Ask John: What Makes Bubblegum Crisis a Classic?

Question:
I love the Bubblegum Crisis, Crash, and Tokyo 2040 anime. And I know many people, including myself, that consider them “classics.” But what do you think it is that makes it so? Was it the first anime to give viwers the “robots go berserk” story? Was it the first anime to feature a strong, cool, all-girl cast, or was it just the cool designs and cyberpunk setting? Also I heard a new BGC series is being considered. Is there any info on it?

Answer:
Without a doubt, especially among Western fans the original Bubblegum Crisis OAV series is considered “classic” anime, the disposable “Scoop Chase” episode 8 notwithstanding. However, I’ve personally never heard either the Bubblegum Crash or Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 series called “classic.” The Bubblegum Crash OAV series is often vilified, partially for good reason, because, according to popular rumor, it took control of the franchise out of the hands of Youmex/Artmic and was largely developed and animated by a Korean studio. Regardless of its production history, any astute film critic can easily tell that the 3 episode Bubblegum Crash didn’t live up to the quality of storytelling or animation quality established by the first series. The Bubblegum Crisis TV series generally isn’t held in particularly high regard by die-hard fans of the original series because the TV series is such a vast stylistic departure from the tone and style of the original series. While the original OAV series was an ominous, gritty cyberpunk action story frequently fueled by themes of revenge, the Bubblegum Crisis TV series was a slick and glossy, and largely lifeless drama with little tension or bite to it.

The original Bubblegum Crisis OAV series premiered on Japanese home video on February 25, 1987, seven months after the home video premier of Gall Force: Eternal Story, also produced by Artmic with character designs by Kenichi Sonoda. So Bubblegum Crisis was not the first sci-fi anime featuring a strong, cool, all female cast. In fact, Dirty Pair had premiered in Japan in July 1985, and Fight! Iczer-One in November 1985, so aggressive female protagonists were nothing new by the time Bubblegum Crisis rolled around. Part of the reason why Bubblegum Crisis became such a phenomenon, especially in America, had to do with its age. By 1987 Robotech had come and gone in America, and American anime fandom had grown to the point at which it supported two nationally distributed anime magazines: Animezine and Animag. While the earlier Dirty Pair and Iczer One and even Gall Force were relatively unknown in America, Bubblegum Crisis was one of the first anime series widely disseminated within the burgeoning American fan community, and courtesy of AnimEigo, it was one of the first anime series officially released in America on licensed home video.

Bt beside just its fortuitous release scheduling, Bubblegum Crisis had something that had never been seen in anime before. Bubblegum Crisis was the first true “cyberpunk” anime. Especially for American fans who knew very little about anime at the time, Bubblegum Crisis epitomized the American idealization of what anime was. It was mature and dark and serious and violent. Prior to Bubblegum Crisis, Dirty Pair was equal parts sci-fi action and comedy. Iczer-One was an anime homage to Ultraman and other traditional live action hero shows that weren’t taken seriously by Americans. Gall Force, although serious and dramatic, was brightly color and cheerful. Bubblegum Crisis was (intentionally) the spiritual successor to Blade Runner. It captured the attention and imagination of American viewers the way no other anime of the period could.

There were other anime from the era that had the same emphasis on detailed mechanical design and sci-fi concepts and aggressive action- shows like Megazone 23 and Good Morning Althea and Zeta Gundam- but none of them emphasized the sort of dystopian urban future that Bubblegum Crisis dealt with, that since Blade Runner has been synonymous with cyberpunk post-modern science fiction. Especially for western viewers, Bubblegum Crisis simply tapped in to our subconscious expectations for futuristic anime and gave us exactly what we expected and wanted. Furthermore, Bubblegum Crisis is one of the rare shows in the history of anime that has dared to be unrelentingly grim and serious, bordering on hysterical melodrama. Sci-fi series like Gundam and Gall Force routinely killed major characters, but no other anime series from that period made losses and tragedies as agonizing and sacrificial as Bubblegum Crisis. Not even the dramatic tone of Bubblegum Crash, the Bubblegum Crisis TV series, or the AD Police spin-offs have been as weighty and dramatic as the original BGC OAVs.

Effectively written characterizations that played off each other well, catchy music that enhanced the atmosphere and affective impact of the anime, exhaustively detailed artwork, and a deadly serious tone made entertaining by brisk pacing, frequent action scenes, and appealing character personalities all combined to make the original Bubblegum Crisis a sort of archetypal example of anime for Western viewers. However, after the seventh original OAV, no animation in the Bubblegum Crisis franchise has managed to quite recapture all of these vital elements from the original series. The fact that the amazingly successful formula of the original series has never been recreated is what makes the original series so rare and special.

As recently as September 2003, AD Vision re-confirmed their involvement in the production of a Bubblegum Crisis 2041 sequel to the Bubblegum Crisis 2040 TV series. However, as of this writing, the new Bubblegum Crisis animation is still nothing more than a tentative plan in Japan.