History Anime / BubblegumCrisis

* GoingCritical: A threat of such an incident is part of the plot of the final episode of Bubblegum Crash "Meltdown". The title of this episode is also a ''SpoilerTitle''.

* SpaceElevator: In ''Tokyo 2040''.

* TheJimmyHartVersion:
** The music from the first scene of the first OVA is based on the opening theme from ''Film/BladeRunner''.
** The intros to "Victory" and "Akuma to Tenshi no Kiss" are derived from different parts of the intro to "Nowhere Fast", the opening theme from ''StreetsOfFire''.
** The guitar riff in "Say Yes" from OVA 7 resembles U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name".
** "Konya wa Hurricane" is very clearly an attempt to create a song in the style of JimSteinman, particularly those from ''Streets Of Fire''.

* MultinationalTeam: If you count base ethnicity rather than actual citizenship. (Specifically, Priss seems to be part-American, Sylia is at least part British or otherwise Western European, Linna seems to be straight-up Japanese and Nene has some blatant Russian/Eastern European background, if the name didn't clue you in. See ButNotTooForeign above.)

* NamesToKnowInAnime: KenichiSonoda did the character and hardsuit designs for the original series. Hiroki Hayashi directed the 4th OVA episode before going on to ''TenchiMuyo''. Masami Ohbari(''{{Gravion}}'', the ''FatalFury'' anime) directed the episodes "Moonlight Rambler" and "Red Eyes," and Satoshi Urushihara supervised and was "guest character designer" for the episode "Double Vision." See also the HeyItsThatVoice entry.

* OneWingedAngel: The ''2040'' boomers do this when they go rogue, becoming distorted mockeries of their "normal" states (see the waitress boomer). The boomers in the original OVAs HulkingOut of their skin also qualifies.

* AdaptationalBadass: While many people debate whether the original or new series is best, what they ''don't'' debate is that Linna [[TookALevelInBadass took twenty levels of badass]] in ''2040''. While in the original series she was a ditzy, materialistic and (to most of the series' plot) inconsequential character, in ''2040'' she's a much more down-to-earth girl with a strong personality and a hidden intolerance to authority. A big part of her character in the new series is how being a Knight Saber lets her cut loose and be more true to herself than she can be when in the civilian world. She has such a strong personality, she actually manages to impress ''Priss'', of all people, and when she joins the Knight Sabers she becomes their close-combat specialist, Priss's [[TheLancerLancer]] and her full equal in combat ability.

* AdaptationalBadass: While many people debate whether the original or new series is best, what they ''don't'' debate is that Linna [[TookALevelInBadass took twenty levels of badass]] in ''2040''. She went from a kinda ditzy, mostly inconsequential character (when compared to the other Knight Sabers, anyway) to a MUCH more competent character, to the point she's Priss's [[TheLancer Lancer]] and equal in combat.

* ReallyBigGun: Leon's oversized [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolver that is almost effective against Boomers]].

* {{Cyberpunk}}: One of the defining anime examples, which takes heavy inspiration from one of the [[BladeRunner big trope makers]].

** And it is [[AvertedTrope strangely dry]] [[CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain compared to]] other works influenced by ''BladeRunner.''

* EnhanceButton: The last notable element of ''BladeRunner'' that the original OVA didn't borrow shows up in episode 7 of ''2040'' instead.

* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: There in some ways, given [[BladeRunner the show's roots]], but oddly ''inverted'' in a sense: while the world does seem to be largely under the heel of various kinds of zaibatsu, nearly all of the top-level executives in the show are ''westerners'', implying that Western influence took over originally Japanese megacorps and made them their own.

** The music from the first scene of the first OVA is based on the opening theme from ''BladeRunner''.

* ShoutOut: To ''StreetsOfFire'', ''BladeRunner'', ''TopGun'', ''[[NextGeneration Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', ''TheSimpsons,'' MarvelComics, and others. Deserving special attention is the Miura/Miula factory in ''2040,'' which references AIC producer Toru Miura.

** The mere existence of ''Priss'' (and her backing band, the Replicants) needs to be mentioned here. Especially since she first appears to us as a [[BladeRunner wild-haired blonde]]. (The joke is that it's a wig, of course.) Leon is also named after one of the replicants from ''BladeRunner''.

