Bubblegum Crisis

Where to in the world did anime like this disappear? Why don't we ever get to see such great concept sci-fi anime, like Bubblegum Crisis anymore? What we see is boys controlling big robots, boys touching girl's breasts to summon big robots and hey, more boys with robots beating each other up... There is more need for stuff like Bubblegum Crisis. Saber Knights, not many can complain about these girls. Another great anime from the 80s. It has been influential to many animes of today, it also was a big part of cyberpunk scene. In other words, it is a must-have classic for any hard-core anime fan.

This anime might have been a lot better if the creating animation studios didn't split up. This great anime features many well known artists, directors, producers and musicians. Bubblegum Crisis has quite a few related animes, some related in a way, while others have just similar names. We will review some of them, so stay tuned-in.

Bubblegum Crisis is really an unfinished series or maybe it was left for everyone to stick the missing pieces together. It will leave you wandering and wanting more. Although the episodes have different plot lines, they still stick together pretty well.

MegaTokyo a city in 2030s which is still recovering from a big earthquake. Humans live along side Boomers. These are cyborgs who think, look, act just like humans and do human work. Some go crazy or berserk, start to destroy everything that's around them, even the police is losing control. Four girls only known as the Saber Knights, equipped with very powerful advanced armor suits, fight these Boomers and the evil company GENOM that produces them.

The character designs were mind blowing in the 80s and they are even today. The Saber Knights and Boomers were really well designed. The city of MegaTokyo looks pretty convincing. Not all is explained about our character backgrounds, too much concentration on one of them.

Bubblegum Crisis became famous not for its deep plots, not so much because voice actor for Priss was a real-life singer. It was for the concept designs of Saber Knights and mind blowing animation. Of course, it may not be so impressive now. These OVAs were produced by many different people, the animation and designs look different. Look at these OVAs now and imagine back then in late 80s, VHS players or recorders were a luxury in some parts of the world, people were still using black & white TVs, there were no computers with Windows in every house... You will appreciate the animation much more, hopefully forget that it was made in late 80s and just enjoy it.

The music for Bubblegum crisis is legendary in a way, these movies showed how intros and outros should be done. There are separate soundtracks available, fans have them and are very proud. Priss was voiced by a popular singer at that time Kinuko Oomori, in a way that made Priss most popular character from these OVAs.

Over all Bubblegum Crisis the eight original OVAs are anime that every sci-fi fan should know. It has made a big impact on a lot of anime that are out today. Has unique work by legendary artists. We recommend it to all science fiction fans over 12 years. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we did.

One more little thing, there is said to be live-action movie of Bubblegum Crisis in early production. Maybe we will see Saber Knights in 2012 again, but this time to stay.

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The Guyver OVA

The good old Guyver is one golden anime, which of course, will stay in our top all-time favorites. We are sometimes surprised that people can't recall seeing it. Perhaps, because it has mostly scenes of gore, monster mutants slashing each other and destroying school buildings... This is the original Guyver twelve part series.

The first anime series were directed by Koichi Ishiguro, we only know of few other works of this director , not much info there. Bandai is well known for many anime series, OVAs, franchises, Guyver is one of them. Work from early 90's.

The original story starts out pretty much the same as it does in the new remake series. This has 12 episodes the remake has 26 episodes. The story differs quite a bit from the orginal mangas, which were written by Yoshiki Takaya. Be patient and you will see more Guyver.

The main characters are still in their school years, each going through their own development. From the beginning to the very end of the series they are learning from mistakes. Some could learn a few things form watchting them. There is nothing in the world that can match the Guyver Units One and Three, some of the best creature and mecha designs of all times.


We always love watching Guyver fighting another Guyver or the five Hyper Zoanoids. The blades, the eyes the megasmasher, we love it every time. Watching it today makes you feel like you should better watch the remake, to us this cannot be missed even though the story is almost 100% the same. We can only say yes, when someone mentions this great anime.

The soundtrack may not be anything special, but it adds a lot to this great anime. Sound effects add a lot to the whole experience. Don't forget the first of the twelve episodes come in 1989.

The Guyver is worth watching even today, many enjoyed it when it was released in Japan and US on VHS and DVD versions. Although the story doesn't follow manga volumes so much it still is good, we recommend it to everyone over 16. Guyver is our very favorite super-hero, if you can call him that. So if you don't want to buy it at least rent it. We will be covering other two Guyver releases soon, so don't go anywhere too far.

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Appleseed 2004

We return to Appleseed for the second time. Based on very popular manga of the same name. This movie, same as the first, received a lot of mixed views. Some are really blown away by the whole animation. Others of course, disappointed in, lack of depth in the story. We say, you should add it to your Appleseed collection.

This Appleseed movie was directed by Shinji Aramaki. He is known very well for his mecha designs in many popular anime titles. To us, this movie could not have used any other type of animation. The first Appleseed was really amazing to watch, this movie does not disappoint in that at all. We can't wait for more great work from this artist.

The story starts with our main character Deunan, inside a warzone, battling with badass cyborgs, even tanks. She eventually gets caught by a group of armored troops. When she wakes up, she finds out the war is over and that her partner and lover Briareos has lost most of is human body which is replaced with cybernetic parts. The last human city Olympus, with half of the population of robots that are almost like humans. They can do human work and help humans to survive. Bioroids have a flaw they can't reproduce feel anger or love. Deunan holds the key to solving this mystery. Some people want to stop this from happening, some want rid of humans and start a new world only with Bioroids. The plot line isn't deep at all and you can see right through it. Some things in the story don't really make sense, they don't stick at all, but we gather here today for coolest animated mecha around.

This movie has many characters, some mass scenes - all in great shaded computer graphics. Briareos looks very good. Deunan although is the main character, she may seem lacking accuracy in her movement. Looking at her in a ES.W.A.T. suite is jaw-dropping. Hitomi, Yoshitsune, the elders look very good.

Appleseed OVA from 1988 presented many concepts, ideas and standards for many future sci-fi anime titles. Appleseed 2004 presented pretty much perfect cell shaded animation, they maybe were not the first to do this, but it appealed to lots of audiences. Maybe in ten years, people will look back and say. "First time I've seen this type of animation was in Appleseed". Some may not like it and prefer the drawn anime, but this opens many new doors, many new possible animation of things.

Back to the movie... This is one of those anime movies that you will have to watch more than twice not for the story, but for its amazing animation, fast action scenes. Mechanical robots just like most of us like to see, big guns and explosions, all thanks to legendary warrior goddess Deunan. We still enjoy watching it every time. There is one little thing that bothers our minds... Hitomi's car is the only one that can fly, the rest are normal cars on wheels.

The sound track has been picked out well, with modern artists and songs know to some of us already. Beautiful orchestra added and very tight sound effects, they bring out the best in this movie.

This movie is recommended to everyone after advising and getting permission of someone over 18. There aren't many scenes with with blood or killing, but when they are there, they make impact to anyone's mind, we will place it with over 16 or older. Recommended to anyone who enjoyed first Appleseed, Bubblegum crisis, Ghost in the Shell, but without all mind twisting, but mostly coolest mecha around. Anime that will influence many others to come, so at least rent it!

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Battle Fairy Yukikaze

There are many sci-fi anime titles that are not so much known to everyone, like let's say Gundam. In a way it makes you feel somewhat proud of yourself, when you find something good that others haven't. We would like to share one of these super-cool anime that is not so widely known. This is Yukikaze, pure brain twister with very beautiful animation and very real sound effects.

Yukikaze was directed by Masahiko Okura who has worked on many popular titles like, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Blue Submarine No 6. The OVAs were created in GONZO animation studios an based on a novel by Chohei Kanbayashi. There isn't much to say about these people, their portfolios and various awards say more than enough, they are respected all over the place.

The story begins with a novel writer telling a story about the present times. The book is about events that took place over years.

A dimensional portal appeared in Antarctica a few decades ago with alien life only known a JAM. Although United-Nation forces managed to defend earth and push these beings back into the portal to a place humans called "Fairy". For the public, war was long over, but the battle on the Fairy caries on to this day. Lieutenant Rei Fukai is the pilot of a unique fighter jet Super Slyph B-503. It is equipped with state technology and a near sentinent AI referred to as Yukikaze. The rest you will have to find out for yourselves, the pleasure of watching Yukikaze never fades.


This anime doesn't have a big cast, just a few characters and lots of fighter jets. You may feel a lack of female character, but once your over that, the OVAs are very enjoyable to watch. The main character, Rei Fukai is very relaxed character and unresponsive while James Bukhar, Rei's superior is very tense and stressed character.

Being a sci-fi anime fan, cyberpunk steampunk fan you really can't complain about this dark anime. The scenarios are not less than amazing. Yukikaze and other fighters which are just amazing to watch, especially when they are testing a new engine, that episode is our favorite. GONZO have once again produced very high quality work that can only be praised.

We liked the music soundtrack very much, it fits Yukikaze just perfectly. They were closely collaborating with Japanese Air Force, Youkikaze's sound effects are eardrum blowing. They have been working very hard to produce these results. We can only give a big score for this soundtrack.

In a quick recap, we recommend Battle Fairy Yukikaze to anyone who is looking for not only a pretty anime with lots and lots of explosions, but also for a mind twisting scenario. Five episodes with first and last lasting for over 40 minutes, the only reason you shouldn't get this cool sci-fi anime would be, because you have no extra cash.

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Hello to everyone, welcome to Sci-fi Anime Blog!

Hello to everyone, welcome to Sci-fi Anime Blog!

We haven't been posting in a while, but we will update every month from now on, with at least 6 or more science fiction anime titles, until we have all the best anime reviewed here!

Here are some cool news we found, we would like to share the excitement with everyone. The everyone's lovable Saber Knights are coming back to us again. Bubblegum Crisis the original eight episode series are being remade into... get ready.... a live-action movie!!! It is planned to be released in early 2012, featuring collaborations of many companies, actors and countries. We know it is still far off, but we could not help sharing these great news with you. Read more...

The Sky Crawlers DVD is out!

This amazing movie doesn't really fit into category of sci-fi, but it is very good, very high quality work. We have been waiting for this one for a long time and now we can't contain our happiness, so we share the news with everyone.

The movie falls into drama, it is about teenage pilots, caught up in a war. Very deep thoughts throughout the movie, they do twist your brain. Many sci-fi fans will find this movie very appealing from many points.

It was created by Production I.G, directed by Hiroshi Mori – the same people that brought you Ghost in the Shell movies. This work is was one of the hardest yet for these guys, it really shows how powerful their imaginations are. This movie is really worth getting, we might just review it after all.

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Freedom

Science fiction anime usually contains a lot violence, scary scenes of slashing and huge explosions, right? Well, no... There are some very cool sci-fi anime that don't rely on flashy explosions and unreal fight scenes, but are as much entertaining as the anime that care only about that. Can you name one title from top of your head that is like this? Well done if you do, share your findings with others. Also called Freedom Seven, these amazing OVAs are worth a lot of praise. They are suitable to watch for all type of audiences and won't disappoint anyone.

Freedom or Freedom Project was created by Sunrise studios to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Nissen Cup Noodle. The movies were directed by Shuhei Morita and have people who worked on very popular anime titles also includes designs by Katsuhiro Otomo.

The story starts out innocently enough, with a very important start of a race in "The Tube" between two rivals. You won't see much of the race at first, the first episode introduces the characters, their daily lives and the events that lead to this big race. Things are meant to be boring in the world of Eden which is basically six huge domes connected in to one large are. Only in the later episodes there is some explanation of the present times and settings of the story. Don't be turned off by this innocent start of an amazing anime. A story about connecting different worlds together and desires to be a free human being.

Character variety is big and they all are in 3D. A lot of mass crowd scenes and these cool robots that run around trying to catch the good guys. The main character Tekeru is a guy who would go to far lengths for a pretty girl. His two main sidekicks Kazuma and Bismark are very different and complete characters, you will see just how much thought was placed in them. As the story progresses more and more cool characters come in to the story, most of us will find someone they can relate to very easily.

This movie uses CG made characters, things they interact with. This style of anime will soon be everywhere, great CG movement in artistic backgrounds. Hopefully we will see more awesome animation like we have here.

The sound track is so good, you may want to get it separately. The intro and outro songs are very likable. Great music used through out these movies. The only thing that could have been better is the bike engine sound, every time it sounded differently. Apart from that, rest of the effects sounded very good to our optimized ears.

It's quite hard to summarize such a wonderful anime in just a few sentences. It is great to see sci-fi anime that don't have people dieing and places destroyed to dust. Have amazing story with a lot to learn for everyone. Is an eye candy to watch and listen too. Get this DVD when ever you will want to watch some new cool sci-fi anime. You shouldn't be disappointed.


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Heroic Age

Science fiction anime come in different shapes and sizes. Some will make you think about the future, might make you aware of your surroundings and may effect the choices you make, change the way you see things. Many sci-fi anime contain battles of some type of giants and destruction throughout the series. Not often we get to see two of those things combined in a way that you can say, very well done for pulling this off.

