Saibâ shiti Ôedo 808

Having never been a Manga fan, I saw this on a late-night Channel 4 run early 90's, as there was absolutely nothing else on BBC 1,2 or ITV worth watching at that time of night. There was no cable or Sky TV in my household back then. Luckily, C4 put all 3 episodes on back-to-back, as I was gripped from the opening few moments. I still don't consider myself a Manga fan, but truly believe this transcends the art form. The story of the 3 criminals being used as utterly expendable assets, barely registering as people by the Oedo police force, is dark, humorous and very compelling. Give it a watch if you can find it whether a Manga fan or not - it thoroughly deserves full marks in my opinion.

Welcome to Cyber City Oedo.

Cyber City is pretty good. The story is that three Cyber criminals decide on taking high risk jobs with the police or stay in prison. They take the job in hopes that they can one day be free again. That is just the intro to the series.

The three episodes rely mostly on one of our heroes for their time to shine and character development, if little development at all. The plots for each episode are clearly sci-fi. The heroes are pretty likable and have some serious attitude.(They are criminals after all). This only went on for three episodes that I know of. For what it's worth, the three episodes are fun to watch and are a little longer than I thought.

The voice acting: The Japanese acting is terrible. With all do respect, they sound awful. It's as if they are merely just reading their lines without a care at all. The English voice acting is awesome. Like watching a good movie good. Plus the English dialog is much better than the original dialog that is boring and dull, the new dialog is strong, gritty, vulgar, and up in your face!

The animation: Superior. For 1990, they set the standard here. The animation is very close to flawless as anime can get. A little dated now but still good looking.

The Last Word: Nice. Not to much to say here though. This only lasted three episodes. Did not get a chance to shine. Shame. This wasn't bad. I liked this.

The plot might seem simple and well worn, three criminals offered a reprieve if they take the cases for the Police that no-one else will take, but the development has been truly awesome. Indeed, I have brought the series several times, only to have people who were friends be prepared to become enemies, just for a chance to run off with my copy.

Curiously, I loathe most Manga with its convoluted and contrived stories and gross out monsters ravaging innocent little girls, yet this avoids all that junk and deeply appeals, even to me. Each f the tales is told in the style of the three, highly imaginative characters: Sengoku, a sort of Sam Spade of the 28th Century: Gogul, a monstrous thug who is also a grandmaster at computer-hacking and Bensen, a transvestite who, despite all his shinny nail varnish, is an expert assassin.

Sadly, the series has one, monumental drawback, THEY ONLY EVER MADE THREE. Why, I have no idea. I even phoned the studio in frustration when I discovered this, yet was blandly assured that the project simply ran for three episodes and then they moved onto something else. It's like breaking the home-run record for a season and then quitting baseball before you've picked up the trophy. Now that was a TRUE CRIME ...worthy of Senguku.

I first saw this on Channel 4 (UK) when it was aired here in 1994/5 and I was blown away, one of the reasons was the amazing Rory Mcfarlane UK edition alternative rock and electronica score which fit it perfectly.

Unfrotunatly not nearly enough people, let alone anime fans themselves have even heard of this which is a shame. Im no die hard anime fan who watches all these new random animes but i do like a well produced one and the guy who created this created Ninja Scroll (which i also have)! Its a very well realized, animated, written OVA although its short with only three episodes, its very sweet. I highly recommend this for any anime and cyberpunk fan who wants to see where cyberpunk began and was at it best.

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!