Give me your best cyberpunk media

I'm on holidays from university, and I'm on a cyberpunk binge, with only just finally recently playing Technobabylon. I know that there are other cyberpunk fans here, so let's share. Anime, games, books, anything goes.

What I have gone through recently:

-Ghost in the Shell (the two films), watched a bit of SAC, still a bit iffy on it, but if the Laughing Man arc is solid I'll stick with it

-Technobabylon, a great point n click game with quality VA

-Deus Ex

-Psycho-Pass. Not the absolute best, but solid enough

What I am going to go through:

-Serial Experiments Lain

-Gemini Rue

-Read through Snow Crash and Neuromancer finally

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is pretty much proto-cyberpunk. As is a lot of stuff by Harlan Ellison

Android Netrunner is a good cyberpunk themed LCG and different gangs of hackers trying to twart the worlds megacorps who are trying to take more and more control over everything and everyone. Some of the hackers do it for fun, others do it to rain chaos down and others do it to be rich or are Robin Hood type characters. The mega corps are basically THE MEDIA, CLONES, ANDROIDS and MONEY BITCHES.

It has a few novels, I've no idea of the quality of them though. The flavour text they put into the cards is pretty great at times but I don't know if it translates well to the books they release.

Obvious answer, but you can't talk about cyberpunk without mentioning blade runner. Probably don't even need to make this comment, but whatevs. One of the best Blu rays ever is the final cut. Don't watch it on Netflix because they have the theatrical version, which is fucking awful.

Neuromancer and Snow Crash are both mandatory reads if you're at all interested in Cyberpunk.

Edit: Oh, I didn't read you post properly. When you finish those, I've heard Diamond Age is also very good.

Definitely stick with stand alone complex, its way better than the movies imo.

I would also suggest Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan.

I adore the Shadowrun Returns series of games and recommend you give those a shot. It's cyberpunk meets fantasy, but there's enough mirrorshades and corporate-paranoia to be interesting.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, first released in 1956.

From wikipedia: "The Stars My Destination anticipated many of the staples of the later cyberpunk movement, for instance the megacorporations as powerful as governments, a dark overall vision of the future and the cybernetic enhancement of the body. Bester added to this mix the concept that human beings could learn to teleport, or "jaunte" from point to point, provided they know the exact locations of their departure and arrival and have physically seen the destination..."

It's got a lot of inspiration from The Count of Monte Cristo. The main character, Gully Foyle, is referenced in the first Deus Ex game. It's a really good book, and holds up amazingly well for being almost 60 years old. I can't recommend it enough!

For games, if you're OK with some Tolkien in your cyberpunk, the recent Shadowrun games are pretty fantastic. Who doesn't love elves with datajacks in their skulls? Sattelite Reign is really cool, too.

Came here to say this ... Shadowrun is great.

@bernard_bernoulli said:

Book: Is Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said cyberpunk? If someone's already seen Blade Runner I'd recommend reading it (& also doubling back on Electric Sheep if you want).

Anime: Bubblegum Crisis (definitely cyberpunk), Paprika (not sure if cyberpunk).

Boardgame: The Omega Virus

Albums: Hissing Prigs in Static Couture by Braniac, Severe Exposure by Six Finger Satellite, Entertainment Program for Humans by Servotron

Game: I feel pretty cyberpunk when I play M.U.L.E. for NES but I don't know if that counts.

Diamond Age is great.

hmm I just recently watched Harmony - Project Itoh... really good cyberpunk anime movie.

@2headedninja said:

Another vote for Shadowrun Returns; one note I have is that I am of the opinion that Shadowfall Returns: Dragonfall - Director's Cut is absolutely a cut above the first game both in terms of scope and writing. Jump on it!

Cyber City Oedo 808 and AD Police (AD Police is in the same world as Bubblegum Crisis....watch Bubblegum Crisis) delivered in the most perfect way.....PS ignore Geno Cyber....thats...man thats a fucking fucked up fucker of a thing.... also Trailer is NSFW ish....

Armitage III which for all intents and purposes is Blade Runner on Mars.........so watch it! ITS BLADE RUNNER ON MARS!

Battle Angel Alita despite being somewhat fucked up more than alot of anime of the time it is pretty deep and interesting. Cyborg girl is found in a landfill and restored....and become a bounty hunter.

Dominion Tank Police is fairly Cyberpunk.....you have Cyborg villain with Android Cat girls up against the police armed with tanks in a dystopian cyber future were the northern hemisphere is so polluted they do not realy get to see the sun all that often........ok its very cyberpunk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGTZLuuTPi8

Megazone 23 is a mecha anime...but also very cyberpunky besides.....this trailer.... "A guy with a cool bike....could get laid all summer long!" is actualy said in the trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwzxpJxKq4Y The anime literaly has coporation wars happen in it.

Oh and Goku Midnight Eye....a private eye named Goku wakes up and has had his own eye replaced with a supercomputer that can hack anything...why? He dosnt know...but he does know the person who did it will freely talk to him through the eye.

Also cool weird stuff happens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MyqyJU7Mw

Most of my recommendations there is alot of 80s cool guys doing cool stuff anime.

Number one suggestion that hasn't showed up here yet is a film called Strange Days. It's about a very, very near future where people figure out how to record memories and experiences and replay them, and the main character is basically a drug dealer that deals in illicit memories, who one day comes across a snuff memory/film, and investigates. It's a really, really good film.

In terms of games, I haven't seen Binary Domain mentioned at all, and that's definitely worth a look.

The Laughing Man arc is one of the most prescient pieces of sci-fi I've ever seen. Do watch it. That first season of SAC is virtually unparalleled in my eyes. The subsequent season(s) are also good, and the first SAC movie is really fuckin good, too.

I'd add the other two William Gibson books from Sprawl trilogy to the book list: Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Gibsons Bridge trilogy is as well a great one (Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties).

As for movies not mentioned; I guess Hardware falls into cyberpunk and is fantastic.

@adequatelyprepared: Read The Peripheral by William Gibson. It's his modern return to cyberpunk of sorts and it's really fascinating because theres just enough in that book to make it seem like a plausible future.

I'll preach with the choir on Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut and Blade Runner.

For anime Stand Alone Complex is pretty close to the best thing you can watch. Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 is pretty damn awesome as well.

Not sure if I would label it cyberpunk per se or just plain sci-fi, but I recently quite enjoyed A Scanner Darkly (both the novel and the Linklater film). It does feature a few of the typical cyberpunk themes and tropes though, such as the dystopian totalitarian society, hooked on a fictional superdrug, as well as the near-future tech stuff.

I second the Altered Carbon suggestion, it's a brutal noir cyberpunk novel while the others in the series are more sci-fi military stories. Don't forgot about Giant Bomb's Number 9 game of the year for 2015 Invisible Inc.

I would browse trough Cyberpunk 2020 rule book. It has interesting retro future feel to it where cell phones are higher tech than cyborg limbs. Internet is satellite network that can be accessed trough neural interface decks and designer drugs fuel the parties and shoot outs. Also CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk game will be based on this, so on future you could compare how "Friday Night Firefight" system translates to video games.

Season 2 of the podcast Friends at the Table (hosted by one Austin Walker) was a whole cyberpunk mecha anime adventure.

@driadon: I only read book 2 of Takeshi Kovacs, but I didn't like it. I found its nihilism and especially its bloodthirstiness distasteful.

Armitage III it's an anime.

This game just came out, its by far the best game OST this year. And, its cyber-punk themed bartending.

Ehh noir? I honestly thought it was kind of cartoonish in trying to appear "cool" most times. It was highly recommended as this great new cyberpunk but I honestly did not enjoy it at all and thought most of the action felt like the author's teenage son kept telling him what awesome thing should happen next.

Then again a lot of people praised the Expanse series and I similarly thought that first book wasn't very good at all. I guess I'm a picky reader.

Ooh! I forgot to throw in a personal favorite of mine: the Cthulhutech tabletop RPG. It's a Post-apocalyptic-lovecraftian-cyberpunk-mecha-anime-horror-mystery game that, with the world they create, can be just about any mix of these elements together in one. If you're not one for the game, or table top RPGs at all, then I at least suggest checking out the art. It's effing gorgeous.

Mr. Robot is very much a cyberpunk show in theme if not in aesthetic. It's probably the best written TV hacking ever, which I realize is saying very little but nearly all of it passes the realism test. Highly recommended.

@humanity: I guess so. What's your jam, anyway?

@veektarius: As in my favorite cyberpunk novel? All of the Gibson stuff pretty much. I haven't read that many other ones apart from Carbon and Snow Crash.

Also to the person above, Mr. Robot is a decent show but in now way shape or form cyberpunk.

@humanity: The first book of the Expanse is a little....poorly written. It gets much mcuh better, don't give up yet!

Also OP, I'd suggest watching the show Person of Interest if you haven't already. The first season is pretty formulaic, but i believe that there is a guide for which episodes are essential watching. the further it goes on though...well.

AMA with the creator. Very first line is 'I wanted to finally bring cyberpunk to TV.' Like I said, aesthetically it isn't and if you need cyberpunk to feature robot arms and cyber eyes Mr. Robot doesn't hit the mark but in terms of themes and direction it is very much a modern take on Cyberpunk and deserves to be mentioned in a discussion of the genre for hitting almost all the same notes.

Quote from wiki: "Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body." The only thing here that does not apply to Mr. Robot is the last part, and I think the genre is flexible enough that cybernetics aren't a universal requirement. Here's some more discussion, but I don't want to drag things down here with a long semantic debate so basically if you like the neon lights and shining chrome of classic cyberpunk Mr. Robot is maybe a no, but if you like exploration of the high tech low life trope it's very much a yes.

