Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040-Volume 1: Genesis (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Neon Genesis Evangelion; Martian Successor Nadesico DVD Credits Biographies-Character
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	97:43
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Hiroki Hayashi
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	DV-4
RPI	$29.95	Music	Kouichi Korenaga

    Bubblegum Crisis 2040 AD is a fairly long anime series. This is the first volume, appropriately enough titled Genesis. I reviewed the second volume, Crusade, earlier - you'll find that review here - I won't repeat everything I said there. I hope to review the other volumes as they are released.

    This is not the first anime series called Bubblegum Crisis. In the interest of providing you with the most complete information possible, I tracked down the original series (only 8 episodes) and watched it. It is set about 8 years earlier, in 2032 and 2033, but it is not an earlier part of the same storyline. In fact, this series seems to be a remake of the original. There are many common elements, but there are some interesting differences. For a start, in the original series Linna is a part of the team already; this series begins with her efforts to join. In the original, there seems to be no time limit on how long the suits can be worn; in this one, there are very strict limits, to do with battery life. Also, in the original the Knight Sabers were not particularly idealistic - they were available for hire; now they are not. Oh, and the original does not explain the title any more than this one does (I had hoped...).

    The four episodes on this disc introduce all of the main characters, but they focus mainly on Linna, and her joining the Knight Sabers. The episodes are:

1. Can't Buy a Thrill - Linna Yamazaki, a country girl just arrived in the big city (Tokyo) is rescued from a rogue boomer by the Knight Sabers, and thinks she's recognised one of them.
2. Fragile - Linna pursues Priss, and tries out to join the Knight Sabers.
3. Keep Hanging On - we get to see the construction of Linna's hardsuit, and her first try-out of it - a combat mission without any training.
4. MachineHead - Linna tries to be friends with Priss, but settles for competitor. We get some interesting background on Linna, and Sylia.

    The first volume of a series must always contain a fair bit of exposition so we know who the characters are, and where they fit. This one does an excellent job of keeping things interesting - there's plenty of action, and some cute dialogue. The characters are sketched in quickly, but that's fine - we get to know each of them better as the episodes pass.

    I noticed the high heels on the hardsuits - an interesting touch.

    I'll have to go back and watch the second volume again - I think it will be even better now that I've seen this one.

Video

    This is animation, intended for broadcast on ordinary TV. Considering that, the quality is really quite high.

    This series is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and not 16x9 enhanced (understandably). That's the original ratio, as you might expect.

    The image is nice and sharp, with no visible low-level noise. (I have no idea how I'm supposed to judge shadow detail on animation.) Both the opening and closing sequences seem to be simulating a TV screen, and consequently have noise - that's intentional, so I don't count it.

    I saw no film artefacts. I saw almost no aliasing, which was good - some animation has heaps of aliasing on all the fine lines. I saw no MPEG artefacts. 

    The only subtitles are in English.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This disc offers two soundtracks, English and Japanese. Both soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround-encoded, at a rate of 448 kbps - that rate is normally only used for DD5.1 - I suspect it was used for the benefit of the music.

    Dialogue (in English) was clear and easily understood. I don't understand Japanese, but the dialogue sounded quite clear. As I expected, there were considerable differences between the English dub and the subtitles. I preferred the dub (anime fans have just built effigies of me, and are sticking pins into them), because it made a couple of things clearer. Feel free to compare them for yourself - the audio setup menu gives you the choice of either soundtrack, with or without subtitles.

    The score is distinctive, and good. We get to hear Priss performing with her group, and there's lots of good loud music for the action sequences. The music is one of the features of this series.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not included in the soundtrack, but my amplifier tried to include them. There is enough bass in the soundtrack to stir my subwoofer into action. The surrounds didn't get anything particularly interesting. 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are limited.

Menu

    The menu is animated, with sound appropriate to the theme of the disc.

Character Profiles and Hardsuit Descriptions

    On this introductory disc we only get profiles for the four ladies of the Knight Sabers, and descriptions of their hardsuits. On later discs we get profiles for other characters.

Trailers

    We get trailers for two other ADV series: Neon Genesis Evangelion (several volumes already out) and Martian Successor Nadiesco (coming soon).

    The Region 4 disc misses out on:

• Spanish audio

    The Region 1 disc misses out on:

• nothing

    Unless you are a Spanish speaker I'd suggest that the R4 disc is preferable, given that it is PAL, and considerably cheaper.

    This DVD is a good transfer of the first volume in a long series. If you like cute girls taking on rogue machines in sexy combat suits, then start with this volume!

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are OK.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall