Prefacing this review comes the prerequisite warning I place in front of a lot of reviews I do of anime from the nineties; I grew up on nineties science fiction anime and can appreciate the character archetypes and the themes that are the meat of adult-oriented shows from the period. Thus, I have a soft spot for an anime like Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 that, while flawed in some respects, I still think is a semi-intelligent, entertaining romp through an underdeveloped science fiction world. It’s the year 2040 (duh) and Linna Yamazaki has gone from her comfortable life in the country to a crazy life asa businesswoman in Tokyo. Almost immediately she drops a hamburger when a rude motorcyclist drives by and rather than let it go, she chases down the motorcycle like a nutcase. Eventually she meets up with the motorcyclist, Priss, who belongs to a Power Ranger-esque group known as the Knight Sabers. Linna ends up joining them in their fight against rampaging boomers (the anime’s name for robots).

For me, the anime starts pretty slow and formulaic, introducing a diverse foursome while also opening up the world. Typically this works but I found the world to be pretty generic and only contain a few sci-fi ideas sprinkled throughout to justify the main plot. At one point Linna plugs a magazine into a machine which turns last month’s issue into this month’s. Great idea and all, but it’s a pointless few seconds that could have been replaced with anything. It’s like the anime is reminding you that it’s in the future.

The main futuristic tech you’ll see in this show are the hardsuits the girls wear (essentially power armor) and the boomers. Otherwise, it’s a pretty weak, pseudo-cyberpunk world. I use pseudo because it doesn’t have a lot of the trappings of the genre aside from robots and that main idea that permeates nearly every piece of cyberpunk fiction: “What is human?”.

Otherwise, the computer technology is archaic and outdated even now (yes, I can forgive a series from the late 90’s from not having a grasp on future tech) and about the only thing that the series brings to the table as far as science goes is the idea of bio-technology. The boomers can attach to other metal surfaces and interface with other technology through bonding. They can also change forms and develop mental links with human beings.

All this research came from Dr. Stingray, father of Sylia, one of the main characters. He was a dick and did all kinds of awful research on his own family, creating a sentient boomer that could destroy the entire world after interfacing every boomer into a single hive-mind. And that’s where the plot really starts.

Get past the first six or so episodes of getting you integrated into this world and the plot isn’t bad at all. It contains a lot of generic ideas but it comes across as entertaining, especially with the case of girls we spend our time with.

Linna is a fish out of water goody-goody and probable lesbian. While the series focuses a lot on her at the beginning, it starts to focus more on the interesting characters later on. Priss is a nineties biker-girl/punk rocker who hates the police and treats everyone like garbage…because punk never dies or something. Then there’s my favorite character, Nene, who works for the AD Police as a communications expert and acts like a child despite being an eighteen year old tech genius.

Sylia is the one behind the Knight Sabers and is another pretty thin character. She’s the dominant leader type who hides all kinds of secrets that dictate her entire personality. And that’s about all you need to know about her.

Later on in the series there are a few romantic threads, one that is pursued to a somewhat satisfying conclusion and the other just there because the plot needs a reason to throw in existential questions about the meaning of life.

Despite all that, I thought the characters were an entertaining group that elicited a chuckle or a grin as well as made me have feelings toward the outcome. They’re not as three dimensional as they could be, but they’re still good company.

I especially enjoyed Leon, a police officer who is trying to get with Priss. There’s something about the girl who hates cops making out with a cop that makes me blush. Then again, it shows character development as well which isn’t prevalent in many of the characters, another failing of the show. By the end, Priss is actually the most well developed, if only because I feel the writers wanted you to see Priss as the babe of the show. Nene gets a lot of attention but nowhere is she shown to be a badass, she’s more like a whiny nerd and doesn’t grow beyond that. And Linna is just too generic to be entertaining (same with Sylia). So by the end, I guess Priss is the only well-rounded character.

Also by the end you’ll find the series has a problem. It sets up some villains at the beginning, gets rid of them, then replaces them with a plain-jane creature with little personality. While the ending is certainly large-scale and epic, it also has very little emotional impact. The person who should be killing the villain and showing emotion sits it out and leaves the other three to engage in the arbitrary final boss fight that…isn’t that exciting.

So after a lackluster finale, you’d expect at least an epilogue that wraps everything up but instead we’re given one of the worst endings I’ve seen in a long time.

The next paragraph is nothing but spoilers.

Instead of showing everyone get back together, Tokyo getting rebuilt, Nene finding a job, and Leon getting some from Priss, we’re given an ending that I think means Nene, Linna, and Priss are dead. So they return to Earth, Linna and Nene stuck on a tropical island (and naked) and Priss stranded in a desert (and naked) and…that’s it. No rescue? No reunions? I’m given to think they all died naked. Even a single lines of Sylia saying “I wonder if we can find the girls” would have been nice. But instead, I’m assuming she figured them to have died.

The animation is pretty good for the time, though there are a lot of lower-quality scenes sprinkled throughout (and some especially fucked up faces as well). As far as music is concerned, the opening and endings are okay while the music in the show is the same three tracks over and over. Not much to talk about here.

The terrible ending and poor world development aside, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 is very entertaining, has a few memorable characters, and brings up some classic tropes of the genre (though doesn’t explore them enough to really matter to the whole product). It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it’s a simple science fiction/action story with a couple badass female characters and just enough intelligence not to have me leave saying “all girl Power Rangers meets Psycho-Pass/Ghost in the Shell”. Instead, the show can stand on its own as a nice, easy introduction into cyberpunk anime. After watching this, you can move into the heavy stuff. Or, if you aren’t too big into the heavy handed philosophy and science of the aforementioned series (Psycho-Pass and GiTS), then you’ll still find something to enjoy in Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040.