Well... I don't know how true that is for Bubblegun Crisis... atleast not initially... maybe later, but not at first.
Since Cyberpunk (2013 as it is known as now), and Cyberpunk 2020 where both released befor Bubblegum Crisis was available to the American audience.
CP2013 was released in 88, so a year after Bubblegum Crisis came out in Japan. Where as CP2020 came out in 1990, 3 years after. Which makes it possible that Pondsmith got a hold of it befor he released his games... but ... Bubblegum Crisis was not available to the American audience untill 1991, when a subtitled version came out... in 94 they started making a dubbed version (which I do not know why anyone would subject oneself to the horrors of dubbed anime).
So the orginal concept for 2020 was most likely not Bubblegum Crisis... that would not have came untill a few years later in the additional sorcebooks which where released after either 1991'ish or 1994'ish (depending on when he actually first encountered it). I don't denie the connection between the two... just at what point the connection actually started.
And actually, the biggest connection I seem to see between Pondsmith and Bubblegum Crisis is that he was part of the making of the Bubblegum Crisis roleplaying game, which came out in 97... and that he (even though he does not seem to have been the main contributer here), and his companies pnp rpg for Bubblegum Crisis, influenced the actual lore of Bubblegum Crisis. Not so much about that this particular anime influenced his original vision of CP2013 and CP2020.