Heroic Age was produced by Xebec, directed by Toshimasa Suzuki. Xebec is known for anime like Love Hina. These guys are a part of Production I.G., they are professionals at their work. So is Toshimasa Suzuki, produced excellent professional work that is worth a lot of praises.

The story begins with a tale about five tribes. The Golden Tribe, who have the ability to create stars and see into the future, ruled over all other tribes. Silver tribe who have obtained four out of five Nodos, which are a group of chosen characters who can transform into one of the Heroic Tribe's beings. The fifth Nodos has been placed into a teen boy named Age. He was raised by the Golden Tribe themselves and joins the youngest race, human race, known as the Iron Tribe to complete the 12 labors and get to where Golden Tribe is. There is also the Bronze Tribe these are monster looking creatures controlled by the Silver Tribe, they mindlessly obey them and attack the Iron Tribe throughout the series.

The story somewhat relates to Greek mythology, the Age of Heroes. The five Nodos also relate to characters in Greek mythology and act similar roles. The anime is quite unique, adapted from mangas of the same name, worth a check.

The characters are well designed, there are plenty of different character personalities, everyone will find something relating. What mass scenes of bulk characters are you talking about? The monsters blowing up or the people on the Argounaut, a ship that carries Iron Tribe, with the princess Diadhniea and Nodos Age. It's Production I.G., they won't disappoint you with low quality mass scenes or poor character design.

The whole series are connected to fighting and destruction. In most episodes you will see Age transforming into Heroic Tribe's Belcross and fighting the masses of Bronze Tribe or another Nodos. The scenes are well done, you probably won't get bored of watching these transformations, battles and really cool environment settings. Heroic Age is good, if you won't watch it for it's unique story and characters, the soundtrack that has become loved by many, then you should watch it for its high quality animation.

You may not like the orchestra or the opening song in the beginning, but you will get used to it and you may start to like it after a while. Of course, you may love the soundtrack of Heroic Age first time you will hear it. The unique soundtrack and the choice of songs fits this anime really well, makes it feel really big. But it did make us wonder what would happen if the music in Heroic Age was similar to Gits:SAC...

Overall Heroic Age is a great anime to own, it may not hit the top for older audiences, but it is worth every penny. Great work by professionals that most of us are familiar with. With a unique story, massive space battles and different soundtrack. With cool and unique characters related to Greek mythology. We recommend Heroic Age to everyone, we hope will enjoy it as much as we did.
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Neo-Tokyo The Movie

There is one more legendary anime, one more science fictional anime from late 80's, that many people recall when reminded about anime. One that's in every real anime fans collection.

These three short movies were directed by three very well known people in anime industry, especially to hard-core fans. Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Katsuhiro Otomo and Rin Taro are very well known for their amazing and unique work. Their unique styles has captured audiences for decades and still will do so for many more years to come. Animated in MADHOUSE Studios, what else could you possibly want?

The less than an hour long movie is made out of three movies, which are completely different from all angles. They all should be watched with respect, not only to animation and drawings but also storywise.

The first movie which also is used like a intro and outro to Neo-Tokyo. The movie is about a little girl and her pet cat, who plays in a super unreal hallucinogenic maze chasing after a clown. The movie has very little words, but they aren't needed here,

The second movie Running Man is about a undefeated deadly race champion. It's more like a report by a journalist about this mysterious racer's background and success. This one has some disturbing scenes, may a bit too much from first time viewing, but there is so much more than, brutal scenes. Running Man is the one recalled by many as their first anime they saw back in 90s.

The third story is about a company man coming out into remote jungle island, to shutdown a fully automated construction site, run completely by robots. He finds things there are getting out off control. This last part is most enjoyable to watch to most fans, because of the amazing animation which is hard to compare to even in 2009, the very realistic ideas that are presented here.

Character designs and every story's animation are unique as the directors themselves. To this day their work is unmatchable their characters look real and a lot of us can relate to them at some point. Not one title released by these guys will disappoint you. All three stories are very well animated, they are beautiful to watch even after so long.

Marvellous music and effects were used in all three movies. Even without the cool piano, the race effects on the track and amazing water and jungle sound effects, this anime would blow away your mind just as much. The music does have it's part of course, but it is more about the animations and the story they tell.

Neo-Tokyo is not for everyone, some may not even like or understand these movies. They are legendary work of three anime geniuses, work that started new anime fan generation. It deserves a place in everyone's movie collection, just like Matrix or Rambo. We always enjoy watching the DVD, in both subbed and dubbed versions, we recommend it to everyone with squash or twist resistant brain.

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