Princess Robot Bubblegum

Futurist Tokyo, the setting of Princess Robot Bubblegum.

Princess Robot Bubblegum (プリンセス ロボット バブルガム) is a fictional anime series featured in the GTA IV Era.

Description

Princess Robot Bubblegum is a general parody of shōjo (young female) anime, however it incongruously mixes this with tropes of violent shōnen (young male) and seinen (mature male) programs, science fiction and hentai (pornographic anime). Aside from general stereotypes of anime, it references:

  • Sailor Moon: PRB herself bears a heavy resemblance to Sailor Moon, including her sexual image (Sailor Moon wears a skimpy schoolgirl's outfit, among other controversies) and also share similar superpowered transformation scenes. Other heroines in the series, like PRB, sport unnatural hair colors such as pink, blue and green.
  • Final Fantasy: The video game merchandise is an obvious parody of the Final Fantasy games. Also, Sword Boy's androgynous appearance, large sword, and moody demeanor parodies Final Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud Strife.
  • Naruto: Like PRB, the eponymous protagonist is an orphan who trains to be a Ninja.
  • Dragon Ball: Master Hentai is somewhat based on Dragon Ball's Master Roshi. In another scene, an elderly woman is mugged by a superpowered blonde male bearing extreme resemblance to one of Dragon Ball's "Saiyan" characters.
  • Pokémon: Saki is partially inspired by Pikachu, who was, at least in the beginning of the series, a "cute, but utterly useless sidekick", heavily exploited for merchandising. PRB's "naturally pink hair" could be a reference to Jessie, an antagonist sporting outrageously large pink hair. Her sidekick, James, is an almost inappropriately effeminate male, much like Sword Boy.
  • Super Sentai: Even though the Super Sentai series is a live-action tokusatsu series, a group of rainbow colored warriors are seen battling a giant monster/robot at the start of the show.
  • Transformers: An American tourist encounters a used panties machine which transforms into a killer robot.


In Grand Theft Auto IV, PRB is only mentioned in a radio advertisement, however in The Ballad of Gay Tony, the program itself appears on television, specifically on CNT. Within the game universe, it courts controversy, with Weazel News in GTA IV reporting on a protest by Asian Americans against the airing of the anime. Also, in the PSP version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, there are many advertisements of PRB throughout Liberty, mostly in Dukes and Bohan.

File:PRB.jpg
Princess Robot Bubblegum

Cast

  • Princess Robot Bubblegum: The eponymous protagonist. She fights the forces of evil and darkness with a robotic power suit which shoots missiles from its chest. She owns a cell phone which transforms into a vibrator. Her catchphrase is "Too horny to fight crime".
  • Master Hentai: PRB's sensei. He trains PRB after her ninja parents leave her on his doorstep. He tells PRB that she must train in skimpy clothing for merchandising purposes. It is revealed that Master Hentai is a pedophile, and his cane is shaped like a penis. His name refers to the aforementioned pornographic anime.
File:Lowly Master.jpg
Master Hentai
  • Saki: PRB's alcoholic and drug abusing floating animal sidekick. He is seen drinking a malt beverage, then promptly vomiting in Master Hentai's dojo, peeing in the graveyard scene, and overdosing on a speedball during the final fight sequence. His name refers the Japanese alcoholic rice beverage of the same name.
  • Sword Boy: An effeminate blind teenage samurai whom PRB encounters during her quest. As a child, his parents were burned to death in a freak onion volcano accident which left him blind. Sword Boy is seeking the Shogun of Teppanyaki for revenge.

Trivia

  • The title character's voice in GTA IV's PRB commercial is a mock-Asian caricature; in The Ballad of Gay Tony, she has the American accent more typical of dubbed characters.
  • Characters in PRB often break the fourth wall, mentioning the show's writers, translators, future episodes, and merchandising.
  • In a scene of Master Hentai's dojo, a banner can be seen hanging on a wall, which is written in Japanese, saying "忍者は毎日オナニー", whcih translates to "All Ninjas Should Masturbate Every Day".
  • Master Hentai comically refers to the 2Pac and B.I.G. feud, when talking about the forces of Evil (personified as an Akuma spirit) and Darkness (personified as a Godzilla-esque monster), "One is east coast and the other is west coast! And if you listen to the tracks, they sound totally different..."
  • Master Hentai's Forehead looks like an asshole.

Video

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External link