Cyber City Oedo 808

NOTE: I originally wrote this review on Letterboxd on 1/12/2022

I haven't seen Cyber City Oedo 808 in a long time, and I recently received the Discotek Blu-ray as a Christmas present. So I decided that today would be a good day to rewatch it. Cyber City Oedo 808 is just as awesome as I remembered. This anime is excellent in every way. You have a fantastic cast of characters who are both memorable and awesome. I like how each of the three gang members has their own distinct personality. Sengoku is a complete badass who is both funny and arrogant.

The plot is essentially a ... cyberpunk version of Escape from New York (1981) with a dash of Blade Runder (1982) thrown in for good measure. There are also some elements of horror incorporated into it. Yoshiaki Kawajiri (the director) did an excellent job directing three episodes that are packed with action and compelling stories. The animation is also incredible, with beautiful shading and incredible attention to detail in the backgrounds. There's plenty of dark colorful lighting that is stunning to look at. I've always admired how Yoshiaki Kawajiri's anime, such as Wicked City (1987) and Ninja Scroll (1992), uses dark blue colors. His signature style is absolutely stunning, and I wish more anime today used the same color palettes as he did.

Both the Japanese and UK versions' soundtracks are awesome and entertaining to listen to. I adore Kazuhiko Toyama's (Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII) score, but I can't help but prefer Rory McFarlane's UK score. I'm not a big fan of replacement music scores (as demonstrated by Funimation's DBZ dub), but this is one of the few times I prefer the replacement score to the original. Rory McFarlane's music blends in perfectly with the anime's tone.

The English dub is a bit of a mixed bag, with some decent voice work. Stuart Milligan (Wonder Woman 1984) did an excellent job as Sengoku's voice actor, perfectly capturing his cocky demeanor. However, some other voices are bad, and the dialogue is a little too goofy. Instead, I would suggest watching this anime with subtitles. If Cyber City Oedo 808 had more episodes, I would give it a higher rating. If it were a six or thirteen-episode series, this would easily be a 9/10 anime.

Overall, Cyber City Oedo 808 is a great anime that I highly recommend. Rating: 8.5/10

I've just finished watching this OVA. In summary, the animation is flawless, almost at a movie level, and the design and aesthetics are even more outstanding. However, for me, this OVA was a missed potential. Many things happen without apparent reason, with little development, especially concerning the villain from the first episode, and several loose ends are left unexplained.

I believe "Cyber City Oedo" is the typical anime that you need to turn off your brain to enjoy. For those who enjoy more surreal anime or just want to watch something for entertainment, I recommend it. However, if you're expecting something more profound, I wouldn't recommend ... it.

“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.