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Bubblegum Crisis: Is Japanese Pop Star Crystal Kay the Answer to a 20-Year-Old Anime Soundtrack Mystery?

Her biggest fan in America says…‘hai!’

Paco Taylor
3 min readMar 30, 2024
Cover image of ‘Get On the Beat’ CD single featuring a painting of a blonde, partially nude cyborg woman against a black background.
Credit: Sony Music Publishing (Japan) Inc.

It’s somewhat astounding to think now that the dark, violent, sexy, and…(ahem) also sexually violent Bubblegum Crisis-related anime Parasite Dolls was released way back in 2003.

What’s so astounding about it?

Well, for 20 astounding years now, fans of Kazushi Miyakoda’s electronica-powered music for the anime have been left kinda clueless about the vocalist whose soulful, high-octane soprano is heard on “Get On the Beat,” the anime’s pulsating opening theme, and “Off,” its brooding closing tune.

That’s right — 20 years.

But then, we have to factor in the big, fat, super-relevant fact that the J-pop recording artist Crystal Kay (born in 1986) was only a sweet, 16-year-old girl when the very mature-themed Parasite Dolls OVA (original video animation) was released.

Cover image of ‘Parasite Dolls’ Soundtrack album featuring a close up of the blonde cyborg woman’s face.
Credit: Sony Music Publishing (Japan) Inc.

Easy logic suggests that it was for a good reason, possibly a scandal-dodging one, that the then-high school student’s actual name was withheld from the…

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Paco Taylor
Paco Taylor

Written by Paco Taylor

Paco writes about Eastern & Western pop culture, history, and art. He has bylines at CBR, G-Fan, Comics Beat, NeoText, and Nextshark | stpaco@gmail

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