Please click on the image to return to the Bubblegum Crisis Base Page.

Plot Synopsis

The episode opens with a slow pan across the city of MegaTokyo, focusing on the police and the Genom Tower in the daylight. The opening scenes introduce three of the four main characters with various scenes of their everyday lives. The music starts up as we see Priss and the Replicants playing in Hot Legs, and we encounter Leon for the first time.

Leon gets a call on his wristwatch pager and we see him and the AD Police having lots of difficulties with a new type of Boomer, an BU-55C combat Boomer. All the personel weapons, like the SMGs, just bounce off the armor, and many ADP officers are killed. It isn't until we encounter three figures in powered suits that the Boomer is destroyed - by the Knight Sabers.

After the Boomer is destroyed, Leon runs into Priss coming out of a fast food restaurant. Naturally, being a big fan, he hits on her and gets shot down hard, especially after mentioning he's a member of the ADP. The scene switches over to Sylia, swimming and remembering the night that Dr. Stingray, her father and the creater of Boomers, was killed.

The scene changes to Genom, where Quincy and Mason are discussing an important acquisition which is vital to Genom. Then the scene shifts to the USSD, where General Schwartz and his aide are discussing the advanced technology hardsuits of the Knight Sabers, and then hiring them. The Knight Sabers, via Sylia and Nene, are hired to find a rogue computer programmer and a kidnapped little girl named Cynthia. In return, the USSD offers to pay 20 million yen upon completion.

In the process of tracking down the programmer, Priss attracts some unwanted Boomer attention, and is knocked unconscious while attempting to make contact with Sylia. Priss regains consciousness in a car heading for Aqua City, and escapes by causing an accident and by stealing a bike to run from the BU-55C driver. Coming back from a Boomer incident is Leon, who gives chase to both Priss and the Boomer. Mackie is monitering the police bands and hears about a Boomer chasing a racing bike, and the Knight Sabers take off for Aqua City in the Silky Doll truck and on Hurricane Motorslaves on the off chance that the person on the racing bike is Priss.

Leon arrives soon after Priss and pulls out a rather large, man-portable railgun out of the back of his Road Chaser and heads into Aqua City on foot, while Priss herself is running through the bowels of the city looking for Cynthia. She finds Cynthia, and tries to get her to come with her before her abductors return, but is a little too late. Priss has the opportunity to fire several rounds from her pistol, but all the people turn out to be Boomers, and the bullets have no effect. Luckily for her, just prior to being killed, the Knight Sabers arrive and combat begins.

Priss takes Cynthia and runs, but runs into a Boomer. Leon saves her this time, putting several railgun rounds into the Boomer and destroying it and giving Priss the time to escape again. The computer programmer shows his true colors as a Fusion Boomer, and begins fusing with all of Aqua City, seperating Priss and Cynthia. Priss rushes into her hardsuit and Motorslave, and with the help of the rest of the Knight Sabers, attacks the new giant Boomer, and "kills" it. But it's not until Cynthia, herself a Boomer, orders an orbital laser strike out of "fear" that it is truly destroyed.

To the top

Interesting and Fun Details

• When Sylia is reliving the download from Dr. Stingray in the pool, there are several quick images of his murderer. I'm not going to reveal who, though.
• Leon wears his sunglasses at night.
• Priss shuts down Leon by telling him to chase Boomer ass rather than female ass, ie hers.
• On the bus ride, Nene is almost fetal with embarrasment, but is arrogant about her measurements in the USSD.
• Linna recovers very badly from her faux pas in the Silky Doll.
• When Mackie pulls up underneath the bridge following Sylia's and Nene's trip to USSD headquarters, he flips off his beloved sister, Sylia.

To the top

Episode Review

While Tinsel City isn't the best of all eight episodes, I like it for several reasons. Frist, this episode sets up several of the characters for future development, like Sylia, Leon, and especiallyPriss. Unfortunately, the characters of Linna and Nene aren't delved into much, but this grevious state of affairs is eventually remedied. The second reason I like this episode is that it's rather funny. Leon's and Priss' interactions are quite funny, but done in such a way that they don't seem out of place or unrealistic. In addition, the two seemto be destined to become a couple, but it never quite happened by Scoop Chase. Perhaps if the series had been finished, they would have, but we'll never know. Finally, I happen to like all the new goodies, like the Boomers, cool vehicles, and of course the hardsuits. I also enjoy the music, especially Konya wa Hurricane, which fits the action of the episode well.

However, I do have a couple of complaints with the episode. I really don't like Leon leaning up against a peice of building, acting totally unfazed by the appearance of a Boomer the size of Aqua City itself. Leon may be really cool and collected under stress, but this is so far outside his experience that it's unrealistic. As an engineer, I really don't like the laser sattelites, even though they play a major part in this episode and in fact the entire series. My complaint isn't that laser sattelites exist, but rather that thier accuracy is excellent and thier gigantic area of effect. Both of these are totally unrealistic for any laser. Of course, it sounds cool and does have the effect of impressing the audience, so I can forgive it a little. One last complaint is the roads of MegaTokyo. They're all but deserted, and stay that way until Revenge Road. A city as major as MegaTokyo, even in the dead of night, would have a lot more cars on the freeways than are seen in this episode.

