CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I am new to anime and i was wondering what is cyberpunk ?

Cyberpunk isn't limited to anime. Its sort of like a hard-boiled, more mature branch of science fiction. It usually involves a dark future setting with high technologies (often used for evil). Some examples are The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell and Bladerunner.

Other, slightly more realistic (ghost in the shell-like) incedents of this style include Neuromancer, Johnny Neumonic, Snow Crash, and in some peoples minds, fight club.

Fight club? Hmm. I'm going to have to disagree with that one. Though I admit a discussion on the topic is probably outside of the relm of this thread.

I'll elaborate a bit on the above post. To my knowledge, William Gibson is pretty much credited with the invention of the genre cyberpunk, if not the orginal concept. His works include Neuromancer, Idoru, Johnny Neumonic and many others of that ilk. Niel Stevenson did a lot for the genre with his novel Snow Crash (a personal fav of mine).

Cyberpunk is when adolescent Borg turn bad...bad pun there but just had to say it!
Ok,there are many different types of cyberpunk.For example Serial Experiments Lain is one of the most recognizable cyberpunk anime series.It deals with computer and computer culture and how computers effect people's lives,etc.On the other hand Ghost In The Shell:Stand Alone Complex is also cyberpunk but of a different form.It mainly has to do with cybernetics and the what ifs of a society where cyborgs and androids are common place.Computer games are another form of cyberpunk.And in fact one episode of the X Files was written by the man who coined the phase cyberpunk.If I remember correctly it was the one where they had to investigate,along with The Lone Gunmen,the disappearances of some gamers testing a new virtual reality type of game that involved a mysterious hologram babe.

Mithrandir wrote:Fight club? Hmm. I'm going to have to disagree with that one. Though I admit a discussion on the topic is probably outside of the relm of this thread.

I'll elaborate a bit on the above post. To my knowledge, William Gibson is pretty much credited with the invention of the genre cyberpunk, if not the orginal concept. His works include Neuromancer, Idoru, Johnny Neumonic and many others of that ilk. Niel Stevenson did a lot for the genre with his novel Snow Crash (a personal fav of mine).

Wow my... post was kinda disjointed. I agree with all your comments actually, and personally I don't think fight club is cyberpunk either. It's a sort of extreme view that an english professor of mine expressed.

Hmm... MitL. wouldn't have qualified a X-files episode as cyberpunk, since the definiton I have used involves the phrase "in the future", pretty much as a rule, and I thought the series was set in the modern day (like... the late 90's)

I thought William Gibson coined the phrase 'steampunk', not 'cyberpunk' or was it both?

I hadn't heard that one. *does a wikipedia search* <-- They haven't either. You can read his bio (of sorts) there at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson_%28novelist%29

I'll admit up front, though that Philip K. Dick is a more likely candidate for the distiction of creating the cyberpunk movement; he just wasn't as popular - though his most famous book (Do androids dream of electric sheep) was published - IIRC - a good decade or so earlier.

The original question has been answered. Instead of rambling about cyberpunk (which I certainly could), I think I'll merely tangent from the topic.

Warrior 4 Jesus wrote:I thought William Gibson coined the phrase 'steampunk', not 'cyberpunk' or was it both?

For Mithrandir or anyone else: steampunk is a story in which old technologies are taken to more advanced levels. For example, the movie "Van Helsing" had plenty of steampunk elements. I'm somewhat surprised that Wikipedia apparently doesn't have an entry for it. While it isn't a widespread term, I've seen it used in a number of places.

Arguably, Frankenstine is steampunk, though it doesn't seem it. Still, the ideas of alchemists touted as a different route into high science...

Gibson coined the term "cyberspace".

I would agree that Philip K. Dick established the genre (Blade Runner, one of the earlier cyberpunk movies, is testament to that), although I think Gibson brought it to the fore with Neuromancer and some of his short stories.

Would The Matrix count also?

Yes it does. It was listed in the first post.

would the new appleseed b considered cyberpunk or just scifi?

I don't think it qualifies for the cyberpunk subgenre. If you were to make an argument for it, you would have to begin with the premise of bioroids and cyborgs, but given how this element is handled I don't think it really qualifies.

[Begin Intellectual Psuedo-Psychology Program]

The difference between Cyberpunk and Hard Sci-fi is the same as the one between steampunk and Westerns/Victorian (depending on which side of the pond). That key difference would be the relation of the technology to the human persona. A series does not have to be dark and industrially grimy ala Blade Runner to be put in this genre.

The primary theme of Cyberpunk relates the meandering of humanity with the machine around it.

[End IPP Program]

Basically, you can have a story about a kid trying to survive with a supped up PDA, and still be called Cyberpunk.

Lochaber Axe wrote:A series does not have to be dark and industrially grimy ala Blade Runner to be put in this genre.

It is worth noting that Blade Runner also takes a lot of elements from film noir. Thus it should not define the genre of cyberpunk.

uc pseudonym wrote:It is worth noting that Blade Runner also takes a lot of elements from film noir. Thus it should not define the genre of cyberpunk.

Uh... I used it as an example of an example of cyberpunk. I defined the genre in the stand alone sentence (:P).

Am I wrong in thinking that the music featured in cyberpunk is also an important part of the classification?

Some good old school cyberpunk movies have been listed, but what about anime? Two of my favorites are Bubblegum Crisis and Armitage III.

termyt wrote:Am I wrong in thinking that the music featured in cyberpunk is also an important part of the classification?

Some good old school cyberpunk movies have been listed, but what about anime? Two of my favorites are Bubblegum Crisis and Armitage III.

And what manner of music would that be? So far I've found little relation among cyberpunk films of music, save that in the Japanese inputs into the genre traditional instruments can often be used, and that it has dark or aloof tones.

I similarly have not noticed musical comparisons.

Lochaber Axe wrote:Uh... I used it as an example of an example of cyberpunk. I defined the genre in the stand alone sentence (:P).

Pun aside, sorry for miscommunicating. My post was intended to complement yours, not argue against it.

uc pseudonym wrote:I similarly have not noticed musical comparisons.


Pun aside, sorry for miscommunicating. My post was intended to complement yours, not argue against it.

The only genre that music categorizes is the musical. All other times are just fluff. Now a certain type of music will enhance the overall theme of a genre, but never classify it.

No prob, all it takes is reading more than twice to catch the reasoning.