Sylia Stingray

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Sylia Stingray is a fictional character from the Japanese anime series Bubblegum Crisis, its sequel Bubblegum Crash and its remake Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. In both the original OAV and the TV series remake, she is the ring leader of the Knight Sabers, a four woman vigilante group armed with high power combat armored suits to combat the monstrous cyborg boomers mass produced by GENOM. Sylia (pronounced like Celia) is the daughter of the scientist who created the boomers, and she is a brilliant scientist in her own right as well as a wealthy business woman who's business ventures finance her team, with her primary business being the fashion boutique she runs called The Silky Doll, which also functions as the Knight Sabers base of operations. She also stands approximately 5'9" in both series.

[edit] Original Series

In the original series Sylia had short black hair and brown eyes, a cool, enigmatic, almost stoic demeanor, and known for her repressed, conservative business clothing in stark contrast to what she sells. Her background is not fully revealed, except that she is the daughter of Dr. Stingray, creator of the boomers, and the older sister of whiz kid Mackey Stingray. There were numerous hints throughout the first series that Sylia herself may have been a boomer, but it was never resolved. She was supposedly 23 years old but looked considerably older than that.

Her hard suit resembles Linna's in design but differs in its mostly light blue coloring. Her primary weapon are two short daggers or swords that eject from the forearm gauntlets.

[edit] 2040 Series

Beautiful, intelligent, charismatic and slightly eccentric, the Sylia of 2040 is quite a different character from the original version. The 2040 version of Sylia was very emotional, in stark contrast to her original series counterpart, at times almost emotionally unstable, prone to violent mood swings when not in public, where she puts on a pleasant, cheerful, almost happy go lucky face for her customers.

Approximately 24 years old but once again looking a good bit older than that, this Sylia is also noted for her unusual hair, which is long, silvery white/blue/purple, depending on the light, and her bluish/purple eyes, again, depending on the light. And, unlike the original version of the series, where she had no love life to speak of, this Sylia had a romantic companion in the form of Nigel Kirkland, the stoic, sullen mechanic who worked with her father on the boomer project and helped her build the hard suits; Sylia is very protective of her relationship with Nigel and is visibly angered when Mackey mentions that Priss hangs out at Nigel's garage a lot and says that they "have a lot in common". She has another companion, Meisio Henderson, a kindly butler who worries for her welfare, much like Alfred Pennyworth from the Batman universe. Despite this, some of her attitudes towards her female teamates can be considered as rather flirtatious; she remarks to Nigel on how beautiful and perfects she finds Linna upon meeting her, is very straightforward as she gives advice to her own customers, often tries to tease Priss into "cleaning" herself up, and when she explains the origin of the Knight Sabers to Nene, Linna and Priss, she teases Nene Romanova to the point of making her blush and stammer uncomfortably.

Her hard suit more or less is the same, except for an alteration in color, redesigning of the swords to be longer and, on one occasion, displaying a cloaking device. However, Sylia did not take part in the combat during the early part of the series because of unspecified health issues.

This version of Sylia is a human being without a doubt, but she was operated on and experimented on as a child by her father, who used both her and her mother as guinea pigs to help create his boomers. It also revealed that her younger brother, Mackey, is also a boomer, and that they are both directly connected to the super boomer creature, Galatea, AKA: The Sotai, for Galatea was created within Sylia. Sylia tries to destroy Galatea half way through the series on her own, but she is unsuccessful, and Galatea escapes, causing death and destruction in her wake. Sylia later tries to destroy her again but fails, and is left in a traumatized state, leaving the other Knight Sabers to fight the final battle alone.

Bubblegum Crisis
Bubblegum Crisis - Bubblegum Crash - Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
AD Police
AD Police Files - AD Police: To Serve and Protect
Similar setting
Parasite Dolls
Characters
Knight Sabers: Sylia Stingray - Priss Asagiri - Linna Yamazaki - Nene Romanova AD Police: Leon McNichol - Daley Wong - Chief Todo - Jeena Malso GENOM: Brian J Mason - Quincy Rosencroitz Other characters: Mackie Stingray - Fargo - Nigel Kirkland - Galatea - Boomers