Cyber City Oedo 808:
Episodes 1-3
(Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(1990)
review by Catwalk

Cyber City Oedo 808 follows all the rules an imported TV series is supposed to. They've become so commonplace, that we may as well put it into song form:

(deep breath)

Verse One:

The bad guy is going to be linked to technology somehow,

The good guys will not really be good

They'll be suckered into a situation that makes them heroes,

And defeat the evil dudes like we knew they would

Chorus:

Oooooooh…..

Don't listen to the English track, just watch the subtitles instead,

I bet by the 40 second mark, sixteen Tokyo police are dead

Verse Two:

The amount of blood and fire couldn't fit into a real live budget,

But we don't care cause we can draw it,

The chicks will all dress like the hair bands from the mid 80's metal scene,

Don't pretend you never saw it

Repeat Chorus, throw in some guitar solos and sell it to the Knight Sabers for a comeback tour.

The premise is outright tired: three convicted criminals are offered a deal from the police. If they go out and catch other criminals, their sentences are reduced. Oh, and there's a Hasegawa, because every anime movie needs a Hasegawa. It's in the by-laws.

Cyber City does a great job tuning some of the usual anime themes to a more horrific side. The first three episodes feature some great themes including ghosts and vampires, and, I quote “an ultimate killing machine”. Specifics give Cyber City some cool nods above the norm. The mix of technology with some of the mystic tones is well done, especially in episode one.

The DVD contains three episodes. The first episode pits our would-be heroes infiltrating the tower that reigns high above the city. The computer system has been compromised, there are thousands of hostages, and they must get to the root of the problem. Uggh, I think I just made a unix joke without meaning to. Once Gogul gets to the man at the helm, however, things get really odd.

Episode Two makes the good-guy criminals track down a traitor of the Cyber City Police. The black market for body parts provides a cool scenario. Episode Three sends the protagonists on the trail of a vampire, and ties it to a computer virus.

Like we sang above, the English version is a huge dropoff from the subtitled version. The switch from clever sarcasm to outright Long Island vulgarity is quite a step to Americanize the content. It takes things a little too far, like using a 747 to jump a mud puddle. The Benton character, by far the most metrosexual of the bunch, has a voice like phone sex with Optimus Prime.

Twenty minutes in, viewers will either love or hate the show depending on if they can overcome the aspects that have become stereotypical, and Varsus, the most annoying robot since Buck Rogers' Twiki.