Burn Up Scramble is a 2004 12-episode animetelevision series directed by Hiroki Hayashi. Though the basic premise is in keeping with its predecessors Burn Up! and Burn-Up Excess it is an entirely new series with some new and some old characters, and a very different art style. Like Burn-Up W and Burn-Up Excess, the series centers on a busty police officer and martial artist name Rio Kinezono, leader of the super-secret squad known as Warriors. She just wants to find love in her life... so much so that she often changes around her living arrangements just to attract the right man. So far, the only man she was able to attract is her perverted superior, Yuji Naruo... and he's being protected by Matsuri Tamagawa, his overly-zealous girlfriend. Her Warriors teammates are Maya Jingu, a quiet girl but an extreme gun-nut, and Lilica Evett, a shy and insecure telepath. In this series, Rio Kinezono is more interested in pursuing romance than fashion as in the earlier series. Her martial arts abilities are enhanced and she is even able to dodge bullets fired at her. The Maya Jingu character design is changed quite a bit, she has longer hair, shorter and less well endowed. Lilica Evette is a shy, insecure, and slightly clumsy psychic rather than the cheerfully energetic computer and tech expert. Yuji Naruo is now Head Chief rather than a fellow officer and driver, and continually makes inappropriate romantic overtures to Rio Kinezono instead of just being obsessed with seeing the girls in their underwear. The unnamed Commander is not involved in Warrior activities and has a more minor role than Maki the commander in the earlier series.
Plot
Set in AD. 2023, Tokyo the government is concerned about the increase in major criminal organizations, terrorists and other threats to the security of society. This leads to the formation of special extralegal police team from within the Metro Police Section 8 Branch called Warrior. Under their Commander, the team combines the talents of martial arts expert Rio Kinezono and skilled marksman and gun expert Maya Jingu. They are joined later by the shy Lilica Evette who uses her psychic powers to assist them in their crime-solving adventures. Later, the Police Council create obedient New Warriors to replace the original Warriors. These New Warriors are genetically modified humans with superhuman strength gained via drugs and based on data obtained from monitoring Rio and Maya's missions.
Characters
Although many of the characters in Burn Up Scramble share the same names as characters from Burn Up W and Burn Up Excess, they have undergone various changes in terms of art design, personality, and plot. ; Rio Kinezono ; Maya Jingu ; Lilica Evette ; Warriors Commander ; Yuji Naruo ; Matsuri Tamagawa ; New Warriors
Episodes
Release
Reception
Burn Up Scramble was quite a departure in visual style, character design and plot from the Burn Up W and Burn Up Excess anime. The computer-aided production came in for some criticism in the Anime News Network DVD review which suggested that it gave "the staff new ways of coming up with lazy shortcuts....the key frames and poses look loaded with energy but they're strung together by awkward motions that don't look like fighting at all."
