Trivia / Bubblegum Crisis

• Completely Different Title: The original OVA was released as Escape al Futuro (Future Escape) in Latin America.
• Dueling Dubs: AnimEigo dubbed all 3 original shows (Crisis, Crash, and AD Police), but Manga UK produced their own dubs for Crash and AD Police. The original Bubblegum Crisis was picked up by a different distributor in the UK, and got to keep its AnimEigo dub.
• Franchise Ownership Acquisition: The Bubblegum Crisis franchise has been co-owned by AIC and Toei Agency since 2021.
• No Export for You: Only the first 3 episodes of the original OVA were released and dubbed in Latin America.
• Non-Singing Voice: The English dub cast for the OVA doesn't sing their songs, instead they're performed by different singers.
• One-Hit Wonder: The entire English cast is this, since it was a very early dub from Southwynde Studios in Wilmington. None of the main cast has any other anime credits, except for Elizabeth Becka (Linna) and Susan Grillo (Nene) having one other credit each. The only actor from the dub still working today is Michael Sinterniklaas, who voiced background characters and small roles (notably young Mackie).
• The Other Darrin:
  • The entire voice cast (Japanese, Latin American Spanish and English) changed for Tokyo 2040. This goes double for the Latin American Spanish dub, since the dub of BGC was done in Venezuela when the voice acting industry in that country was still in diapers in the later 80s and the dubs of Tokyo 2040 and Parasite Dolls were done in Mexico instead. Likewise, the English cast switched from a Wilmington, North Carolina-based cast for BGC, Crash, and A.D. Police Files to a Houston, Texas-based cast for Tokyo 2040, the A.D. Police TV series, and Parasite Dolls.
  • Priss's Japanese voice also changed between Crisis and Crash, as Kinuko Oomori's recording label forbade her to continue on in the role (it's also the reason that the latter half of the original OAV series has no solo songs by Priss, instead all the songs featuring Oomori showcased her alongside Akiko Hiramatsu and Michie Tomizawa as "The Knight Sabers", and the reason for Vision's introduction — she was to be a Replacement Goldfish as a contingency if Oomori's label played hardball and forced her to drop out of the show altogether).
  • Leon's Manga UK English voice changed between Crash and the AD Police Files prequel. His AD voice (Adam Henderson) ended up moving to Canada, and voiced roles in Inuyasha and the Ocean dub of DBZ.
• Referenced by...:
  • Nene from the Pico series is named after Nene Romanova.
  • In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Future Scott (Will Forte) performs a cover of “Konya Wa Hurricane” with his new band, Pop'n Twinbee.
• Screwed By Internal Politics: After the eighth OVA episode, various disputes caused the two major studios involved with BGC, Artmic and Youmex, to split, causing the immediate cancellation of any other original-run OVAs. Who is to "blame" is debatable, but the split is what led to the franchise going Off the Rails and led to relative disasters like Crash!
• Technology Marches On:
  • In Real Life, it's doubtful anyone aged 19 in the 2030s will have ever seen a phone booth, much less use one to make a call.
  • Within the series too. Tech in the OVA series runs from prototype to hot stuff to obsolete over as little as two or three episodes.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kinuko Oomori, the original voice for Priss in the OAVs, was originally contracted for the first six episodes, and her character was going to be killed off at the end of episode 6, but due to popular demand, Priss was kept alive at the last minute.
  • Vision's song, "Say Yes", played at the beginning of episode 7, alludes to Priss's supposed death. Vision/Reika Chan was supposed to replace Priss on the Knight Sabers.
    • 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 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.
  • As stated above 2040 almost received a sequel series that would have been subtitled 2041 and would have featured more involvement from ADV Films, the company that dubbed and distributed 2040, but due to various corporate shenanigans the proposed sequel series never got off the ground.
  • Gaga Communications attempted to distribute the series in 1988, only the name had been changed to "Futurescape" and the Knight Sabers were called the "Night Saviors" instead. The text was further altered with the commercial claiming "they accept no money" despite being mercenaries, and were in a never-ending battle against Boomers with no hint of the complexities in dealing with Genom. Nothing apparently came of this.