Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040: The Complete Series

This 1998–99 remake of the classic anime OVA Bubblegum Crisis (originally airing between 1987-91) is set in the year 2040, when robots called Boomers—manufactured by the mysterious conglomerate Genom—handle Tokyo's less desirable manual labor jobs. The Boomers have a bit of a quality control issue: they attack their human supervisors, and when traditional police are unable to control the bots, the Knight Sabers—a quartet of young ladies in fashionable armor—appear to save the day. Each has her own secret to deal with—most notably, one of them is actually the daughter of the Boomers' creator. However, the Knight Sabers manage to keep their neuroses in check long enough to uncover some nasty truths about Genom while also putting the Boomers in their place. The longer-form Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 allows for more character development, while the animation wonderfully captures late-1990s cyberpunk style. Even those unfamiliar with this series' fabled predecessor will enjoy the slam-bang nature of the full-throttle action sequences. Compiling all 26 episodes in a dual-language set, rated TV-MA, this is recommended. (P. Hall)