Cyber City Oedo 808
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Cyber City Oedo 808 is a Japanese Cyberpunk anime set in the year 2808 in the city of Oedo (the new name of Tokyo). It was created by Yoshiaki Kawajiri who was heavily responsible for such shows as Lensman, Space Cobra and Goku: Midnight Eye, Yoju Toshi (Wicked City), Jubei ninpucho (Ninja Scroll) and . He also took part in the Animatrix project.
Plot
To combat computerised crime, the Cyber Police of the future city of Oedo employ criminals with a history of hi-tech offences. For duty served, each criminal receives a reduction in their prison sentence in orbital penitentiary. However, each case must be solved within a certain period of time, or an explosive collar will detonate and behead the criminal.
There are three episodes, each one serves as the personal adventures of a member of the team (the UK release had different titles to the episodes than other markets)
- Episode 1; Virtual Death (Time Bomb); Sengoku is sent to save 50,000 people trapped in a skyscraper. Along the way, he finds that the only suspect is a dead man.
- Episode 2; Psychic Trooper (The Decoy); Goggles' investigation of a murder pits him against a experimental military cyborg as he tries to rescue his ex-partner. Also during this episode, we see at least one other cyber-criminal trying to remove his collar (unsuccessfully), so we know that there are more than our three anti-heroes being employed by the police.
- Episode 3; Blood Lust (The Vampire); The murder of geneticists leads Benten to investigate one man's quest for immortality, as well as finding a young woman transformed into a vampire because of this quest.
Characters
- Gabimaru Rikiya, also known as Goggles; Ex heavy weight boxer, has electronic eyes and a mowhawk. An expert computer hacker who once used his talents to hack into government datasites and hold them for ransom.
- Merill Yanagawa, also known as Benten; Favours a monowire (Shamisen) as his personal weapon. Also an expert gymnast. Often fond of reading omens from the alignment of stars.
- Sengoku Syunsuke; Very anti-social and anti-authority . Uses a high velocity pistol as weapon of choice and swears a lot. Fond of teasing Benten because of his effeminate looks.
- Juzo Hasegawa; Cyber Police officer responsible for controlling the cyber criminals used by the police. Possesses a device that acts as both communicator between police and cyber criminals and detonation/reset device for the explosive collars.
- Okyo Jonouchi; Secretary to Hasegawa.
- Varsus; Robotic liaison between the cyber criminals and the police.
Influences
- The explosive collars might be an influence from the movie The Running Man. Later, the use of the explosive collar was also a plot device used in the Koushun Takami novel "Battle Royale".
- Oedo stands for Oriental Electric Darwinism Oasis; it is also derived from Edo, the pre-meiji era name of Tokyo. 808 is a pun referring to the numbers of sections that 18th century Edo was divided into.
- The weapon of the Cyber Police is often mistaken for a sai. It actually is a jutte, a weapon used by law enforcers during the Edo period. Note that the Cyber Police's jutte has a retractable blade which can also shoot. The jutte is not only a weapon but also the proof of its handler being part of the Cyber police. This is the reason why it is the only weapon common to all three protagonists.
- Promotional pictures of Cyber City often show the three protagonists with cherry blossoms (sakura) floating in the air. As it symbolized the ephemerality of life, that flower was often associated with both samurai and kamikaze. The symbol is reprised in Cyber City, because Sengoku, Goggles and Benten can die at any moment. Yet, they are not facing deadly danger out of duty (giri) but to selfishly save their lives and regain their freedom.
- Goggles fights the MOLCOS, a "psychic trooper" on a tower that looks much like Tokyo Tower, a popular location for many Japanese monster movies (kaiju).
- Creative designers Yoshiaki Kawajiri & Masao Maruyama cite the films of John Woo and Star Wars as main influences on the design of the 3 features.
Trivia
- The end of File 1, Virtual Death, had Sengoku poised to murder Hasegawa. The first episode was intended to be a one off before success meant another two episodes and an inconvenient plot hole. The U.S. release, however, was changed to reflect this, instead showing two Chinese criminals.
- Certain VHS copies in the UK were sold with "data cards" with the three main characters vital statistics included on them.
- Since its debut in 1990 creators Yoshiaki Kawajiri & Masao Maruyama are still unhappy that the opening title shot that spells "Oedo" does not evenly line up.
- The original concept of Oedo was to be similar to the comedic "Lupin the III" but as the project developed the films took on a much darker tone.
- All of the extensive computer graphics used in each episode were actually hand drawn since the production was made before the age of digital media.
- Oedo was created shortly after "Goku: Midnight Eye" and shares many of the same production values.
Voices
Sengoku
Hiroya Ishimara - (Japanese), Bruce Martin - (English)
Goggles
Tesshou Genda - (Japanese), Sean Barrett - (English)
Benten
Kaneto Shiozawa - (Japanese), Daniel Flynn - (English)
Hasegawa
Norio Wakamoto - (Japanese), Bob Sherman (actor) - (English)
Varsus
Kyousei Tukui - (Japanese), Nigel Greaves - (English)
External links
- [Cyber City Oedo 808] at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- [www.oedo.net]
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