This is the first episode of the series so it is to be expected that it is being used more for an introduction to the rest of the story rather than as a story itself. This episode has the least to do with the major story out of the three episodes.

While I like this episode just fine, there are some things that I don't appreciate as much as others. The changes in characters, such as the Knight Sabers, for one thing. No one had a determined role any longer. That's fine in some respects, but in other's it's not so great. Sylia is suddenly doing next to nothing while the others run arround trying to destroy Boomers. And the fact that Nene could even destroy Boomers makes me wonder where she got those abilities from.

Colonel Lando himself was never explained so far as how be became involved in a plot to steal the components for the second generation AI. This isn't so awful; after all, most people can imagine how it came to be. But it's always nice to explain things. Another thing that needed to be explained was just how Sylia broke into a video game at an arcade as though it were a regular experience. Any fool knows that Sylia can get computers to do what she wants them to do, but that arcade game was hardly a computer along the lines of what Sylia deals with.

Priss and Linna being ready to give up on the Knight Sabers were also a shame because neither one would ever have done that before. Then again, several months have passed, and they were stuck in one place in their lives during Bubblegum Crisis. Their changes of attitude may be as natural as anything else. Sylia becoming kind and friendly was scary, though.

The reintroduction of Largo is always welcome. He may be the perfect villain. It would have been nice if they had not tried to pretend it was someone other than Largo, though, but that is a minor detail and a matter of taste.

Good things about this episode included some of the weapons Sylia designed for the Hardsuits. While I won't argue that there are problems with the new Hardsuits, it's hard to deny that some of the weapons are fun to watch, if not hideously unrealistic. Linna's electric spears, Priss' shoulder mounted guns, and Nene's array of equipment were all quite impressive. Too bad Sylia didn't do anything or get any new toys...

One of the most common complaints that begins with this episode is that the same opening was used each time. What on earth is wrong with that? Japanese television shows such as Dragonball have the same opening for hundreds of episodes plus OVAs and people don't complain about that. The opening sequence, particularly Sylia's introduction to Boomers over the scene of the computer graphics city, was very well done. The animation in the opening is also, IMHO, the best from the entire series.

On to the subject of animation, as has been pointed out many times in the past, Bubblegum Crash! does not do as well with its animation as Bubblegum Crisis did. There are those few times when the BGCrash! animation is excellent, once or twice even better than that of its predecessor. The music is another thing, though. It's impossible to say that the music did not fall in quality and range. Tachikawa Ryouko simply is not as talented a singer as Oomori Kikuko.

Aside from small things that plague all of the "Bubblegum" series, this one has few problems. The main problem lies in how the artists and writers at times interpreted a great concept in ways that are not as good they could have been. Still, I personally believe that Bubblegum Crash! is an excellent series, and this episode is a very good episode, albeit my least favorite of the three.

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