One of the groundbreaking anime series to come out of Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, ''BubblegumCrisis'' is a FilmNoir / {{Cyberpunk}} epic with superhero subtexts (especially ''IronMan''), heavily influenced by the films ''BladeRunner'', ''TheTerminator'', and ''StreetsOfFire''.

* HoYay: More obvious between Kenji and Hans from the ''AD Police'' TV series than it ever was between Leon and Daley in the [=OVAs=].

* LesYay: ''Mountains'' of it; this series was tied with ''DirtyPair'' [[TheEighties back in]] [[TheNineties the day]] for being infamous for all the implied lesbianism. Most obviously, Priss and Sylvie in the original; Priss and Linna in ''2040'', and arguably Sylia and Linna. And there's still more; fans in TheNineties parodied it with an EpilepticTree that the Sabers were all "kangaroos".
** And how can you leave out Nene and Linna, especially after the ending to 2040 where they're naked and hugged up on a beach?

It was "reimagined" in 1998 as the TV series ''Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040'', but the result bears almost no resemblance to the earlier show.

* PluckyOfficeGirl: Linna's day job in ''2040''. In the [=OVAs=] she was an aerobics instructor.

** Nene's [[AkikoHiramatsu voice]] went on to substitute for MegumiHayashibara as [[{{Pokemon}} Musashi/Jesse]], not to mention voicing [[KeroroGunsou Aki Hinata]], [[YoureUnderArrest Miyuki Kobayakawa]], and [[AzumangaDaioh Yukari]] full-time.

* ArmCannon, BreathWeapon, CombatTentacles, and ChestBlaster: Boomer weapon options. Knight Sabers may have Arm Cannons and/or the PowerFist. Sylia carries a BladeBelowTheShoulder. Linna's hardsuit has [[AbsurdlySharpBlade hair ribbons that cut through steel!]]

*** According to some accounts, the problem wasn't that Oomori was contracted for only 6 episodes, but instead that her recording label was pitching a fit that she was singing in the [=OAVs=] in violation of what may have been an exclusivity clause in her contract (Kinuko Oomori isn't an actress, ''per se'', instead she's a singer who's remembered for her one big role in an anime franchise, in much the same fashion as [[SuperDimensionFortressMacross Mari Iijima]]) and demanded Oomori leave the series. According to this account Priss indeed was to be killed off in Episode 6, but a last-minute compromise between the label and Youmex/Artmic spared her, and Oomori was allowed to finish up the balance of planned episodes on the condition that she perform no more solo

* CoolBike: The Motoslaves

* DarkerAndEdgier: The ''AD Police'' OVA series, set five years before the original ''BGC'' [=OVAs=], shows a much grittier Mega Tokyo with more pervasive crime and urban decay, more graphic sex and violence, and people with more obvious-looking cyberware.

* NewNeoCity: MegaTokyo, of course.

* Zettai Ryouiki: WordOfGod (in this case, KenichiSonoda) says that the stripes on the legs of the hard-suits is specifically meant to invoke this.

*** According to some accounts, the problem wasn't that Oomori was contracted for only 6 episodes, but instead that her recording label was pitching a fit that she was singing in the [=OAVs=] in violation of what may have been an exclusivity clause in her contract (Kinuko Oomori isn't an actress, ''per se'', instead she's a singer who's remembered for her one big role in an anime franchise, in much the same fashion as [[SuperDimensionFortressMacross Mari Iijima]]) and demanded Oomori leave the series. According to this account Priss indeed was to be killed off in Episode 6, but a last-minute compromise between the label and Youmex/Artmic spared her, and Oomori was allowed to finish up the balance of planned episodes on the condition that she perform no more solo

* EvilIsSexy: Largo. Madigan doubles as a HotSecretary.

