Cyber City Oedo 808

Greetings,

I don't normally write reviews, but this show deserves it. The art form is from early 1990s and I thoroughly enjoyed this as it reminded me of my childhood watching anime. Let's do a brief review:

Art style: 10/10
Story: 9/10
Music: 9/10

My biggest concern is not having more content; the background feels so rich and full of story that its a shame we didn't get more. Poignant as this may be, it may have worked in it's favor.

If you love old school, cyber-punk, sci-fi,, futurism, dark action, drama, I'd recommend you watch this. Absolutely loved the feel and overall vibe of this show and would recommend ... it. A real shame there's no more episodes to this show, I will miss it.

6/10 ~ When I say something is 6/10 I think of Cyber City 080

I cant remember how I stumbled upon this one as it is far before my time when I was young, well here I am. I did enjoy my time, and I watched all 3 episodes over a month apart and was able to keep up with what happened previously, probably only doable to the fact these are all one-shots.

Pros
- Some true golden age cyber punk anime right here
- the English dub is hilarious, truly only something that could come from an OVA
- the action was decent
- the world they ... pained with mostly visuals was quite enjoyable
- the upbeat synth tracks really slapped
- story was easy to follow, probably to a fault
--i did enjoy that each of the MC's got their own ep.

Cons
- the charecters were all just 1 dimensional tropes
- tho the story was easy to follow, there wasnt actually that much story per ep. they just kinda did stuff to a formula
- pretty close to zero development amongst the over arching "plot" and individual charecters
- no actual ending

Such a wasted potential this was, but such is the way of the old OVA series that never got any traction. Watch this for the hilarious English dub and cyber punk aesthetic and 80's vibe. Over all I did enjoy my time, however this one is forsure a skip for most people unless you crave this sort of thing. Pretty hard to recommend to be honest.

“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.