Period, a comic selection by Kenichi Sonoda

Gambare, Nene-chan: Bubblegum Crisis translated manga

August 2012

Kenichi Sonoda is by far my favorite character designer. The eyes of his characters totally stand out as being very unique, and I am so very glad that after all this time, he has not changed his art style since the '80s. His works will always have a special nostalgic home in my heart, since I discovered anime titles such as Bubblegum Crisis and Gall Force in the early '90s when I became a huge anime and manga fan. I have watched Bubblegum Crisis countless times, and I even own the Linna Yamazaki Shrine on the Web. As for Gall Force, that series is epic space opera and I love it, too. Still, Bubblegum Crisis will always be one of my top favorite anime of all time, because of its Blade Runner influence, it's cyberpunk influence, and also for having the sexiest anime character ever (in my opinion), Linna.

A few years ago, while shopping at the Mandarake store in the Nakano Broadway Building, I bought the Kenichi Sonoda Artworks 1983-1997 artbook that showcases his art for Bubblegum Crisis, Gall Force, Riding Bean, and Otaku no Video (although I am not sure why his artwork for Idol Janshi Suchie Pai was not included). This book predates his more recent works, such as Gunsmith Cats and Cannon God Exxaxxion. Along with that book, I also bought Period, which is a collection of short manga stories and artworks for Gall Force and Bubblegum Crisis. I thought that it was very cool that there was such a thing as a BGC manga, even if they were only four pages each. As much as I hate how Adam Warren had butchered the Dirty Pair with his comic books, I think he did do BGC justice with his miniseries comic based on the anime. Well, I decided to scan these short manga to share with others. I highly recommend picking this book up.

So, being a huge Bubblegum Crisis fan, I decided to scan this manga, translate it (with the help of my wife, Mayu), and upload it to my site here to share with my fellow BGC fans. Here are both episodes of the Bubblegum Crisis mini-manga, "Gambare, Nene-chan!"

Gambare, Nene-chan 1
Gambare, Nene-chan 2

Next: Another SF book review.

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mail: greg -atsign- stevethefish -dot- net