Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 is a remake of the old short OVA series Bubblegum Crisis that was made in the 80's, I believe. Anyway, this 26-episode update, made in 1999 is an excellent show, and, personally I haven't seen the original, but, it's not necessary to watch the original series to understand this show. One of the reasons why I really like this show... ahhh, we'll get to it all later.

BGC: 2040, starts off with a pretty simple storyline. The Knight Sabers, which are a group of women dressed up in some high-heeled robotic suits with some excellent attack powers, hunt down boomers (robots which are slaves to humans) who have gone mad and are a threat to Tokyo. More boomers are going mad at a rapid rate and are destroying more of Tokyo. As the twisted plot between the cooperation Genom and when the true motives of the head of the knight sabers, Sylia, are revealed, Tokyo, becomes a breeding ground for mad boomers. How will the Knight Sabers destroy their enemies?

I can't tell you too much about the plot, because the things that I found out during the show, were a real surprise and I don't want to ruin them for you. Trust me, the plot is very good. The problem is, the plot doesn't get very good until about after the fifth episode. The show starts off pretty slow, so don't get discouraged. I didn't bother to get the second DVD for quite a while after I bought the first DVD because nothing exciting happened in the first DVD, but that was a mistake, because eventually I did get around to getting the second DVD, and the day after, I got the third, and then the fourth... So, don't let the slow pace of the beginning keep you from watching the show, because it gets very good, as the bad guys are revealed and relationships begin to unfold.

My favorite thing about this series is the cyberpunk atmosphere. The futuristic Tokyo has a gritty, punk edge to it, which is aided by the excellent rock soundtrack. (The opening theme is amazing!) The Japanese voices fit nicely too. Don't watch the Dub though, because, well, it's awful. Of course, the amazing animation helps too. You can tell that this is animation from 1999, as there is some excellent CG stuff, bright, crisp colors and sharp lines. Everything feels so slick and glossy.

I love the characters and the character designs. Priss, Sylia, Linna, and Nene are all excellent characters and have distinct personalities. Even the supporting characters are all very likable and very important to the story. I also like the way they are drawn. The hardsuit designs are excellent too. Even the robots are drawn nicely.

The action scenes are great. Well, most of them. The last fight scene is a bit disappointing but other than that they are all excellent. BGC 2040 has an excellent mix of drama, action and comedy without ever really getting redundant.

My only complaint about this series is that, the last episode is very lame and was pretty disappointing, as well as the final battle. Another beef I had with this show is how it focuses. It focuses on Linna for the first 4 episodes, but then the whole show, switches to focus on Priss, which is quite annoying, because I like Linna better than Priss. And it's kind of annoying because Priss really becomes the star of the show and the other three knight sabers tend to take a backseat.

This is an excellent series, especially for the people that like Sci-Fi, futuristic, cyberpunk stuff. If you liked the atmosphere of Ghost in the Shell, then you will like this show. Even if you don't like cyberpunk stuff, I still think you will like this show. It has mass appeal to guys and girls. (It’s got fan-service and quite a bit of action, but at the same time there is a lot of character development and relationship building.) It's certainly worth the buy on DVD. There are only 6 DVD's and 12 tapes and the tapes and the DVD's cost the same, so I suggest getting yourself the DVDs so you can save yourself some cash. This is one of my favorite series. It's slick, futuristic action, gorgeous animation, and great characters, really made me love this show. Check it out as soon as you can!