Review of Cyber City Oedo 808

Introduction

If there is one thing that I have learned about the anime industry in the West, it`s how ephemeral it all is. Your average Hollywood blockbuster is a classic novel in comparison to the weekly magazine nature of anime. You`ll be able to buy a copy of Jaws 3D whenever fancy takes you, but a classic like Paranoia Agent will have 5 years at most to make an impact on fans in the West, before it vanishes in to the mists of history. Much of that is due to the way the industry is structured, Hollywood studios make, market and distribute their product, and they also have permanence, with some companies as old as cinema itself. Anime on the other hand is only distributed in the West, not made, and those distributors are comparative mayflies, with only the most robust companies seeing 10 years of existence. Their product is licensed from Japan, and those licences are short-lived things. It means that anime is a `now` thing, with only the most significant titles going on to have any long-term impact. It`s a distinction that has caught me out on more than one occasion as my wallet finally creaks open long after a licence has expired. The moral of this story is that if there is an anime that you like, then by all means wait for a sale if you want a bargain, but don`t wait too long lest you miss your opportunity completely.


I didn`t know it at the time, but shows like Dogtanian and Mysterious Cities of Gold were indoctrinating me to a whole new medium. The first time I actually realised that I had fallen for the charms of anime was when Channel 4 ran their Late Licence strand. It was the first explosion of anime in the UK, when Manga Video was releasing every violent action series under the sun, and tabloid newspapers were apoplectic in their rants. I had already seen Akira, and loved it, but had considered it a one off. When I saw shows like Legend Of The Four Kings, Demon City and most especially Cyber City Oedo 808, I knew that I was on to a good thing. I loved Cyber City, it was like three cyberpunk action movies, but actually better than anything Hollywood could do. When I got round to buying it on video, I found out that Manga had created the Cyberpunk collection, so just to make the videos look nice on the shelf, I wound up buying AD Police and Genocyber as well.


When the DVD age dawned, it took me a while to find that anime habit again, but I was patient, and when Manga Entertainment released AD Police on DVD, I figured it was just a matter of time (the less said about Genocyber the better), and I waited, and then I waited some more. But recently, and belatedly, I found out that Manga Entertainment`s licence had long since expired, and the odds of an old OVA series like Cyber City coming out in the UK, were long indeed. I turned to the US market, usually more robust and long term than the UK, but I found that the company that had the rights to Cyber City, Central Park Media, had imploded in 2006. Region 1 copies of the show are still available, but they are selling at ridiculous sums of money, even with the exchange rate taken into account. Fortunately, Madman Entertainment in Australia have sub-licenced the old CPM disc, and an avenue of import still exists. But if this title interests you, I`d advise you not to procrastinate.


In the year 2808, crime is rampant, and the Cyber Police have to take unorthodox measures. Chief Hasegawa recruits criminals to track down criminals. He offers three hardened long term convicts the chance of parole. Sengoku, Benten and Goggles are each serving 300 years sentences in an orbital prison, but if they agree to work for the police, then each criminal caught will knock a few years off their sentences. But to keep them from resuming their former careers, they will have to wear explosive collars. Not only keeping them on the straight and narrow, each mission assigned to them has to be completed by a literal deadline.

Three OVA episodes were completed for Cyber City Oedo 808, and all three are presented on this disc, along with extra features.


1. Time Bomb
There`s trouble at the space-scraper. A mysterious hacker, who wants the building`s chief designer dead, targets this miles high building. Soon the building`s systems are compromised, people are being held hostage in an elevator 700 floors up, the security systems are killing anyone trying to attempt a rescue, and someone`s trying to get control of satellite weaponry. Goggles, Benten and Sengoku have 24 hours to find the hacker, rescue the hostages and protect architect Dave Kurokawa from his hidden assailant. Kurokawa is out of touch, having locked himself away, and the first thing that Sengoku has to do is to contact him, but time`s running out, when the gyroscopic system keeping the building upright is shut down. Worst of all, the chief suspect behind the crime has been dead for fifteen years.


