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. Her name is pronounced like Celia and her original OVA voice actress wasYoshiko Sakakibara.
[edit] Background
In both the original OAV and the TV series remake, Sylia is the ring leader of the Knight Sabers, a four-woman group armed with high power combat armored suits to combat the monstrous cyborg boomers mass produced by GENOM. Sylia is the daughter of Dr. Katsuhito Stingray, the man who created the boomers. He was murdered by Genom executive Brian J. Mason and his death covered as an accident, but he managed to send Sylia a data unit which provided her with the technological means of creating the Knight Sabers' hardsuits.
Sylia is a brilliant scientist in her own right as well as a wealthy businesswoman whose business ventures finance her team, with her primary business being the fashion boutique she runs named The Silky Doll, which also functions as the Knight Sabers base of operations. She also stands 179 cm in both series.
Several questions about Sylia and her origins are raised in the series, but never answered. The comic by Adam Warren "Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal" revolves around Warren's idea that Sylia has a nanotechnologically-enhanced brain. Suzuki Toshimichi of Artmic has been quoted as saying that Sylia has an augmented brain, and is said to have approved of Warren's comic.
[edit] Original Series
In the original series Sylia had short black hair and brown eyes, a cool, enigmatic, almost stoic demeanor, and was 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 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.
After her father was murdered by Genom while she was a child, she grew up to found the Knight Sabers. Under her leadership the Knight Sabers combat Genom's unethical secret projects that normal law enforcement is powerless to stop.
Sylia's 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 white 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 halfway 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 Galatea again but fails. This final failure starts a chain of events that culminates with Galatea hacking into Mackey's brain and destroying his AI. Sylia is so traumatized by Mackey's 'death' that all she can do is sit and watch over his inanimate body. As a result, she must leave the other Knight Sabers to fight the final battle alone.
| Bubblegum Crisis | |
| Bubblegum Crisis - Bubblegum Crash - Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 | |
| AD Police | Similar setting |
|---|---|
| AD Police Files - AD Police: To Serve and Protect | 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 | |
