The Sci-Fi Channel in the early 2000’s was in many ways my gateway to anime that was aimed at adult audiences that shaped my perception of what the medium could be, films and OVA that came out around the 80’s & 90’s that I was introduced to whether they be good or bad always have a significant impact on a young mind. For me it was a mixed bag as the quality would weave in and out, but when you are watching something so insane and you look back on as being really bad your perception changes but you can still have fun with it. For Genocyber that’s not really the case and why it’s not so much bad as it is infamous for its reputation.
Based on the short lived manga written and illustrated by Tony Takezaki, In the near-future the world’s nations have begun forming a new global government. Set during this new formation we see the development and creation of “Genocyber” an ultimate biological weapon created by combining the powers and consciousness of two psychic sisters, Elaine and Diana.
Genocyber’s story is a strange one because of how it’s developed and is split up into 5 episodes, episodes 1-3 cover different stories as do episodes 4-5.
Episode 1: A New Life Form – Set in the backdrop of Hong Kong, we see the Genocyber project funded under the command of the Kuryu Group. The story follows Elaine, a mute girl with a wild animal behaviour is the main focus of Kenneth Reed, the head of the Kuryu group as he plans to combine Elaine’s powers with that of his crippled daughter Diana to activate the Genocyber.
Episodes 2 & 3: Vajranoid Attack & Global War – Picking up from episode one where we see Elaine where upon she now has a full Cyborg body under the care of a young doctor, Myra who lost her daughter about the exact same age as Elaine. Here we see the Kuryu group on the supercarrier, Alexandria developing a Vajra (a creature similar to Genocyber) however once it becomes a problem for an unstable scientist all hell breaks loose which ends up causing a huge nightmare for the Alexandria and everyone on it.
Episodes 4 & 5: Legend of the City of the Grand Ark, Part I and Part II – Set far in the post-apocalyptic future of 2400AD, far from focusing on the two sisters Elaine & Diana. We see one of the last remaining cities on earth, Ark de Grande City (City of the Grand Ark) under the control a tyrannical mayor claiming to restore civilisation that was destroyed by the Genocyber but is only after the trust of the people. In this story we are focused on a young couple Ryu and Mel and Ryu is doing his best to provide for Mel and raise enough money to help cure her Blindness.
Episodes 2 & 3: Vajranoid Attack & Global War – Picking up from episode one where we see Elaine where upon she now has a full Cyborg body under the care of a young doctor, Myra who lost her daughter about the exact same age as Elaine. Here we see the Kuryu group on the supercarrier, Alexandria developing a Vajra (a creature similar to Genocyber) however once it becomes a problem for an unstable scientist all hell breaks loose which ends up causing a huge nightmare for the Alexandria and everyone on it.
Episodes 4 & 5: Legend of the City of the Grand Ark, Part I and Part II – Set far in the post-apocalyptic future of 2400AD, far from focusing on the two sisters Elaine & Diana. We see one of the last remaining cities on earth, Ark de Grande City (City of the Grand Ark) under the control a tyrannical mayor claiming to restore civilisation that was destroyed by the Genocyber but is only after the trust of the people. In this story we are focused on a young couple Ryu and Mel and Ryu is doing his best to provide for Mel and raise enough money to help cure her Blindness.
Now, Genocyber as an anime is incredibly infamous for what it brings to the table. The main machine itself is an indestructible killing machine and regenerative abilities; Genocyber also possesses incredible telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers and in an anime where such a thing runs rampant expect only one thing. Tons and tons of violence, this is an anime that is often criticised for its extremely graphic use of gore and body horror. There’s enough amount of eviscerations, decapitations and all kinds of mutilations that really make most horror films with this amount of high body counts tremble because of how insane and graphic it is, so plot while there is some in here is a second and less important point here.
When it comes to the characters of this anime they aren’t really developed all that much so there really doesn’t seem to be much to latch onto in terms of someone to root/care for, considering that the manga was cancelled before it can form much of a story. However when it comes the protagonist Elaine you do feel something for her in the first few episodes, especially when she befriends a young homeless boy who they quickly bond over a short period of time, characters like Kenneth Reed (the adoptive father of Elaine & Diana) are presented as cruel and malicious and show no sympathy to their own kin. Even later on when you see characters such as Mel & Ryu their development and their involvement in the story seems hastily rushed and not given really that much to look at, so overall characters and what many we see are just nothing more than fodder for the meat grinder unfortunately.
When I first saw Genocyber all those years ago I really didn’t know what to think of it, largely because this anime is ridiculously complicated to follow at times and it really shouldn’t be. On the surface and especially how it’s advertised this is an anime that was out during the big anime boom of the 90’s and advertised just as a “Video Nasty” and it shows, something that is geared towards an adult demographic full of gore and violence and really doesn’t stop spraying blood till after the body has stopped moving. But despite that though, there is something here to try and invest in with its story. It’s a very bleak and nihilistic cyberpunk anime where upon you are watching inhuman experiments carried out on young children and they suffer physical, mental and even sexual abuse. Moving further ahead with that you are watching those children become killing machines, causing widespread destruction destroying the lives of everyone around them and it never stops even as the story moves further into the future with a different cast, just trying to survive in a ruined world. So there really is something here and it really wants to tell a story, but unfortunately the story bogged down with the insane amount of gore and blood which can be very silly at times to watch.