2. The Decoy
Goggles is on the trail of another criminal turned Cyber Policeman who has sold classified data. Sengoku investigates the mysterious death of a man, apparently killed by a military robot, while Benten is on the trail of a group trafficking in human body parts. It all ties in to the military. There are certain people who aren`t pleased with letting the criminals police the criminals, and look to depose Hasegawa and the Cyber Police as the city`s main line of defence. To that end, they have created a cyborg policeman with psionic abilities, but to convince the government they need an effective test. Goggles is being set up to become the opponent in a fight to the death.


3. The Vampire
At the same time that Benten is making the acquaintance of a mysterious girl, a series of brutal murders are taking place. In seemingly inaccessible locations, illegal bio-researchers are dying of horrific throat trauma, and an odd code number is scrawled in their blood on the walls. The murders are quickly attributed to a vampire, and the Cyber Police are on the case. As Benten investigates, he finds his way impeded on all sides, including by an old ally. The leads all point to Shuzo Saionji, a wizened old philanthropist who lives in a space station on the top of a space elevator. Saionji is looking for the secret of eternal life, and he doesn`t care how many corpses he leaves in the process. Benten will have to choose between his heart and his duty.

Video

The 4:3 regular transfer is acceptable given a show that is rapidly approaching its 20th year. It`s clear enough, and as sharp as you would expect from a tape source. It also looks to be a PAL transfer, so the pans are smooth and there isn`t any problem with ghosting, aliasing or significant judder. That said, the cel animation is a little faded, the blacks may as well be greys, there is a bit of grain and print damage as well as some minor compression. The OVA animation is superb, and the character designs impressive. A cyberpunk story made in 1990 means that there is more than a token nod to Blade Runner in the world design, which is not a bad thing at all in my book. What`s more is that there are a couple of sci-fi ideas brought to life quite effectively here, with the space elevator and cyborgs really quite effective.

It`s worth noting that the on screen text is in the original kanji, not the Manga translated versions, so the subtitles are used to generate English translated overlays.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 2.0 English and Japanese as well as translated subtitles or signs. This is the second worst dub ever committed to tape, and one to be avoided at all costs. The Manga dub is notorious for being poorly laced with profanity (as if written by someone who has never cursed in his life), and acted without a hint of talent. People still point at this dub and laugh derisively, it`s one of the reasons that anime still continues to engender odd comments and strange looks, and I have had to work my way through it to get to the story underneath for the past 15 years.

Fortunately that is no longer necessary, as the original Japanese track is here, and is the soundtrack of choice for anyone interested in the show. It`s a shock to realise that the characters don`t actually swear, but once you get past that, you hear performances that suit the characters, performed by actors who actually care about what they are doing. It was as if I was watching the show for the first time.


But, Manga did two things right. First they changed the ridiculous Goggles to Gogul (actually in keeping with the Japanese pronunciation), and second they re-scored the music. Normally I am a fan of all things original, and this was in that period when music for Manga meant Metal. Fast beats and guitars that would make your ears bleed were the order of the day, but in this case they actually suited the story of Cyber City. The new theme tunes were excellent, and the incidental music worked with the action. Alas this music is gone for this release in both language versions, and the original j-pop and power ballad theme songs seem remarkably insipid and inappropriate in comparison. But it`s a small sacrifice for the original language track, and while they don`t lift the story, they don`t detract from it either.

With the subtitles, if you select the signs track, you get the English language cast overlaid on the credit sequences; with the subtitles you get the Japanese cast.

If you`re keeping score, the worst dub I have ever encountered is Angel Cop.

Features

That was a shock; I clicked on Trailers and found that the Australians also have to suffer the indignity of a "you wouldn`t tease a mongoose" anti piracy trailer. There are also trailers for other Yoshiaki Kawajiri products, Demon City Shinjuku and Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust. There is also a trailer here for Samurai Gun.


