28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 28: Relevance to Today's World?

When 80s fashion came back in style near the end of my college experience, I was mortified. Hadn't we spent the last decade trying to rid the world of neon colors, big hair, and piano key ties*? I mean, yes, the 90s had Zubaz**, bucket hats, and crushed velvet, but I don't even think those are in the same category of awful.

Via Yahoo! Sports

On a positive note, though, a lot of younger people were watching the movies from that time period and recognizing what I, of course, already knew: that they were awesome. I'm not talking about John Hughes films, although those have a special place in my heart. Nope, I'm talking about the cyberpunk and sci-fi films from the 1980s: Blade Runner, Heavy Metal, Robocop, Akira, Scanners, Dune***, Max Headroom, Videodrome, Brazil, The Running Man, Escape from New York, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, etc. I could dedicate an entire day to talking only about these, but this is a Bubblegum Crisis challenge, and I swear, there is a point to all of this. Just go with me.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 27: What I Would Like to See Next

As you may know, I love Battlestar Galactica. I nearly cried when I found out Netflix was removing it from their catalog and immediately went out and bought the entire series on DVD. I didn't watch the original series until well after the reimagining went off air, and I walked away from that version of the show incredibly glad that it got remade into something that wasn't just a cheap Star Wars ripoff*.

Bubblegum Crisis is due for a kickass reimagining. It doesn't have to be a gritty reboot, I swear!

The Pull List: Orphan Black #1 Review

Well, that was underwhelming, and I was really looking forward to the first issue of Orphan Black. IDW did such a good job with Galaxy Quest that I was expecting something absolutely delicious, considering the wealth of stories that could be garnered from the television series. See, this is what I get for being Leslie Knope-style optimistic.

The Pull List: Captain America: Fear Him #4 Review

Well, that was ... interesting. I can't say that I hated it, but I also can't say that I loved it. Nomad (aka Ian Rogers, Steve Rogers' son from another dimension because ... Marvel) isn't really that interesting to me as a character in the same vein that pre-Mark Waid Daredevil didn't get my attention, and Sam Wilson's Captain America was basically a damsel in distress throughout the whole limited series, which was disappointing. Like I said in Monday's Pull List, Fear Him seemed to be more of a "Hey, guys, would you read an ongoing about Nomad? Just wondering. No reason. Get back to me, though. For reasons. Tata!"

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 26: What Did I Think of Bubblegum Crash?

Back on Day 22, I said that ARTMIC produced Bubblegum Crash without Youmex's approval, which resulted in a big lawsuit and, ultimately, ARTMIC's bankruptcy in 1997. Similarly to the original series, there were more episodes planned based on the originally planned ending, but because Youmex was all, "Oh, you did not just try to pull that shit," it was cut down to only three episodes. Sigh.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 25: Homosexuality's Portrayal in the Series?

I'm a little torn on this topic because, while I think Bubblegum Crisis dealt with Daley's homosexuality as well as a 1980s anime could, they really dropped the ball on their portrayal of lesbianism, particularly when it came to the sexaroids Anri and Sylvie. 

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 24: Dubbed or Subbed?

The DVDs that I have of BGC are some of the older ones, and from what I've discovered, the series was remastered and released by ANIMEIGO back in 2004. Whether this means that they also rerecorded the dub or not is something I'll have to find out at a later date, if I feel like spending $40 on shit I already have.

That being said, this question is not difficult to answer ...

The Pull List: She-Hulk #12 Review

Alright, I got my tears out when I went and picked up the last issue of She-Hulk this past Wednesday. Well, I sniffled and pouted a bit because I sincerely adore this series and am sad to see it go the way of the dodo. Granted, I will be able to see Jen again with The A-Force coming this summer, but it just won't be the same.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 23: Something That Didn't Happen I Wish Did

Well, this is harder than I expected it to be. I've been staring at my screen for about ten minutes now, trying to figure out something in the plot that I wished would actually occur on screen, but I'm drawing a blank. Of course, I could just rehash what I wrote yesterday, but that would be cheating.

I guess what I would change would be one of two things: 1) to give Daley more screen time or 2) at least be consistent in the portrayal of Leon.

