OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Cyber City Oedo 808

Being the third in a series of titles Yoshiaki Kawajiri worked on that had the word "city" in it, Cyber City Oedo 808 is a cyberpunk story that commits the sin that numerous futuristic tales commit by taking place too far in the actual future. Happening in the year 2808, this world of tomorrow still has grounded cars and outdated robotics that were retro even at the time this 3-episode OVA came out in 1990. Kawajiri brought his brand of lightning animation of which he would soon use in his cult classic Ninja Scroll. Speaking of cult, the British dub for this is one of the more infamous English dubs of an anime as it is peppered with pointlessly misplaced cursing which makes it a chuckle-fest for pre-teen boys.

In the far-flung future of the early 29th Century where the city of Oedo has been constructed with a history of deep underground crime still holding power. The combat this, police chief Hasegawa takes a page out of Escape From New York and lassos a trio of convicts all serving out life sentences consisting of the loudmouthed Sengoku, the effeminate Benten, and Gogul who looks like Bebop from TMNT. All three of these prisoners are given exploding collars and are forced to help out the police on special cases in order to take time off from their sentences. Each of the episodes deals with a separate case spotlighting one of the members of this sci-fi suicide squad in which the first one has Sengoku trying to stop a skyscraper so stupidly tall that it requires its own gravity-controlled generated to keep it balanced from collapsing on the city after the building is taken over by the spirit of a deceased architect. The next chapter sees Gogul being manipulated in a convoluted caper to fight a new psychic-powered cyborg created by the military to control the police. Finally, Benten investigates a series a murders to which all evidence points to the killer being a vampire, most of the ideas from this episode helped inspire Kawajiri's work on Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Cyber City Oedo 808 is similar to numerous cyberpunk titles as it is set in a dystopian future which seems to be set in a version of the world after more than one apocalypse has taken place as most of the robots seem like something out of Star Wars instead of artificial humans like in Blade Runner. The English dialogue is cliche of early 90's dubs filled with cursing just for the case of cursing despite that it makes it one of the better anime titles to watch for an evening at home getting drunk. The OVA is a must for die-hard fans of old school but fluid animation. It is one of Kawajiri's most recognized works, even though usually overlooked by non-otaku who have only watched his more mainstream releases.