Saibâ shiti Oedo 808

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.

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 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.

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.

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)