Bubblegum Crash! Review

Bubblegum Crash! is the continuation of Bubblegum Crisis, the classic anime series. Things have already changed by the moment the series begins to play. The theme song is obviously sung by a different seiyuu for Priss, this being Tachikawa Ryouko. Then the beginning animation comes up. Aside from the previous computer animation for the 'explanation,' the introduction animation is really very well done. All of the Knight Sabers are recognizable and are drawn quite smoothly.

As the actual OVA begins, however, things change. The animation goes downhill quickly, save for the occassional spot in the three OVAs. The music remains at a lesser degree of quality than the Crisis music. The characters become mere shadows of their prior selves. Sylia is *gasp* nice and actually winks at another character. Priss is self-centered and more reckless than ever; she also lost what personality she had had in the original. Linna is suddenly a greedy, obnoxious little snot who insults others incessantly. And Nene becomes immature and clingy, but also gains a backbone as the series' big shocker. The villains are also comparatively dull. Largo lost his mysterious, interesting style. He was poorly animated, as where most things in this series, and his only interesting statements concerned Sylia and the fate of the Boomers.

The biggest disappointment comes in episode two with ADAMA. This blocky, awful looking thing is the most advanced Boomer ever? Then what is Largo? What were Sylvie and Anri? Leon says that it cannot be discovered to be a Boomer simply by conversation, but neither could most previous Boomers. ADAMA, a promising concept, was ruined by being the most pointless thing to come into this series.

The new villains, Doctor Yuri and Colonel Lando, have corny dialogue and share one terrible hairstyle. It's little wonder Kenichi Sonoda was glad he did not take part in character and mecha designs! The only impressive mecha from this series are Largo's Boomer, and they, too, are simple imitations of his HyperBoomer's from Crisis.

Despite how all of this sounds, Crash! is not unforgivably bad. Sometimes the animation is great and the music from the later soundtrack entitled Masquerade 2034 at times surpasses Crisis standards. One can get used to Priss' new seiyuu if one tries very hard, too. Insight is given into Sylia's past and her humanity, or utter lack thereof, as is implied by Largo. The only truly astounding parts of this series come from Sylia and Largo's 'meeting' at the core of the Brumm Bar boring machine. All the rest of the story uselessly leads up to it.

Of course, Crash! is somewhat predictable, except for some of Largo and Sylia's commentary. The worst times in the series are when it tries to give personality to Priss, Linna, and Nene; they lost what they had had, which is a true shame, but whatever they were given in this new series was false and insincere. In fact, Priss parrots her old lines so often that it becomes trying. Viewing such bastardization of these characters was painful at times, and the Hardsuits look clunky (especially with Priss' 'souped-up parts' added on), but this series is worth a good, long look, because the more times you watch the final episode, the more the series seems to come to a close and the fewer questions you have.