Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990–1991) User Reviews (17)

Great anime action!

[cobra31 · 8/10 · 26 August 2007]

I'll try not to repeat what previous reviewers have already stated but I agree strongly with much of their content. This is absolute classic anime and is not surprising given that it's made by the same guy who did Lensman, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter Bloodlust.

It looks great and there's some great animation even though it perhaps looks slightly dated compared to modern day anime (it was made in 1990!!!). The stories are very sci-fi and you can see a lot of influences from 80s sci-fi cinema in there.

There are some great sci-fi ideas in there as well some very imaginative fight scenes(eat your heart out Jackie Chan).

If someone asked me to cite a definition of a classic Japanese anime, then this would be right up there.

I watched the dubbed English version which, whilst slightly over the top, is probably better than watching the subtitled version by all accounts.

It's a shame that there isn't more anime like this as I feel there is a lot of anime that isn't worth a second look.

If you're vaguely into this sort of thing, then it's definitely worth a look. Have fun!

Blade Runner gets the Manga Anime treatment & succeeds!

[Sonatine97 · 8/10 · 15 July 2000]

Cyber City Oedo (CCO) probably isn't taking up too much space on the Blockbuster videoshelves just lately, in fact you'd be pushed to find it in any major retailing store.

But if you like Sci Fi (Blade Runner in particular) and also know about the world of Japanese Manga & Anime (Akira) then you're in luck because CCO is just such a film that you really must try to hunt down.

CCO comes in three 50 minute episodes following the fortunes of three prison convicts, who have being allowed to reduce their life terms if they carry out dangerous police detective work for the city of Oedo (formerly Tokyo).

All three episodes are surprisingly rich in character development & storyline coupled with some truly excellent cell-animation. Don't be put off into thinking that because its animated its nothing more than a 50 minute cheap cartoon! A lot of work & attention to detail has been put in to make the episodes as real & compelling as possible.

The real bonus is the wonderfully haunting soundtrack at the end each chapter and that the dubbing into English (so often a big let down with most Japanese conversions) is really well done.

Try and track the series down, it will be well worth it.

****/*****

Classic Anime.

[CrassActionHero · 7/10 · 16 September 2006]

Welcome to Cyber City Oedo.

Cyber City is pretty good. The story is that three Cyber criminals decide on taking high risk jobs with the police or stay in prison. They take the job in hopes that they can one day be free again. That is just the intro to the series.

The three episodes rely mostly on one of our heroes for their time to shine and character development, if little development at all. The plots for each episode are clearly sci-fi. The heroes are pretty likable and have some serious attitude.(They are criminals after all). This only went on for three episodes that I know of. For what it's worth, the three episodes are fun to watch and are a little longer than I thought.

The voice acting: The Japanese acting is terrible. With all do respect, they sound awful. It's as if they are merely just reading their lines without a care at all. The English voice acting is awesome. Like watching a good movie good. Plus the English dialog is much better than the original dialog that is boring and dull, the new dialog is strong, gritty, vulgar, and up in your face!

The animation: Superior. For 1990, they set the standard here. The animation is very close to flawless as anime can get. A little dated now but still good looking.

The Last Word: Nice. Not to much to say here though. This only lasted three episodes. Did not get a chance to shine. Shame. This wasn't bad. I liked this.

Underrated Classic OVA

[terrasidio · 10/10 · 27 March 2008]

I first saw this on Channel 4 (UK) when it was aired here in 1994/5 and I was blown away, one of the reasons was the amazing Rory Mcfarlane UK edition alternative rock and electronica score which fit it perfectly.

Unfrotunatly not nearly enough people, let alone anime fans themselves have even heard of this which is a shame. Im no die hard anime fan who watches all these new random animes but i do like a well produced one and the guy who created this created Ninja Scroll (which i also have)! Its a very well realized, animated, written OVA although its short with only three episodes, its very sweet. I highly recommend this for any anime and cyberpunk fan who wants to see where cyberpunk began and was at it best.

A true masterpiece!

[BrickNash · 10/10 · 9 April 2010]

Yoshiaki Kawajiri once again takes the helm and delivers one of the best Anime series of it's kind.

Kawajiri is no stranger to anime, having directed the fantastic Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D he knows how to make them good.

