From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utcsri!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!access.usask.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!mona.muug.mb.ca!kenwolfe Wed Sep 16 21:21:50 EDT 1992
Article 6792 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: kenwolfe@muug.mb.ca (Ken Wolfe)
Subject: Re: Akira/movies
Message-ID: <1992Sep6.020235.12970@muug.mb.ca>
Organization: Manitoba Unix User Group, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
References: <8330@orbit.cts.com>
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 02:02:35 GMT
Lines: 22

In <8330@orbit.cts.com> anthro@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Paul Bramscher) writes:

>I recently saw the animated "Akira".  Cyberpunk in some aspects, it combined
>urban decay, hints at plutocracy, and the life-is-cheap ideology.  I'd
>be interested if anyone has a list of cyberpunkish movies that have been
>produced.  There are many urban decay type films, but few that add in the
>concept of neural interfaces.

>UUCP: {crash, tcnet, petrus, quest}!orbit!pnet51!anthro
>ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!anthro@nosc.mil
>INET: anthro@pnet51.orb.mn.org

Since you mention Akira, another Japanese animated feature comes to mind:
an OVA (Original Video Animation) series with the unlikely name of
Bubblegum Crisis.  It depicts Tokyo as a series of ultra-wealthy
arcologies surrounded by urban decay, but the emphasis is more on the
technical toys: man-machine interfaces and artificial beings not unlike
the replicants in Blade Runner.  The series has been subtitled into
English by a company called AnimEigo.  As for American movies, I guess the
Robocop movies and Freejack are the obvious examples.

Ken Wolfe


