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Remember This… Retro Cyberpunk #2 (the anime edition)

Sam HaiNe — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 20:35:03 +0000

You didn’t think I was going to spotlight old school cyberpunk films and media without mentioning the contribution of Japanese animation?

Since the early 80’s the Japanese have been cranking out stories about Technology gone wild and the dystopian infrastructure of the genre. Although from a different point of view; the Japanese being the only people ever attacked by atomic energy weapons and having to rebuild their society from the ashes into the capitalist power player that it is now. It’s only fitting that a lot of subversive and allegorical stories come from a place like the Land of the Rising Sun.

1. AKIRA (directed by Katsuhiro Otomo)

AKIRA, the anime classic from 1988, based on the first act of the massive 6 volume manga masterpiece illustrated and drawn by Katsuhiro Otomo who happens to be the film’s director. A reaction to post WWII japan after the dawning of the atomic, Akira tells the story of Kaneda and Tetsuo as they are thrust into a conspiracy of government conspiracies, cults, social unrest and technological heights. This film single handedly spread the anime into America. The film has garnered a large following as a cult film since its theatrical release, and is widely considered to be a landmark in Japanese animation. It is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest animated and science fiction movies of all time.

2. Appleseed

A cyberpunk-style adaptation of the manga of the same name created by, acclaimed master of Japanese Cyberpunk, Masamune Shirow. The anime takes place in a non-determined future, produced by Bandai Visual in 1988 and animated by Gainax. The anime departs greatly from the manga’s storyline, sharing only the characters and setting. The Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow follows the adventures of ESWAT members Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires in Olympus. Like much of Masamune’s work, Appleseed merges elements of the cyberpunk and mecha genres with a heavy dose of politics, philosophy, and sociology. The series spans four volumes, released between 1985 and 1989. It has been adapted into an OVA, three feature films, a 13 episode TV series, and two video games.

3. Cyber City Oedo 808

A 1990-1991 cyberpunk original video animation. It was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Set in the year 2808 in the city of Oedo (Tokyo), it tells the story of three criminals who are enlisted into fighting crime in exchange for reduced sentences. They are Sengoku, an anti-social maverick, Gogol, a mohawk wearing hacker, and Benten, an androgynous bishōnen.

4. “The Running Man” (short film from 1987’s NEO TOKYO)

Most people will remember this airing on MTV’s Liquid Television, before learning that it was part of an anime anthology feature. It was dark and brooding and had little to no dialogue. It was delicious eye candy. The story of a famous racer in a high speed stock car controlled by willpower racing the race of his life, when every contender falls behind and the only competition is his own mortality. “Running Man”was written for the screen and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, with character design and animation direction by Kawajiri, mechanical design by Takashi Watabe and Satoshi Kumagai, key animation by Shinji Ōtsuka, Nobumasa Shinkawa, Toshio Kawaguchi and Kengo Inagaki and art direction by Katsushi Aoki.

5. Tank Police OVA

Is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. Set in the fictional city of Newport, Japan, in a future in which bacteria as well as air pollution have become so severe that people must wear gas masks when outdoors, the series follows a police squadron that uses military-style tanks. The OVA is a four-part prequel to the manga, leading up to Buaku’s discovery of Greenpeace. New Dominion Tank Police appears to be a direct sequel to the original manga, right down to where Leona’s Bonaparte is a different color, and minor differences to its body, showing when she had to rebuild it after the initial Bonaparte’s destruction. This anime also shows the first animated incarnation of the Fuchikoma, which originally appeared in Masamune’s Ghost in the Shell manga. Tank Police Team Tank S.W.A.T. 01 takes place near the events of the Conflict arc, the ‘pumas begin as members of the police department. Unlike in the manga, however, it seems that they don’t need to shrink down in order to fit into the driver’s section of the tanks.

6. Tetsuo: The Iron Man

No relation to Otomo’s AKIRA, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a 1989 Japanese cyberpunk film by cult-film director Shinya Tsukamoto produced by Japan Home Video. It is a fantasy shot in the same low-budget, underground-production style as his first two films. Tetsuo established Tsukamoto internationally and created his worldwide cult following. It was followed by Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) and Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009). All films dealing subversively with technology infesting and infiltrating our daily life, much like viruses, changing the ways we view ourselves and interact with each other as the destruction of the individual slowly sets in; meanwhile the surface elements and films themselves all are off the wall, unconventional sci-fi gems with elements of body horror.

