The world of 2033 is a very, very different world. Artificially intelligent robots known as Boomers have replaced people in dangerous and/or tedious jobs, supposedly freeing humanity to pursue more sublime or lofty occupations, while really creating vast unemployment and human dissatisfaction. Japan has become the economic superpower around which the world revolves, and Genom, giant among megacorporations, has become the single corporation upon which the world depends. The world has been inteconnected with a telecommunications Net which reaches everywhere, and across which almost all the world's information is transmitted, bought, and sold. Nanotechnology allows the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular level and has led to advanced cybernetics and the emergence of direct brain-machine links. Powerful mecha, including powered armor, combat suits, and advanced transformable vehicles, are used by military, police, and mercenaries alike. The overcrowded metropolises of the previous century have grown into giant metroplexes that sprawl across thousands of square miles. Pollution is omnipresent, violence is common even in the safest areas of a city, and corruption is rampant through all power structures.
In the world of 2033, more people fight to keep themselves and thier dreams alive against an apathetic world of megacorporations and corruption than ever before. The gap between the Haves and Have-Nots has grown so large that the Have-Nots can barely see the Haves across the gulf, and the Haves won't see the Have-Nots at all. And the continuous wars in Asia, Africa, and Antartica don't help any, either. Yet the people continue to live thier lives as best they can, hoping for a brighter day tomorrow. And somehow, as precariously balanced on the edge as the world is, it hasn't collapsed. Yet.
This is the world of Bubblegum Crisis and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Bubblegum Crash. And it is to this world - it's characters, technologies, and corporations - to which this site is devoted. So dive into MegaTokyo 2033, but don't forget to carry your pistol, a knife, and your acid-proof overcoat.
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Bubblegum Crisis presents a world which is very different from our own. For starters, it is a cyberpunk world. Pollution and overpopulation is global. Corporations are either large and powerful on a global scale, or they're ultimately swallowed up by those corporations who are. More people live in poverty than ever before, and the supposedly liberating robotic technology of Boomers are a large part of the cause.The question isn't how the world became this way, because the how is outside the scope of the series. The question is how the world currently is. This section hopes to provide some answers to that question.
Global Overview
To start with, the world is overpopulated and polluted. Global warming has changed the coastlines of all the continents, flooding most of the coastal cities and further exacerbating the pollution problems as contaminants leach into the oceans from the submerged cities. And there's no change coming, either. The breakup of the USSR sent the world reeling, and it's still recovering. The United Nations, with the backing of Russia, Japan, the European Community, and the U.S., was able to keep bickering local powers from causing large scale wars through the launch of orbital laser platforms capable of vaporizing everything on the surface in a several thousand square kilometer area. These orbital weapons maintain the "peace" in much the same way as mutual assured distruction did, and the sattelites keep everyone from using what stockpiled nuclear and similar weapons still remain. Of course, there's still conflict, but now it's over the natural resources in Antartica, and it's between Neo-NATO and the powerful Chinese communist block.
Japan: Japan is the new economic superpower of the world, due in large part to being home to Genom, the largest megacorporation on the planet. Japan is the most technologically advanced country in the world as well, and it supports the UN with troops and technology, believing correctly that economic power is more important than military power. However, the ever-present corporations have been subverting the traditional values of the population and instituting corporate, rather than Japanese cultural, values, especially in such corporate cities as MegaTokyo, where the society is creating greater numbers of mindless drones, lunatics, and rebels every year.
North America: The U.S. remains a powerful nation, but its stature has fallen greatly with the economic rise of Japan. Trade relations with Japan remain strong, as North America's need for technology is traded for military protection. However, class and racial problems have greatly fragmented society and reduced public confidence in institutions like the government. All these factors combine and keep the U.S. from rapidly adapting to the changing global economy, thus driving down real estate prices and further depressing the national economy. Corporations are, however, reinvesting in the U.S., since the low prices make it extremely inexpensive to do so, and this is gradually improving the lot of the nation, albiet at a snails pace and under complete corporate control.
Europe: Western Europe, led by Germany, has become a powerful economic force which competes directly with both the U.S. and Japan. Eastern Europe, however, continues to be rife with conflict. Russia is a powerful member of the European Community and it's grudging acceptance of capitolism has enabled it to continue moving slowly forward. Russia's large military presence is loaned overtly to the UN and covertly to anyone else who is interested and can pay the price.
China: China is not only the most populous nation in the world, it has remained Communist and has become expansionistic, much like the USSR was in the 1950's and '60's. The Communist regime is paranoid of new technologies, reeking of capitolism as they do, and is currently involved in seeking natural resources, running into Neo-NATO military forces in a luke-warm war in Antartica.
Space: Humanity began its gradual expansion into space in the early 2000's in hopes that the new frontier would enable the growing population to expand off the planet. While large populations of people were never moved off-planet due to the cost, many strategic industries were moved into orbit. The major players in space are, of course, Genom, the Space Development Public Corporation (SDPC) which is contracted by the UN to develop space but is essentially a Genom puppet, and the United Nations Strategic Space Defense Force (USSD), which has control of several hundred orbital lasers and has orders to shoot down any nuclear weapon launched. While space appears to be static, it is gradually being developed, largely by Genom, who owns 12 orbital manufacturing platforms in geosynchronous orbit. The SDPC owns the 5 large space stations at the LaGrange points which serve to resupply the Moonbase, a large subterranian mining colony.
MegaTokyo
MegaTokyo was born out of the ashes of the Second Great Kanto Earthquake of 2025. While the quake was directly responsible for less than 100,000 deaths, the riots and fires which followed pushed the total deaths well over a million. But Genom, already headquartered in old Tokyo and spared the destruction of the Quake, proposed a new city, even more impressive than Tokyo had been. The Japanese government accepted the Genom proposal, and MegaTokyo was born.
MegaTokyo currently has over 45 million residents, with half again as many commuters. Its status has risen and it has become the center of Japanese industry and culture. And the huge Boomer presence in the city is responsible not only for the construction and maintenance of MegaTokyo, but also indirectly for the tremendous increase in corruption, crime, terrorism, suicide, etc. Much of the original Tokyo skyline has been condemned and demolished, and what remains has become slum and tenement housing for the poor. And the new, intelligent and automated buildings are so expensive that only the very wealthy or corporate (i.e. Genom) employes can afford to live in them.
MegaTokyo has become a true melting pot of cultures and races, which has itself contributed to the decay of traditional Japanese values and the other social problems that MegaTokyo is experiencing. And what remains of the values of duty and honor are being perverted by Genom as the corporation pushes its employees to work, ostensibly for the good of Japan, but actually for the exclusive profit of Genom. Yet some traditions remain, as many decent people fight to keep the changing world and culture from destroying thier families and themselves.
For more information on MegaTokyo and it's geography, please visit my links page below and click on the link to the interactive map of MegaTokyo.
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