Blu-ray Review: Bubblegum Crash – Knight Sabers 2034

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

Bubblegum Crisis became a big hit in Japan’s Original Video Animation (OVA) market. From 1987 to 1991, eight installments were released. The futuristic series focused on women who wear exoskeleton suits and fight robots. They found their way to the US market in 1991 when AnimEigo released them on VHS and laserdisc (the series will be out on Blu-ray on Febuary 11). The series wasn’t done when Bubblegum Crash picked up the adventure for three more OVAs in 1991. Now the sequel series is arriving on Blu-ray so you can see more of the battle to keep humanity from being overtaken by menacing robots.

“The Illegal Army” starts with three main women having gone their own ways. Linna (Elizabeth Becka) has gone to work in selling stocks and making fat dollars. Priss (Sinda Nichols) plans her career in pop music. Only Nene (Sinda Nichols) remains attached to law enforcement as a computer expert working for A.D. Police. She’s also the only one who wonders what happened to Sylvia Stingray (Jemila Ericson) who gave them the exoskeletons to become the Knight Sabers. The girls get back together when a group of thugs in exoskeletons begin massive bank robberies. But are the heists getting more than money out of the vaults? Sylia returns with upgrades to help her team once more. “Geo Climbers” has the next generation of AI controlled robots (called Boomers) getting hijacked by a former-scientist. It’s up to Sylia and the others to recover the more-human robot. The final episode “Melt Down” has a computer virus going through the AI in the Boomers. This leads to an insurrection of the metal workers against their human overlords. The Knight Sabers have to find out who is behind the virus.

Bubblegum Crash is more relevant from when it was produced in 1991. Look at your social media. How often is someone posting video of the latest breakthrough in human-shaped robots? One company just introduced a robot that can show up behind the bar and pour beer. Thanks to recent advances in Artificial Intelligence, the bartending robots can talk to you like they’re a real person. Think of all the people you know that have bartending gigs. What are they going to do? And are we expected to tip a robot that hands us a beer? It’s quite creepy. The Boomer waitress at the Piss diner (it’s really called that in the show) is almost a reality and we’re not in 2034 yet. Bubblegum Crash now serves as a warning of what’s going to happen when the robots powered by Artificial Intelligence invade our lives. It’s just a shame that we don’t have four women in exoskeletons to protect us from them.

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The Video is 1.33:1 full frame. Remember that Bubblegum Crash was made for VHS and laserdisc in the era of the box TV. The restored 1080p transfer looks great. The Audio is English LPCM 2.0 with the songs dubbed. There is a second English LPCM 2.0 soundtrack made for the UK with the songs in Japanese. The original Japanese soundtrack is in LPCM 2.0. Finally there’s a Castilian Spanish LPCM 2.0 track. The subtitle options include Full English, English Signs Only. English Signs and Songs for the UK dub. English SDH, Full Spanish, Spanish Signs & Songs, German and Portuguese.

About This Restoration (2:46) is a demo of how the studio used AstroRes to refine and scale the standard definition video masters to HD. Why didn’t they go back to the 35mm masters? Turns out that while the animation was shot on 35mm, the scenes were photographed out-of-sequence. They were transferred to video for post-production editing and mastering. The producers had not desire to do anything with the OVAs beside release them on VHS and Laserdisc. DVD wasn’t talked about in 1991. This restoration is a marked improvement. They did have a 35mm print for the second episode although it was in rough shape workprint. They also recreated the end credits to look sharp.

Blu-ray Trailer (1:16) lets us know the robot battle isn’t over.

PC Engine Game Promo Video (5:47) you can now play Bubblegum Crash on your computer.

Also Available From MediaOCD (12:20) are numerous trailers of films out on Blu-ray or scheduled to be released.

AnimEigo presents Bubblegum Crash: Knight Sabers 2034. Directed by Hiroshi Ishiodori & Hiroyuki Fukushima. Screenplays by Emu Arii. Starring the voices of Yoshiko Sakakibara, Jemila Ericson, Tamsin Hollo, Ryouko Tachikawa, Sinda Nichols, Julia Brahms, Michie Tomizawa, Elizabeth Becka, Stacey Gregg, Akiko Hiramatsu, Susan Grillo & Barbara Barnes. Running Time: 146 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: January 21, 2025.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.