The Pull List for February 25, 2015

Well, here's to the end of the month of February. Did it go by super fast to anyone else, because seriously, I feel like this month just started a few days ago. Is this what it's like to grow older? Also, be expecting some more reviews this week! I've finally managed to get consistent wifi, and I have many, many thoughts about a lot of comics from the past few weeks.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 22: Something That Happened I Wish Didn't

While I usually make myself focus on plot to this question, I'm going behind the scenes for today's challenge. Like I have said previously this month, Bubblegum Crisis was plagued with a lot of legal issues that truncated the original run length of thirteen episodes into eight, but I've been pretty vague so far.

Well, that, my friends, is about to change. Kind of.

The Pull List: Silk #1 Review

After being annoyed with the mere presence of Cindy Moon during the first few issues of Spider-Woman (before I vowed to never pick up another issue until Greg Land was off the project, which yay, he totally is!), I wasn't necessarily as excited about Silk as I could have been. I got that she was locked in a bunker for over 10 years, but that didn't excuse her rather stupid behavior - like running away from Jessica Drew like she had been taking lessons from Dawn Summers on how to get captured by bad guys when your feelings are hurt. I also got that superheroes don't just start off being awesome; they make mistakes, accidentally place their loved ones in danger, lose to a low-level bad guy or two. I actually appreciate that in comics. People are fallible; so should superheroes be. That didn't mean that I was going to like this Silk person.

The Pull List: Angela: Asgard's Assassin #3 Review

Let's talk about the world of Asgard for a moment, because seriously, between Thor #5 and this issue of Angela, there is a ton to talk about. First off, I'd like to say that, after reading the first two issues of this series, I was ready to drop it. I felt it was repetitive and, quite frankly, kind of boring, despite the pretty constant action of elf-fighting and god-fleeing. Angela just flitted about with an Asgardian baby - her sister, of course - and Sera explained over and over that Angela, an Angel of Heven, doesn't do anything without knowing she will receive some form of compensation, even as far as refusing to give a little girl her ball back.

And then Issue #3 came along.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 21: Favorite Fan Art

And now for the non-professionals! Honestly, I would love to have a lot of these on my wall at home.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 20: Favorite Promo Art

Yay for promo art! 

Most of the images that were directly tied with the series were done in a more classic manga style as opposed to the crisper lines of animation, but there are several pieces, like the one below, that stand out to me.

Via Zerochan

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 19: Happiest Moment

Even though a lot of sad shit happens within the universe of Bubblegum Crisis, I don't feel like the series is negative. Maybe it's the bright 80s candy colors or the cheery, upbeat music, but it never seems pessimistic, even if an episode ends on a downer, like yesterday's "Tinsel City" or the follow-up episode, "Born to Kill."

That being said, it is ridiculously difficult to find a happy moment, let alone the happiest one. There are little bits that make me laugh or leave me feeling like something good is going to happen eventually, but I can't recall a moment where I generally felt good about the world. So I had to go back and watch the only episode that I remember ending on a happy note: "Scoop Chase."

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 18: Saddest Moment

There are a lot of sad moments in Bubblegum Crisis, and most of them involve death (or near-death). Priss has to kill Sylvie, her probably-most-definitely girlfriend, Leon is beaten to a pulp a bunch of times because he tries way too hard to be a good cop, and Irene is murdered by a boomer because she's trying to reveal that a boomer killed her fiance (at the order of Genom), etc. But really, the Ultimate Sad (TM) is from the first episode, "Tinsel City," which not coincidentally also has to do with death.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 17: Favorite Songs Off the Soundtrack

Eeee! These are always some of my favorite challenge days, because YouTube! Reliving the moments! Singing along (when applicable)! Despite the 80s-ness of Bubblegum Crisis music, it was infinitely more awesome than Tokyo 2040's attempts. Not that I didn't enjoy the trance, underground techno metal - seriously, I'm running out of adjectives here to describe it - because I did; hell, I still own one of the soundtracks and listen to it regularly. But there's a reason that the first video below is the ringtone on my phone and not one of Opus 4s tracks.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 16: Favorite Reference to Blade Runner

I could make this easy on myself and say that Priss' band's name, the Replicants, is my favorite; sure, it's the first one that I recognized, but not really my favorite. To be honest, I watched Bubblegum Crisis before I had ever seen Blade Runner (which, I knooowwww), so I didn't catch the references until I finally rented the movie from Blockbuster when I was in high school, and it took repeat viewing before I caught most of them.

But my favorite? Yeah, has to be in "Scoop Chase."

