Anime A nice 80s cyberpunk action romp (Episode 1 review)
Having watched Ninja Scroll and both Goku: Midnight Eye OVAs, I am definitively not a fan of Yoshiaki Kawajiri's work. Despite him being one of the most dominant creators in the American anime market of the 90s, I find his stories feeling like a slog to watch through, despite them leaning heavily on action and sex. Also, the fact that his films are saddled with wallpaper ambient synth tracks makes them feel even longer.
I was pleasantly surprised, then, watching the first episode of Cyber City Oedo. It had a good mystery element, and felt far better-paced than the two works I mentioned.
I can partly chalk it up to the music. I watched the Manga UK dub with Rory McFarlane's soundtrack. This is one of the few cases in which I can say that the Manga soundtrack was far superior to the OST. While the opening and ending were very good, the replacement of the soundtrack with an early '90s metal soundtrack greatly enhanced the overall aesthetic. The original soundtrack made it seem dry by comparison. Also, UNLIKE a lot of his other works, this episode had pretty typical 80s action movie violence, but no sex. It had a nice stripped-down feel.
Animation looks quite excellent, and still holds up. Also, although Oedo/Tokyo is sketched with a pretty typical Blade Runner-like aesthetic that was popular in late '80s anime, the future depicted still felt futuristic despite the 80s hair.
The characters seemed rather thinly sketched, but I felt that that was used as an asset; it allowed us to get to the plot with a minimum of exposition. I liked the lead of this episode's swagger; although this is one of the more infamous Manga dubs for "fifteening," it definitely added a bit of cheesy charm to the character. Overall, this OVA didn't pretend to be be anything more than—and delivered—a satisfying hour's worth of killed time.
Anime Can't be a "guilty pleasure" if you're not guilty about it...
Look, yes, okay, Cyber City Oedo 808 is most (in)famous today because of that one line about vampires. If you know, you know. If you don't, suffice to say this opening's here 'cause in my mind, just giggling at that one meme is like the young men on the playgrounds of my youth only discussing the nude scene in Starship Troopers.
I'm going to talk pretty positively about Cyber City in this review, but don't let any of my praise convince you this show is something it's not. It's 90's anime cyberpunk action cheese, where a Japanese man with a fantastic mullet, a cyborg giant hackerman, and an incredibly feminine semi-mystic all take turns having future crime adventures that have something ridiculous baked into them. I find these adventures very fun and charming, especially since most of them lack so much of the misogyny, misanthropy, nihilism, and Gorn that saturated the market back in the day, but if it's not your kind of trash you might not much to appreciate. (Or, you know, if you like those things, well, whatever.)
And I have to admit, I find the over-salted dub script just as unintentionally hilarious as the source material's inept attempts to shovel in English and discredited biology to look cool, and it's only made funnier by the fact that it was handled by a British dubbing company whose actors are affecting American accents but reading from a script that sometimes gets mixed up about what turns of phrase are and aren't common to American and British English. It's not a So Bad, It's Good show overall, but I find the genuinely good parts are greatly improved by the occasional splash of unintentional comedy.
Point being, Cyber City Oedo is a great way to cleanse myself whenever I've been forced to watch way too much modern stuff. Yes, it's derivative by the standards of its time, but the medium's moved so much since then that what was once cliche now feels refreshing. The action is pretty intense, but it's mostly fun rather than horrible. The stories are pulpy, but most of them are tied up in basic human plots that anyone can relate to: shady asshole coworkers, manipulative corporate and military bosses, evil old farts who just want to live forever no matter who it hurts. It's not just trying to mix together basic, primal cop show stuff with fun anime twists like cyborg sabertooth tigers with lasers inside their mouths, it's succeeding.
Yes, there's the odd plot beat that doesn't quite add up, mostly regarding the Explosive Leash and times where triggering it makes no sense. But I think I appreciate the times the show's being smart just as much as the times when it's being fun or hilariously stupid. It's not afraid to spend at least one scene an episode just letting the characters breathe and talk about their thoughts on the world and the themes of a given episode, or to make these people people rather than just empty "badasses" without humanity. It does a lot to make even Sengoku a bit more likable, along with his weirdly affectionate relationship with the lady cop who has a crush on him.
I guess, in short, while it's hardly perfect, Cyber City Uedo 808 does a good job of crystalizing what was good about shows of its time with what was bad in the best possible way, while leaving out stuff that was bad in a bad way. I recommend it heartily to modern anime fans who might want to try something like it out but would rather not commit to more uneven or long-form material.
And I really wish it got a full series rather than just these three brief episodes, because dang it, there was potential here enough for something like that to be really good!