As with the other films it's quality all round. Meticulous detail has gone into the artwork and animation to create a truly atmospheric cyber futuristic setting which looks amazing.

As with many others I saw this in the UK on it's first broadcast on Channel 4 and having been somewhat of a stranger to anime back then, having only seen parts of Akira, needless to say I was completely blow away by it. Something just struck a chord from the fantastic artwork, the rich and colourful characters to the incredible soundtrack by Rory McFarlane (One of the first things to grab me!)

I cannot stress enough the importance of this now discontinued UK edition of the series. The voice acting is exceptionally well done (rare for an anime!) and the music is a stunning 80's prog/synth metal charger in the vein of Vince Dicolas Transformers (1986)

In Martial Arts films I prefer subtitles, but in anime, due to the vast amount of visual work on screen I prefer dubbing as looking away to read subs takes some of the enjoyment away.

It is such a shame they only ever made 3 episodes. For ages (Pre internet) I searched for more episodes only to discover there were none, but in a way this only adds to the vintage that is Cyber city!

Thrilling, epic, action packed and brilliant!

Get it!

A 29th century take on the Dirty Dozen.

[the_greenflash · 28 February 2001]

You Know, without Lee Marvin the Dirty Dozen just wouldn't have worked. But here I think he would probably be surplus to requirements.

This is a very enjoyable fillm/series, however the version I witnessed suffered from a very irritating affectation of dubbing companys - that of inserting expletives every few words. This is normally done in an attempt to gain a higher classification and raise the films status in some way.

The film itself is rather enjoyable, several convicts recruited to fight crime etc.. etc.. the plot makes more sense than some other 'concatonated-series' films as everything has been left in and new plot clinching characters are not neglected untill the final reel.

Hours of fun. (well, just)

Pretty cool

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 25 October 2023]

Cyber City Oedo 808 has a great title, a cool premise, and plenty of style. It's set 800 years in the future and follows three criminals who get sent on dangerous missions with the dubious promise that successfully pulling off such tasks will lead to reduced sentences. You could almost say it's anime Dirty Dozen, or Suicide Squad (beyond the basic premises being similar, it does admittedly get wildly different afterwards).

There are three main characters, and each gets their own section dedicated to them. It does make Cyber City Oedo 808 feel frustratingly between film and TV series, because you can watch all three parts in just over two hours, but you also don't get much by way of a conclusion; it's sort of episodic and sort of one whole thing, but at the very least, they do probably save the most emotional/dramatic story for last.

It's not outstanding when it comes to narrative/characters, but those aspects get the job done. Thankfully, the world and the visuals/music are aspects that do much of the heavy lifting. It's stylish and entertaining, if a little empty and somewhat shy of greatness.

90s Gold!

[tomson-7 · 8/10 · 15 January 2010]

A piece of antiquity in my eyes, brutal, blunt and abrasive, generally, a classic piece of 'lads cinema' - just as fun today as when I was twelve.

The glory of Manga's cyberpunk collection, Cyber City is three episodes surrounding the collar-wearing criminal police force of a future 'neo-tokyo'.

Full of classical clichés; the quick snapping hard man sporting a mullet and a snazzy red trench coat. The enormous, goggle garbed somehow Japanese- Italian- American computer hacker and oddly, a long haired transsexual - Bentin, with his flashy pedicure and exceptionally effective cheese knife.

But, the wonder of Cyber City is its' shameless tough man aesthetics, (the sort of characters that say 'yeah I gotta a mullet/Mohawk or a nice pretty dress! What of it!) Simply striving off the spine-tingling, dramatic action that every fella is ashamed to love, knows he does but just doesn't know why. Cyber City is a show for the boys whatever age so long as the ladies aren't home, its just one of these boys' animations that the girls just cannot understand nor will they ever care to.

So for a few tins, a blast from animation past, f'in, blinding, beating, killing and great cheesy action, it's a show and a half!

Criminals chasing criminals...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 27 June 2023]

"Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808" (aka "Cyber City Oedo 080") is another Japanese Anime that I remember owning on VHS tapes back in the day. And I do remember it as being entertaining back then, so as I had the opportunity to sit down in 2023 and watch it digitally, of course I did so.

