Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox animanga/Header Template:Infobox animanga/Anime Template:Infobox animanga/Footer Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 is an alternate-universe spinoff of the original Bubblegum Crisis anime OVA series, with similar themes, but updated character designs and new or re-worked storylines.

AIC obtained the rights to the series when Artmic dissolved in November of 1997. Although the original series had not sold well in its initial run in Japan, it had done rather well in the US market of the early 1990s, being one of the earliest works of anime to be commercially subtitled there. The US anime-importing company ADV Films funded the creation of an all new Bubblegum Crisis. BGC 2040, as it became known, ran for 24 TV episodes and two OVAs (episodes 25 and 26). Due to personality conflicts with AIC staff and anger over their treatment in the original series, two key personnel from the original series - singer/voice actress Oomori Kinuko and character designer Sonoda Kenichi - refused to participate.

The series has many interesting technological innovations 'in the background', such as the skyhook. Near the end of the series, an event similar to technological singularity is shown.

In 2002, a direct sequel was announced: Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2041. A.D. Vision will produce it and is reported to be taking a greater role in its production, but no official announcements have been made since then.

Contents

[edit]

Major characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

There are some differences in the characters' backgrounds for BGC 2040 than in the original series.

[edit]

Sylia Stingray

An enigmatic billionaire, and the founder of the Knight Sabers. Sylia used to engage in combat with boomers, but was persuaded to be ground support after the recruitment of Nene and Priss. Sylia is the daughter of Dr. Katsuhito Stingray, the man who invented boomers, and her brain patterns were used to make both the boomers and the hardsuits. She sees boomers as an abomination, as her mother did. Her lover is Nigel Kirkland, a sullen mechanic who was an engineer on the boomer project, and he also helped her design and build the hard suits. Sylia has a younger brother of sorts, named Mackey. Sylia runs the upscale clothing boutique Silky Doll, which serves as a front for the Knight Sabers HQ.

[edit]

Nene Romanova

A perky, naïve hacker, employed as a dispatcher for the AD Police. She is also a member of the Knight Sabers. Nene does little fighting, focusing on sensor ops, battlefield communications, ECM and ECCM. She likes to pester Leon in much the same fashion that a little sister would, which he barely grudgingly tolerates because he occasionally asks favors of her. She has an affinity for candy and junk food, and later forms a relationship with Mackey, Sylia's younger "brother".

[edit]

Linna Yamazaki

Linna is a farm girl who came to Megatokyo with the goal of becoming a Knight Saber, after reading about them on the Internet, and also to get away from her overbearing family. She works as an OL for the Hugh Geit Corporation, where she is constantly harassed by her bosses. Linna is a very positive, friendly, outgoing person with high ideals and dreams of helping people, much like a superhero would. She forms a close knit big sister/little sister relationship with Nene. If Sylia is the brains of the outfit and Priss the brawn, then Linna would most likely be the heart and soul of the team. In high school she was a track and field star and as well as an all around very durable athlete, and her athleticism is a great addition to the Knight Sabers team.

[edit]

Priscilla Sonada Asagiri

Priss, as she is most often called, has proved to be the Knight Saber's strongest member specializing in close combat. She, the same as Priss in the OAV series, is a vocalist of an underground rock band and lives in the bad part of the town. She, spends most of her time in a trailer truck that she calls home, practicing with her band Sekiria (whose other members are Maxon, Jade and Fox), holding gigs and riding her precious motorcycle. And as in the OAV, she is the object of romantic admiration to the hulking, Herculean AD Policeman Leon McNichol, whom she initially loathes and mocks, but slowly falls in love with him as the series progresses.

Her inner motives in joining the Knight Sabers or how she became one of its members are unclear. However her hatred for members of the AD Police are explained in the later part of the series which solely lies on the fact that the factory where she lives was destroyed and her boyfriend killed by the AD Police in an attempt to pacify a rampaging boomer.

Priss is a girl who has no social graces or delicacy. An archetypal loner with the habit of emotionally isolating herself from others. Teamwork doesn't seem to be a part of her vocabulary, as shown in her aggressive and decisive style of combat. She is rarely seen together with her fellow Knight Sabers and shrugs every opportunity to be with them or to be close to them. She warms up to them a little as the series unfolds but she still prefers to keep a fair amount of distance between them and herself, and she is vehemently protective of her privacy.

