Scoop Chase is the eighth and final episode of the original Bubblegum Crisis series. It's directed by Katsuhito Akiyama, Hiroaki Gôda, Hiroki Hayashi, Masami Ôbari and Fumihiko Takayama; and written by Toshimichi Suzuki, Katsuhito Akiyama, Shinji Aramaki, Emu Arii, Hideki Kakinuma and Ken'ichi Matsuzaki; with the voices of Yoshiko Sakakibara, Kinuko Ômori, Michie Tomizawa and Akiko Hiramatsu.
During one of their typical Boomer hunts, the Knight Sabers spot a mysterious girl taking pictures of the team, Priss closes in on her and destroys her camera. The girl turns out to be Lisa Vanette, the niece of the chief of the A.D Police, and she just so happens to be put under the care of Nene as the girl tries to get close to the Knight Sabers and uses the A.D Police to that end. Nene finds out about Lisa's true intentions and attempts to conceal her secret life as a Saber while keeping a distance from Lisa. The tiny redhead also has to deal with her newly gained weight and bad training performance! Things go even worse when a Boomer attacks the A.D Police headquarters, trapping Nene and Lisa inside with a brand new and improved Boomer chasing them.
We have seen different episodes centering on individual members of the Knight Sabers, this final outing centers on Nene and it's one of the high points of the series. The show has been far from bad but these character driven episodes are more involving, they set the stakes higher and they amount to more resonating resolutions since we are presented with a familiarity with the characters that digs deeper into their intimacy and relatability as they struggle with some intense conflicts. This episode makes Nene deal with her insecurities and the usual heavy load that's often put on her at both of her jobs but these are things that she is able to overcome by trusting herself and counting with the support of her friends. Her virtues and troubles are very well presented and portrayed, incisively setting up and solving these issues while blending the subplots and the overall arc of the characters together seamlessly.
The episode unfolds with more or less the same formula: a new person is introduced who attempts to interfere with the Knight Sabers' fight against the Boomers, while a certain villain puts a secret plan in motion. However, things are more fast paced, comedic, pleasant and lively, fitting nicely considering this is a story focused on Nene. So tone-wise it's pretty perfect and features a more solid use of the typical plot beats in the formula by injecting them with more enjoyable interactions and more complex relationships between the protagonists and the antagonistic force in the story that eventually is changed into an ally, delivering solid moments like when Sylvia has a little speech about the Sabers and the Boomers or expanding the world by showing how the Saber Knights play round and train.
For a lot of the series you almost forget certain aspects like how Sylvia owns a lingerie store or even the character of Mackie, but this one at least has the decency to mention some of this stuff and bring it all back. When the Sabers show up for Nene in one of the concluding scenes, it really encapsulates how this team works and the strong bond that has been seen on occasion and that is present implicitly but that shines brightly in moments like these from time to time, kind of making it a very good ending overall. You can tell they sort of knew that this could be the very last one as evidenced by the opening credits sequence and its devotion of time to every single important character in the show.
Featuring the obligatory bombastic and excellently crafted battle/mechanical action animation and investing more time on its characters with such a well handled self-contained plot that at the same time closes the story appropriately and gracefully, this final episode encapsulates everything anyone can find to love and take delight in when it comes to Bubblegum Crisis. Possibly one of the best if not the best.
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