Winter Countdown of Under-Hyped Anime #12: Dari with Cyber City Oedo 888 (warning contains one or two violent screenshots)
Dari: Merry Christmas, everyone, or if you’re not Christian, Merry X-Mas… or should I say Merry Commercialmas… no… must stop my self… *Stops himself from ranting about the commercialism of Christmas*
Dari: Ok, here I am, writing the last Under-hyped anime in the Winter Countdown, and also the oldest, with the 1st release of it coming out in June 1990 (it‘s actually a few months older then me…), while the next oldest anime in this list, Princess Tutu, Came out 12 years later in August, 2002 (though Ric would have gotten 2nd oldest Anime if he had gone with the OVA of Black jack, that came out in 1993, instead of the 2004 TV series), but enough of this competitiveness, and onto the Anime.
Dari: The Anime I’ll be talking/ranting about is Cyber City Oedo 888, or Cyber City for short. It’s three Episodes; “Time Bomb“, “The Decoy“, and “The Vampire”; were released from the 21st of June, 1990, to the 4th of October, 1991 (or at least according to MAL it was), and was Directed by Kawajiri Yoshiaki, who also directed Ninja Scroll and Vampire D: Bloodlust, along with some other anime.
Dari: This was actually the 1st anime that I bought, though at the time it wasn’t even on my to-watch list, I happened across it when I was in Labrador city three years ago, where I saw it in a store (I can’t remember which one) for $5 , so I bought it, and the end result is that I’m telling you about it.
Plot:
It is the year 2808, crime is so bad that the Cyber Police decide to offer some Criminals the chance to reduce their 
sentence by working as Cyber Police Officers. The Three Criminals given this offer are Sengoku, Benten, and Goggles, who each have sentences in the hundreds of years (that’s what happens when there is no maximum sentence and you abolish the death sentence). As you can expect, the Police are not going to trust these criminals to do police work, so explosive collars are attached to their necks (just like Battle Royale… except Cyber City is older then BR… anyone that can tell me the origin of the exploding collar gets my thanks). If attempt to remove the collar, or if they do not complete their mission on time, generally 24 hours, it will explode. Each episode has them working on a different case, and the story doesn’t develop much from episode to episode… in other words, it is very episodic…
Art:
Well, what can I say, it was made back in 1990, you can’t expect art like in some of the modern anime greats, like the Kara no Kyoukai movies (no, I will never shut up about KnK, I wasn’t sure if it qualified as under-hyped though, seeing as how popular Type-moon is and all, that‘s why I went with Cyber City) but it does the job, and could be worse. The style is typical of 90’s Cyberpunk, and I guess it grows on you if you watch enough cyberpunk.
Comedy:
Ok, the three episodes are not pure blood fests, and there is some comidiec relief, mainly coming from the robotic aid to the 3 main characters, who takes everything they say literally.
Screen-shot with comments:
(I did try to resist, but couldn’t…)
ah yes, nothing cures a hangover like an explosion in the neck area.
it’s A.D. 2808, and they’re still driving cars…
I’ve actually noticed a slight obsession with Australia in anime, and other modes of Japanese fiction as well…
How do you outsmart a zombie hooked up to a supercomputer in the year 2808? walk in a straight line.
the guy’s been dead for about 15 years, but he still bleeds…
… that’s going to hurt…
Also contains Decapitation.
and metal claws through throats.
and Vampires are still around…
Big cyber cat that shoots Lasers from it’s mouth… so cute, I want one.
Post Epilogue
Well, That’s all that I have to talk about Cyber City, I hope this post has kindled some interest in the OVA, and I swear I did try to minimize the number of screen-shots so it didn’t become about 90 % screen shot. Till next Time, farewell.
Tags: cyber city oedo 888, old anime, screen shots, Underhyped anime, Winter Countdown
