Characters            Hardsuits BGC History Arguably one of the best known titles in the history of Japanese animation, BUBBLEGUM CRISIS began its life as one of the first major hits of a mid-eighties boom in made-for-video animations. Although plagued by budget and personnel problems, the original B.G.CRISIS attracted a large and faithful fan following and subsequently spawned a series of seven follow-up episodes, each of which expanded upon the concepts and story of the original. Emboldened by the series' continuing success, BGC's creators developed a 13 episode story arc that would bring the story to a climatic conclusion, but those plans fell apart after one of the original production companies ran into financial problems. A three episode follow-up series by a different production team, BUBBLEGUM CRASH, was later released in an attempt to tie up many of the loose plot ends, However, due to less than spectacular animation and the non-participation of many of the original staff, CRASH failed to find fan acceptance. Now, after years of legal wrangling and rights re-negotiation, original co-producers AIC and original series director Hayami Hayashi and have reunited to produce BUBBLEGUM CRISIS 2040, a twenty six episode TV series using state of the art computer-assisted animation. Featuring new character designs and a more intricate and fully developed storyline, BGC 2040 is not a sequel to the original but a new interpretation and elaboration on the same basic plot, characters and concept. Simply put, this is how the original BGC might have turned out had the creators had both the proper financing to complete the original series as they originally intended and access to modern, state of the art animation technology. The story and events of 2040 start before and end after those of the original BGC, and many of the mysteries that were left unanswered in the original will now finally be solved.     original series             new 2040 series STORY OVERVIEW: The year is 2040 AD and the setting is Tokyo… Neo Tokyo, actually, for a massive earthquake has destroyed the old metropolis and a new, ultra-modern megalopolis has risen to take its place. In order to facilitate the reconstruction of the city in record time, a new type of mechanized labor-robot, commonly called a "Boomer", is being used to do much of the heavy labor. The phenomenal success of these devices brought about a continuing demand for new and more specialized boomers for other occupations, freeing humanity from many menial jobs and making the boomer's supposed inventors, the mysterious GENOM cooperation, extraordinarily wealthy and powerful. But there is a dark side to the boomers, for periodically one of the robots will inexplicably run amok, inflicting horrendous casualties and property damage before the rogue monsters can finally be trapped and destroyed. Although the city of Neo-Tokyo has developed a special branch of the police department to deal with the rogue-boomer problem, the A.D.Police have neither sufficient manpower nor the resources to keep up with the escalating advances in Boomer technology. With the introduction of the new, almost human Voomers, the A.D.P. find themselves completely overwhelmed, a situation not improved by the fact that the increasing number of boomer problems is anything but accidental. Unknown to all but a select few, the origin of the rogue boomers actually lies within the GENOM corporation itself and, like puppet-masters, GENOM has been ruthlessly manipulating both the people and the government to achieve their own goals. As the boomer attacks escalate and the city hovers on the edge of total chaos and armageddon, only one small group stands between GENOM and its ultimate goal. Born in response to the rising boomer threat and baptized in the fires of GENOM's personal hell, a secret organization of hi-tech vigilantes has emerged from the flames to take the war in the streets back to GENOM. Armed with the very latest in weapons technology and the ultimate in state of the art combat armor, these lone warriors fight a deadly war in the shadows… a war in which the enemy can strike at any time, from any direction, with horrifyingly lethal force. Alone and unaided, with a million biotechnical time bombs ticking across the nation of Japan, this tiny group of freedom fighters must find a way to defeat one of the most powerful organizations in the history of the planet. It seems impossible… and yet GENOM fears them. They are known as the Knight Sabers. -Taken from ADV's wedsite-