Some of these stories are reported in AD Police Files. In the year 2032 a new force emerges from the shadows of Megatokyo, the Knight Sabres. The Knight Sabres are a band of high tech mercenaries with a single minded vendetta against Genom, and the firepower to back it up. While the Knight Sabres are officially criminals, many on the streets and in the AD Police approve of their activities if only because they have proven to be the only effective force against Genom.  

The important cast members in Bubblegum Crisis are: Priss, Linna, Sylia, Nene, Leon, Brian J. Mason, Quincy, and the Boomers. Let's take a quick look at each one.

Priss -- Priss was originally a member of a motorcycle gang, but when Genom had her boyfriend killed, she started a one woman vendetta that resulted in destruction of a Genom building, questioning by the AD Police, and the attempted knifing of Sylia Stingray. Priss now works as the sharp shooter for the Knight Sabres, and when she isn't destroying Boomers she's singing with her rock band, The Replicants.

Linna -- Linna is an aerobics instructor at a Megatokyo health spa. Her activities involve trying to make LOTS of money and dating.

Sylia Stringray -- Sylia is the leader of the Knight Sabres as well as the owner/operator of the "Silky Doll" lingerie shop. Sylia controls VAST financial resources, mostly from undisclosed sources. Her father, Dr. Stringray, was the inventor of the Boomers as well as the power armour employed by the Knight Sabres. Dr. Stringray was killed by Genom, but not before he could pass his information onto Sylia.

Nene -- Nene is the Knight Sabres computer hacker. She entered college at 14, graduated at 16, hacked her way into the AD Police computer and gave herself a job at 17, and finally managed to hack into Sylia's system when she was 18. This final achievement landed her the job with the Knight Sabres. Nene is worthless when it comes to combat, but many people like her due to the fact that she's human (even to the point of gaining weight when she eats cheesecake).

Leon -- Leon is a hold over from the original AD Police Files. In AD Police Files he was a young rookie, who often wound up as the brunt of many jokes. Now he has matured into one of the AD Police's finest officers. However, his layed back attitude, along with his gung-ho approach to tackling Genom often gets him into hot water with his superiors. When Leon isn't trying to prove Genom's guilt, he's usually out trying to get a date with Priss.

Brian J. Mason -- Another hold over from AD Police Files, Mason is the most powerful and ambitious of Genom's vice-presidents. He's been trying to win the chairmanship since the beginning, and his attempts keep getting better. He's also the trigger man in the death of Dr. Stringray.

Quincy -- Quincy is chairman of Genom Corporation and hands down the most powerful man in the world. Quincy can appoint prime ministers at a whim, and stop or start wars in a day.

Boomers -- "The Builders of Prosperity". Originally designed by Dr. Stringray, Boomers are the culmination of years of research into Artificial Intelligence, Biomechanics, and Mechatronics. When Bubblegum Crisis was originally translated by the fans, Boomer was translated as BUMA, which was taken to mean, Big Ugly Mutant Android, and that's a pretty good description of what most Boomers are.

Bubblegum Crisis has had MANY incarnations. I'm just going to give a brief summary. This are listed in the order they occur in the BGC universe, not the order they were released in.

2025 -- The Second Great Kanto Earthquake (To my knowledge no one has ever written a story concerning this event, but its importance can't be overlooked so I include it here.

2027-28 -- AD Police Files: I haven't seen any of the AD Police Files anime, but I have the first graphic novel. AD Police Files is the story of the Advanced Police's lonely fight against boomer crime. From rogue boomers to boomers with messiah complexes the AD Police have to deal with them all. At this point the AD Police are about on par with the boomers as far as firepower goes, but suffer from inadequate funding and are forced to bare the recentment of the regular police who think they could make better use of the AD Police's money. Keep your eyes open for the MASSIVE Bladerunner allusions.

2031 -- Bubblegum Crisis, Grand Mal: A four issue comic series. Grand Mal was okay as far as the story went, but I was annoyed by some of the characterizations, and flat out XXXXed (oops, looks like Senator Exon's going to get me arrested) by the answers to BGC's unanswered questions (I had heard FAR better answers else where, and I believe that part of BGC's appeal was that the questions were unanswered). Grand Mal claims to take place about the time the Knight Sabres are first starting their activities. At this point they're working for their own cause, rather than hiring themselves out as mercenaries.

The AD Police has been suffering hard time for the past few years as the boomers continue to get tougher and tougher, while they're still using the same old equipment. Additionally while the ADP is no longer having quite the financial problems it once had, it has earned the resentment of the general public who feel they're useless.

2032-33 -- Bubblegum Crisis: This is the eight volume anime series that really earned BGC its fame. Episode One borrows massively from AD Police Files, including fusion boomers, the orbital particle beam satellites, and the building becoming a head. I'm finding it hard to say much about BGC without using alot of spoilers. My advise, watch Bubblegum Crisis, often. The BGC soundtrack is pretty cool to. In fact, the voice actress who does priss did most of the songs for the first three episodes. She would have done music for all of them, but she got a recording contract which stated she wasn't allowed to do any solo work. The recording contract not only prevented her from making more BGC music, it almost prevented her from making more BGC.

Episode Six of BGC was written, then after the recording contract became an issue, rewritten so that Priss died (count the places where it could have happened), and then when the recording company had a change of heart, rewritten again so that Priss lived. This produced a side effect that can be seen in Episodes Seven and Eight.

Episode Seven was originally written so that Vision would replace Priss, and then rewritten when it was determined that Priss would actually live. If you watch the movie theatre screen in Episode Eight (when Sylia and Fargo are discussing the Knight Sabres next job) you'll see Vision on the screen. That's footage from the originally storyline for Episode Eight which included Vision.

2035 -- Bubblegum Crash: Bubblegum Crash is a three volume anime series that was suppose to follow Bubblegum Crisis. Episode One (Illegal Army) was AWESOME. The artwork and the Knight Sabres themselves surpassed everything in Crisis (except maybe the Priss-Largo one on one). Unfortunately Crash crashed and burned. Episode Two had a good storyline, but the artwork had fallen back to Crisis standards, and they employed way too much stock footage. Episode Three was awful.

The storyline had deteriorated down to that of a twelve year old (maybe even younger), the artwork had deteriorated further, the characterizations where being stretched to fit the story, and the overall effect was that they had tried to cram six episodes into one (which in fact is what they did, funding for the project having dried up unexpectedly).