7. The Kerberos Saga

The Kerberos Saga is a military science fiction franchise and alternate history universe created by the Japanese writer and filmmaker Mamoru Oshii in 1986. The saga is centered on the fictitious Tokyo police Special Armed Garrison which emblem and nickname is Kerberos (a.k.a. Cerberus), the mythological three-headed watchdog of hell. Before it was officially renamed “Kerberos Saga” circa 2004, it was known as the “Kerberos series”. It consists of works based on Oshii’s original story spanning in various media including feature films, radio dramas, comic books, animation films and monographs. Two of those live action features: The Red Spectacles (1987) & Stray Dogs: Kerberos Panzer Cop (1991) was directed by Oshii himself and are an odd mix of silent shots, comedy and film styles that might perplex the casual audience. However, 1999’s Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade directed by Hiroyuki Okiura was a straight forward take on Oshii’s Kerberos Saga. Jin-Roh earned a somewhat cult following upon release and gained some praise from critics. Interest in the franchise was rekindled in the west and Dark Horse comics reprinted some of the manga issues, a few years after the anime’s release.

8. Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell is a Japanese media franchise originally published as a seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of The Ghost in the Shell, and later published as its own tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, told the story of the fictional counter-cyberterrorist organization Public Security Section 9, led by protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi, in the mid-21st century of Japan. Possibly Masamune Shirow’s most successful creation, Ghost in the Shell has become the standard in modern anime and cyberpunk. Animation studio Production I.G has produced several different anime adaptations of Ghost in the Shell, starting with the 1995 film of the same name, telling the story of Section 9’s investigation of the Puppet Master. The television series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex followed in 2002, telling an alternate story from the manga and first film, featuring Section 9’s investigations of government corruption in the Laughing Man and Individual Eleven incidents. The year 2013 saw the start of the Ghost in the Shell: Arise original video animation (OVA) series, consisting of four episodes through mid-2014. The series will be recompiled in early 2015 as a television series titled Kōkaku Kidōtai: Arise – Alternative Architecture, airing with an additional two episodes. An animated feature film produced by most of the Arise staff, titled Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie was released on June 20, 2015.

Other notable mentions: Armitage, Bubblegum Crisis, Battle Angel Alita, M.D. GEIST, Ergo Proxy, Psycho Pass, Blame!, 8 Man After, BIG O.
Now go out there and surf the web, download, stream, research explore, TOR, and keep your fingers on that rewind button.

Sam Haine is simply a writer born on the East Coast who enjoys cooking. He is the contributor of the monthly Retro Movie Review and the recurring ‘Remember This…’ column. He is the creator and writer of Hainesville (facebook.com/allhailming), has released three spoken word albums + one Electro-house single, and provides Cult Fiction to Cult Classic Goods.

sa*******@**********ve.com

“Remember This… Retro Cyberpunk”

Sam HaiNe — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 17:47:43 +0000

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
― William Gibson, Neuromancer

While in preparation for the outlining of a new mixtape, I decided to sit down and reflect on why I love retro-cyberpunk.

You see way back in the day, we had day dreams and fantasies about what the future would be: Flying cars, instant food, hover boards, virtual reality, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, mega-corporations seizing gigantic shares of the private sector, possible World War, Panzer Police, Bōsōzoku Gangs, battle drones, advanced medical technology and dystopian cities; “High Tech and Low Life”.

The dystopian urban environments of the nineteen eighties mutated our expectations for the future, a stark contrast to the sundrenched optimism of the nineteen fifties. Instead of blue skies and robotic maids, it was grey mornings of smog and pollution, rising tides and congested cities collaged with multi-culturalism. Much of what we have now was envisioned however, reality is more streamlined than fantasy. Fantasy was gritty and dark and noir. Analog screens and cables scattered all over the place. Information is god and exchanged over vast distances via satellite dishes and worth more than currency. People living longer and resources dwindling; it’s the time of genetically modified food and designer body mods. Any wish you will and it can be yours.

