Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990)

Cyber City Oedo 808 is a 1990 Japanese anime OVA (original video animation). These were a bit like mini-series but intended for direct-to-video or later direct-to-DVD release. Cyber City Oedo 808 comprised three 45-minute episodes.

It was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, one of the great anime directors who was responsible for such crucial anime movies as Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Cyber City Oedo 808 deals with three cyber cops in the year 2808. At the start of the first episode they are criminals, serving 300-year sentences in an orbital prison. A very unpleasant place to be. They are offered a way out, of a sort. If they change sides and join the Cyber Police they can gradually get their sentences reduced. There are a few catches. The big one is that they will be fitted with explosive collars. If they disobey orders their heads will be blown off.

It’s not an overly enticing prospect but it’s better than rotting in an orbital prison. Sengoku, Goggles, and Benten agree to the terms.

This is very much in the cyberpunk mould. As you would accept for an anime made in 1990 there are obvious influences from William Gibson’s Sprawl novels and the movie Blade Runner.

The setting is a vast city controlled entirely by computers. The nerve centre of the city is the Space Scraper. It’s like a skyscraper but it’s so tall the upper stories are almost outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

There’s a healthy dose of cyberpunk paranoia. The Cyber Police might be the good guys but their chief Hasegawa is a somewhat nasty piece of work who relies on manipulation and fear. He isn’t interested in winning the loyalty of the trio. They do what they’re told or he’ll kill them. But he’s still one of the good guys - good guys don’t have to be nice guys. I think that’s a nice touch.

The military is not to be trusted. Government is to be regarded with a degree of cynicism.

Some of the themes hinted at here, such as the absolute dependence on technology and the effects of technology on our humanity, would surface in later cyberpunk animes like Ghost in the Shell (1995) and the excellent 2002 TV series Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex.

Cyber City Oedo 808 was made at a time when anime dealing with dark grown-up subjects was still a fairly new thing and Yoshiaki Kawajiri was one of the pioneers of this more ambitious approach. It was also a time when anime was just starting to gain a major following in English-speaking markets.

There’s plenty of action and with only 45 minutes to tell each story the pacing is pleasingly brisk. There are almost none of the erotic elements that you find in Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s later films. There is however some moderately graphic violence.

The visuals are very impressive (as they are in all of Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s work).

Interestingly there are hints of the paranormal and even perhaps the supernatural.

Each story focuses on one of the three main characters. They’re all criminals and outsiders and misfits but they are rather different. Sengoku is more of a classic rebel. Goggles is the tough guy but he has emotional depths. Benten is more of a dreamy mystical romantic although he can be pretty dangerous as well. He does cute things with piano wire.

Since the three characters are quite different each of the three segments has a different flavour. The three segments were originally released separately on video in Japan. English-speaking audiences got to see them with crude English dubs that had almost no connection with the original dialogue and which removed all the essential atmosphere of mystery and tragedy. If you’ve only seen Cyber City Oedo 808 in the English-dubbed version then you haven’t seen it at all.

Memories of the Past

The first episode is Memories of the Past (AKA Virtual Death AKA Time Bomb). In this story the focus is on Sengoku. A hacker has taken control of all the Space Scraper’s security systems and he has fifteen hostages trapped in an external elevator. The hacker’s identity is unknown but he is clearly after revenge. The three reluctant cyber cops have to stop him before he kills the hostages and destroys the Space Scraper, and without the Space Scraper the city cannot survive.

Sengoku manages to find a way into the Space Scraper but he soon finds himself unsure of the identity of the real villain. There may be more than one.

This episode has a decent plot with the sorts of twists that you want to see in a cyberpunk story. 

This is a straight-out action story.

The Decoy Program

The Decoy Program (AKA Psychic Trooper AKA The Decoy) begins with separate cases being investigated by the individual members of the team but there seems to be a common link and it points to the involvement of Special Forces.

Goggles becomes the central character in this segment. He finds himself pitted against a secret weapon intended to be the ultimate killing machine. Lots of mayhem and spectacular fight scenes in this instalment but there’s paranoia and betrayal as well, and possibly forgiveness. Maybe even a hint of love. There’s certainly a theme of lost love and being haunted by the past.

This is by far the most violent segment. It’s a real grudge fight to the death. And when Goggles gets mad he gets real mad.

Crimson Media

Crimson Media (AKA Blood Lust AKA The Vampire) centres on Benten. He’s had an encounter with an entrancing and mysterious woman.

A series of murders has been blamed by the media on vampires. The corpses were drained of blood. Perhaps there are vampires, of a sort. And perhaps the worst vampires do more than feast on blood.

The murder victims were carrying out illegal research.

Again the past figures in the story. This story actually began three hundred years earlier.

Science fictional treatments of vampirism have been attempted a number of times although in 1990 it was still a fairly fresh idea. This is a story about vampires but it also becomes a kind of love story. This segment has much more of an atmosphere of mystery, weirdness and melancholy. It’s my favourite of the three.

Final Thoughts

It’s worth pointing out that Japanese OVAs were not low-budget schlock. They were less expensive to make than feature films but much more expensive than TV series. They were ideal for telling stories that might be too risky as feature films but were much too grown-up and edgy for TV. There was nothing cheap and nasty about them and directors like Yoshiaki Kawajiri did not see them as lesser productions.

Cyber City Oedo 808 offers plenty of style and plenty of action. The first episode is OK, the second and third are excellent. Overall this is top-tier cyberpunk. Highly recommended.

Happily the Blu-Ray (which looks terrific) includes the Japanese-language version with English subtitles which is the only way to see this release.