Writer Akinori Endo and director Yoshiaki Kawajiri did put together a fair enough Anime here. Though, I have to say that I did remember it a bit more fondly than what it turned out to actually be. Hey, don't get me wrong, because I am not saying that "Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808" is a bad Anime, far from it, but I had just remembered it as being more enjoyable, that's all.

The storyline is good, and that whole concept of convicts getting their sentences reduces for tracking down other criminals does have a good hook to it.

I watched "Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808" back in the early 1990s on VHS with an English dub. And as luck would have it, the digital version I watched in 2023 was also dubbed in English. Usually I abhor English dubs and prefer the original language any given day. But thankfully, the dubbing work in "Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808" wasn't as questionable as dubbing tends to be.

Visually then "Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808" was good. I like the art style, the animation and the contents there is in the three episodes. Good and interesting characters and support characters. However, it is of course limited how well we can get to know Shunsuke Sengoku, Gabimaru "Gogul" Rikiya and Merrill "Benten" Yanagawa in just three episodes.

If you enjoy the 1990s Anime and cyberpunk, then "Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808" is definitely well-worth checking out.

My rating of "Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Possibly The Best Japanation Of All Time

[editor-107 · 9/10 · 12 September 2007]

The plot might seem simple and well worn, three criminals offered a reprieve if they take the cases for the Police that no-one else will take, but the development has been truly awesome. Indeed, I have brought the series several times, only to have people who were friends be prepared to become enemies, just for a chance to run off with my copy.

Curiously, I loathe most Manga with its convoluted and contrived stories and gross out monsters ravaging innocent little girls, yet this avoids all that junk and deeply appeals, even to me. Each f the tales is told in the style of the three, highly imaginative characters: Sengoku, a sort of Sam Spade of the 28th Century: Gogul, a monstrous thug who is also a grandmaster at computer-hacking and Bensen, a transvestite who, despite all his shinny nail varnish, is an expert assassin.

Sadly, the series has one, monumental drawback, THEY ONLY EVER MADE THREE. Why, I have no idea. I even phoned the studio in frustration when I discovered this, yet was blandly assured that the project simply ran for three episodes and then they moved onto something else. It's like breaking the home-run record for a season and then quitting baseball before you've picked up the trophy. Now that was a TRUE CRIME ...worthy of Senguku.

Dingy Cyberpunk Romp

[YellowTea · 10/10 · 27 May 2021]

Now this is what you call cyberpunk, one of my favorite genres. Something like this couldn't be recreated today. The washed out colours, the style, it all works together to produce something that's unmistakably cyberpunk.

Cyber City isn't as well known as Akira and Battle Angel, but it should be. This can easily rub shoulders with the more popular cyberpunk anime.

Trash That Makes You Want More

[DonaldDooD · 5/10 · 7 October 2014]

Cyber City Oedo 808 (what a mouthful!) is low-brow alright. But its quite close to being so campy its legitimately good. Its got some cool sci-fi elements, with one of the trashiest dubs I've seen. The dialog wasn't just translated, but saturated with swears and even rewritten to suit a raunchier script. Thank God that happened, because they made some of the most awful, awesome lines in history, period! Its perfect for a show focused on guts and scrap metal over plot.

Heck, the stories aren't that bad. In fact, they may even be too serious for this kind of show. Each episode focuses on a different member of the force, and display a unique aspect of this cyberpunk world. There are attempts to add more sympathetic characters than our trash-talking, violent ex-criminals, but they have too little time to make an impact.

The worst part about the series? Honestly, its that there's only three episodes. You only scratch the surface of these characters and their explosive adventures. There's no over-arching plot in the OVAs, and no conclusion. I feel like I've watched three episodes from a TV series instead of a direct-to-video one. Where can I see the further adventurers of Sengoku, Gogol, and Benten? :c

Ah well. Overall, its the exact junk food you want to watch occasionally. Its a 5 out of 10, but it doesn't get that rating for being boring, typical, or unwatchable. Definitely watch the English dub, preferably the U.K. edition if you want some kickin' synth rock.

A Good Start, could go on forever... but..

[thepartyoftea · 8/10 · 22 January 2008]

The series is about 3 cons who are working as cops to stop criminals in cases normal cops don't usually take to lower their prison sentence. The main character is in for 370 years.

All 3 episodes in the movie have a strong sci-fi and almost X-Files feel to them. The X-Files piece pushed to an extreme. A little bit of detective work, connecting the dots and action.

