The following is a list of characters from the Japanese anime franchise Bubblegum Crisis. The main protagonists in the series are the Knight Sabers, a group of four young female mercenaries protecting the futuristic MegaTokyo from the threat posed by Genom, a corrupt corporation bent on world domination.
Knight Sabers and allies
The Knight Sabers are a vigilante and mercenary team of four young women. To enhance their natural abilities, they each wear a Hard Suit – each of them specialized in its equipment and performance according to the respective wearer's field combat role. They were recruited by Sylia Stingray to battle the corrupt Genom corporation that dominates their home city of Megatokyo and which was responsible for her father's death. In order to finance their activities, the Knight Sabers also accept paying jobs as bodyguards or mercenaries. Their main activity is fighting out-of-control boomers, half biological/half-mechanical robots built by Genom.
Sylia Stingray
(spelled Silia in Bubblegum Crisis) is the 22-year-old ringleader of the Knight Sabers. She is a Hafu of British descent. Very calm and cool-headed, she does not show much emotion. She is the daughter of Dr. Katsuhito Stingray, the man who originally created the boomers. He was murdered by Genom executive Brian J. Mason, and his death was covered up as an accident, but an unknown individual managed to send Sylia a data unit, providing her with Genom's future plans and the technological means of creating the Knight Sabers' hardsuits. She wears a blue and silver Hard Suit equipped with retractable sword blades in the forearms, laser cannons in the palms and wings for full flight capability.
Professionally, Sylia is a wealthy businesswoman whose business ventures, aside from the mercenaries' fee, finance the team. Her primary business is the lingerie shop "Silky Doll" she personally runs, housed in her private building, Lady's 633, on whose top is also her penthouse apartment functioning as the Knight Sabers' base of operations. Her civilian vehicle is a red Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing coupe; in Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, she drives a first-generation Porsche 911 Turbo. In the Bubblegum Crash sequel series, she refurnishes her business into a high-class fashion boutique.
Several questions about Sylia and her origins are raised in the series, but, due to the incompletion of the OVA series, never conclusively answered. In the spin-off comic Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal and the 2040 series, it is suggested that Sylia's brain was augmented by her father with Boomer-related technology, making her a human/Boomer hybrid.
In Tokyo 2040, Sylia takes a less active role, only suiting up occasionally for particularly tough enemies or personal vendettas due to her health. It is also revealed that the Knight Sabers are the second team she has led. The first team used more conventional hardsuits and were killed in combat. Unlike the original series, in Tokyo 2040 Sylia finances the team completely, and pays the other women double combat pay for tougher enemies. Also, unlike her stoic original self, Sylia is more flirtatious and playful on the surface, but prone to violent mood-swings when not in public.
Sylia is voiced by Yoshiko Sakakibara in Japanese and Jemila Ericson in English in the original series, and Satsuki Yukino and Laura Chapman in the 2040 series.
Priscilla S. Asagiri
is the moody and defiant 19-year-old member of the Knight Sabers, fighting boomers with ferocious abandon in her slick dark blue Hard Suit, which features a railgun in the right hand as well as a laser gun in the original series and her signature knuckle bombers (explosive charges in both hands of her hard suit) in both series; in the Bubblegum Crash series the suit becomes a modular core system to which a variety of selective heavy weapons can be attached. In the Crisis series, her Hard Suit also combines with her Motoslave (a motorcycle that transforms into an automated mecha or an exosuit) to combat more-advanced Boomers.
In Crisis, Crash, and Tokyo 2040, Priss is a Japanese-American rock singer and biker; her band's name, "Priss and the Replicants", is a direct reference to Blade Runner. She is the rival and love interest of A.D. Police officer Leon McNichol. Priss is an orphan of the 2025 Kantō earthquake, who joined a biker gang. After her boyfriend was killed and his death declared insignificant by the police (giving her a dislike for the law enforcement), she attempted to hunt down the killers, but she was recruited into the Sabers instead. She also befriended Sylvie, a biker girl who was actually a runaway 33-S sexaroid, and who she was forced to kill. Priss' rebellious streak is tempered by a good heart and sense of humor, which may explain her ability to function in Sylia Stingray's demanding and disciplined operation. She essentially serves as the hammer of the outfit—as opposed to Sylia's leadership and genius, Nene's tech wizardry, and Linna's sleek athletic precision.
Priss was voiced by rock singer Kinuko Ohmori in Bubblegum Crisis, but after the series was cancelled, she decided to focus full-time on her recording career, and thus J-pop singer Ryoko Tachikawa took over the role in Bubblegum Crash. In English, she is voiced by Sinda Nichols normally while the English singing voice is done by Joyce Leigh Bowden in the original series, with Yuu Asakawa and Christine Auten in the 2040 series.
Linna Yamazaki
is a 20-year-old member of the Knight Sabers. She is the only member of the Sabers that isn't a Hafu. Linna dons a green Hard Suit equipped with "ribbon cutters" – long, electrically charged nanomolecular ropes mounted behind the helmet that can be used to slash through Boomers and other high-tech opponents. She is also armed with explosive "knuckle bombers" – explosive charges in the right hand of her hard suit that could deliver devastating blows, as well as a finger-mounted triplet laser gun. In Bubblegum Crash, the knuckle bombers and lasers are replaced with electrically charged twin wire-daggers.
Working as an aerobics instructor, Linna once hoped to pursue a career in professional dancing, but her efforts in the trials went unappreciated by all but Sylia, who recruited her into her team. Eventually, her constant greed for money makes her switch to stockbroker consulting in Bubblegum Crash.
Linna is perhaps the most socially conventional of the Sabers. As such, she lacks a distinct personality. But she is an excellent team player, and the stories linking Episode 2 with Episode 7 (Irene's death and Vision's peace) would be inconceivable without Linna's heartfelt warmth and decency. There is a comic side to her, especially in tandem with the foibles of Nene.
Linna is voiced by Michie Tomizawa in Japanese and Elizabeth Becka in English in the original series, with Rio Natsuki and Kelly Manison in the 2040 series.
Linna's character is significantly more fleshed-out in the 2040 series. She is the 20-year-old daughter of an old fashioned country couple, but took work in Tokyo to get away from her demanding father. At her desk job as a clerk in Tokyo she has to deal with managers who try to abuse their positions to the point of sexual harassment. She also must directly work under female boomer robots used as middle managers that do not allow mistakes or free time while at work.
She is not a member of the Knight Sabers at the beginning of Tokyo 2040, and actively tracks down Priss demanding to join them. Later episodes continue to show that she is highly driven to surpass Priss as the best Knight Saber of the group and help as many people as possible. She even openly admits to Priss that her goal is to be better than her.
Nene Romanova
is an 18-year-old member of the Knight Sabers, acting as a technical conductor and hacker, and is an employee of the AD Police, functioning as the Knight Saber's mole in the ADP world. She is a Hāfu of Russian descent. She is bubbly, naive, has an affinity for candy and junk food, and is blissfully inept with real world logic. Due to her lack of (and unwillingness to engage in) regular exercise, she is often teased by Priss and Linna for not being more physically durable.
Nene's blue and pink Hard Suit's offensive weapon is a weak laser gun unsuited for taking out enemies; instead, it is used to scribble the Knight Sabers' signature onto their scene of actions. She relies on her suit's computer and electronic warfare systems to stay away from an enemy. In episode 8 of Crisis, Nene receives an upgraded red and pink colored suit. She gets another new suit in Crash. Her suit's offensive capabilities are stocked up considerably with an electromagnetic pulse striker and the capability of physically hacking into a Boomer's computer brain.
Nene is voiced by Akiko Hiramatsu in Japanese and Susan Grillo in English, with Hiroko Konishi and Hilary Haag in the 2040 series.
Mackie Stingray is Sylia's younger brother and her only family. He serves as the Knight Sabers' backup and mechanic along with Sylia's friend, Dr. Raven. Mackie is a whiz kid with computers and technology. He has to constantly make repairs to Priss's bike because of her driving and the situations she gets into. He can pilot an armored suit himself and drives a large truck that delivers the Knight Sabers and their bikes to a situation. Mackie's character is also extremely perverted, trying to catch his sister (as well as the other Knight Sabers) in the nude as much as he can.
Mackie is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in Japanese and Frank Trimble in English in the original series.
In the 2040 storyline Mackie is much more polite. His sister Sylia tries to keep Mackie from becoming involved, but he helps the former Genom employee named Nigel at his rundown motorcycle shop and builds and repairs the team's Hardsuits. It is later revealed that Mackie is actually a prototype Boomer that has a more advanced brain modeled after Sylia's own brain functions. In both versions, Mackie also shows romantic feelings towards Nene Romanova.
Fargo
is an informant. His background is unknown, but his information includes data from the government, Genom, and the various criminal syndicates and underworlds, so he has a lot of connections. He has found the Knight Sabers a few Genom-related contracts, and Sylia trusts him to the point that he knows her true identity. He even has the audacity to ask Sylia into dangerous parts of Megatokyo after dark for meetings, and is constantly pursuing her as a sexual conquest. Sylia, however, does not have any interest in this and makes it very obvious.
Fargo is voiced by Kōichi Yamadera and by Geoffery Honaker in English.
Nigel Kirkland Nigel Kirkland is a major supporting character in Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. He is a former Genom employee from America who worked as an assistant to Sylia's father in his work on prototype Boomers. He owns his own motorcycle repair shop, but still uses his skills to help Sylia by being the main mechanic of the Knight Sabers, as he routinely performs maintenance on the hardsuits and eventually builds new ones. He is also a target of romantic feelings from both Priss and Sylia. He also befriends Mackie and has him be his assistant, and even lets him move in with him due to the strained relationship he has with Sylia.
Meisio Meisio is a supporting character from Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. He is the faithful elderly butler of the Stingray family and Sylia's former guardian who constantly worries about Sylia's health (both physically and mentally) during the Knight Sabers' operations, thus playing the role of a sort-of voice of reason for Sylia.
GENOM Corporation