Saibâ shiti Ôedo 808

Now this is what you call cyberpunk, one of my favorite genres. Something like this couldn't be recreated today. The washed out colours, the style, it all works together to produce something that's unmistakably cyberpunk.

Cyber City isn't as well known as Akira and Battle Angel, but it should be. This can easily rub shoulders with the more popular cyberpunk anime.

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!

You Know, without Lee Marvin the Dirty Dozen just wouldn't have worked. But here I think he would probably be surplus to requirements.

This is a very enjoyable fillm/series, however the version I witnessed suffered from a very irritating affectation of dubbing companys - that of inserting expletives every few words. This is normally done in an attempt to gain a higher classification and raise the films status in some way.

The film itself is rather enjoyable, several convicts recruited to fight crime etc.. etc.. the plot makes more sense than some other 'concatonated-series' films as everything has been left in and new plot clinching characters are not neglected untill the final reel.

Hours of fun. (well, just)

Cyber City Oedo (CCO) probably isn't taking up too much space on the Blockbuster videoshelves just lately, in fact you'd be pushed to find it in any major retailing store.

But if you like Sci Fi (Blade Runner in particular) and also know about the world of Japanese Manga & Anime (Akira) then you're in luck because CCO is just such a film that you really must try to hunt down.

CCO comes in three 50 minute episodes following the fortunes of three prison convicts, who have being allowed to reduce their life terms if they carry out dangerous police detective work for the city of Oedo (formerly Tokyo).

All three episodes are surprisingly rich in character development & storyline coupled with some truly excellent cell-animation. Don't be put off into thinking that because its animated its nothing more than a 50 minute cheap cartoon! A lot of work & attention to detail has been put in to make the episodes as real & compelling as possible.

The real bonus is the wonderfully haunting soundtrack at the end each chapter and that the dubbing into English (so often a big let down with most Japanese conversions) is really well done.

Try and track the series down, it will be well worth it.

****/*****

Yoshiaki Kawajiri once again takes the helm and delivers one of the best Anime series of it's kind.

Kawajiri is no stranger to anime, having directed the fantastic Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D he knows how to make them good.

As with the other films it's quality all round. Meticulous detail has gone into the artwork and animation to create a truly atmospheric cyber futuristic setting which looks amazing.

As with many others I saw this in the UK on it's first broadcast on Channel 4 and having been somewhat of a stranger to anime back then, having only seen parts of Akira, needless to say I was completely blow away by it. Something just struck a chord from the fantastic artwork, the rich and colourful characters to the incredible soundtrack by Rory McFarlane (One of the first things to grab me!)

I cannot stress enough the importance of this now discontinued UK edition of the series. The voice acting is exceptionally well done (rare for an anime!) and the music is a stunning 80's prog/synth metal charger in the vein of Vince Dicolas Transformers (1986)

In Martial Arts films I prefer subtitles, but in anime, due to the vast amount of visual work on screen I prefer dubbing as looking away to read subs takes some of the enjoyment away.

It is such a shame they only ever made 3 episodes. For ages (Pre internet) I searched for more episodes only to discover there were none, but in a way this only adds to the vintage that is Cyber city!

Thrilling, epic, action packed and brilliant!

Get it!