There are audio commentaries here for the first two episodes. Yoshiaki Kawajiri, director is joined by Masao Maruyama from Madhouse animation, and Masumi Homma and John (I`m assuming O`Donnell) from Central Park Media. These were recorded in 2003, 13 years after the animation was originally released so there is quite a bit of objectivity to the retrospective analysis. They talk about the characters, the stories, and the staff that worked on the animation, the process of making the show, and the difference between the OVA format to television and theatrical presentations. These are good commentaries and well worth a read. They`re in Japanese so you`ll quite obviously have to rely on the subtitles.


You get a 7-minute slideshow that offers stills and promo-art in an Art Gallery. The Sketch Gallery is a 2½-minute slideshow of line art.

There are also 4 minutes of the Cyber City trailers.

Conclusion

Thank God for that original language track. I don`t know how many more times I could have suffered that dub without eating the videotape. Seriously though, if you like cyberpunk, then this OVA series is a must have. Unlike many of its contemporaries, it hasn`t aged at all badly. The stories are just as watchable today as they were 15 years ago. A lot of it has to do with the stories themselves; they are strong, well-written efforts that hold up under the test of time. They are basic sci-fi staples that you see time and again, crossed with a decent action movie mindset, the sort of thing that kept Arnold Schwarzenegger in clover during the eighties and early nineties.


The structure of the short-lived series is judged well too. We have three main characters and three episodes, and the maths is easy even for me. Each episode is spent on developing one character and telling his story. In effect they are three mini-movies. And regardless of which character you prefer, the standard is consistent throughout. We focus on Sengoku first of all, in an episode that quickly sets up the premise before moving on to the story. It`s a cyberpunk Die Hard, with a skyscraper siege prompted by the sort of thing that you usually expect in Ghost In The Shell. The building is actively seeking to murder one of its inhabitants, and it`s down to Sengoku to solve the case, and his personality comes strongly into play. He`s the sort of rebel anti-authoritarian figure who always looks cool in a red coat, and always takes time to look after his quiff. Reckless and brazen, he insists in doing things his own way, and he makes for an entertaining hero.


The second story sees Goggles take centre stage in a story that riffs heavily on Robocop 2. The military don`t want to see criminals in the police, so have developed a cyborg cop of their own. They need to test it of course, so they choose a target for practice. They use someone from Goggles` past to set him up, and so he has an extra thirst for revenge. Of course our hero is going to prevail, but the solution he comes up with is interesting, with just enough science in, to make you think about pulling out a textbook. Goggles is big, brawny and mean, just enough of a B.A. Baracus outlook to overcome that ridiculous name. This is probably the best episode on the disc, making use of all the characters well, and telling an engaging if hackneyed story.


The final story is the weakest, not least for the vampire imagery, which seems to be a Kawajiri staple. There`s something incongruous about gothic imagery in a future milieu that doesn`t quite click in this episode, and Benten`s backstory is a little too similar to Goggles`. Still, this is the more romantic of the episodes; suitable as Benten is the most poetic at heart of the characters, always looking for portents in the heavens. He`s an early example of the white-haired androgynous male anime character, a little too fond of the lip-gloss, but making a stand for elegance and gentility in a lethal killer. His weapon of choice is a monofilament wire that he uses to dismember his foes, and oddly it isn`t accompanied by copious sprays of blood.


It`s a shame that the OVA format has fallen into disuse of late. It allows for so much more than the usual television format, stories can run to their natural lengths, a little more blood and guts are permissible, and you can get away with stuff that broadcast rules just wouldn`t allow. The result here is in these perfectly formed episodes that tell three interesting stories, with consistently strong animation. Cyber City Oedo 808 gets a well thought out future design, along with appealing characters, which still holds up after all these years. There are no caveats with this series, and it`s an automatic recommendation. The drawback with the OVA format is that this is all you get. After putting in all the hard work of creating these characters and this world, a full-length series would have been nice.