Edit: Here's a speech from the finale. If you read this and tell me the show isn't Cyberpunk then we might just be working from different definitions to start with:

You should take a look at Nawlz. It is an interactive web comic with sounds and music, and I'd totally forgotten it existed until I started thinking about cyberpunk just now.

It's been a long time since I've read it, so I'd find it difficult to summarise, other than to say it's pretty fucking weird. I definitely enjoyed it at the time though and I've not really seen anything similar since, so maybe give it a shot?

You can read it in your web browser, but it's also available on iPad or to buy as a download for Windows/Mac from the website.

@nmarebfly: I would argue that cyber punk is by its very nature intrinsically tied to a very specific aesthetic. It's not just "hacking" it's the whole nine yards. For me personally I cannot imagine one without the other. The show writers might be influenced by it and doing some unique off-shoot genre but to me it's more hacking-noir than cyberpunk - but hey to each their own of course. At the end of the day labels become sort of meaningless in the long run. That said, there should be some futuristic elements involved when labeling something as "cyber" punk. Class warfare alone doesn't cut it.

Now that I think about it in terms of games that excellent Syndicate reboot has shades of cyberpunk in it.

..... Would Wipeout be considered Cyberpunk? The are racing for cold faceless corporations among a city that seems to be okay with hover cars racing at billion miles per hour

Fuck, Gunhed is a very flawed movie in terms of editing and pacing, but goddamn if it doesn't have some of my all-time favorite cyberpunk (and mech!) visuals. There was a Front Line Assembly music video in the early 90's with lots of shots from that movie, Mindphaser.

The Italian original 1997 cut of the movie Nirvana with Christopher Lambert is absolutely stunning too. Sadly the most commonly available English dub released in 1998 is awful. It's been slightly re-edited and the voice actors sound like something out of saturday morning cartoons. It's just a beautiful movie, set in a pretty unique cyberpunk India at Christmas setting. Lots of buddhist imagery, constant snow and just a perfect blend of the "low life vs high tech" stuff that's one of the basic themes of Cyberpunk.

Funnily enough, Christopher Lambert is dubbed in both the Italian and English versions.

@humanity: In all honesty, It's possible I am too easily a pleased reader. I certainly won't say that all of the characters were well fleshed out, but it was a fun read.

Seeing that Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is by Philip K. Dick... probably.

A lot of proto-cyberpunk doesn't necessarily feature cyberspace, but does have an emphasis on technology and a somewhat punky, lived-in, jargon-filled future world. Dick and Ellison were pioneers in that field.

Lain was seriously ahead of it's time. Holy fuck that show was outright prophetic when it came the blurring lines of reality and the Internet.

You might have an existential crisis or psychotic break during the process of watching it. Fair warning.

I'm still going through it myself, but Ergo Proxy is super cyberpunk, and god damn it hooks you really fast.

Fascinating story that I'm hoping goes places, but designs, look, themes, are incredible. It's soundtrack is wonderful as well.

And while it's not really media, I've been reading Toyko Ghost and that's pretty fuckin good so far. I love the art, and while it's low on content at the moment I'd recommend it for sure.

Edit: Patlabor 2 is a hella stylish movie! And GitS 2: Innocense is great, and Stand Alone Complex is by far the best GitS material out there. The first movie has style, but SAC has the depth I wanted in addition.

Bless this thread. So many good recommendations for me to follow up on in addition to OP. You guys all rock!

Oh. Go get your dirty hands on some trades of Transmetropolitan if you're into comics.

If you love high tech and low life, you're in for a treat.

I just picked up Snow Crash not too long ago after getting recommended it, I've heard good things but dear god does the description of the book sound terrible!

This is a bit of a deep cut and personal favorite of mine. Check out the movie Strange Days.

Thanks a lot for the recommendations duders, wasn't expecting this much of a response.

One really solid cyberpunk anime that I really enjoyed (in fact, it's the only anime I own myself on DVD) is Texhnolyze. Don't watch it a happy time though. It starts off depressing and just kind of goes downhill from there. The first few episodes are also noted for having an extremely small amount of spoken dialogue. Considering where the series goes, it's well worth a watch.

I know that the definition of cyberpunk is heavy to interpretation, and even though an aesthetic makes up a big part of it, to me, even something as 'clean' as Minority Report can be considered cyberpunk if enough of the thematic and tonal elements are here.

@colony024: A Scanner Darkly is a great watch and read with a very sobering take on drug abuse. I would put it into cyberpunk, it has enough elements of that.

I can't agree with that. Book one is one of the 2 or 3 best of the series. If you don't like it, I don't see any reason to keep going.

I don't know of all that many cyberpunk things, but Tsutomi Nihei has written several cyberpunk manga that I really enjoyed. Blame! and Biomega were both really great in my opinion, but don't read them if you want lots of dialogue (Blame can go entire volumes with only one or two words being said). The sense of scale in the art is what I enjoyed most.

Serial Experiments Lain is really awesome too; I'm glad to see it on your list already. I've watched it a few times before and I'm pretty sure I still don't really understand a lot of it, but that's part of what makes it great. ;)