummy manager for trying to turn her into an idol act covering songs that aren't hers, and Linna for losing a pile of money on one of the bank companies that was hit by the robbers. At the 33-minute mark of the first of these OVAs, the Knight Sabers finally get into their suits and prepare to fight the mercenaries head on as they close in on the final piece of AI tech. Cornering the mercs in a trap after planting some fake information, the Sabers quickly dispatch all the mercenaries except for Landa, who proves to be more formidable. Taken down by a surprise attack by Sylia, Landa intends to self-destruct with a bomb powerful enough to destroy half of Mega Tokyo but Nene and Priss work together to find the self-destruct mechanism and, well, destruct it. The day is saved, but the question remains: who hired Landa and his goons, and for what ultimate goal?
This episode mostly serves to reintroduce the elements of the show, from the politics surrounding Boomer integration into Mega Tokyo society to the personalities and combat prowess of the Knight Sabers (I'm glad they finally gave Nene more firepower at last; it was getting comical how every enemy they fought was too much for her to handle). Colonel Landa feels like he was lifted right out of the Universal Soldier movies (were it not for the fact that the first of those came out the following year): he's shown to be a hardass and ruthless, but he paused on killing Leon because he resembled a soldier he fought alongside with which we're shown in a sudden flashback. He might have made for a more compelling foil, exploring how can effectively be half-human and half-Boomer, if he hadn't croaked. Otherwise, this is a pretty standard onboarding type of episode that spends most of its time setting up a big antagonist later on than telling a complete self-contained story of its own.
Episode 2 "Geo Climbers"
The episode starts with two protégés of Dr. Stingray (Sylia's father) discussing Genom's newest invention, Adama: a second-generation Boomer (so a Gen Xer?) close to realizing Stingray's dream of a world where Boomers and humans could be friends on equal footing. Yuri, the more obviously evil looking of the two, has his colleague Haynes and his research team executed by a Boomer firing squad so he can take Adama for himself. The Knight Sabers are enjoying a break in Geo City, a new up-market urban development created beneath Mega Tokyo, and encounter Yuri on his way to a meeting with military heads to show off a powerful crab-like Boomer he's been working on. It goes berserk almost immediately and tries to attack Yuri and his guests, forcing an emergency shutdown: we then understand why Yuri has a dire need for a more advanced AI like Adama for it to be effective. In a briefing, Sylia explains that Adama - officially blamed for the murder of Haynes - was built to be a pacifist that would react negatively to any commands to hurt others, and that it's more likely his supposed self-emancipation was set up by a third party who wanted the tech for themselves. Since we literally already saw that happen, I'm not sure how revelatory this scene is supposed to be, though it does suggest that Adama's sapience might be behind its rebellious behavior.
Adama quickly escapes from Dr. Yuri's lab after Yuri has a mysterious phone call with his benefactor, the same voice instructing Col. Landa, and the experimental Boomer wanders into the seedier parts of Mega Tokyo looking for a subway to Geo City. Sold to a fence by some unscrupulous bystanders, he escapes again and finds Priss patrolling the sewers looking for him. Of course, Priss doesn't immediately recognize the timid Adama, reasoning that she's looking for a more imposing Boomer model. She realizes who he is just as Yuri's Boomer goons find them, leading to a chase. Adamant about getting on the subway to Geo City, Adama leads Priss out of the sewers and onto a train, narrowly escaping from Yuri's Boomers. However, one manages to get on-board: before she can overpower Priss, Adama manages to hack her mind and change her into an ally. Adama and Priss discuss the latter's hatred of Boomers as they move through Geo City but are ambushed by more Combat Boomers and Adama is captured. A gunfight breaks out and Adama once again saves Priss with a timely distraction, allowing her to destroy the last of the Boomers. The episode really does spend half an hour on this cat and mouse BS, but it does give Priss and Adama opportunities to bond as they prove their value to each other.
It turns out Adama's goal was to reach the supercomputer for his lab so he can provide video proof of Yuri's murder of Haynes, taken from the lab's cameras. Yuri then tries to kill Priss with his crab-bot with one last gambit to take back Adama's priceless AI. Nene and Linna arrive to fight it off as Priss and Adama escape. However, it gives chase and Priss is forced to recover her armor from Sylia's aerial transport and finally destroy it. Sylia, meanwhile, goes to arrest Dr. Yuri but is forced to execute him when he pulls a gun on her: she is then taunted by the benefactor remotely, who witnessed the whole affair and has since downloaded all the data he needs on reproducing Adama's AI. Sadly, Adama himself took too much damage from the fight and passes away (or his memory is deleted, or whatever the robot version of death is); he makes Priss swear to prevent his AI to be used for destruction.