[edit]

Leon McNichol

AD Police officer. Leon is a frustrated, bad tempered but dedicated cop, with a tendency to rush in without thinking--a stark contrast to his friendly, good-natured persona in the original series. Having worked his way up from the normal police and with his heart essentially in the right place, Leon sees himself as the sheriff who has to protect the locals from harm and initially does not take kindly to the vigilante presence of the Knight Sabers, but later begins to reconsider the feeling. Leon reluctantly plays surrogate big brother to computer whiz Nene Romanova, mostly because he sometimes needs to ask her for a favor. He has a crush on Priss, which she does not like since she has reasons to despise the AD Police. As the series progresses he discovers that she is a Knight Saber, but does nothing with that knowledge. Priss and Leon's relationship grows closer during the series, and near the end of the series, she confesses that she loves him.

[edit]

Daley Wong

AD Police officer. Daley is Leon's partner, and a highly skilled investigator. Daley is also ambiguously homosexual, in contrast with his BGC self, whom is openly homosexual.

[edit]

Brian J Mason

Executive in Genom. A ruthless corporate shark, he turns out to be a genocidal mad man who believes that the human race has hit its peak and should give the Earth to the boomers. Worked on the boomer project with Sylia's father and Nigel Kirkland.

[edit]

Quincy Rosencroitz

Chairman of GENOM. He wants humans and boomers to live in peace and harmony, and while he suspects Mason's conspiracies, he is overconfident in his ability to control and maintain Mason. His body has decayed badly, but he fears implants too much and opts instead for tubes and wires to keep him alive.

[edit]

Mackey Stingray

Sylia's younger brother, a naive, inquisitive and extremely awkward young man who loves machinery and computers. He forms a close relationship with Nene. But there is more to him than meets the eye.

[edit]

Nigel Kirkland

A former engineer now working as a mechanic, he worked on the boomer project with Sylia's father and Brian J. Mason, and later he helped Sylia design and build the hard suits, which he also maintains when not running his garage. He is also Sylia's lover, but he is too quiet and sullen (a.k.a. "man of a thousand grunts") and cut off to express any deep feelings for her, though towards the end of the series he begins to show more tenderness towards her. Mackey becomes his protege and one of the few people Nigel can honestly call a friend. Priss is infatuated with him in the beginning, but he does not show any sign of being aware of how she feels.

[edit]

Henderson

Sylia's butler. He is to her what Alfred is to Batman/Bruce Wayne. He is a kindly old man who fears for Sylia's safety, and refuses to leave her side when the times get tough.

[edit]

Nick Roland

The grumpy, cantankerous AD Police Chief, Leon and Daley's boss in other words. He has a tendency to shout at Leon when things don't go the way they should, but the two have a deep respect for one another. Though not the young man he once was, he can still handle himself very well in the midst of a boomer crisis.

[edit]

Galatea

Galatea is a secret boomer project by Sylia's father. She first appears to be a younger version of Sylia, but after she becomes evil, her hair becomes black and she appears to age to about Sylia's age. She has many thematic parallels with Pygmalion's Galatea.

[edit]

Episode Names

It is rumoured that each of the titles of the episodes were named after rock/punk songs. (A proposed list of bands is below - none of these songs were played in the episodes themselves.)

  1. Can't Buy a Thrill (by Steely Dan)
  2. Fragile (by Sting)
  3. Keep Me Hanging On (by The Supremes)
  4. Machine Head (by Bush)
  5. Rough and Ready (by Jeff Beck)
  6. Get It On (by The Fabulous Thunderbirds)
  7. Look at Yourself (by Uriah Heep)
  8. Fire Ball(by Deep Purple)
  9. My Nation Underground (by Julian Cope)
  10. Woke Up With a Monster (by Cheap Trick)
  11. Sheer Heart Attack (by Queen)
  12. Made In Japan (by Deep Purple)
  13. Atom Heart Mother (by Pink Floyd)
  14. Shock Treatment (by The Ramones)
  15. Minute By Minute (by The Doobie Brothers)
  16. I Surrender (by Cheap Trick)
  17. Moving Waves (by Focus)
  18. We Built This City (by Jefferson Starship)
  19. Are You Experienced? (by Jimi Hendrix)
  20. One of These Nights (by The Eagles)
  21. Close to The Edge (by Yes)
  22. Physical Graffiti (by Jimmy Page)
  23. Hydra (by Toto)
  24. Light My Fire (by The Doors)
  25. Walking on the Moon (by The Police)
  26. Still Alive & Well (by Johnny Winter)
[edit]

Voice credits

[edit]

Japanese

[edit]

English

[edit]

External links

Template:Bubblegum crisisfr:Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Bubblegum_Crisis_Tokyo_2040"