What Happened to Bubblegum Crisis?

bubblegum crisis is a series with historic significance to both the japanese and western anime fandom for japan it was one of the major titles released during the ova boom of the mid-1980s overseas it was one of the earliest titles brought over and given an english dub that accurately reflected the japanese script and unlike other titles available at that time the barrier of entry was way lower for viewers less familiar with anime and japanese culture as the series was heavily influenced by western films and music videos the majority of the cast even have western names which made it way more easier to follow for newcomers what's most interesting about bubblegum crisis initial success though is that many of its themes and concepts actually spawned from previous failed anime produced by its creator toshimichi suzuki i say initial success because throughout its production history the series was plagued with budget and legal issues eventually leading to the series premature cancellation the legal issues wouldn't end with the series cancellation though as the fallout would send suzuki on a downward spiral eventually involving the yakuza and his own personal exile with his ultimate fate unknown to the public for almost 20 years [Music] artemic was a design studio founded in 1978 by former tatsunoka producer toshimichi suzuki artnic wasn't a traditional animation studio though as they focused on story and design work outsourcing the actual animation to other companies usually aic this was similar to studio nue who at the time were most known for their work on space battleship yamato art mic's first project was called techno police 21c and was about a cop in the future assigned to a special task force that would use robot assistance to give them an edge on the criminals the staff consisted of industry veterans due to suzuki's connections from tatsunoko including names like yoshitaka amano and future ghibli composer joe hisaichi the theme was performed by mokoto fujiwara best known for for the mech design suzuki would get studio nuai's own shoji kawamori and kazutako miyatake also best known for despite the all-star team behind the scenes the project fell through with only scattered bits of animation done for the first few episodes suzuki decided that the best he could do to try to recoup his loss was by releasing the animation that was already completed as a film the film was released by toho ezo and dubbed in english in hong kong using the same voice actors they would use to dub godzilla movies you are in no position to handle this tank so i've called in the fighters they'll be here within the uh what's that have you gone mad we can't do that we can't have a war here techno police flopped in theaters and received predominantly negative reception but the concept remained in suzuki's mind as one that he felt he could revisit once he had the proper resources not long after the failure of techno police in late 1982 arcmix shinji aramaki and hideki kake numa began pitching a concept they developed that was similar to techno police the series was titled a.d patrol and it was set in a futuristic city where cops chased criminals using advanced motorcycles that could transform into their robot partners at the time the anime macros was in the middle of its initial tv run and the series was pulling in great ratings as a result macros sponsored takutoku told aramaki and kakenuma that they should change their premise making it about a war between humans and aliens this was because takutoku was looking for an anime to take over macross's time slot after the series completed and for a moment it seemed like aramaki and kakenuma had what they were looking for they adjusted their premise to be about humans having to reclaim earth from alien invaders kakinuma said his initial idea was for a sci-fi version of the 1962 film the longest day with soldiers dropping onto the planet and charging the alien base using transforming motorcycles similar to the storming of the beaches of normandy due to the popularity of the character minmei they were also told that the anime needed to have a singer leading to the creation of a character known at the time as nora since minmei embodied the wholesome girl next door archetype seen in most idols of the time it was decided that nora would be based off idol akina nakamuri nakamuri was relatively new to the idol scene but made waves due to her rebellious attitude provocative lyrics and distinct powerhouse voice she was also considered the rival to seiko matsuda who was the idol that originally inspired minmei nora was a rebel a rock singer and a former biker however everything changed when scenario writer sukahiro tamida saw yoshitaka amano's design for the character yellow belmont when tomita saw the design he said that's our singer originally yellow belmont was a former soldier but at tomita's request was given dual identities one of a man who used to be a soldier and the other of a female singer and the character would alternate between a male and female voice actor depending on which identity was assumed [Music] the character nora was reversioned into the character who k at rose and though she's still a loner and a former member of a biker gang her role as the musician was revoked despite this her finalized character sheet actually still lists her hobbies as musical performance but this is simply an oversight according to aramaki takatoku said the motorcycle idea was too weak to be its own show suggesting more changes to make the show similar to macross the biggest being the assistance of a fighter jet that could transform into a mech leading to the creation of the legios the series would be titled genesis climber most speeda most speeda being the name of the transforming motorcycle however the legios would be pushed to