Bubblegum Crash

Bubblegum Crash isn't a BAD series per se, but it is certainly inferior to its predecessor Bubblegum Crisis. Where as Crisis had a unique opening scene for every episode of the series as well as a unique outro, Crash uses a stock opening and a plain credits. The animation is overall less impressive than Crisis' fantastic artwork, the violence is toned down and there are continuity errors particularly in the second episode. THAT ALL SAID - I enjoyed Crash a fair deal. No where near as much as Crisis, but it certainly is not awful. Continuity errors aside, each episode's story is fairly interesting and thefour Knight Sabers are as fun to see as always. It also provides an actual conclusion to the story, which gives Bubblegum an actual sense of closure after Crisis had its mother of all non-endings. There's still a few good cheesy songs as well (though nowhere as many as in Crisis) so the spirit is still there. All in all, Crash isn't a bad way to end the series on, and for all its flaws its still an enjoyable watching. At 3 episodes long, its not even that time consuming either, making a quick fast watch.

To speak frankly, one of the reasons that made me watch crisis, other than having the series in my want list since ages ago, was the fact that I had bought the DVD some time ago and it was getting old in the shelve. With Crash we pick up again the series some months after the last episode and events of Crisis. It is now 2033 and Megatokyo has become more dangerous and AD Police is getting it’s hands tied because of political powers from above. The Saber Knights are nowhere to be found and the city is collapsing. Then… Naturally of course they’ll turn aroundagain to save the day. In these OVAs we had some improvements regarding the first OVA, like Nene, she’s pretty more dependable now than she ever was. And also some bad points, while Nene became a dependable character, Priss on the other side, became a more shallow character, unfortunately. There’s also the Seyuu of Priss, which was the best of the first OVA and here she had left the task to pursue her singing career leaving a new seyuu for the character, but she still managed to sing for the opening and ending songs of the anime, it was still pretty cool. All in all it was a nice way to end the series. I’ve read before the two OVAs were intended to be a series, but I don’t know how they ended up being two OVAs instead. Perhaps they had lost some story in that transmission and some episodes didn’t went as well as others, but they’re still good episodes. Rate; 7.0

Spectacular piece of anime but totally messes up as a sequel to the original ova series! Bubblegum Crash continues the awesome formula of the original series: Blade Runner style setting, bombardment of 80s culture, brilliant colours, corporations running amok with technology and cute girls laying waste to berserk boomers and cool hardsuits. However, the continuity is messed up so bad you'd wonder if the whole group of writers just suddenly suffered from amnesia! As standalone stories, the plot is standard, entertaining fare for retro cyberpunk anime. Cool fights happen, there's an overarching plot involving people trying to use boomers in a grand scheme to wreak havocand perhaps not as much character development as one would like; all just like the original ova. However, so many things just don't match up with the original. The huge overarching plot about this ova is the coming of second generation boomers; more human like, far more intelligent and able to mingle with humans. Except, standard boomers could already do all of that in the first ova! Also, supposed 'combat boomers' are much more humanoid in this ova and have far less combat capabilities than an average boomer mook in the original (being robots with guns as opposed to hulking gorilla mechs with laser cannons in their mouths) Its great that boomers have more of a purpose in Bubblegum Crash, being separated as worker and combat class models as opposed to killing machines in human skin but its just confusing when a boomer made for prostitution from AD Police (which happens even before Bubblegum Crisis) is deadlier than a combat boomer here! Other confusing things is the complete lack of the Genom corporation who were the big bad guys of Crisis; some sequel this is! Lastly, Priss also hates boomers which provides an opportunity for character development, except she had boomer friends in the original ova! Speaking of characters, one thing the continuity didn't mess up is that overall, our main heroines have their personalities carried over intact. The whole crew also had suit upgrades so they have more fire power (or less? they seem to have less attacks now; the exploding punches are GONE!). Nene is now useful in combat, yay! But at the cost of Leon being sorta useless now. The main villain of the first half of Bubblegum Crisis also makes it over as the main villain for Crash. Character development isn't a lot (but at least Linna finally gets some) but that that is to be expected for a 3 OVA series. The 9 rating is for the gorgeous character designs and lively personalities to be honest, what else do you need for a fun anime like this? The art is far up there as far as 90s ova's are concerned; its Bubblegum after all. Mechanical designs are sweet as to be expected. And animation is consistently smooth. Music? Bubblegum Crash isn't so music oriented as Crisis unfortunately. I think only the opening and ending themes have Prisses' voice talent. The the two themes are above average AOR rockers. There is a bunch of synth jazz in there too. 80s music I suppose. Overall, watch this with a casual mindset and do not compare it to the original but rather as a spin off of sorts and you'll have fun! Lots of fun!

To keep this pretty quick, if you liked Bubblegum Crisis there is really no reason not to watch Bubblegum Crash. I have seen a lot of negative reviews and I think they are completely unfounded. This basically takes the formula from Crisis and repeats it for 3 more episodes while giving the series a more solid ending than what Crisis gave it. Also, you get a little more insight into the characters and how the end of their story would play out. The intro is pretty awesome (far better than Crisis); it has a more rockin tune and better production value. All in all, asolid little ending to the series that anyone who is a fan of Crisis should watch, if nothing more for completeness sake.

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