Seems like every sci-fi show has to have that one episode where the main character with the biggest grudge against the show's frequent antagonists is shown another side of them that changes their perspective a little. The Enemy Mine plot, as it were. Adama was a cute little guy who broke the fourth-wall occasionally, and I feel just a tad manipulated when he bites it during the finale. Felt cheap and predictable, though at least allowed for some character growth from Priss. Of course, it's essentially rehashing the same relationship she had with another sympathetic Boomer character, the "sexaroid" (sigh) Sylvie from Episode 5 of Bubblegum Crisis, which likewise ended in tragedy and caused Priss to reflect on her robo-prejudice. At least the crab robot was kinda cool?
Episode 3 "Melt Down"
Shit is rapidly hitting the fan as Boomers all over Mega Tokyo start going berserk, operating under new programming that has them rebelling against their human owners. Most of them are minor incidents involving construction and service models, though at some point three military Boomers awake from cold storage and decide to raid the AD Police building. The Knight Sabers theorize that the culprit is the same behind the previous two episodes, and we have our first appearance of Mackie in the Crash timeline as he calls in with some data on stopping the AI from a colleague of his and Sylia's father. He also asks that Sylia joins him in Germany once the current crisis is over so they can work together on advancing their father's Boomer research, which would once again mean a temporary cessation of Knight Saber activity.
Arriving to help the AD Police stop the assault on their building, the Knight Sabers handily deal with the military Boomers as Leon in his armored suit deals with the other rogue Boomers making their way to the armory. However, this assault was purely a distraction for the AD Police and Knight Sabers both: a large Boomer is heading for the city's central data-bank, which controls the flow of information throughout Mega Tokyo, and with it an army of reprogrammed Boomers of all shapes and sizes. They merge to form a truly monstrous Boomer parasite that latches itself onto the data-bank and starts spreading outwards. However, even that is just another distraction: the true goal of the culprit is to take a massive subterranean drilling machine to the city's heart, the nuclear fusion reactor.
Despite the power plant director's promise that the multiple barriers surrounding the facility makes it invulnerable to harm, the drill machine - which Leon's partner Daley calls "Brumm Bar," somehow with a straight face - easily breaks through the first wall. The Knight Sabers arrive, and discover that the plot was cooked up by none other than Largo: the exceptionally powerful Boomer that was the closest thing to a series villain Bubblegum Crisis has (confirmed to be the new form of expired Genom executive Brian J. Mason). Three Largos then attack the Knight Sabers as the drill machine continues on, turning into monstrous new Boomer prototypes. Sylia breaks off from the trio to find the true Largo, leaving the other three to fight these terrors. Unfortunately, the Sabers are no match for Largo's prototypes, each designed based on the combat data taken from the Knight Sabers' previous battles. Priss in particular ends up in a bad way, pierced multiple times by projectile shards of metal.
What follows between Sylia and Largo can only be described as a... psychic battle? As Largo's tendrils entrap Sylia in a dream world as he drones on about humanity destroying the planet Earth even though the Boomers could save it if they were the ones in charge, as they'd be able to weather any climate change. The embattled Knight Sabers eventually get the upper hand on their opponents but get snatched up by the same psychic tendrils: their calls reach Sylia through the dreamscape (seriously, what's going on?) and it's enough to shake her out of her nude reverie (any excuse...), allowing her to completely destroy what's left of Largo's current bio-mechanical form. His grasp on the others weakened, each Knight Saber eliminates their respective foes and the drill machine grinds to a halt mere feet away from the power plant core. The episode - and the series - ends with Sylia boarding a plane to Germany to join Mackie with new resolve to make her father's dream happen, while the other Knight Sabers badger a grateful Leon and Daley for a free meal.
I can appreciate that the creators of the show probably felt pressured to wrap up the series only three episodes into this new arc, given the ultimatums they were facing: had it continued on, they could've added more episodes before this finale to build up Largo's new powers and see various stages of his plan put into action. Like, maybe an episode that explains where the hell this enormous driller comes from. The part where he takes the Adama AI to create what is basically a diversion away from a suicidal plan to wipe out Mega Tokyo for the sake of a Boomer-controlled future is ridiculous plotting in retrospect. In any case, how would destroying Mega Tokyo necessarily help this plan of his to take over the world? Anyway, it's probably best not to overthink all that, or the part where his gloopy ass was able to psychically take over the Knight Sabers briefly.