the forefront at the behest of the advertisers to the point that by only a few episodes into the show the titular mech had become obsolete it's unclear why takatoku passed on mospita choosing orgis as the successor of macross but when asked shinji aramaki said it was due to political reasons mosbido would have fallen into the same pitfall as techno police if not for plastic model company goken who heard of the proposal and arranged a meeting where they agreed to sponsor the show though not to the degree of techno police mosbita flopped hard but artwork would soon discover a new avenue for their talent an avenue that they themselves would pioneer history repeated itself in the worst way during the production of omega city 2 3 eventually renamed megazone 2 3. the series suffered from budgeting issues after the plastic model company lined up to produce the kits for the series backed out of their arrangement as a result the animation done for the series was combined to create a standalone anime film the film had a short theatrical run before its release on vhs and despite plot holes and an incomplete ending audiences loved it and megazone is often credited as opening the floodgates for the ova boom of the 80s and it was during this anime boom that art mic would shine in december of 1985 at the wrat party for fightixr1 suzuki met junjie fujita the founder of yomex yomex was a subsidiary of toshiba emi who were looking to invest in the growing straight to video anime market fujita asked for a pitch and suzuki gave him the skeleton of his techno police remake after some brainstorming with fujita the concept began to shift in 1984 the film's streets of fire flopped in the u.s but in japan it was a hit becoming a cultural touchstone suzuki initially considered changing the story to a sci-fi retelling of streets of fire which would allow them to recycle their concept for the female rock singer as well as utilize yeomek's connections in the record industry however two other films released between 1982 and 1985 would also influence the makeup of this project those would be 1982's blade runner and 1984's terminator suzuki's original concept focused on the a.d police the special police force in the bubblegum crisis universe who investigate boomer crimes boomers being the name for advanced androids though originally influenced by techno police and the premise for aed patrol the ad police in the finished version appear more like blade runners the ad police wouldn't hold the spotlight for long as suzuki decided he wanted the heroes to be mercenaries soldiers for hire who'd wear heart suits to fight against boomers when political reasons prevented the ad police from doing so this aspect was inspired by the jidaigeki drama hisatsu shiokinyon which was about merchants in the edo period who'd moonlight as assassins hence why the nightsaber's leader celia stingray is shown operating a lingerie store in the first episode for the designs of the hard suits suzuki showed character designer kinichi sonota the music video for the song go by the band asia sonoda noted that the woman in the music video was wearing a form-fitting suit but thought it would look more futuristic if she was wearing full body armor when it came to developing the individual characters suzuki wanted an all-female cast due to the profitable returns seen on the release of ixer-1 and golforce which were both female-driven ovas fujita's involvement led to suzuki having access to professional music talent and so the main character would be a female singer with suzuki almost completely recycling the nora character pris named for the blade runner character was a former biker and rock singer who preferred to do things her own way she even had a similar backstory to who k who kay left her biker gang after her boyfriend abandoned her during a fight with a rival gang whereas pris was a biker whose boyfriend was killed by a boomer a crime which was never brought to justice due to the corruption caused by genome prison's voice was provided by j-rock singer kinuko omori who had no acting experience and stood out for her deep voice among the other female voice actors the first installment of bubblegum crisis tinsel city dropped on february 25th 1987 the video was a hit in response two more ova's continuing the story were released in september and december of that year albeit with shorter run times due to budget constraints at the time of bubblegum crisis's release an ova on vhs cost roughly 10 000 yen or about 91 us dollars because bubblegum crisis was a series requiring potential buyers to commit to buying multiple episodes the price was reduced to 68 000 yen or about 60 usd this meant the series was on a tight budget though in an an america interview suzuki said it was a necessary sacrifice and as a result the team had to choose what information would make it into animation and what would have to be explained in supplemental material like novels and drama cds as a result character backgrounds are mostly absent from the series with one of the few exceptions being celia stingray who has a vague flashback suggesting genome's vice president brian mason murdered her father linna and priss's backstories are nowhere to be seen in the series though we see flashes of them in the music video for asu a touchdown which was included at the end of the third videotape following the release of the third episode a major issue arose that threatened the longevity of the series in 1988 omori signed a new recording contract with sony records and a stipulation of that contract prevented her from singing on the bubblegum crisis soundtrack this caused tension behind the scenes as the entire point of hiring a worry was so priss could sing our own songs and so it was decided that priss would be killed only to be replaced with a new character named vision