Cyberpunk: “a subgenre of science fiction in a future setting, noted for its focus on “high tech and low life” aspects of society. It features advanced technology and science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order. Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among artificial intelligences, and megacorporations, and tend to be set in a future Earth, rather than the far-future settings or galactic vistas found in novels such as Isaac Asimov’s Foundation or Frank Herbert’s Dune. The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its creators (“the street finds its own uses for things”). Much of the genre’s atmosphere echoes film noir, and written works in the genre often use techniques from detective fiction.” – Wikipedia

Who started it? Was it William Gibson’s Neuromancer? Was it 1982’s Blade Runner? Was it the paranoia of a society’s growing dependence on technology? Who knows and who cares. It’s here. Not in a homage kind of way – for real. Our modern living is the low life High Tech fiction of yesterday. Although a lot glossier and wireless but, here nonetheless.

Corporations are dictating political tug of wars. Natural resources are being privatized and sold back at record high prices. Cities of industry like Detroit are collapsing under the weight of the new century’s burdens. Urban areas are becoming overcrowded and homogenized with trend and swag cultures. Rural areas are becoming obsolete in the eyes of the average consuming American who chooses to step up the ladder and live in ratholes and work jobs they don’t like to buy things they don’t need in a new habitat they resent but, need to have status – “Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics”- Trainspotting by Irvine Welsch.

Military power is becoming more and more advanced like a techno-addict. Soon, the modern soldier will rely more on machines than his own wits and resolve; working side by side with drone infantry and remote control aerial support. If it ain’t bought, sold, marketed, reprinted, rebooted or whatever then you’re not in the right place. We are teetering toward the noir worlds of William Gibson, Ridley Scott, Masamune Shirow, Mamoru Oshii, exc. My only regret is that I won’t be a young man when we realize we’re in Night City.

Neuromancer:

Neuromancer is the 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction “triple crown” of the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson’s debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. The novel tells the story of a washed-up computer hacker hired by a mysterious employer to pull off the ultimate hack. Neuromancer is considered “the archetypal cyberpunk work”.

Blade Runner:

Blade Runner is the 1982 Neo-Noir Cyberpunk film directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is a modified film adaptation of the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Blade Runner follows the parallel stories of a blade runner being forced out of retirement to hunt down three replicants (life like androids) who have escaped a mining colony and follows the surviving replicants as they desperately try to find a way to prolong their dwindling life spans by tracing their creation back to the source at the Tyrell Corporation; Leading to the emotional crescendo of an ending. The soundtrack was composed by Vangelis and stands the test of time in visual effects and significance in film history. It’s better than Star Wars.

Robocop:

RoboCop is a 1987 American cyberpunk action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, and Ronny Cox. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan, in the near future, RoboCop centers on police officer Alex Murphy (Weller) who is brutally murdered by a gang of criminals and subsequently revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as “RoboCop”.

Cyberpunk 2020:

Cyberpunk, mainly known by its second edition title Cyberpunk 2020, is a cyberpunk role-playing game written by Mike Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games in 1988. The third edition, published by R. Talsorian Games in 2005, is referred to as Cyberpunk V3.0 and is set in the same fictional timeline of all the former editions, but during the fictional 2030s. Cyberpunk 2020, as the name implies, takes place in the year 2020. The game’s default setting is the fictional Night City, an arcology on the west coast of the United States located between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The game mechanics are similar to D&D although leaning heavily towards technology and cybernetics, rather than magic. CD Projekt RED, the developers of The Witcher series, announced on their 2012 Summer Conference that they were working on a non-linear RPG based on Cyberpunk 2020. The game is now known as Cyberpunk 2077.

Shadowrun:

Shadowrun is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in a near-future fictional universe in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspiracy fiction, horror and detective fiction. From its inception in 1989, Shadowrun has remained among the most popular role-playing games. It has spawned a vast franchise that includes a series of novels, a collectible card game, two miniature-based tabletop wargames, and multiple video games.

Hardware:

Hardware is a 1990 British-American post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Richard Stanley and starring Dylan McDermott. Inspired by a short story in 2000 AD, the film depicts the rampage of a self-repairing robot in a post-apocalyptic slum. My second favorite of the genre, after Blade Runner, rich with all the nostalgic aesthetics of true retro cyberpunk: wastelands, layers of endless cables and wires all over, scrappers, gnarly prosthetics and all of those things that made it possible for low budget projects like Cyborg, Fortress, Nemesis to be made to look like the shattered possible future. One of the best soundtracks on this list.

