Donald F
Cyber City Oedo 808 (what a mouthful!) is low-brow alright. But its quite close to being so campy its legitimately good. Its got some cool sci-fi elements, with one of the trashiest dubs I've seen. The dialog wasn't just translated, but saturated with swears and even rewritten to suit a raunchier script. Thank God that happened, because they made some of the most awful, awesome lines in history, period! Its perfect for a show focused on guts and scrap metal over plot.Heck, the stories aren't that bad. In fact, they may even be too serious for this kind of show. Each episode focuses on a different member of the force, and display a unique aspect of this cyberpunk world. There are attempts to add more sympathetic characters than our trash-talking, violent ex-criminals, but they have too little time to make an impact.The worst part about the series? Honestly, its that there's only three episodes. You only scratch the surface of these characters and their explosive adventures. There's no over-arching plot in the OVAs, and no conclusion. I feel like I've watched three episodes from a TV series instead of a direct-to-video one. Where can I see the further adventurers of Sengoku, Gogol, and Benten? :c Ah well. Overall, its the exact junk food you want to watch occasionally. Its a 5 out of 10, but it doesn't get that rating for being boring, typical, or unwatchable. Definitely watch the English dub, preferably the U.K. edition if you want some kickin' synth rock.
tomson-7
A piece of antiquity in my eyes, brutal, blunt and abrasive, generally, a classic piece of 'lads cinema' - just as fun today as when I was twelve.The glory of Manga's cyberpunk collection, Cyber City is three episodes surrounding the collar-wearing criminal police force of a future 'neo-tokyo'.Full of classical clichés; the quick snapping hard man sporting a mullet and a snazzy red trench coat. The enormous, goggle garbed somehow Japanese- Italian- American computer hacker and oddly, a long haired transsexual - Bentin, with his flashy pedicure and exceptionally effective cheese knife.But, the wonder of Cyber City is its' shameless tough man aesthetics, (the sort of characters that say 'yeah I gotta a mullet/Mohawk or a nice pretty dress! What of it!) Simply striving off the spine-tingling, dramatic action that every fella is ashamed to love, knows he does but just doesn't know why. Cyber City is a show for the boys whatever age so long as the ladies aren't home, its just one of these boys' animations that the girls just cannot understand nor will they ever care to.So for a few tins, a blast from animation past, f'in, blinding, beating, killing and great cheesy action, it's a show and a half!
thepartyoftea
The series is about 3 cons who are working as cops to stop criminals in cases normal cops don't usually take to lower their prison sentence. The main character is in for 370 years.All 3 episodes in the movie have a strong sci-fi and almost X-Files feel to them. The X-Files piece pushed to an extreme. A little bit of detective work, connecting the dots and action.The series if full of some pretty colorful characters, but it lacked a main focus. It follows the 3 former cons as they hunt down baddies... but there's no main baddie. No big boss or organization. Maybe one would have come into focus in the later episodes if they made more, but no big baddie.So it was short, sweet and worth the $4.99 in the discount bin.
cobra31
I'll try not to repeat what previous reviewers have already stated but I agree strongly with much of their content. This is absolute classic anime and is not surprising given that it's made by the same guy who did Lensman, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter Bloodlust.It looks great and there's some great animation even though it perhaps looks slightly dated compared to modern day anime (it was made in 1990!!!). The stories are very sci-fi and you can see a lot of influences from 80s sci-fi cinema in there.There are some great sci-fi ideas in there as well some very imaginative fight scenes(eat your heart out Jackie Chan).If someone asked me to cite a definition of a classic Japanese anime, then this would be right up there.I watched the dubbed English version which, whilst slightly over the top, is probably better than watching the subtitled version by all accounts.It's a shame that there isn't more anime like this as I feel there is a lot of anime that isn't worth a second look.If you're vaguely into this sort of thing, then it's definitely worth a look. Have fun!
AD
