Cyber City - The Final Collection

Just like the headline says!

First off, I enjoyed this show. It has the exploding neck collar idea that was later used in Battle Royale. Since this show obviously predates Battle Royale, I thought that was cool.Secondly, people complain about the swearing. Personally, that's what I think adds to the fun factor of this show. The swearing is so over-the-top and unnecessary and overdone, you just gotta laugh at it. This show has some great one liners, including, "I'm downloading you straight into hell!" and, "You wouldn't recognize a goddamn vampire if one jumped up and bit you on the end of your ****ing dick." Now how can you not want to watch this show when you know that lines like that are in it?There are three episodes, and 3 main characters. Each episode focuses on one of the three men who are prisoners who get collars put on them so that they act like police, going after criminals and doing what they're told by the higher-up, all for the sake of having their sentences reduced. Each episode has all 3 characters doing a specific assigned mission, but each episode basically has one guy doing the most work, hence the main character for the episode. I thought the first episode was the best, as each episode afterwards got more and more over-the-top unbelievable, and not in a cheesy way, mainly in ways where characters survive against too much unbelievable stuff, more and more suspension of disbelief is required, etc. For example, in the last episode, the main character goes to a structure in space through an elevator connected from earth (the ground) all the way through the atmosphere and into space and to a connected space station. Just that alone outta let you know how unbelievable it gets, but then there's the main character surviving in the elevator shaft after a conflict. But despite all that, the show is still good fun.That said, the last episode didn't feel like a final episode. All it did was get us familiar with the final character in the main trio. There should've been one more where all three character become the focus, where they are all directly put into a big conflict that shakes the foundations of the series, such as going on an assignment to protect the guy who put the collars on them, or finding a way to get the collars off, or none of the above but still giving us something else. But alas, it's not meant to be. Was tempted to give this show 3 stars, but decided it was entertaining enough for 4, especially with the price it currently has, and for the great foul-mouthed lines. Recommended.

I wish this set had come out before Manga UK lost their license to the series. This release of the classic Cyber City Oedo 808 series has the best video quality due to the medium, but suffers from some production issues that keep it from being a must-have, in favor of the older VHS releases.For starters, as many have noted, the brilliant UK soundtrack is not present on this version. This is the first and only time the English dub has been made available with the original Japanese soundtrack, but I don't consider this a positive since the original music doesn't seem to match the action on the screen most of the time. There's a lot of europop-esque instrumental tracks that don't evoke the hardcore cyberpunk atmosphere. Audio options are "English with sign and song subtitles" and "Japanese with subtitles". These tracks do not mix. That is, you cannot watch the dub alongside a full subtitle track to compare the scripts, which are fairly different between English and Japanese. None of my players would give me the option of swapping the subtitles between audio tracks. They're either on the predetermined subtitles, or off entirely.The mixing process also ended up somehow removing some dialog and created some sound fade errors in the English track. Where the mix clearly faded out in the UK version, the same dialog continues at normal volume in this new version, ending abruptly at odd points (because it was supposed to fade). One character has his lines entirely muted from the dub for no apparent reason in the second episode. A female character has a minor echo effect added to a scream in the same episode that makes it sound even more ridiculous than it already did.The video looks decent but isn't a remaster or direct-from-film print. There is a fair amount of aliasing. It's a step up from the VHS releases for sure, but not by much. I was hoping for a copy of the original film print. Since this is labeled as the "final collection", I will assume that will never happen. There probably isn't a lot of profit coming out of these old series' to warrant a remaster job.Extras include commentaries (in Japanese with subtitles), original preview clips for the episodes, and some art galleries. A bit more than I would expect in a cheap DVD release, so there's that.In the end, get this if you haven't seen it already. Even without the great UK soundtrack, there's still a lovely series here that any dedicated anime fan should sink their teeth into, even if just for the few hours of entertainment it will grant.

First I would like to say that this is by far some of the manliest anime ever made even though that Kawajiri had only produced 3 OVA's.So from what I could make out about these three installments, the episodes appear to have some elements from Die Hard (Data 1), Predator (Data 2), and Alien (Data 3) all supported on the platform settings of Blade Runner and The Running Man. All set in Cyber dominated in the Japanese capitol metropolis of Oedo (formerly known as Tokyo, and prior Edo).And what better to do those "high risk jobs, nobody else wants" than three mastermind criminals that are serving a sentence weighed more than their lifespan? Rather than violate the terms of your parole and your parole officer waste time with paperwork, their collars that are locked around their necks (as seen in The Running Man) can explode at the detonation of Hasegawa (The Police Lieutenant). Now that's what I call putting your neck on the line.In most anime, you have characters fighting for someone that is personal to them, something to gain. These three men are masterminded criminals born in a utopia dominated by criminals, they don't have anybody to fight for except their freedom by catching other criminals! Which because of their timed collars, they will work even harder in catching them.And like most anime stories, we always have the little guy, fighting against the big bully. Just watch Data 2 of this series and you'll find the bigger guy fighting the even bigger and tougher guy.

I first watched this anime way back in the mid ninties when channel 4 decided to air a bunch of late night anime shows and it's as good today as it was then....just a pitty no UK anime distributer owns the rights anymore and that this is probably leftover stock from the now dead USMANGACORPS label in the US, so grab it whilst its still available coz once its gone who knows when it will be available again...if ever!

The story of three criminals who are hired by the government to do the jobs others won't do.This is in exchange for a reduction in their prison sentence.Three individual characters and great stories.I love the fact the dubbing works so well, the voices used makes the characters.Not for kids viewing due to the swearing and violence.Recommended viewing*****

This is classic cyberpunk. If your a fan of that genre, or Kawajiri, then this is a very worthwhile purchase. Make sure your doovde player can play yank dvds though.

One of the best animes on DVD.

great just as expected