Bubblegum Crisis & Crash Items

[Dynaman]

But to reuse the quote "Good Writers Borrow, great writers steal"  Applies here too I think.  Back in the eighties when the majority of people in one region would not know the songs from another region it would really apply.  (though US stuff was just about everywhere much much less made it back into the US - heck even UK TV was a rarity left to public TV).

[renegadeleader1]

40 minutes ago, Dynaman said:

But to reuse the quote "Good Writers Borrow, great writers steal"  Applies here too I think.  Back in the eighties when the majority of people in one region would not know the songs from another region it would really apply.  (though US stuff was just about everywhere much much less made it back into the US - heck even UK TV was a rarity left to public TV).

The only UK TV the US was familiar with in the 80s was Benny Hill, Dr Who, and whatever was picked to air on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre.

[Dynaman]

I was thinking we were both missing something and then I remembered "Monty Python".  We will both have to suffer the Inquisition for that one.

[RavenHawk]

12 hours ago, tekering said:

This is a fascinating aspect of the anime industry I was completely unaware of.  Are there other egregious examples outside of BGC?

I wish I remembered some to offer.

I know I came across probably a dozen or so a few years ago, which made an impression on me at the time, but I don't remember them specifically or where the site was where I found the comparisons (it might have been a post in another thread on here?).

As it stands, I feel like an idiot, making a claim that I now can't substantiate. Sorry.

[JB0]

17 hours ago, tekering said:

This is a fascinating aspect of the anime industry I was completely unaware of.  Are there other egregious examples outside of BGC?

I remember the US DVD release of Gunbuster took a lot of flak for changing the music in one part because it was basically Chariots of Fire.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

18 hours ago, tekering said:

This is a fascinating aspect of the anime industry I was completely unaware of.  Are there other egregious examples outside of BGC?

I've heard several examples, but the only one I remember off the top of my head is the opening to The Big O compared to Queen's Flash Gordon theme.

[Bariaburu Faita]

its a cliche to say its a culture thing, but it really is. Japan has a culture of accepting copyright infringement on a large scale. The biggest example is the twice a year(pre covid) Comic Market where half a million people cram into crowded halls to buy fan works of copyrighted characters. With the official license holders selling official goods one building away. And very few get sued. The corporations understand that this fan work enhances their brand, and allows it.

[tekering]

2 hours ago, Bariaburu Faita said:

The corporations understand that this fan work enhances their brand, and allows it.

Yeah, but the vast majority of it is pornographic parody (and as you say, fan work)...

3 hours ago, JB0 said:

I remember the US DVD release of Gunbuster took a lot of flak for changing the music in one part because it was basically Chariots of Fire.

...and that's GAINAX.  Everything they did back then was a parody, in-joke, or fan service reference to something else (GunBuster in particular).

Bubblegum Crisis, on the other hand, took itself seriously.  There were deliberate references to Blade Runner in production design and character names; that's an homage.

Filing the serial numbers off foreign pop songs and claiming them as your own: that's plagiarism. 

[Bariaburu Faita]

18 minutes ago, tekering said:

Yeah, but the vast majority of it is pornographic parody (and as you say, fan work)...

One of these fans that made doujinshi, was Kenichi Sonoda. A large number of people working in the industry got their start in doujinshi and have the belief that it is ok to borrow content created by someone else.

[chaff.g]

19 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

I wish I remembered some to offer.

I know I came across probably a dozen or so a few years ago, which made an impression on me at the time, but I don't remember them specifically or where the site was where I found the comparisons (it might have been a post in another thread on here?).

As it stands, I feel like an idiot, making a claim that I now can't substantiate. Sorry.

The opening themes of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam are another famous example of this.

[tekering]

3 hours ago, chaff.g said:

The opening themes of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam are another famous example of this.

To be fair, those were adapted with Neil Sedaka's permission, and he's properly credited (both onscreen and the various soundtrack releases).

Fascinating, nonetheless:

Keep 'em coming, guys!  This is amazing stuff. 

[Hikuro]

2 hours ago, tekering said:

To be fair, those were adapted with Neil Sedaka's permission, and he's properly credited (both onscreen and the various soundtrack releases).

Fascinating, nonetheless:

Keep 'em coming, guys!  This is amazing stuff. 

 I mean it's pretty off track from BGC but in terms of ripping off other peoples music and not giving proper credit Fire Bomber's Power to the Dream is pretty much a rip of Power to the people by John Lennon....but I'm sure a lot of people know that.

[Big s]

There’s so much in this regarding the similarities between pop songs and soundtracks, it almost deserves a thread of it’s own. From generous homage to blatant rip-off and awkward licensing issues. Or from Big-O to Bubblegum Crisis and Daikon 4

[JetJockey]

Anyone know the name of the song he has playing in the background from around 1 minute to 6 minutes? I would ask myself but I don't have a Twitter or Youtube account.

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by JetJockey

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Behold my latest acquisition:

A personalized shikishi sketch from Sonoda himself (just had to blur my name a bit) depicting the better half of the team!

[tekering]

5 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

A personalized shikishi sketch from Sonoda himself

Kenichi Sonoda...? 😧

What the hell happened?  Did he suffer a stroke or something? 😳

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

26 minutes ago, tekering said:

Kenichi Sonoda...? 😧

What the hell happened?  Did he suffer a stroke or something? 😳

What are you on about?

[tekering]

Sorry, my image of Sonoda's work is about 30 years out-of-date...