Between it’s over the top violence and it’s complete lack of interest in character development, Genocyber’s production is very much a mixed bag but there’s more to enjoy than there is to be negative about. Made by Studio Artmic and directed by Koichi Ohata (Cybernetics Guardian, M.D. Geist, Burst Angel, Ikki Tousen) Genocyber’s level of production falls down to it’s design aesthetic and the presence of the director. Koichi Ohata is a veteran who’s worked mostly in mech design, from Gunbuster to Macross and even Gundam. He has a style that is oddly distinct, especially when it came to the 90’s. As a director he’s really not that bad at showcasing violence and the gratuitous nature of it and here he manages to hit the target in the amount of ways that people can get killed as well as detailing in how many ways buildings can be destroyed, apart from that the designs of creatures such as Genocyber and even other cyborg characters offer a really horrific and very intimidating presence to them based on the way they move and how they fight. The set pieces throughout this are pretty okay for the most part, between the somewhat grimy and very rundown look of the city of Hong Kong to the post-apocalyptic look of Ark de Grande City everything about the look of Genocyber promises nothing but bleakness and from beginning to end in its environment. The character designs by Atsushi Yamagata are just okay for what they are, not too outlandish despite some of the characters relying too heavily on the cyberpunk gear to feel too much in the genre but just the right amount for them to look interesting. However combined with the animation production throughout this everything kind of see-saws back and forth in quality and it becomes really hard to maintain any focus on what’s being shown, so there’s plenty to be wary about.
The audio for Genocyber is where things become really complicated but at the same time it almost works for how absurd this whole thing is and why it’s infamy is warranted.
The score by Hiroaki Kagoshima & Takehito Nakazawa is something of an oddity; it’s an electronic sounding score that often goes from melancholic to really over the top in some of the scenes. Most notably the song “Genocide” which is played constantly through the fights and massacre scenes of the anime and songs like “Encounter” which are played when something sad happens, so really the soundtrack here really isn’t all that bad. It’s the kind of soundtrack that stands out for a product of it’s time and it works, even the lyrical songs at the end which are a little in appropriate for the tone are a nice fit. The ending song "Fairy Dreamin” by Sayuri Shimizu is upbeat and pumping with a rock quality to it while “Instead of Standing Here Alone” by Shimizu offers a very ballad quality to it which again is jarring for something so bleak as Genocyber but works.
Now English audio for this series is easily the most jarring thing about it as the quality of it is so uneven at times. There are two dubs to Genocyber, episodes 1-3 were dubbed by Manga UK whereas episodes 4-5 were dubbed by Central Park Media and they both have their collective faults. When Manga UK shine in an anime dub it’s often rare when it happens, this anime is not one of Manga UK’s best dubs. The voice acting and casting choices range from really stilted line delivery to just cramming in too much profanity when it’s not needed, Toni Barry as Elaine does a passable job despite her lines of dialogue consisting nothing but screaming and making infantile noises to go with the personality. Whereas talents like Bill Roberts as Kenneth Reed are a good fit because Roberts has in the past done a solid job of playing villains and old men that come across as commanding, but the rest of the cast are either attempting an accent for a character that doesn’t quite fit or everyone else is too over the top that their voice just comes across as too silly to really notice.
Central Park Media’s dub on the other hand is by far the worst dub in terms of what’s being presented. The voice acting which was carried out by Audioworks Producers Group, which is an ADR Production company in New York well known for a handful of anime dubs that were licenced by Central Park Media is ridiculous. Here the voice work ranges from really dead and emotionless to over the top where it almost feels like Shakespearean and delivered in the worst way in the worst moments to the worst characters, especially when the lines are meant to be taken really seriously you can’t help but burst out laughing at how over the top and silly everything sounds.
Overall Genocyber is a product of infamy. It’s an ultra-violent, utterly nonsensical, intensely bleak, grim and uncaring and very dumb anime, it’s characters are utterly stock and forgettable, the plot is too hard to follow and what good it’s trying to do falls down hard. But there is something to get out of this and why this particular anime despite it’s reputation is kind of fun to watch, ultra-violence and ridiculous gory entertainment has its place and this stands out because you aren’t really watching it for the plot you are watching it to be entertained. Switch your brain off and enjoy the madness.
However despite that if you are put off by gory imagery, bloody carnage and anything that is depicted as harmful, then this is one to steer clear and far away from because this one can leave an impression that is very hard to shake off.
Genocyber at the end of the day is trash in its purest form; watch it at your own risk
Sami Sadek is a lifelong Transformers and Anime fan, and can often be found propping up bars or appearing in the background of Auto Assembly vids. He has also talks on Youtube, Tweets on Twitter, doodles on Deviantart and is a regular co-host on this very site's Cyberritz. He has never had a swordfight atop a church whilst a crow watches. Honest.
