Search - Bubblegum Crisis: Remastered Edition on DVD

These Women Can Still Rock It

James S. Taylor | Scarborough, Ontario Canada | 08/01/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I hadn't seen this series since it was originally released on VHS back in the early 1990s, but when I saw the DVD box set on special a few weeks ago I felt nostalgic enough to pick it up.

BGC is about a group of four power-armored mercenary women challenging an evil corporation in the Tokyo of two decades in our future. At the time of its original release, it was cutting edge anime that evolved into something pushing the limits of what could be done without the help of computers. Though its early episodes are rough by modern standards, as each one passes it gets better until the final four stand up quite well.

The story told has an unfinished quality that seems to wander at points, but this is because the series was part of the direct to video [OVA] movement and no one on the production team knew how many episodes they had to tell their story. The first three are self-contained and tell a story arc that sets the tone of the characters and introduces the world. After that, however, various directors take their turn at telling stories inside that world, taking it in slightly different directions.

They were really on to something in the unity being created by their diverse stories and it is a shame that this original group of creators were not allowed to go beyond the eight episodes in this package. The character, and particularly the mecha and power suit, designs are very well done. The stories effectively draw you into the character interactions, making it more than a mere high tech smash up. And the music was ground breaking for anime, as the show was specifically produced to be an animated rock show over top the action. A huge number of songs were written for it, many of them with vocals, and most of the latter are well worth a listen; good j-rock and j-pop tunes for the time.

In fact, the music was so popular that three separate music video collections were released parallel to the program. All of them are included in this box set, comprising nearly twenty performances. Most of the ones from the first two are animated sections from the series; however, one has some original animation made specifically for it that shows how Sylia rounded up the other ladies. There are also a few showing the original voice actors singing songs. Look up Bubblegum Crisis "Rock Me" on You Tube and it will give you a pretty good idea about what things are like.

If you are a BGC fan you have likely seen all of this before, as it was released in North America, but you have probably not seen the third one: Holiday in Bali. I remember friends of mine in the early Nineties, who were BGC fanatics, trying to do anything and willing to pay any price to get a laser disc copy of this, as it was not part of the original releases over here. None of them ever got one and, now having seen it, I don't think that they missed much. It is an amateur quality puff piece following the voice actors around Bali. They call each other by their character names and each has a little adventure where they sing a song from the series. The one who comes across well is Akiko Hiramatsu, Nene's actor, who also provides the most entertaining moments when she goes para-sailing and when an entire barbecue pig is plunked down in front of her.

The other extras are fairly standard. These are the obligatory artwork, background information, and interviews. However, the latter are merely text on the screen and most of it is not particularly enlightening unless you are new to the program and its history.

At this point, BGC is a classic anime that changed how people viewed the medium and influenced the direction of many programs that came after it. A feast of advanced technology with a Blade Runner sensibility, you should enjoy this series quite a bit, as long as you are willing to view it in the context of the place and time of its creation.

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