To the top

Character Development

Much of this episode is devoted to defining the main characters, thier relations to each other, and thier primary personalities. However, there is some interesting commentary on various topics. Observations of depth in this episode follow the character development descriptions.

• Sylia: We first encounter Sylia sitting in her penthouse appartment and listening to the AD Police talking about a rampaging Boomer. The first clue of her character, though, is when she's swimming after the first battle of the episode. She's thinking of her father and, more precisely, the day of his "accident", when he was murdered by an important Genom employee. She appears meditative in the scene and we begin to get the impression that Sylia suppresses many of her emotions.

  Sylia dresses impeccably, almost prudish, yet she sleeps in very exotic and likely expensive lingerie, probably from the lingerie shop she runs on the first floor of her wholly owned building (her penthouse is the top floor of the building). In addition, she appears to be rather difficult to wake up. Even though this episode doesn't necessarily show that she owns the Lady 633 building, we see that Sylia is nonethe less very wealthy, both by her clothing and by the fact that she appears to lack for nothing - a pool, computers in every room, a coffeemaker in her bedroom, etc.

  We are ultimately presented with a woman who is nearly the quintesential wealthy intellectual, but who also occasionally allows her generally well hidden emotions, in this case concern over Priss' condition and whereabouts, to surface and guide her actions. She is pragmatic, obviously extremely intelligent, and many of her statements during the meeting indicate that she's something of a teacher to the rest of the team. Sylia is also an idealist, leading a band of four women against the most powerful corporation in existance.

• Priss: Our first encounter with Priss is immediately after the opening credits, where she is preparing for her set on stage, singing lead for Priss and the Replicants, in the Hot Legs night club. Much as our first encounter with Sylia, this provides very little immediate insight into Priss' character. However, when Leon is lucky enough to make Priss' acquaintence outside a fast-food burger restaurant, we learn that Priss, in addition to being a singer who seems to downplay her talent somewhat, is very intolerant of cops in general and the AD Police in particular. And we see that Priss is cold and stand-offish toward Leon, perhaps toward men in general.

  At the meeting where Sylia tells the rest of the team about their job for the USSD, we get many more glimpses into Priss' character. She appears to be quick to anger, a trait which causes her to get into a lot of trouble and which generally means she acts well before she's thought something through. Priss is impetuous, generally violent, regularly late, and, we find out when Cynthia calls her a "lady", rather sensetive about her age.

  However, Priss also seems to be capable of immediately understanding certain situations. She and Sylia are the only two Knight Sabers who seem to immediately grasp the true magnitude of Cynthia. By the end of Tinsel City, Priss' cold shoulder toward Leon has already started to thaw, as her waiting for him and thanking him for saving her shows. Priss has already started to develop some, and we've already been shown that Priss is just as good at hiding her emotions as Sylia is, but that the method Priss chooses to hide her emotions with is just a little different.

• Nene: The first time we encounter Nene is also during the opening credits, shen she is hard at work in front of a computer at the AD Police building. We don't seem to learn much about her until we see her and Sylia on the bus to the USSD headquarters. While on the bus, her body language seems to indicate nervousness, perhaps even embarrassed, by all the looks she and Sylia, fully dressed in thier hardsuits, are receiving from the other very curious passengers. Yet when the General's aide are surprised by the fact that the Knight Sabers are women, Nene sidles up to him, cocks her hips, and proudly declares that not even hardsuits could hide measurements like hers, a moderately exhibitionist declaration if I've ever heard one. Nene may also tend a little toward the erotic, or even sexual frustration, as indicated by her interest in sheer underwear. However, this episode doesn't offer us enough information to be sure of this, one way or another.

  But we also see that Nene is the least mature member of the Knight Sabers, as well as the least combat capable. She is easily flustered and frightened in combat and not particularly skilled. In fact, we don't necessarily see why Nene would even be a member of a mercenary unit like the Knight Sabers, outside of her position as an AD Police officer. All in all, Nene is one of the characters which is defined the least in this episode.

• Linna: Linna is first seen as she's in the crowd of dancers and fans in Hot Legs, listening and dancing to Priss and the Replicants. The first real glimpse into her character is in the Silky Doll, Sylia's lingerie shop, when she loudly blurts out the amount that the Knight Sabers are supposedly being hired by the USSD for (20 million yen). This first image of Linna is contrasted by her big-sisterly chiding of Nene immediately before.

