Great looking females in multi-colored hard suits? Yah… that’s one nice thing to look at. But as a lesson learned in these kinds of anime or even genres like these in live action, the thing to watch out for is the story and characters first and the intricacy of the suits and weaponry later. Maybe I learned to look at those first being that I usually see the same things over again. With Bubblegum Crisis 2040, the design of the hard suits didn’t change as much as those anime in the ’80s. The action is not bad and the sequences do present changes and cut scenes that make everything exciting. The Knight Sabers are labeled somewhat as a ‘vigilante’ group so the concept of that alone, seeing them leap in tall buildings, engaged in crossfires and chases with the police is good enough eye candy. The art is quite good.

Like always, you’ll find yourself relating to a any of the four girls here. My favorite was Sylia, the beautiful heiress with light purple hair who’s the principal backer of the Knight Sabers and a warrior herself. Priss, the motorcycle riding extremely indifferent singer, will lead you into a mystery of her own, as well as a rather more colorful lovelife than the rest. However, her coldness reminds me of more of a brooding bishounen than any action heroine.

I must admit, of course, that I didn’t see the original Bubblegum Crisis OAV but that’s okay because these stand independent from them. All 26 episodes will lead you to a good suspenseful end of the origins of everything involved in the setting, including its characters. And as the characters are complex, so will the story lead you on from twist to another. All in all though, it’s something I didn’t get addicted to. Mostly because the mood was either trying to be too ‘hip’ and different with the futurism of the setting and graphics in the eyecatch and the electronica touches to the music. Something inside of me was hoping that once in awhile they’d at least… lighten up.

Dubs? They’re okay I guess. But they sounded a bit too over acting so I wouldn’t recommend them.

Individual Rating: Art: 7; Story & Plot: 7; Characters: 7; Sounds: 7

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 18th, 2002 at 11:49 am and is filed under Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.