The sound of a rocking chair fills the room you’re reading this entry in.  Violently, the creaking of the rocking chair is replaced with an explosion.  Then another explosion.  GUNSHOTS.  EXPLOSIONS!   Titties?  Wait, what?

Remember my previous Rocking Chair entry?  I reminisced about a watershed anime title called “Bubblegum Crisis”.   4 anime babes fighting crime on the streets of a cyberpunk futuristic Tokyo.  Today’s title also has 4 anime babes fighting crime on the streets of a Tokyo 15 minutes into the future, though it’s not as cyberpunk-y and it’s nowhere near as grimdark.  Well, not at least toward the end of the OVA series.

Welcome to Burn Up W.

Directed by Hiroshi Negishi(of Tenchi Muyo! fame), Burn Up W featured 4 police officers, codenamed “Team Warrior”,  fighting various forms of crime.  They could be anything from terrorists extorting money from world governments to panty thieves.

The Cast –

 Rio Kinezono – Rio’s the main character of the series.  She’s hot tempered, impulsive, brash, and very bratty.  Her hand-to-hand combat skills are second to none and she serves as the leader of “Team Warrior” on the field.  She’s also got a tendency to blow through cash rather quickly, so she depends on the Team Warrior jobs to supplement her income as a regular cop.  However, when that isn’t enough, she’s not above selling her used panties.

Maya Jingu – The demolition expert of Team Warrior, Maya’s got a problem.  She’s sexually frustrated.  Very frustrated.  If she’s not shooting off her M-82 anti material sniper rifle, blowing up buildings with C4, or firing off a bazooka, she’s really, really irritable.  Despite her occupation as a cop, she actually comes from a Yakuza family.   Unfortunately for her, Rio usually completes missions without having to rely on Maya’s brute force.

Lilica Ebett –Lilica is the daughter of an unnamed Japanese Zaibatsu CEO and as such, she’s got plenty of cash to throw around.  Unlike Rio, she doesn’t have a need to spend any of it.  She’s a tech geek who supports Rio and Maya behind the scenes, much like Nene in BGC.  She’s cheerful, energetic, and a pleasant person to be around.  Rio always tries to mooch cash off her though.

 Maki Kawazaki is the commander of Team Warrior.  She’s got a ton of experience under her belt, and she controls the group with her no-nonsense attitude.  Maki knows exactly how to control and squeeze her girls to get the absolute best out of them, but she’s not without compassion.  She’s also the “Team Mom”, always ready to listen to the problems of her team members.

Burn Up W, and its later TV series Burn Up eXcess were similar to Bubblegum Crisis, however, the shows differed in a few key points.  Burn Up W was more of a comedy action series, and the setting wasn’t too important to the plot.  Where Bubblegum Crisis had an overly dramatic tone throughout, Burn Up W’s drama didn’t kick in until the last two episodes of the OVA.  Last, the fanservice.  There was relatively little direct fanservice in Bubblegum Crisis, but in Burn Up W, it was IN YOUR FACE.

See?  Yes.  Totally nude bungee jump!

Burn Up W was available in the US through ADV films in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.  I managed to snag this title at one of the many Comic Cons that I attended in the past. In later releases of the series, ADV films actually added a “Jiggle” counter that would keep track of how many times the boobs would jiggle on screen per character.  Classy.

I really enjoyed the character designs.  In typical 90’s style, the “feminine” features of the girls was drawn over the top, the hair was spiky, wild, and came in all the colors of the rainbow, and the eyes had that look.   Last, the dub was actually well done.  I don’t remember wanting to change audio tracks on my DVD.

If you can find this series, I highly recommend giving it ago.  It probably isn’t that expensive now anyway :P.