*** According to some accounts, the problem wasn't that Oomori was contracted for only 6 episodes, but instead that her recording label was pitching a fit that she was singing in the [=OAVs=] in violation of what may have been an exclusivity clause in her contract (Kinuko Oomori isn't an actress, ''per se'', instead she's a singer who's remembered for her one big role in an anime franchise, in much the same fashion as [[SuperDimensionFortressMacross Mari Iijima]]) and demanded Oomori leave the series. According to this account Priss indeed was to be killed off in Episode 6, but a last-minute compromise between the label and Youmex/Artmic spared her, and Oomori was allowed to finish up the balance of planned episodes on the condition that she perform no more solo s

* ArmCannon, BreathWeapon, CombatTentacles, and ChestBlaster: Boomer weapon options. Knight Sabers may have Arm Cannons and/or the PowerFist. Sylia carries a BladeBelowTheShoulder.

*** According to some accounts, the problem wasn't that Oomori was contracted for only 6 episodes, but instead that her recording label was pitching a fit that she was singing in the [=OAVs=] in violation of what may have been an exclusivity clause in her contract (Kinuko Oomori isn't an actress, ''per se'', instead she's a singer who's remembered for her one big role in an anime franchise, in much the same fashion as [[SuperDimensionFortressMacross Mari Iijima]]) and demanded Oomori leave the series. According to this account Priss indeed was to be killed off in Episode 6, but a last-minute compromise between the label and Youmex/Artmic spared her, and Oomori was allowed to finish up the balance of planned episodes on the condition that she perform no more solo songs in the [=OAVs=] (she can be heard as one of the Knight Sabers, and indeed undertook at least one tour with the other actresses). This is also why Priss' [=VA=] was replaced for ''Crash!''.
** Speaking of Vision, she was supposed to replace Priss. In the final OAV episode (during the drive-in theater scene), you can see Vision in a hardsuit.
*** SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: What Vision would have been if she actually had replaced Priss. The biggest difference between them is that Vision is rich and successful.
** More generally, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork the split between Artmic and Youmex]]. This caused the show's initial run to be cut short at about the two-thirds point, and none of the attempts at a series revival have really managed to get the franchise properly back on track. Fans lament, to this day, what could have been if the companies could have just put their differences aside long enough to see things through to the finish line.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The female Boomer in OVA 1 was last seen attacking Nene. She was presumably destroyed, but we don't know if Nene actually scored one of her rare kills in this instance. In OVA 6, it's unclear whether Kate Madigan died or only passed out.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Especially given [[BladeRunner what inspired the show]], the narrative is very ''light'' on this kind of content (and this is usually used a strike "against" the original OVA). The only OVA episodes to explore this at all are episodes 5 and 6, and even then it isn't made clear at all just how sentient all boomers are, or if Sylvie, Anri and Largo are exceptions. For the most part, our ladies certainly don't seem to have any moral hangups about destroying boomers even when said boomers seem to act in a sentient manner.
** To its credit, ''2040'' does try to and somewhat succeed at exploring this in greater detail.
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Largo.
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: [=BGC 2040=] Sylia, though she has a bit of a drinking/drug problem.
* TheWorfEffect: Priss is usually on the receiving end of this.
* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My Sister]]: Irene's death at the hands of Genom pretty much drove [[spoiler:her older sister, Reika, aka pop singer Vision]] towards the path of revenge.
* XMeetsY: ''StreetsOfFire'' meets ''BladeRunner''.
* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: As part of the general {{homage}} to ''BladeRunner'', except that these zeppelins advertise recruitment for the A.D. Police instead of the Offworld Colonies.
* ZorroMark: Nene's laser is regularly used to carve a "Knight Sabers" signature on the ground. She also once used it to give a spy satellite the RedEye.
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* DarkerAndEdgier: The ''AD Police'' OVA series, set five years before the original ''BGC'' [=OVAs=], shows a much grittier [=MegaTokyo=] with more pervasive crime and urban decay, more graphic sex and violence, and people with more obvious-looking cyberware.

** And to really drive it home, [[CompensatingForSomething this revolver can fire RPG rounds.]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: [[DirtyOldMan Dr. [=McLaren=]]] looks suspiciously like [[{{Disnot}} Walt Disney]], and the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat new AD Police chief]] in ''Crash'' is clearly based on George H.W. Bush.

* [=~I'm Going For A Closer Look~=]: A frequent way Priss gets into trouble.