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 15: Favorite Fight Scene

While the fight scenes in this series are numerous, they aren't really the reason that I watch Bubblegum Crisis. Actually, the fights scenes tend to be short and sweet - akin to punctuation, in a way - where the action is just a natural resolution to the drama (and occasionally, political intrigue) that's been building throughout the episode. To be honest, I kind of like that aspect of the series. There's a reason that I can't stand to watch most of Michael Bay's movies, like the Transformers franchise, and why I felt that the Wachowski's The Matrix was so extraordinary: while the former's films are, at best, minimally entertaining - if you turn your brain off and think "ooooh, pretty explosions!" - I walk away feeling like I've gotten absolutely nothing from the experience, except to feel like I've been manipulated into thinking the movie is better than it actually is. With the latter, however, the fight scenes served a purpose, to show that Neo was becoming more attuned with his destiny and abilities. The Knight Sabers aren't necessarily learning anything about themselves in Bubblegum Crisis, but their encounters with boomers display to the audience who and what the women are and propel the plot forward.

The Pull List for February 18, 2015

Well, Wednesday is the day that my sister departs for South Korea, where she will be teaching English to adorable Korean kids ages 3 - 6, so while I will be purchasing my comics, she will be crossing the Pacific Ocean to begin a new stage of her life. Good luck to you, Sister Person! Send me a Korean skin regimen! Also, don't forget about our book club; you are still due to review Divergent, and we - and by "we," I mean "you" - haven't picked anything for this month!!

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 14: Which Episode(s) Would Be the Best to Adapt into a Movie?

Happy Valentine's Day, LOVAHS! I know, I know, I don't celebrate the holiday because I think it's a little silly, but to those that do, enjoy your chocolates and roses!

Anyway, I'm spending the weekend in Nashville to see my sister off to South Korea (click over to her website, 52 Weeks of Wordage, to wish her the best of luck!), but that's doesn't mean that I'm still not doing my BGC challenge posts. Obviously. Just look at that title.

Ahem. 

Even though I feel that Bubblegum Crisis would be very difficult to translate well into a movie, especially an American one, there are a few that I feel might do the series justice - given, of course, that they didn't whitewash the cast, and of course they would, because this is Hollywood we're talking about. "Tinsel City" would probably be a good introduction with a rather bittersweet ending, and "Moonlight Rambler" paired with "Red Eyes" has relationship drama in it that would ground the more action-oriented sequences. However, I think the best option would be "Scoop Chase," the final episode produced that delightfully centers around the least likely person imaginable, Nene Romanova.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 13: Favorite Boomer

So I'm going to go into a bit of fan theory here because, well, a lot of the boomers in Bubblegum Crisis are essentially copies of each other beneath the skin (kind of like humans?) and not a single one really stands out to me, except maybe Largo, but I think I've covered him fairly well. Then again, my choice as favorite boomer is Sylia, who as you remember is my favorite main character, but hear me out.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 12: Comparison to the Remake, Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040

Like I said way back on Day 1, I actually watched the reboot of Bubblegum Crisis before watching the original, so I came at the series a little different than those who'd done the opposite. Now, I actually prefer 80s anime over most modern series, and a lot of that comes from character design, which I guess is the best place to start here?

Since you've seen plenty of images from the original series, I'll start with this one from Tokyo 2040. 

Via Hero Machine

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 11: Least Favorite Secondary or One-Shot Character

Okay, so remember Irene, the woman I referenced back on Least Favorite Main Character? Well, Irene was such a close friend of Linna's that Linna didn't know that Irene was related to a very popular singer, Vision, pictured below.

Via JapPop

I'll be clear here: I really, really like "Double Vision" as an episode, even though I have ragged on it a little bit in the past few challenge days. It's definitely in my Top 5 BGC episodes, but that doesn't mean that I agree with portions of it.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 10: Favorite Secondary or One-Shot Character

Wheeee! I have been looking forward to this particular day because OMG how much do I love this character. If anybody ever gets the idea to do a whole new series around Daley Wong and his awesomeness, I am there.

Via Comic Vine

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 9: Least Favorite Villain

So I know that today is the 12th, but I've had major connectivity issues. The wifi around my apartment complex is shoddy, at best, but for the past few days, it's been completely gone. However, I do have all of my challenges up through today done, so don't think I've been slacking!

Anyway, onto today's challenge, which, I'm sad to say - or happy? - is going to be a rather short entry.