Split Second:

Split Second is a 1992 British science fiction film starring Rutger Hauer, Kim Cattrall, and Neil Duncan. The film is directed by Tony Maylam and Ian Sharp. In the year 2008, heavy rainfall has flooded large areas of London. Rookie police officer Dick Durkin (Duncan) is assigned to partner Harley Stone (Hauer), a burnt-out and highly cynical homicide detective who, according to his commanding officer, survives on “anxiety, coffee and chocolate” after being unable to prevent the murder of his partner by a serial killer several years previously. Now however, the murders have begun again and Stone and Durkin are assigned the case. Part Alien, part Blade Runner, part Hardware and a smidge of Manhunter are all rolled up into this film. Highly underrated with a limited theatrical release in the states.

Hackers:

Hackers is a 1995 American teen science fiction thriller crime film directed by Iain Softley and starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Renoly Santiago, Matthew Lillard, Jesse Bradford, Lorraine Bracco and Fisher Stevens. The film follows the exploits of a group of gifted high school hackers and their involvement in a corporate extortion conspiracy. See also Cyborg 2 for more Angelina Jolie’s.

Johnny Mnemonic:

Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 Canadian-American cyberpunk action thriller film starring stars Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Henry Rollins, Takeshi Kitano, Denis Akiyama, Udo Kier and Dolph Lundgren. The film is based on the story of the same name by William Gibson. Keanu Reeves plays the title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information. The film portrays Gibson’s dystopian view of the future with the world dominated by megacorporations and with strong East Asian influences.

Strange Days:

Strange Days is a 1995 American science fiction thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, and starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Michael Wincott. The film was nominated for five Saturn Awards, with Bassett winning Best Actress, and Bigelow becoming the first woman to win the Saturn Award for Best Director.

There are a few honorable mentions but, I’d rather you all just go and indulge in the genre and find some flicks for yourself. Enjoy the scenery of the wastelands and jack into your cyberspace ports via that rewind button.

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.” – BLADE RUNNER (1982)

This Month In Retro: January 1980

Joey Edsall — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:35:54 +0000

This Month In Retro is a monthly article where we look back on the current month as it happened during the 1980’s. Learn, reminisce, and stay retro.

In Film:

To All a Goodnight, an American slasher film directed by David Hess was released. The plot involves a psychopath who dresses as Santa Clause, because don’t ask for logic in early 80’s slasher films, and decides to murder a bunch of sorority girls because I guess old horror movie murderers really hated Greek life. It’s a scary movie, but it doesn’t really stand out when you put it next to other slasher flicks of the decade. I admit that the poster is pretty unsettling. Public Service

Announcement: January is the graveyard for horror films, and not in a good way. If a horror movie is coming out in January, save yourself the trouble and skip it.

“You’ll scream till dawn!” – actual tagline

In Music:

Pink Floyd’s epic double LP The Wall was released in late 1979, but climbed to the top spot of the Billboard 200 in January of 1980. A lot of the songs on this album have been played to death by classic rock radio stations and that stoner who wore jeans in your high school gym class, but some of the tracks are under-appreciated and hit really hard. Check out “In The Flesh?“.

One of my favorite albums of the early 80’s kicked off the decade with an impressive January 1980 self-titled album. The Pretenders are a perfect example of the ground that punk and new wave music shared before running in very different directions for the rest of the decade. If you remotely like the first two Yeah Yeah Yeahs albums and don’t listen to the Pretenders you really should start. Some of the songs, including album highlight “Brass in Pocket“ were released individually in late 1979, but all compiled for the awesome debut.

In Literature:

I used to think books could only be funny to the point of making me smile, then I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series and realized how dumb I was. I highly recommend this series for any fan of science fiction. They are fast reads and are a lot of fun. January 1980 saw the release of the second in the series: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It also confirms what you’ve always suspected: that humanity is descended from the most useless members of an alien civilization.

In Television:

Galactica 1980, the spin-off to the 1978 Battlestar Galactica. Most people remember the series from the extremely popular reboot that ran from 2003 to 2009. Galactica 1980 was cancelled in the middle of production of the 11th episode, “The Day They Kidnapped Cleopatra“. Nobody will ever know what happened.

In Sports:

The Islanders and Whalers played a penalty free hockey game. Nigel Short became the youngest International Master of Chess at age 14. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl. And Jimmy Carter announced the boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

FLASHBACK – STARCAT AND COM TRUISE HAVE WORDS!

NewRetroWave — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 22:27:00 +0000

STARCAT WAS IN THE ZONE WHEN HE APPROACHED THE TRUISE.