Of course, this wasn't truly the end of the Knight Sabers. A reboot was made in 1998 called Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 that ran for twenty-six episodes, giving the serialization and developing character arcs of the four Knight Sabers a lot more room to breathe. The characters were all visually redesigned too, with Sylia undergoing the most drastic changes. Despite being set in a later year, the show reset the continuity rather than resuming from Crash, establishing new roles and motivations for the cast. In addition to that reboot, there were two spin-offs that focused on the AD Police: the first was a three episode OVA series made during Bubblegum Crisis's run and was set several years before the Knight Sabers appeared, following Leon's early days as part of AD Police and their struggles dealing with tougher rogue Boomers, while the latter premiered just as Tokyo 2040 ended and consisted of twelve episodes following a whole new set of characters. Finally, there's Parasite Dolls from 2003 - the most recent Bubblegum Crisis spin-off - that follows another branch of the AD Police as they combat Boomers and dig deeper into Genom's secrets. It's apparently much darker and more brutal.
I'm not sure I'll be watching any of the above any time soon, but I am glad that this property finally got a full season after all the troubles these early OVA episodes went through to get made and it sounds like plenty of other creators were inspired to explore the same setting. Turns out killer robots posing as humans are kinda fun to write stories about, who knew? Besides Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Hideo Kojima, and god knows how many others?
All that's left is to talk about the one Bubblegum Crash game I was able to find:
The Game(s)
The only branded Bubblegum Crash game is unexpectedly from the adventure genre: one I haven't been able to show off yet, for obvious language barrier reasons. However, it did receive a fan translation that I'll be using to make progress. It came out exclusively on the Japanese PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) on December 6th 1991, a few weeks before the final episode of the OVA was released. Naxat were the ones to publish this game: they primarily worked on the PC Engine, but also put out games on many other systems too. They're best known, in my view at least, for creating the character of Dorabocchan, also known as Spike McFang. The developer, Spiel, is a company with a few sporadic releases up until the late '00s; according to GDRI, they did most of their work in the eroge domain. Surprisingly for both its system and its developer, this game is very PG-rated.
As a Japanese-style adventure game, it's a largely story-driven affair that requires the player to interrogate the right people and interact with the right objects to move the story forward, which will happen mostly on its own once the right flags are met. If you've played an Ace Attorney or perhaps one of the Hotel Dusk or Danganronpa games, it has a similar structure where it'll suddenly lurch forward into Cutscene City once you've completed your investigation into any given area. (I am also aware that there's a PC-98 adventure game called Crime Wave that uses the Knight Sabers, if not the Bubblegum Crisis/Crash name, but that's a little beyond my abilities to cover here. For one, it doesn't have a fan translation I can use.)
The game does have a few other surprises in store, though I can't say they ultimately improve the experience. Best that I just show you:
Does it do right by the anime? I'd say so, for the most part anyway. The benefit of the adventure game genre, like RPGs, is that you can squeeze in a lot of text and character moments that helped define the show's personality. It's not just focusing on the Knight Sabers in action, like a shooter or brawler would, but exhibits the way the team interacts with one another outside the suits as they go about gathering information or, in Priss's case, rushing in and picking fights she probably can't win. However, the parts of the game that aren't adventure puzzles really aren't all that great: they feel like the half-assed action mini-games you saw in something like Full Throttle or early LucasFilm joints like the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade tie-in (which I love, but I'll say the mini-games aren't part of the reason why). It's also incredibly short, way too annoying towards the end with that labyrinth, and only covers the events of the first episode instead of all three or, better yet, a whole new story pulled from whatever notes the showrunners had in mind for episodes they would've made had the show been allowed to keep going. Ultimately, like most video game tie-ins, it meets a baseline level of fanservice instead of something cool and distinctive worth celebrating on its own merits. And will someone teach Nene how to use a damn computer? She's meant to be an expert hacker, sheesh.
Addendum
Wasn't sure where to stick these, but here are my rundowns for the eight Bubblegum Crisis episodes. Consider this bonus content?
That's going to do it for this episode of Game OVA along with the feature itself. I might revisit it at some distant point in the future, though probably sooner than 2033, but I need to switch gears to something a little less text-intensive for the sake of my health and yours. Be sure to click that link to the first Game OVA episode (I'll put it here too) where I've added links to all six of these anime-fied beauties, in case you wanted to run the series or something.
Until next time, I'll be seeing you space cowboys...