Cyber City Oedo 808
When you’re feeling a bit down, and when life’s been a bit too hard at you, there’s always the option to put on some classic 90s cyberpunk corny anime and enjoy the crap out of it! What’s better than an over-the-top, mega-complex having, cyberpunk-themed Suicide Squad-like adventure which will give you both laugh-out-loud humor, some good old science fiction elements, and thrill that you have been seeking in life for a while.
Cyber City Oedo 808 is a spectacular rendition of the DC Comics’ popular Suicide Squad story, and it does so with a ton of fun!
The story is based in the year 2808, where the Cyber Police recruit three convicts to keep the major criminals in the city of Tokyo (now renamed as Oedo) in check and buried. The reward for doing these hustles is straight-up given to them, though, as each mission they complete will result in a few years deducted off of their lifelong sentences.
However, you can’t just hand a few life imprisonment convicts weapons and trust them to take down crime syndicates within the city, nope. The Cyber Police came up with a new method, attaching special collars onto their necks to monitor their activity and explode if any of these convicts try to get out of line.
Our protagonists are a hilarious trio of some of the worst criminals in Oedo city. Their leader is Sengoku, a hardened criminal who managed to commit inhuman crimes in terms of the overall count. He’s stuck with a life sentence of 375 years for crimes that can’t even be individually counted. The second anti-hero is Gogul, who is a master at computers and serves a 310-year sentence.
The third and final nail in this trio is Benten, showcased as an effeminate embezzler whose life sentence is a whopping 295 years. These characters are by far what takes up most of the series, and the fact that it chooses to focus on these characters is what makes it so much more fun than you would expect.
For example, what kind of shenanigans do you think they’d get up to? Maybe some petty crime, or a bank robbery even? But nope! Lo and behold, they’re out there fighting crime while the donut-eating Cyber Police are just chilling in the background. The three episodes in the OVA are individually focused on each main character, but the entire trio is featured in all three of them. I’ll be honest about one thing though, the story isn’t too original and leaves a lot to be desired, but the characters are the main focus of the episodes, and the chemistry between them is full-on fun!
The episodes are super fun and unique too, Sengoku’s chapter focuses on high-octane espionage-style action along with some fantastic fight choreographies. The chapter that focuses on Gogul is less that though still action-heavy, it features a robot serial killer that the squad has to take down. The final episode focuses on the femme hero Benten, whose personality just exudes calmness and collectivity. His episode goes from being a typical crime thriller to an insane surrealistic supernatural adventure!
In terms of the art design, this anime is heavily inspired by the classic 80s rock and roll glam era, so you better expect a ton of Iggy Pop and Kiss-like clothing and hairstyles. I have to say, though, aside from Sengoku, the entirety of the cast is so uniquely designed that the series hardly feels like a time-pass kind of content. However, this doesn’t mean Sengoku is terrible; his personality makes up for the lack of originality in his overall character design. Every single character here looks like an eighties adaptation of JOJO characters which makes them even funnier.
The animation quality is honestly above what I thought it would be; somehow, Madhouse put way more effort into this series than I thought they would have. I mean, it’s a three-episode long OVA which is extremely short and highly offensive in so many ways. There is an insane amount of gore here and a HUGE amount of violence, which is animated so smoothly that you’d think an actual psychopath created this masterful comedy series.
The best part about this series is by far the soundtrack, though; it’s so much fun to just jam out to during a battle sequence. The rock and roll riffs, the electronic ambiance, and the amazing comedy sound effects make this so much more fun than it should be. Not to mention, Cyber City Oedo 808 features one of the best English dubs that I’ve ever heard. There’s a TON of profanity though, so make sure you’re above eighteen of age and not quickly offended before you dig into this comedy show.
In conclusion, Cyber City Oedo 808 is one of the most unique cyberpunk-themed anime that you could watch. It’s a full-out 80s loving 90s era anime, which is short and fun and highly trashy. It’s, in many ways, quite bad, but that is what makes it so good! It’s a fun series that doesn’t focus on larger-than-life stories but instead chooses to focus on a trio of characters who are desperate to get out of their situation and would do anything to have some fun! It’s the perfect anime to watch on a Friday night, after a long week of hard work to get some frustration out!
