Television series

Bubblegum Crisis

Name: Bubblegum Crisis
Genre: Action, Adventure, Anime, Science Fiction
Released: 1987
Cast: Yoshiko Sakakibara, Kinuko Ômori, Michie Tomizawa, Akiko Hiramatsu, Nozomu Sasaki

A 1987 anime about four women in futuristic Tokyo fighting corporate-built androids in power suits. It's cyberpunk action filtered through 80s style and synth-heavy cool, mixing mecha thrills with character moments. For anyone who wants sci-fi with attitude and doesn't mind animation that prioritizes mood over consistency.

TVMaze rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love cyberpunk built on hardware and mood, with rain-slick neon, grimy mercenary crews and giant battle armor, and you don't mind the 1980s animation to get there.

Skip it if its pacing can feel stiff and talky, and the dated animation may distract if you want slick modern action, not 1980s charm.

What it asks of you: Eight episodes of roughly an hour each, a full evening or two of steady attention, a moody and serious tone that builds slowly rather than delivering quick laughs.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Ghost in the Shell1995

The definitive cyberpunk anime film. Visually revolutionary, philosophically dense, and structurally audacious. It asks what makes us human in a world of prosthetics and networks.

But The plot is deliberately cryptic and moves at a glacial pace. Expecting action spectacle will leave you frustrated.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket1989

A six-episode OVA that proves anime mecha doesn't need to be bombast. Intimate, heartbreaking, and told from a child's perspective. Predates Mobile Suit Gundam's epic scope with something sadder.

But It's very short, which means you'll finish it and ache for more. The ending is deliberately difficult.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket poster

Neon Genesis Evangelion1995

Misunderstood as pure action, it's actually about depression and alienation using giant robots as metaphor. Visually inventive, emotionally raw, and fundamentally strange. Builds to something unforgettable.

But The final two episodes abandon plot almost entirely for introspection. Some find this brilliant; others find it indulgent.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bubblegum Crisis

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Blue Velvet1986

Both pit protagonists against a beautiful, dangerous system controlled by unseen authority. Both are more interested in tone and style than narrative clarity. Both turn their worlds into characters.

Lynch's nightmare about darkness lurking under a polished surface. Like Bubblegum Crisis, it's a story about beautiful people in a corrupted world, but where BGC chooses action, Blue Velvet chooses to sit in moral rot and let it unspool. Utterly hypnotic and deeply wrong.

But It's slow, sexual, and extremely disturbing. The violence is psychological, not spectacular. If you want the aesthetic without the dread, this will unsettle you.

RoboCop1987

Released the same year as Bubblegum Crisis. A blue-collar take on cyberpunk: corporate power, android bodies, and what it costs to be human. Sharp, savage satire wrapped in action.

But The violence is not stylized—it's meant to make you uncomfortable. Some find it dated; others find that intentional.

Serial Experiments Lain1998

13 episodes of dense, unsettling sci-fi about identity and cyberspace. Visually experimental (uses CG in ways that were genuinely novel). Rewards rewatching and heavy thinking.

But Obscure dialogue, no exposition, virtually no plot clarity. If you need clear narrative structure, this will frustrate you.

Appleseed2004

A manga-to-anime adaptation about a soldier thrust into a high-tech utopian city. Gorgeous CGI, great action, and surprisingly touching. John Woo's sensibility meets hard sci-fi.

But The CGI has aged awkwardly in places. The plot occasionally serves the action rather than the other way around.

Akira1988

Post-apocalyptic Tokyo, telekinetic kids, and motorcycle chases. Visually dense, narratively propulsive, and genuinely influential. It's the film that made anime matter in the West.

But The plot is complex and moves fast; on first watch, plot clarity takes a backseat to spectacle and atmosphere.

Witch Hunter Robin2002

Both center young women working covertly against unseen powers. Both are more interested in the *feeling* of being a secret operative than in plot mechanics. Both have an art-house sensibility that mainstream anime avoided in their era.

A 26-episode series about a girl with supernatural powers working for a secret organization fighting evil. More contemplative than Bubblegum Crisis, with better character work and a genuinely eerie tone. The animation is painterly; the mood is fog and rain and isolation.

But It's slow. The action is sparse. The latter half goes entirely introspective. If you came for fight scenes, you'll be disappointed.