Cyber City Oedo 808

To combat computerised crime more effectively, the Cyber Police unit of the future Japanese city of Oedo has restarted the feudal practice of hōmen (放免), employing hardened criminals with a history of hi-tech offences and other crimes such as murder as officers themselves.

Three such criminals are Sengoku, Gogol and Benten, who are serving their 300-or-more year sentences in an orbital penitentiary. For duty served, each criminal will receive a reduction in their prison time. Desperate to get away from the boredom and monotony of jail life, they half-heartedly agree to the deal. They answer to police chief Hasegawa, who keeps them in check thanks to an explosive collar that each criminal wears around his neck. Hasegawa can blow this collar remotely and it will also explode if they fail to complete their missions within an allocated time period. Each one is also armed with a jitte (the traditional weapon and symbol of authority of the ancient Edo Police), although they also have access to more powerful weaponry.

Although there are no specifics to what kind of society the series is based in, it is presented as very high-tech but with a rather dystopian feel. In the first episode for example, a man under pressure confesses to a murder (which he did commit) and which is responsible for the present crisis. This is enough for Hasegawa to order Sengoku to kill the man there and then without so much as a trial. When Sengoku fails to do so his sentence is increased.

There are three episodes, each one serving to focus more on the personal exploits of one of the three-man team. The UK release had different titles for these episodes than other markets did.

• Episode 1; "Virtual Death" (a.k.a. "Time Bomb" or "Memories Of The Past"): Sengoku is sent to save 50,000 people trapped in Oedo's largest skyscraper after its central computer is mysteriously taken over. Along the way, he finds that the only suspect is a dead man.
• Episode 2; "Psychic Trooper" (a.k.a. "The Decoy" or "The Decoy Program"): Gogol's investigation of a murder pits him against an experimental military cyborg as he tries to rescue his ex-partner. Of note is that during this episode we see at least one other cyber-criminal trying (unsuccessfully) to remove his collar, so it is known that there are more than the three anti-heroes being employed by the Cyber Police unit.
• Episode 3; "Blood Lust" (a.k.a. "The Vampire" or "Crimson Media"): The freak murder of three geneticists leads Benten to investigate one man's quest for immortality, as well as finding a young woman transformed into a vampire with telekinesis because of this quest.

The miniseries has received a cult following over the years. Hemanth Kissoon of Filmulation.com reviewed the series in 2007, saying that the series "was released 17 years ago, yet still stands up as a gripping take on Japan’s potential future."[7]

Clips of Cyber City Oedo 808 were used to create the official video for the track Innocence by Nero. The video was uploaded to YouTube by UKF and Nero's Vevo channel.

• Cyber City Oedo 808 at IMDb
• Cyber City Oedo 808 (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia