The other night, I was watching videos about cyberpunk games made for the Japanese PC-98 computer system and it spurred me to remember the song “Mad Machine” from the ’80s anime Bubblegum Crisis that I watched about twenty years ago. I’d searched specifically for this song many years ago and could not find a clean and full copy then, but now it’s readily available for enjoying on YouTube:
I was still watching dubbed anime when I saw Bubblegum Crisis, so I heard the English version first, but I believe despite my exposure, the English copy is the superior version. I’ve listed out the lyrics for both the Japanese original and the English rewrite below (but I omitted passages that were the same in both). I think it’s clear that the English version is an improvement and conveys a more expressive and artfully descriptive story.
| Original Japanese (performed by Ōmori Kinuko) | English Revision (performed by Annabelle Clifton) |
|---|---|
| In a savannah enraged by sandstorms… | How will we cross the plain? Through raging sandstorms, deliver me. |
| …I chase down my prey on a speeding bike. | I always catch my prey. Two screaming wheels are my destiny. |
| This fire burning in my chest defies logic. | There’s just no logic to this fire that burns in my heart for you. |
| If I’m with you, we might share the same dream. | Whenever I’m with you, sharing the same dream can make it true. |
| I don’t want to cool this raging passion until my sadness is torn to pieces. | I know what I want, what I really need. I don’t wanna cool down your fire. Until all my sadness is torn all to shreds, you’re all that I’m dreaming of. |
| You and I are like wounded beasts, our starving eyes shorting out. I look back, painfully afraid, while my heartbeat does a painful dance. | Cold, angry child, wounded and wild, seeking the blood of our rival. You and I ride, raging inside, challenging death for survival. Eyes all aflame, hungrily gaze, casting their blaze aburning. Heart stops in fear, nothing is clear. Each time my head is turning. |
| I don’t know about tomorrow and all. | What will tomorrow bring? We can’t be sure about anything. |
| All I want is someone with a heart which I can crash into. | You give me what I need: someone to run with who’ll let me be. |
| Everything is melting away. | Everything was real, now it melts away. |
| It’s such a sad joke that cool stares are more tender than sympathy. | Plain such sad truths can be. Never needing pity or hopeless advice, truth was the best friend I had. |
| Time flies, chasing us… | Time’s not a friend. Nearing the end, can we defend our freedom? |
| …Like a suffering, wounded beast. | Wounded beast screams, shattering dreams, charging in blind confusion. |
| My awakening wild nature has me in its grasp. | Wild angry cries open my eyes, clearing the skies of delusion. |
| The more masks I remove, the more of a woman I become. | Each mask that falls tears down the walled woman that’s less an illusion. |
The only gripe I have in the English lyrics is that they did not find a way to retain a version of the clever line: “All I want is someone with a heart which I can crash into,” considering we’re talking about a hunter on her bike and her desire for passion. Instead they changed it to a positive line: “You give me what I need: someone to run with who’ll let me be,” where the lover does not want to try to change the singer’s wild ways. Feels out of tone with the surrounding lyrics, that are expressing uncertainty and anxiety.
I would have tweaked that line into:
I’m giving you a clue,
That your heart’s a place I could crash into.
This way it holds onto the motorcycle romance metaphor, but also offers a bit of ambiguity in her messaging to her love interest to maintain the theme of uncertainty of the surrounding lyrics. Consider that she keeps pleading to her lover to tell her what they want and what they need, like she’s not getting clear communication, and then her turning around and doing the same thing with coy hints rather than explicit messaging. I also didn’t like in the original lyrics that the singer is just looking for “someone,” which felt impersonal and desperate, so I call out the lover specifically, the same as the rest of the lyrics.
Anyway, I don’t remember much about Bubblegum Crisis aside from this incredible song. I was a tasteless kid back when I watched this series and didn’t yet have an appreciation for cyberpunk/synthwave/outrun aesthetic. I’m definitely more keen toward ’80s cyberpunk anime now, and watching this music video several times has made me interested in giving this show another viewing with wiser eyes.