well, I guess we agree to disagree.  I too don't
want to start a flame war, but IMHO, the ways I
see 2040 as better than the original is as follows:

1. the 2040 series picked up all the 'loose
pieces' of a story that the original OAV's had and
woven them into an operable and usable story.  I
just re-watched the original series and had to
laugh at the skeleton story they used.  It seemed
to me that they used their mecha and character
design to 'fill the holes' of the story.  I really
liked the way the 2040 team made references to the
original via the story - made it feel more 'homey'
to me.

2. Character developement was much better.  In the
first two series, other than knowing what they did
for an occupation, you didn't have much of a
motivational factor of why these girls did what
they did.  In 2040, you knew that Sylia had a
'payback' writen all over her face, Priss did it
for the money (and a 'grudge'), Linna wanted to be
the 'super hero' and Nene wanted to actually do
something to round out her 'public service' self
(cause working the switchboard at ADP didn't cut
it I guess).  Yes, 2040 did have 2.5 times more
episodes than the first two series combined, but
still...

3. I don't have your background in making
animation, so I can't say that the 2040 animation
is of a lower quality.  It is simpler, but I don't
think it's inferior.  It might be lacking on the
details that the earlier series had, but that may
be due to style.  But then again, what do I know.
 I guess this is better for me that you don't like
them - like you say, that's one less person to
compete for cel ^_^!   

Again I don't want to start a flame war either - I
like that we can discuss our differences in opnion
witihout having to resort to flames.  I don't
think that the above will persuade you one way or
the other, however, but its good to see the other
side of the story too!

buma-