Cyber City Oedo 808

This series is a very solid piece of work. In my current binge of watching more from the Golden Era, I decided that following on from Angel Cop, Cyber City was next and my goodness was a glad it was. Angel Cop was good, don't get me wrong, but everything that Angel Cop was missing this had and everything Angel Cop had, this had it but better.

The show takes its time to make a prominent statement about what it's actually about, the premise behind the show. This I find lacking too often in the Golden Era. The effort is put on at the ... beginning to set you up nicely for the story which is about to unfold. Firstly however I will comment on the music and animation.

The animation is perfect as far as I'm concerned. Throwing the limits of the era to one side, it really is perfect. It's a very blue heavy colour pallette but I believe it work perfectly. The characters are drawn exceptionally well and the action sequences are spot on. What I did find interesting is it seemingly borrowed some idea in its third episode from Angel Cop. For those who have seen Angel Cop, you'll know what I mean. I feel it's very obvious. Yes, Angel Cop was the series I watched directly before this, but I still feels it's obvious. Despite this, it doesn't suffer from it in the slightest. Honestly this animation for me is 10/10.

The music also is spot on. It conveys the tension in scenes when required perfectly, it's provides the support for maintaining the pace of scenes when required and gives you the nice synth heavy pads when provided required atmosphere. I don't normally comment on intros to animes, as on the main, I think they are mostly complete garbage. I do feel this is worth comment however is I actually enjoyed listened to the intro the every episode. Whether you agree or not with my opinions on intro/outro music, coming from someone who normally cringes with every note, I actually enjoyed this so that's saying something.

Finally the story, this is where this show is let down. The characters are brilliantly written for a start, every one of them. There is nothing negative to comment on here. The script is brilliant, acted well and end to end is thoroughly engaging. It's gritty atmosphere and classic 90s style of story telling too is brilliant. There are 3 episodes here, each about 40 mins long and they fly by likes it's a 10 min show. It's so easy to enjoy and very riveting. So where is the negative? That's the negative. It's too short. I wish more was written for this show. Episodes end and I am left immediately wanting more which is great until you get to the end and you still want more. The episodes do not have season finale climax. They are fantastic episodes, but none bring closure and that's it for me. That's the only negative.

In summary it's really great. Very very great in fact, I just wish the we had another 3 episodes with at least 2 of them telling the same story to bring the series to a satisfying close.

Well, that was pretty cool.

I don't usually place my foot inside 80s or 90s anime, mostly because they're very open-ended, usually unfinished stories made to showcase a team, or a glimpse into a world. I've heard about other ones, and watched the Devilman OVA's, which ended in the year 2000. Again, my problems with what I've heard on other ones extend to here. It's an incomplete thing.

For a story, you just get a stereotype of characters that have an adventure that couples well with their skills and introductions. You have the pure brains, the brawn, and the equilibrium of both in three characters that live ... an experience that shows who they are, and what they fight for. There's just a bit of depth, and the dynamic works well. I just hope it was a little more. Everything feels really incomplete, as if everybody deserved one more episode just to show them all in one final adventure. Alas, it didn't happen.

In a way, maybe that's the point. These people are a Suicide Squad that keeps living, suffering, causing trouble around them while they try to dissociate from it. Good times are gone, and now they can only worry about having their heads attached to their bodies. It did make me think, and question if I should worry about the criminals, their wounds, or the moments they're close to death. I just need more story, more about them, with more conflicts. So much potential, man.

The rest of everything else, I believe, succeeds in spades. Raunchy, brutal, disgusting, but somehow, not excessive violence. It's impressive how many limbs fly out, but they don't put the typical splatter that clearly has more blood than the human body can hold. It's strangely tasteful, and I feel as if it's such a bigger plus because of that. Fight scenes are great, focusing on fast, tactical victories, rather than just a massacre that makes no sense. Clearly, they wanted to talk about how the characters solve something, before talking about how much blood should be there. I just appreciate well done gore a lot.

It's got tons of plotholes, impossible moments, near deaths that make no sense, but I can tell they didn't take it all too seriously. They wanted to showcase their skills, and show a cyberpunk world? All the power to them. Although, I was bored sometimes.

6.2/10. If it had that final chapter on the horizon, probably could've reached super high.

“Cyber City Oedo 808” is a gritty, yet aesthetically pleasing, 3-episode OVA about 3 convicts in the distant future who are given the opportunity to have their prison sentences reduced by working for the police to catch criminals themselves. While on the whole it’s a solid OVA, the frequent strobe effects used in every episode make it difficult to watch.

Each episode features a self-contained story that focuses on one of the three main characters. The plots are futuristic and sci-fi in nature, although the third one is a bit more fantasy than sci-fi. The basic elements of all three stories are easy to follow, but ... some of the finer details are either glossed over or inserted haphazardly, which can be frustrating.

Since there are only three standalone episodes, there is little to no character development, and we’re only given hints here and there about some of the main characters’ backstories. The characters’ personalities are rather strongly defined, though, making it easy to tell them apart.

The art is the main draw of this series. Against the backdrop of a stunning futuristic city, the main characters drive hover cars and giant tanks, infiltrate secret bases and travel to the top of a space elevator and Tokyo Tower. The overall look for the series is dark, but the colors themselves are vivid. The character designs are unique, memorable and suit the characters’ personalities well. The animation and direction are also well done.

The music is above average. Both the opening and ending themes are nice; in particular, the ending, which is a ballad, fits the mood of the series well. The background music is also decent. The voice acting is good.

With so many positive aspects, why am I rating this series so low? Because it has frequent flashing lights in every episode that render it essentially unwatchable for anyone who’s photosensitive, and would probably even give anyone who’s not photosensitive a headache. The action scenes, in particular, often feature rapid strobe effects, but there are plenty of other scenes throughout that have flashing, like computer screens, so it’s difficult to predict when the flashing will start and end. To be safe, you pretty much have to watch it at half speed, which isn’t very enjoyable.

Other than the flashing lights, most of the potentially objectionable content in “Cyber City Oedo 808” is related to violence and gore. There is a fair amount of gruesome killing and deaths in this OVA. There is no nudity or anything like that, but there are a couple of brief references to sex in the dialogue (Japanese version).

It’s unfortunate that this otherwise decent show is marred by the use of so many strobe effects. I would have rated it one or two points higher if not for that. If flashing lights don’t bother you, I recommend watching this, but if they irritate you even in the slightest, you should steer clear of this one.