IS THIS WHY STARCAT DISAPPEARED?!

WE NEED ANSWERS PEOPLE!!

ALSO ENJOY THESE RANDOM 80’S STYLE CATS!

😉

NRW

NRW presents ‘Remember This’. A brand new column by Sam Haine

JimBootstrap — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 07:38:00 +0000

Remember
This?

The Local Video Store

By
Sam Haine

Before
NETFLIX and HULU, before Blockbuster
Video, even before youtube or the corrupted and self-obsessive internet. The
only place to see new films was at the Cineplex. People would make plans ‘over
the phone’ and make a day of going to the theaters to see what was playing;
most times without even knowing what the hell they were about to watch. If you
loved the film, you would spread the word and go back to watch the film again.
Why? Because after its run the only way to see the same film again was to wait
possibly a year before cable television could air it. Unless you stretched on
your sweat bans and pushed that hunk of junk bmx down to your local video
store. You know the video store that smelled of make shift wooden shelves and
filled with empty VHS boxes from floor to ceiling. Each box was held in its
place by a piece of string from one end of the shelf to the other; I guess they
were jumping off the ledge constantly.

In
every neighborhood there were at least one video rental store and sometimes
there were two. Some places you had to actually drive to from your house so, it
became a family activity, “Now you kids go pick something for you and me &
mommy are picking a movie for us.” Remember the days when families actually did
things together… even if you didn’t have one like that you knew other kids who
did.

The
place was a hangout for the local kids and the local kids who had nothing to
do. Mine like most others even had space for arcade games: Terminator 2 arcade
shooter, Out Run, Street Fighter, an SNK arcade cabinet with King of Fighters, Fatal
Fury, Samurai Showdown & Metal Slug; even that damn claw crane vending
machine. Back when claw cranes actually had stuffed animals and toys in them;
before my neighborhood fucked it up by filling it with pre-paid phones, fake Rolex
watches and other junk like big-ass fake diamond earrings (I shit you not).

The
video rental spot charged you a reasonable fee and only required that you
return the tapes (later dvd’s) when you were supposed to and for the tapes to
be rewound. The staff was from the neighborhood or cute enough that you didn’t
care where they came from. The staff also knew what they were talking about
because they loved nothing more than to watch movies and geek out over good
ones and rant poetic hatred about bad ones.

There was always a mysterious
backroom with a neon Adults Only sign above a dark curtain and you just knew
there were things behind that curtain not for you but you couldn’t resist
somehow taking a peek every time.

Their inventory didn’t
consist of the flavor of the month based on customer habits, no, they had what
they had and that was everything from B-movies, kung fu movies, foreign films,
classic films and Hollywood big studio defecation. Remember the Elvira collections where she
would give an introduction to the feature? Remember the Sho Kosugi collection?
Remember all the great movies you haven’t seen in forever.

That’s what Netflix is
seriously lacking – the oddities and the obscurity. I have probably only been
on Netflix maybe only six times. Instead I take free time to go and surf
youtube for all the lost memories. Where else would you find any of the films I
feature every month on this site for you and your viewing pleasure? Everybody
remembers the summer fluffers but it’s the little thrills and chills and movies
that only you and your friends remember with all the inside humor that make the
memories of youth so cherished.

Another
thing to remember – SUNCOAST VIDEO stores and how they sucked!

Suncoast the harbinger
of mediocrity; they never had anything you wanted. Movies were never where they
were supposed to be or they just didn’t have it. The anime section was only six
films: Robotech, Bubblegum Crisis, Vampire Hunter D, Akira, Project A-ko and Wicked
City.

The staff sucked balls
and didn’t know anything. In fact they were the ancestors to the blue shirt
douches that worked at Blockbuster.

“Hello sir, where are your Troma films?”
“Troma? Oh yeah third aisle in the foreign section.”

“Face/Off is an official movie, I liked it,”says the Employee of the Month.
“Official? So every other movie here at FYE is bootleg?”

Remember
these things? What are your memories of your local video store? Reminisce a little and keep your
fingers firmly on the rewind button.

Sam HaiNe is a writer of short stories and flash
fiction and the creator of Hainesville (facebook.com/allhailming).
He’s a contributing writer for NRW including our Retro Movie of the Month. As well he contributes content
and Cult Fiction to CultClassicGoods.com.