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Criminals, Punks and Metrosexuals - Oh My!
Publisher: Madman
Mon, 21 May 2007
by: Jason
Ahh yes the cyberpunk genre, not one of my favorites but still worth a look. Back in the far reaches of time (i.e. the late 90's) this title was available on VHS Video. Probably relegated to a dark forgotten corner of your video shop (somewhere close to the porn section) along with the highly influential Akira and Ninja Scroll among others. Now some years later we have Oedo 808 available on DVD but is it worth looking at? Well read on and find out.
In Cyber City Oedo 808 we have three hardened and extremely dangerous criminals serving ridiculously long sentences in the pokey (300 years plus). The cops give them a choice; either spend the rest of their lives slowly rotting away in a cell in an orbital penitentiary, or join the Cyber police and gain a small reduction in sentence for duty served. One small catch however, is that they only have a limited amount of time to solve the case or (to quote their boss) "Your head will file for divorce from your body" - due to the explosive collars they all have to wear.
 | | Don't let the nails or lipstick fool you, Benten's all man baby! |
The crims in question are: Sengoku, an anti-social, anti authority kind of guy with a very big gun. I think there may have been some liberties taken with the English dub as Japanese people generally don't swear like this guy does.
Gogl, an effing great monster of a bloke with a Mohawk, who (just to throw stereotypes out the window) is the master computer hacker of the group.
Benten, the skinny looking effeminate guy. Until he actually spoke I was sure he was a chick. Benten is an expert gymnast and uses one of those nasty piano wire garrote things as his favorite weapon.
A bit of totally useless information is that all three of these men carry what looks like a Sai (think Raphael the ninja turtle). Some poking about on the interweb informs us it is not a Sai but is in fact a Jutte, a weapon used by law enforcers during the Edo period (18th century or thereabouts) although in this case the Jutte serves as something like a police badge. [Ninja's Note: Both the Sai and Jutte can be used for catching / trapping the attack of a sword wielding opponent].
 | | "The Dark Knight Returns? Sorry mate, never 'eard of em" |
While Cyber City Oedo 808 doesn't have the "must see more" feeling that the long running Anime series have, a three episode one shot is by no means a bad thing. Apparently the original intention was for there to be only the first episode, but popularity prevailed and resulted in another two episodes.
So there you have it. Something to throw on your DVD player of choice, park your arse on the couch and insert popcorn into the larger of your face holes (Buttonhole accepts no responsibility for persons trying to insert popcorn into ears or noses) then switch off your brain and enjoy.
by: Jason
More articles by Jason
In the future the word "Cyber" is going to be used a lot. | |
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