I realize what you have represents the work of the same artist, but... I'm shocked and dismayed by the change. 🤕

 

[F-ZeroOne]

I think its reasonably well known that "Bubblegum Crisis" took inspiration from a whole slew of other works, though one of the lesser known ones may be "Streets of Fire", which I got to watch a couple months back. Made by the same guy that made "The Warriors", it wasn't very successful on release but was apparently very popular and influential in Japan. The opening sequence in particular might seem a bit familiar to "Crisis" fans (with not as many killer cyborgs, admittedly... this isn't the full opening, which if anything feels even more, er, "inspiring").

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by F-ZeroOne

[electric indigo]

Ah, a guilty pleasure movie of mine. Also features this guy Willem here:

The real gem of the movie is hidden in the end credits, the track "Deeper And Deeper" by my then favourite 80s-SF-Rock bands The Fixx

 

[LilM_1985]

Anyone own the Mini CD for 'Say Yes' Single? 

[F-ZeroOne]

Seeing this reminded me I have a couple of related items lying around. First, a "Complete Vocal Collection Vol. 1" (not sure if I ever had "Vol. 2"):

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by F-ZeroOne

[F-ZeroOne]

And whilst having a clear out of a relatives house, also found this (art looks familiar, where have I seen that before?😉)

Edited November 9, 2023 by F-ZeroOne

[danth]

On 11/7/2023 at 12:35 PM, tekering said:

I realize what you have represents the work of the same artist, but... I'm shocked and dismayed by the change. 🤕

I remember thinking his art was getting weird in the late 90's.

[F-ZeroOne]

Part of the same clear out, look what I found...!

 

[F-ZeroOne]

One final treasure...

 

[tekering]

Almost finished painting... 🤓

[Bolt]

19 minutes ago, tekering said:

Almost finished painting... 🤓

Very nice !

[MKT]

5 hours ago, tekering said:

Almost finished painting... 🤓

Great, all 4 motoslaves.  I didn't realize one of the cannon's supposed to be different though.

[tekering]

3 hours ago, MKT said:

I didn't realize one of the cannon's supposed to be different though.

Depends on the episode.

Everyone's motoslave sports the same cannon in the first OAV.  Aoshima called this the "machine canon [sic]."

In the third episode, Priss has a new gun to go along with her new motoslave:

Sylia wields the same cannon in the fourth OAV.

Aoshima refers to this as a "rocket cannon."

There's also this cannon Linna's motoslave carries in episode 3:

It's not the same cannon from the first OAV, but it's also not Aoshima's "machine gun."

I'm not sure this weapon appears in the anime at all, actually, but it came in the variant "special setting" metallic red Aoshima kit I bought back when I started this project. 😅

 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by tekering

[MKT]

5 hours ago, tekering said:

Depends on the episode.

Everyone's motoslave sports the same cannon in the first OAV.  Aoshima called this the "machine canon [sic]."

In the third episode, Priss has a new gun to go along with her new motoslave:

Sylia wields the same cannon in the fourth OAV.

Aoshima refers to this as a "rocket cannon."

There's also this cannon Linna's motoslave carries in episode 3:

It's not the same cannon from the first OAV, but it's also not Aoshima's "machine gun."

I'm not sure this weapon appears in the anime at all, actually, but it came in the variant "special setting" metallic red Aoshima kit I bought back when I started this project. 😅

 

 

Thanks for digging up the images. Didn't realize Aoshima did variant kits of this..

I always liked Aoshima's sculpt of the Motoslave compared to Yamato's toys - somewhat more angular and defined. All the same, I wish someone did make the later Motoslave variants like the Typhoons I & II, which always looked so cool in illustrations.
I bet Arcadia would have liked to revisit this, but seeing how the Figma's project stalled, perhaps due to licensing issues, it looks like we won't get any new items for a while.

Anyway, look forward to seeing your completed kits. 

[Big s]

8 hours ago, MKT said:

it looks like we won't get any new items for a while.

I kinda get the feeling that it may not be long before Aoshima revisits the franchise or that Moderoid picking up every classic license possible may give us something. It is too bad the figma stuff never happened though 

[tekering]

9 hours ago, MKT said:

I always liked Aoshima's sculpt of the Motoslave compared to Yamato's toys - somewhat more angular and defined.

Really?  I got the impression Aoshima just upscaled the Yamato design, tweaked the engineering, and called it a day.  It has the same "pregnant" aesthetic that bugged me about the toys... which is why I've taken matters into my own hands, cutting and bending parts to more closely match the shapes of the line art.

Oh, and speaking of hands:

I've modified articulated Gunpla hands to match the more feminine motoslave look, 'cause those Aoshima parts just ain't cuttin' it. 😒

I also replaced the stock kit's rubber hoses with more anime-accurate segmented armoured cables, and added additional cables where they appear in robot mode.

9 hours ago, MKT said:

Anyway, look forward to seeing your completed kits.

Final assembly is already underway. 😊

I'd be done already if it weren't for all the upgrades... 😅

[MKT]

@tekering Very nice upgrades so far. Agreed the pregnant part always looked off, but perhaps because of the absence of any alternatives, I've sort of come to accept it as part of its charm lol. Your sculpt of that part looking great. 

 

3 hours ago, Big s said:

I kinda get the feeling that it may not be long before Aoshima revisits the franchise or that Moderoid picking up every classic license possible may give us something. It is too bad the figma stuff never happened though 

Yeah Moderoid appear to be best chance of seeing any new BGC kits, but thinking about it now I also get the feeling they may have tried but unsuccessful as well. The series is so ripe for new toys and kits.

[Big s]

4 hours ago, MKT said:

Yeah Moderoid appear to be best chance of seeing any new BGC kits, but thinking about it now I also get the feeling they may have tried but unsuccessful as well. The series is so ripe for new toys and kits.

We live in an age where Mad ox 01 and the movie version of the Queadluun Rau and even an ED 209 finally got model kits, I think it’s only a matter of time before one of these kit companies tries for BGC