Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 5.5/10
What a disappointment,having got the orignal eight part Oav's years ago on Vhs no less I was always a fan of BGC especially with it's Bladerunner paralells and so I was really let down by this so-called re-envisioned tv series.
I've actually gotten my original BGC's dvds out and watched them again to compare them to the newer version.I know that the original BGC was not that popular at the time in japan which kinds of make you wonder why they bothered with a tv series almost 10 years later.But after watching the newer series ,I can honestly say that it looks like they took all the best parts from the origianl BGC and dumped them.
First the characters,in terms of personality and looks are almost completely different from the original oav's.
Syvlia Stingray ,The leader of the Knight Sabers in the oav's was protrayed as a mature, cool, calm and collected leader who took a very business like approach to the job and never let her emotions get the better of her.
The newer syvlia is almost the direct opposite ,suffering severe mood swings and by the series finale is useless and takes no part in the final battles ,some leader.
Priss Asagiri ,while in both the oav's and the series she plays the lead of rock band,that is as far as the two meet.In the oav's she was protrayed as a much more fiery person,easy to judge and a hot temper but also with a caring side which was evident in episodes 5 & 6 of the oav's.
The newer Priss like syvlia is almost the polar opposite of how she was orignally played.She is almost boomer like in her lack of display of emotions.
The two other members of the team Linna and Nene while their apperance has changed not much else has changed except prehaps Nene s more involved in the combat side of things than in the oav's.
The boomers in the oav's that the Knight Sabers usually fought were combat boomers in different shapes and sizes but the were no less lethal especially as they could pass for humans( just like Terminators)when not in action.
The boomers in the series except for one episode are all labor boomers with no onboard weapony or even a hint of personality unlike the one's from the oav's which really does'nt give them a sense of threat.I mean the A.D police was fromed to deal with rogue boomers( more like Patlabor) but it was partially because of their inability to deal with combat boomers that Syvlia Stingray formed the Knight Sabers in the oav's.
Second is the animation as a whole ,even though the series was made nearly ten years after the oav's you can hardly tell by the quality of the animation which is shoddy at best and crap at it's worse.The main characters let alone the secondary ones are very poorly drawn and Nene and to a lesser extent Leon are the only ones who barely change expression.
Third is the music,now in the oav's a lot of the music and songs were done by the voice actress for Priss(Kinuko Ohmori) who was a real life singer and this certainly showed as the music became intergral to the show ,a classic eaxmple of this is the first few minutes of the very first oav where the action is overlaid with priss's singing and introduces all the main characters.Another was the way the instumental music added to atmosphere of certain scenes .case in point was a scene in episode 5 when one of the 33s boomers on a bike is being chased down by two combat boomers down a highway.
On the other hand the series music in my opinion is techno rock trash which adds nothing to the series at all.
In conclusion if you are a fan of the oav's and have'nt seen the tv series save your self 20 quid and buy somthing else A re-vision of a older series or oav is generally meant to change and improve on the original but except for some changes to the characters which is too their detriment ,this series does nothing to improve the BGC universe one bit. :x
p.s I probably added two points for how cheap the series was to buy.