vision was also a singer and would be the sister of luna's friend irene who was killed in episode 2. however when fans heard of the plan to kill priss there was an outrage and many said they would abandon the series if amore left the project omori was kept on the project and yomeks continued to release songs only they were now credited as prison the nightsabers and contained ensemble vocals to avoid legal issues the consistency of its music was important because bubblegum crisis was unparalleled in terms of both its quantity and quality of music yomek made sure each ova contained an album's worth of songs many of which contained vocal tracks which made them more desirable than your average anime ost it's worth mentioning though that many of these songs have similarities to pre-existing pop songs with some being clearly inspired and others being outright plagiarized [Music] okay a place [Music] [Music] episode 3 the final episode released in 1987 saw the nightsabers defeat brian mason but due to the popularity of the series they were able to continue with suzuki stating he planned for 13 episodes overall episodes four through six would see the rise of a new villain largo a boomer seeking revenge on both the nightsabers and the genome corporation inspired by blade runners roy batty largo would be defeated in episode six which released in august of 1989 the next episode was double vision released in march of 1990 and recycled the planned vision story minus the death of priss but as the 90s began japan's bubble economy was ending and anime sales across the country were dropping despite having six more episodes planned the eighth episode of bubblegum crisis would be its last and it seemed like artmik and aic weren't ready to come to terms with that since the episode is essentially a filler episode filled with slice of life gags and no sense of finality following episode 8 yomex and art mcparted ways however artwork continued the bubblegum crisis story with animation company aic and in may of 1991 they released the first episode of bubblegum crash a new ova series intended to complete the story of the original bubblegum crisis crash was a direct sequel to crisis though several plot details are omitted possibly due to rights issues since jomex wasn't involved anymore the production of crash is very sketchy as character designer konichi sonoda said he had left arcmic prior to production of the first episode the voice cast would return with the exception of amore who following the end of crisis wanted to focus more on her music career as her band silk was way more popular now than when she was originally cast as priss without yeomex the music suffered and crash would ultimately have a generic soundtrack lacking any of the excitement of the crisis soundtrack even the stolen music and crash isn't as good [Music] crash would meet a similar demise only this time it was due to direct legal issues from yomeks who claimed partial ownership over the bubblegum crisis ip yomek's cayman army with a lawsuit that put the series in limbo until 1997. it's believed that crash was supposed to run for five or six episodes but only ran for three by then artemic had defaulted on their debt and declared bankruptcy all their assets were liquidated and many of the properties including bubblegum crisis were purchased by aic a year later in 1998 the debt they had acquired from artemic led to yomek's being absorbed back into toshiba emi toshimichi suzuki had disappeared along with many of arcmix assets including original art pieces by kenichi sonoda after legally acquiring the rights to bubblegum crisis along with several other artnic properties aic entered production on a bubblegum crisis tv series that retold the events of the ova it was around this time that suzuki reemerged this time at aic's office and alongside several yakuza suzuki claimed aic owed him royalties over bubblegum crisis 2040. aic said they didn't owe him anything and when he tried to intimidate them with yakuza aic just called the cops and had the yakuza arrested suzuki escaped this altercation but went into hiding disappearing from the public eye for 20 years speculation ranged from him fleeing the country to him being killed by other yakuza due to his real estate deaths it was only in september of 2020 that we'd get an update from suzuki sun himself suzuki's son had discovered the speculation over his father's whereabouts and created a twitter account for the sole purpose of updating the world on his father following the altercation with aic suzuki went into hiding living in complete seclusion out of shame both because of his extensive debt as well as his criminal actions he survived by working as a painter his son even found a photo of a painting on suzuki's cell phone which he believed his father had done for our client these updates came at the bitter expense of learning that suzuki had died earlier that year in late january of 2020 in 2018 character designer konichi sonoda launched a kickstarter to create a new ova based on his manga gunsmith cats the kickstarter was successful and when asked if he'd ever considered working on a bubblegum crisis revival zenota stated i was merely the character and mechanical designer with no rights assigned to me per se but if i'm asked to work on bubblegum crisis again i'd love to take it on for those people watching for the first time i would love to recommend parts one through eight but you don't need to watch bubblegum crash [Music] is [Music] okay [Music] oh [Music] me

Channel: MercuryFalcon

Views: 106,287

Keywords: Bubblegum Crisis, 2040, making of, behind the scenes, artmic, toshimichi suzuki, iczer-1, junji fujita, youmex, bubble gum, crisis, crash, explained, trivia, history of

Id: -_8QbncxR7s

Length: 18min 6sec (1086 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021