The Pull List for February 11, 2015

Well, folks, it's getting closer to Valentine's Day, which means absolutely nothing because the husband and I don't celebrate it. I mean, no judgments if you do, but I'm kind of sick of seeing all this red and pink shit around.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 8: Favorite Villain

Oh, Largo. Largo, Largo, Largo. So clearly a Roy Batty-wannabe, yet still so cool that I am willing to forgive your near plagiarism.

Via Destroy All Podcasts

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 7: Least Favorite Main Character

Oddly enough, I have no vitriol for my least favorite character. I liken Linna Yamazaki to Rachel Green from Friends: you know very superficial things about her, like her profession (fitness instructor) or that she likes fashion, and she frequently talks about the various relationships she flits through, but is anything really significant really revealed?

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 6: Favorite Main Character

Via JASMS

I wanted to find a glamorous picture of Sylia because 1) bitch is fabulous, and 2) this is a really grainy image, but I couldn't pass this one up. I remember exactly which episode and where this cel is from, and the first time I saw it, I laughed hysterically while feeling exceptionally uncomfortable. Why? Because this is Sylia Stingray's "Mackie, you are my brother stop staring at my breasts" face. Now, I don't know if this is a Japanese cultural thing, but the idea that your sibling could sit around and ogle your chest* is incredibly disturbing.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 5: Least Favorite Episode

Via Ebay*

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 4: Favorite Episode

Yes, there is a difference between "best" and "favorite." Back when I did the Buffy challenge - God, that was three years ago - I said that "Restless" was my favorite episode, and I maintain that assertion, even though "The Body" is probably the best episode that was ever done for the series. And likewise, while I do consider "Midnight Rambler" to be the ultimate Bubblegum Crisis experience, I am going to have to go with the inaugural episode, "Tinsel City," as my absolute favorite.

28-Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 3: Worst Episode

Unlike Day 2, today's challenge really wasn't that difficult. From the minute that I finished watching "Revenge Road," I just knew that it was the weakest of the series. Basically, guy's girlfriend gets hurt and guy decides to transform his car into a boomer so he can avenge her. Blah.

The concept is incredibly trope-y, which wouldn't really bother me normally, since I do feel that tropes can be used effectively, but "Revenge Road" just has that machismo bullshit that reminds me of Women in Refrigerators, where the only way a male character can be spurred into action is the harm the person he's in love with. It's offensive to men and detrimental to women, and every time I see it, I just want to crawl into a hole and eat dairy-free ice cream. Revenge is dealt with so much better in "Red Eyes," the episode directly following the events of yesterday's "Midnight Rambler."Anri, the other sexaroid boomer that escaped the space station with Sylvie, decides to bring the pain to the Knight Sabers, who she believes is responsible for Sylvie's death (she's not entirely wrong, obviously, but she doesn't have the whole picture,thanks to that fucker, Largo). It's actually an exceptional episode*, which only makes the failure of "Revenge Road" that much more apparent. Every time I come to it when I'm binge-watching the whole series, I roll my eyes and then go do literally anything else I can think of.

And that's where I'm going to end this. Tomorrow is going to be way more fun, because it's my Favorite Episode!

< Day 2: Best Episode     Day 4: Favorite Episode >

BACK TO CHALLENGE

* It was actually thisclose to being the best episode, but "Midnight Rambler" beat it by a hair.

28 Day Bubblegum Crisis Challenge, Day 2: Best Episode

Considering that Bubblegum Crisis is only eight episodes long, you would think it would be easy to determine which is the best episode overall, but it really is not. The quality of the series is consistently high, from the animation to the music to the plot, so narrowing it down to one single installment as the best example is even more difficult than choosing the best Battlestar Galactica episode. After much pondering, I have decided to choose the fifth episode, "Midnight Rambler."

If you haven't watched the episode (you can catch the whole series on Hulu!), be warned that I will be dropping some spoilers, but this series is from the 1980s, so ... it's really your fault that you haven't already treated yourself.

The Pull List for February 4, 2015

Well, it's a new month! January 2015 brought me a lot of joy (Star Wars! Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues!), and this month introduces Phil Noto variant covers. I'll be featuring those as often as I can, because they are absolutely gorgeous, and since he's one of my favorite artists, I may be buying titles I don't normally just so I can get the covers framed.

Anyway, here's what I'll be reading on Wednesday!