This article is part of a web-original series
Marco Cian (Hyogo)
The ending of Bubblegum Crisis was left pretty open. There was plenty of room to tell more Knight Saber stories. Yet for some reason when a new installment of Bubblegum Crisis was released, the powers that be decided a prequel would be more appropriate than a sequel.
Fans of BGC can easily spot the issue with this. Since the first BGC episode establishes that the Knight Sabers are a very recent phenomenon, and quite young, if you were to do a serious prequel, you’d have no Knight Sabers! The girls, apart from Sylia maybe, were far too young to be doing anything important years back. But then again, what separates deep worlds like Star Trek from shallow worlds like Babylon 5 is the ability to tell stories without our central protagonists. You can tell plenty of Star Trek stories without Captain Kirk, but not very many Babylon 5 stories without the mighty Space Shogun Sheridan. So, focusing on the other unique aspect of BGC’s world, the AD Police, makes sense if you want to prove the depth of the BGC universe.
So does this prequel series succeed in adding depth to this world? Well…
AD Police Files
In the city of Tokyo, the company GENOM has made staggering advances in technology. Their greatest achievement is the boomer, a fully autonomous robot, used for all sorts of different purposes. However, unlike your average tool or vehicle, when boomers break down, they tend to get a little homicidal, thus necessitating the development of a special police force to take rogue boomers down. This is that ADvanced Police, and these are the cases from their files.
So…
This isn’t all bad. In fact, there were some really genius moments throughout each episode. However, it had a depressing tendency where when it was good, it was a real bummer, and when it was bad it was downright bobbins.
Leon is our only crossover character from the original BGC, and this makes sense. He’s the only main character old enough to have been doing stuff this far back in the timeline, with these three OVA episodes focusing on his very first cases with the AD Police. And his status as someone who is present for all the important shenanigans while not actually being that important works very well in a series that wants to explore the larger BGC world, instead of focusing on a band of superheroes.
However, if I’m really being honest, the main reason he was chosen to be our linking character is most likely just that this whole OVA series is a textbook example of r/menwritingwomen. It’s a blessing the Knight Sabers never showed up, because if they had, I’m sure they’d have ended up doing some weird sex things.
Seriously, almost all the female characters in this do some weird sex things. And I’m not one to kink-shame. My reaction was never disgust. It was always simply bafflement. Like “But… but why?” The most egregious instance of this was the episode where a woman’s menstrual cramps give her orgasms and make her horny. Now, I wouldn’t know, because I myself do not menstruate, but I’m fairly certain that menstrual cramps feel less like a pleasant vibration and more like a truck hitting your stomach at mach 10. The weird sex thing that at least makes some kind of sense is when, in another episode, a scientist lady stimulates the cyborg-guy Billy’s tongue, as it and his brain are the only organic parts of his body left. But even in that scene I couldn’t think of any reason for her to do that other than “Evil wimminfolk use sex to control men.”
It’s especially frustrating, because without the weird sex things, I’d have held up Episodes 2 and 3 of AD Police Files as amazing examples of cyberpunk. If Episode 2 had ended like I thought it was going to end (i.e. the writers had a shred of nuance and subtlety to spare for their female characters), I’d be singing this series’ praises even more than BGC. But no. Instead of a woman who is forced into a hysterectomy, then after finding out she can’t have children even with the most advanced cybernetic uterus available, she falls into despair and resentment, we have a woman who, to get ahead in the corporate world, deliberately got the robo-uterus so that her menstruating wouldn’t get in the way of her work, but then it turns out that she got, in fact, an eeevil robo-uterus! An eeevil robo-uterus that not only gave her phantom pain cramps (which for some reason made her orgasm), but also compelled her to kill! It’s… so strange.
And again, the rest of that episode is amazing! I’d show it to anyone who wants to write cyberpunk as study material. All the little details and social pressure to get cybernetic enhancements or replacements. The fact that a lot of this social pressure is manufactured by Rupert Murdoch types who then take the organs people replace to use for themselves in their mad quest for immortality. The fact that some people quite simply need these replacements due to injuries or chronic conditions, but the fear and shame, wondering if you’re giving up a piece of your humanity by doing the procedures. This is all amazing stuff!
And then Episode 3, with Billy the cyborg. I thought Grant Morrison’s Robot Man was a basket case, but hoo boy. Billy makes this guy look calm and well-adjusted. You have a guy who had his brain and tongue (the only surviving organic bits of himself) put into a cyborg body, who bites his tongue just so that he can retain some level of his humanity, even as he feels it slowly slipping away. It’s all harrowing and haunting and oh what’s this the scientist lady is now stripping into sexy lingerie so that she can tongue kiss Billy for… reasons? I… come on, man. Come on.
There’s lots of amazing stuff in here. But when it’s bad… hoo boy is it bad.
But let’s answer the question
Is this a Cyberpunk?
Cyberpunk is about the little people – Very much so, if my description of Episode 2 is any indication, and that’s only scratching the surface of this series. Unlike BGC, ADP is very much concerned with how boomer technology has changed the world, and more specifically how it’s affected average, ordinary people.
Cyberpunk is pessimistic – God, is it ever. None of these episodes are good times, even when they are good.
Cyberpunk isn’t about changing the world – Oh God. Worse than that. This is about everyone witnessing the world’s transition into what we’ll see in BGC, and how terrifying it is to see things change for the worse while being unable to do anything about it.
Cyberpunk is set in today, turned up to 11 – I… am not actually sure. My first instinct is to say “Yes”. But I think perhaps a better description is how, like Blade Runner 2049 isn’t really about our world today turned up to 11, but rather the world of Blade Runner 30 years in the future, this isn’t really the 80s turned up to 11, but the world of BGC 5 years prior.
Cyberpunk wants to look cool – I… suppose so? I guess the problem this time around is how, unlike BGC, ADP doesn’t really succeed as well at looking cool or sexy. I don’t want to live in this world, while I’d at least want to visit the world of BGC.
Man, I hope the vampire dick one isn’t this depressing.
Like, I swear it’s good sometimes! There’s plenty of value in this, but… uh, yeah.