The series if full of some pretty colorful characters, but it lacked a main focus. It follows the 3 former cons as they hunt down baddies... but there's no main baddie. No big boss or organization. Maybe one would have come into focus in the later episodes if they made more, but no big baddie.

So it was short, sweet and worth the $4.99 in the discount bin.

One of the Best Animes

[gengar843 · 10/10 · 3 May 2021]

Only 3 episodes? Probably this helps to concentrate my appreciation for it. There's no time to "get used to" any particular character, as each episode focuses on a different one of the three criminals who are given the chance to reduce their multiple-life sentences by nabbing some really bad guys.

The first episode is standard stuff, low on surprises, but the writing grabs you immediately, and the simple style with some interesting twists keep you in your seat. What you come upon right away is the hardened attitude softened by a love of something from the past.

The second episode gets crazy, bringing in the ROBOCOP trope with a no-holds barred battle vs. "Goggles", who is out to avenge his friend's death.

The third episode switches to horror-SF with a story about high-tech vampires.

The music used for OEDO is rousing and grand, and the ending theme is haunting and heart-rending.

I rated this 10/10, and only the most jaded anime viewer could give it less.

Funny Violent Irresistibly Cool The True Essence Of Yoshiaki Kawajiri

[adamhorner-62015 · 10/10 · 27 October 2021]

Cyber City Oedo 808 1990 orignal name Saibâ Shiti Oedo 808. Is an amazing 3 part ova by legendary anime director Yoshiaki Kawajiri and is my favourite of all the works from him I have seen it is Funny Violent And Irresistibly Cool it is set in the futuristic city of Oedo in the year 2808 and is about 3 cyber criminals Sengoku Benten and Gogul who have had the chance to work for the cyber police slowy taking cases to work down their sentence with collars on their necks which will explode if they don't solve a case in time all 3 episodes are set mainly on the 3 main characters episode 1 is about Sengoku episode 2 is about Gogul and episode 3 is about Benten and their struggles to fight a big case each episode 1 set on a tower episode 2 set in the military and episode 3 in a hospital and is a amazing series that should have gotten more episodes because it's show amazing final score 10/10 This Is The True Essence Of Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

Heart, Soul & Violence

[nrams73 · 10/10 · 5 December 2023]

Having never been a Manga fan, I saw this on a late-night Channel 4 run early 90's, as there was absolutely nothing else on BBC 1,2 or ITV worth watching at that time of night. There was no cable or Sky TV in my household back then. Luckily, C4 put all 3 episodes on back-to-back, as I was gripped from the opening few moments. I still don't consider myself a Manga fan, but truly believe this transcends the art form. The story of the 3 criminals being used as utterly expendable assets, barely registering as people by the Oedo police force, is dark, humorous and very compelling. Give it a watch if you can find it whether a Manga fan or not - it thoroughly deserves full marks in my opinion.

Tokyo Joy!!!....

[dtstacey · 9/10 · 17 May 2023]

....I stumbled across this in 1994,(..I think..),when Ch 4,(..UK..),used to show late night anime...I was blown away by what I was watching..Three charismatic Cyber-criminals,Sengoku,(..very sweary and tough as nails..),Benten pretty,(..suspect he was modelled on David Sylvian from ace 80's band,Japan..),androgynous and utterly lethal with his/her wire/ring thingie,(..copied by a bod in 'Johnny Mnemonic',Keanu Reeves flop but not-bad fillem..),and,last but definitely not least Gogol,the rockhard Mohicaned Computer expert,all press-ganged into working for the Law to reduce the long prison sentences and sporting exploding neck-rings to ensure compliance.3 Brilliant 45 minute stories but the first I saw was episode 2,'Psychic Warrior',I think it was called where Gogol was tricked into fighting an almost invincible Cyborg by an Army General who was hoping to take over the city's Law Enforcement duties from the current 'Cyber Police,(...Mmmm,sounds a little bit 'Robocop-ish,now I think about it). I found it utterly engrossing,as exciting as any live action feature,fast moving,darkly funny script and superb music,sound and blistering Action. I loved it and still do,30 years on. This was my fave ep but both the others were excellent too. I cannot believe no one has thought to do a live-action or even a CGI Reboot. Final note,you can see all three of these Beauties on 'You Tube',so action fans,no excuses,go see.....