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SUMMARY

It is the year 2040, seven years after the Second Great Kanto Earthquake. Tokyo has rebuilt its self, with the Genom Corporation, and their new humanoid robots, the Boomers, making major contributions. Boomers can now be found in offices, stores and restaurants doing jobs people used to do.

Yet something strange is going. Boomers are going rogue, attacking people and buildings. The police have created a new team to fight the menace, the AD (Advanced ) Police. The Boomers, however, are proving to be difficult to stop, and the AD Police are constantly outgunned.

Now, a mysterious group or power-armored women called The Knight Sabers have appeared. Somehow, they know where and how to take out the rogue Boomers before the AD Police can. With combat suits that are faster, stronger, and more maneuverable than the AD Police's, it seems that they are the only ones who can stop Genom.

Linna Yamazaki has come to Tokyo with the intention of joining the Knight Sabers.  Little does she understand what joining the Knight Sabers means.  Not only will she have to fight boomers and the forces of Genom, she will become a target of the AD Police, who don't take kindly to vigilantes.

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: The video looks a hell of a lot better. The colors are solid, the image is clear and free of defects.  You can make out the fine details in every scene.

AUDIO: The English 5.1 track has had some kick butt improvements. The sound is crisp and rich, and thanks to some additional audio effects (echoes, reverb), it has more depth. The Japanese 2.0 track is pretty decent, but it sounds a little muffled. The Spanish track fares much better than other ADV releases. The sound is fuller, and the music is not overly muted.

The audio commentary on episodes 4,6,7,9 is well mixed, with the speakers coming from the front, and the English dub audio from the back speakers.

EDITS: The opening and closing use the clean versions with English text.  In a reverse edit, the original "Next Episode" segments have been restored, as has the original logo on the opening.

EXTRAS:  You have no less than 4 entertaining audio commentaries with ADR Director Matt Greenfield and various voice actors including Chris Patton, Hillary Haag, Christine Auten, Kelly Manison and Spike Spencer.  You also have the clean open and close and character bios.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Tokyo 2040 gives show us what the original BGC could have been, if given a solid budget, a key group of writers, and consistent direction. It is a well plotted, if somewhat predictable, sci-fi story. There are some plot-twists that keep you on your toes, and enough differences between the other versions to keep it from going where others have gone before.  

Credit is due to director Hiroki Hayashi. Having been a part of the original BGC, he knows where the mistakes were, and did very well on correcting them.

ACTING: Once again, high praise for the English cast.  Christine Auten's deep voice is good for the tomboy Priss, and her singing matches Yu Asakawa intensity.  Hillary Haag really puts her "cute" voice to great affect, using it to reflect Nene's emotional level, not her age.  Laura Chapman is very adept at switching her voice from cute and bubbly, to angry and psychotic in a snap.  Last, but certainly not least, Kelly Manison adds the right amount of naiveté and earnestness that the character of Linna requires.

The Japanese audio is typical of the voice market in Japan these days. They have good voice acting, but not a lot of emotional range.

FAN SERVICE: Plenty. Tons of butt shots, shower scenes, changing scenes. You do get plenty of hints of the bodies that are under the hard suits.  There are also many a visual homage to the previous BGC OVA's as well as hidden references to the staff who worked on BGC.  There is also some references to other animated titles like "The Simpsons".

CONCLUSION

Since I started watching anime, there has always been Bubblegum Crisis.  The OVA was the second anime VHS tape I ever bought (Appleseed being the first), I was entranced by this world of cyberpunk noir, beautiful characters, and highly detailed animation.  Soon afterwards, AnimEigo released Bubblegum Crash (the unjustly maligned sequel) and the powerful but short lived AD Police series.  By the late 90's, just when it seemed that the franchise was dead, word began circulating that a new Bubblegum Crisis TV series was on it's way.  For many fans, the idea of remaking BGC into a TV series was unthinkable.  How can you take a series known for it's hard edge and make it palatable for TV?  What kind of changes would have to be made?  Who would be singing for Priss, since Kinuko Oomori had quit the biz.  With out the involvement of Director Masami Obari and Character Designer Kenichi Sonoda, would the series even be worth watching?  So many people were so convinced that it would stink, I half expected it to fail horribly.

Still, I do love Bubblegum Crisis, in all it's forms, so I had to watch it. I loved every minute of it.

By starting off at zero, we get to see what was missing from the OVA, characterization.  Let's be honest, for all it's coolness factor of the original series, our heroines were ciphers. Sylia Stingray was nothing more than a sexy older woman leading a lesbian, a ditz, and a man/money hungry aerobics instructor to fight the extremely evil Genom Corporation.  The villains were run of the mill "take over the world" types who had as little depth as the Knight Sabers.  Thanks to prolific writer Chiaki Konaka, this new version was about four women, each with their own histories, desires, and personal quirks.  Genom wasn't this evil, satanic level corporation of destruction, but instead it was like Microsoft; it didn't want to rule the world, it just worked out that way.  Instead of a series of random adventures, each episode was a small part of a bigger mystery.  This helped to keep you invested, as you tried to tie all the pieces together to figure out the secrets of Sylia, Genon, and the boomers as well.

Besides more plot and characterization, the look of the series was different as well.  While the high level of detail from the first series was gone, the animation was at least consistent, and thanks to the computer aided colorization, everything looked smooth and sleek.  I was very surprised how little the Hard Suits had changed, in spite of the rather acrimonious split between original character designer Kenichi Sonoda and AIC (the animation company that produced BGC).  While I knew the character designs would be different, I figured that the hard suits would look nothing like the originals.  Not only were the suits pretty much the same as the OVA, Kenichi also got full credit.  Perhaps things have calmed down and our dreams of an "Exaxxion: The Cannon God" anime may come true!

This "Essential Anime" release is the best presentation of "2040" I have seen to date.  The video is fantastic, free of any kind of digital crap.  The re-mixed English 5.1 was so awesome, I felt like I was in my own hard suit simulator.  The best part of this edition was the plentiful and colorful audio commentaries.  Every one is chock full of behind the scenes info, personal observations, and some off the wall remarks.  The funniest has to be the one featuring Spike Spencer (Mackey) and John Gremillion (Nigel).  It's full of sexual innuendos, off color parody, and when you hear them talk "homeboy" , you will fall out of your seat laughing.

You can not go wrong picking up a copy of "Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040: The Legend Reborn".  With it's solid writing, smooth animation, and excellent presentation, old and new fans can experience the adventure, action, and drama of a modern classic...y'know!

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