The second volume sees the Knight Sabres take on a runaway freeway vigilante, high-tech vampires and a GENOM splinter group led by the enigmatic Largo as Priss begins to question her future with the rest of the group. The quality and detail of the artwork and animation is a marked improvement over the first volume, which is matched by the heightened complexity and drama of the storylines; it is now clear to me how this has been looked upon so fondly by fans over the years.

Unfortunately these improvements are not evident in Revenge Road, the opening instalment - it shows the lacklustre animation and formulaic plotting that hampered the first few episodes and the developments are pretty predictable. After this things take a marked turn for the better though as a group of young women make a daring bid for freedom and escape from an orbiting space station, only to crash-land on Earth. One of the survivors befriends Priss but after the Knight Sabres learn of a spate of gruesome murders it doesn’t take much to put two and two together, which leads to a suitably dramatic showdown with further repercussions to follow.

This volume places Priss on centre stage, although the rest of the Knight Sabres get a fairly decent share of screen time too. Had the OAV continued further than it did no doubt they’d each have been placed under the spotlight as well later on; for the time being the scenes of camaraderie and humour between the four of them provide a surprising amount of entertainment value and add much-needed light relief in between the personal tragedies and the trademark gritty, futuristic backgrounds that have become the show’s trademark.

The story arc featuring Sylvie and Anri is the best in the series so far, tying things in neatly with the villain of the piece who is a worthy successor to Mason, the bad guy of the first disc. Largo even manages to give Quincy a serious mess to clear up and hints at the concept of the ‘super boomer’ as well as the Knight Sabres’ own past, which I hope will be followed up in the third volume. There’s plenty going on here, with Largo pulling a fast one over not only the Knight Sabres with the hard suit-clad impostors but GENOM as well. It all hangs together better than the plotting of the first volume, with fewer trivial details confusing things and the threats facing our gutsy heroines feeling more serious.

In Summary

After the clichéd and formulaic opening volume Bubblegum Crisis really hits its stride with a great balance between exhilarating action and tender yet equally hard-hitting drama. The soundtrack is still a delight and even the animation is better that earlier outings: this is where is begins to justify its ‘classic’ status that deserves the attention of new and old fans alike.