  Linna is shown, however briefly, to be impetuous when money is concerned, and this begins showing her materialistic streak which is built upon in later episodes. However, Linna remains the least well defined major character whom we are introduced to in Tinsel City

• Leon: Leon is introduced first as a fan of Priss', an appreciator of fine rock-and-roll. It's a relatively benign image, one which is immediately shattered by the revelation that Leon is also a cop, and not just any old cop, but a Detective for the heavily armed and armored AD Police. In his pursuit of the first Boomer, Leon is revealed as a very cool customer with cast-iron self-control and composure to spare. After all, who without armor could possibly stare down a Boomer which has killed armored cops with submachineguns and calmly fire a pistol at it as it flys right at and over you? And of course his signature wrap-around sunglasses are as much a part of Leon as his arm.

  Leon's confidence appears to border on overconfidence, especially when it involves women, and Priss in particular. When he first meets Priss, he not only hits on her heavily, he actually seems to think that she'll say yes and acts a bit disappointed when she doesn't. It's hard to say immediately if his disappointment is a mere act or whether it's genuine, although his interactions in later episodes with Daley, Priss, and Nene would seem to indicate that it's at least partly an act.

  At Aqua City, though, we get our first shot of Leon's excellent sense of humor and the first proof that Leon probably would have been amazed if Priss had actually assented to going out with him. When Priss is trying to guide Cynthia out of Aqua City, she encounters a Boomer, and Leon with his trusty railgun kills the Boomer, at the same time telling Priss that he's just confirmed thier first date. It takes a special kind of person to maintain a sense of humor when the shit is hitting the fan, and Leon somehow does so. And after Aqua City has been destroyed by an orbital laser strike, Leon has the confidence to refer to his saving Priss as her assent to go on a date with him. But this time, his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, he doesn't seem truly surprised when Priss turns him down.

  By the end of the episode, we've seen Leon cool and collected when threatened by Boomers, confident in himself and his relations to Priss, and cool enough to maintain a sense of humor under extreme stress.

• Mackie: We see Mackie very little in Tinsel City, with only a couple of quick scenes. The first shows him to be something of a standard teenaged boy - a letch even in relation to his sister, whom he ogles in her lingerie one morning. The second time we see Mackie, we realize that he plays a relatively important part in the Knight Sabers as well - the part of transport. He drives the Silky Doll truck so that none of the others have to.

  Mackie's role is downplayed severely in this episode, and it only really increases a little throughout the series. However, he is Sylia's little brother and his development deserves to be followed.

To the top

Episode Analysis

There are quite a few interesting issues raised in this episode, beyond the series-wide commentary on environmentalism, technophobia, etc. (If you wish to see a discussion of these issues as presented in Bubblegum Crisis, please click here.) These issues include family vs. profession, a couple of military/government issues, and Mutually Assured Destruction.

When Sylia is swimming alone and remembering her father, Dr. Stingray and the creator of Boomers, we see several images of a man. First is the loving father, since it's obvious from his tone of voice and words that he cares deeply for his children. But the second image is of a man driven by his dreams of creation, a man driven so hard that, even though he loves his children, he still neglects to return home for days, perhaps even weeks, at a time. Dr. Stingray's placing his job and profession before his family reflects a trend in the U.S. and Japan toward placing one's profession before everything, a willingness to sacrifice everything for one's employer. In this scene, though, we see that it not only cost Dr. Stingray his life, but that his choices were hurting the very people he loved - a terrible, lose-lose situation.

There are really two unrelated issues relating to the government and the military, one issue to each. In the late 80's, when Bubblegum Crisis was released, the government of Japan was strong and not yet wracked by the corruption scandals of the mid-90's. In addition, national pride in the Self Defense Force was extremely high. Yet this episode has the head of the USSD hiring mercenaries to do his dirty work for him. General Schwartz needs to bypass normal channels and legal restrictions, so he hires the Knight Sabers to do it for him. I imagine this produced some controversy when originally watched. The second issue is that the military, even in 2032, is still a bastion of sexism. The General's aide is amazed that the Knight Sabers are women, and his reaction indicates that he probably couldn't have even conceived of the possibility that the Knight Sabers could be women rather than men. I see this as a pretty blatent slam against sexism in general, and possibly against it in the military in particular.

Finally, we are introduced to the 21st century's version of Mutually Assured Destruction. Nukes are no longer the weapons of mass destruction of choice, having been replaced by orbital lasers capable of destroying a thousand square kilometers in a single shot. No messy radiation, far more accurate, and capable of killing a single person or millions just as easily. Sylia's comments that their existence makes her sick echos the general Japanese sentiment toward nuclear weapons. That Japan has possession of many of the laser sattelites just to keep the third world from using their sattelites on Japan is ironic to say the least.

All images © of Youmex / AIC and appear courtesy of AIC and AnimEigo.
Webpage © 1997 - 2000, Brian Angliss
Revised - September 21, 2000

URL: http://www.megatokyobgc.net/crisis/bg cep1.html