The master does it again. With another running-longer-than-planned poll now in the books, you have once again chosen William Gibson, at least his book Neuromancer, as the most significant contribution to cyberpunk. You have claimed it to be more significant than Blade Runner, even more so than the creation of the word itself. Since most of you most likely started with Neuromancer, it almost seemed like a no-brainer has to how this would come out, though Blade Runner fans still might have something to say about it.
And now, for the next poll…
NOTHING!
That’s right. We’re going to give our polling machines a break, though I do have a couple of ideas for our next poll(s) (something music based), but I want to get a couple of music reviews in before posting. In the mean time, I’ll be checking out FOX’s new series Dollhouse and letting you know if it’s cyberpunk material or not. Plus, I want to get The Gene Generation viewed and reviewed this weekend before the Daytona 500 wrecks my plans.
This post has been filed under Poll Results by Mr. Roboto.
After being up for over a year, and having collected so many questionable entries, I thought it was time to announce the winner of the “favorite author” poll and start a new one.
Some 3100 votes were cast, and the man behind Neuromancer gathered nearly 1000 votes, more than 30%. At a distant second was Phillip K. Dick (only 400 for him), with Neil Stephenson taking bronze for his 300 votes.
Now, the next poll is ready to be voted upon, and already has some votes. The question: What do you believe is the most significant contribution to cyberpunk? Some candidates for your consideration:
* Bruce Bethke’s short story, where the word is first used.
* The publication of Neuromancer.
* Blade Runner is released in theatres.
You can vote for one of these, or add an entry that you feel is an important contribution. Just make certain to vote/add because I’m not going to leave this poll running for a year.
This post has been filed under Poll Results by Mr. Roboto.
In Cyberpunk Review’s most recent poll question, cyberpunk anime fans have spoken loud and clear - Major Motoko Kusanagi wins hands down! Starting off as a 10 member list, after a whopping 486 votes, the results are as follows:
Who is your favorite cyberpunk animated character?
- Major Motoko Kusanagi - Ghost in the Shell: 41% (198)
- Batou - Ghost in the Shell: 17% (84)
- Lain Iwakura - Serial Experiments Lain: 8% (40)
- Gally (Alita) - Battle Angel: 6% (27)
- Tetsuo Shima - Akira: 5% (26)
- Æon Flux - Æon Flux: 5% (26)
- Togusa - Ghost in the Shell1: 4% (19)
- Priscilla S. Asagiri ‘Priss’ - Bubblegum Crisis: 3% (17)
- Deunan Knute - Appleseed: 3% (16)
- Real Mayer - Ergo Proxy1: 2% (12)
- Armitage - Armitage III: 2% (11)
- Taarna - Heavy Metal: 1% (6)
- Saito - Ghost in the shell11: 0% (1)
Total Votes : 486
1 = Added by a guest
Major Motoko Kusanagi - Ghost in the Shell: 41%
Major Motoko Kusanagi has been a cornerstone of manga and anime since the early 90s. Starting out as a manga character in Masume Shirow’s highly influential Ghost in the Shell, she was transformed to the big screen by Anime master Mamoru Oshii in an anime of the same name in 1995. Since then, she’s played a cameo in GITS: Innocence, and more recently has starred in the GITS: Stand Alone Complex OAVs. Motoko, an extreme mechanically enhanced cyborg secret operative working for Section 9 - Japan’s anti-terrorism division, is one of the most recognized characters in cyberpunk. She’s hawt, highly intellectual and a badass besides. Her musings concerning the merging of man and machine are among the best discussions in cyberpunk. Probably just as important for this poll, some people LOVE the movie, while others are just as in love with the GITS:SAC series - no doubt both voted for this choice in garnering a whopping 198 votes!
Batou - Ghost in the Shell: 17%
Surprisingly, our #2 choice, Batou comes in with a stron 17% vote finish. This means that the Ghost in the Shell series took in 58% of all votes cast - 62% if we add in user-added Togosa’s score! Talk about domination! Batou is also a serious badass with a complex history, but he also has an intellectual side. While he is a co-star in the first GITS movie and in GITS SAC, he is the star of GITS: Innocence. If you’ll looking for one of the finest visual feasts in anime coupled with some truly deep and interesting philosophical examinations, look no further than Batou in GITS: Innocence.
Lain Iwakura - Serial Experiments Lain: 8%
For our #3 choice, Lain Iwakura is another of the mammoths in cyberpunk anime. If you’ve seen more than 3 cyberpunk animes, chances are you’ve seen Serial Experiments Lain. Written by post-modern scriptwriter-extraordinaire, Chiaki Konaka, Lain is a character who’s mind is slowly merging with cyberspace. The series itself is one of the first post-modern anime series, and is anything but straightforward. Like most of Konaka’s stories, it will take you more than a few episodes to figure out what’s going on, but the wait is worth it! Lain is both cute and vulnerable, but also represents the cyberpunk story of a normal person thrown into technological circumstances far beyond their control. Lain’s response, and the story itself provide some wonderful grist in thinking about the influence of cyberspace on the global consciousness.
Gally (Alita) - Battle Angel: 6%
One of the all-time greats in manga, Battle Angel Alita, is also a favorite in anime. While difficult to get your hands on, if you can find a copy of Battle Angel (think “Ebay”), chances are you’ll love it. Alita is one of the all-time cool anime cyberpunk chicks. Set in a dystopic world, Alita is literally put together from spare parts in a trash heap. It turns out, however, that she’s the farthest thing from a piece of junk. Battle Angel, which is highly influenced from the trail blazed by Akira, has some terrific post-human interest stories coupled with top-quality fight scenes.
Tetsuo Shima - Akira: 5%
Tetsuo is one of the most influential characters in one of the most influential animes of all time - Akira. In true punk form, rebelling against the system, Tetsuo is transformed into a post-human powerhouse. The visual style provided by Katsuhiro Ôtomo and company forever transformed anime. In fact, most trace modern anime to this movie.
Æon Flux: 5%
Created by Peter Chung, Æon Flux is one of the sexiest animated characters around. If you haven’t seen it, Æon Flux is completely post-modern cyberpunk, with seriously inverted storylines, massively wierd technological impacts, and truly strange circumstances. More interesting, in season two, Æon ends up dying virtually every episode - and the deaths are spectacular! If you’re looking for a true “don’t give a shit” sexy badass anti-heroine, nobody comes close to Æon Flux.
The Rest: 15%
Color me surprised, but I really expected Priss from Bubblegum Crisis and especially, Real Mayer from Ergo Proxy to do much better. In Real’s case, perhaps most haven’t seen Ergo Proxy. For Priss, perhaps someone else here has a good theory. While I love Deunan Knute from the Appleseed animes (first & second), and especially love Armitage from Armitage III, I doubted these were going to generate much interest. But Togusa? Wow! He wasn’t even on the list, but ended up garnering 4% after being added!
This post has been filed under Poll Results by SFAM.
Cyberpunk Review members have spoken: The 80s are your favorite decade for cyberpunk movies. After 51 votes, the results are as follows:
What’s your favorite decade for cyberpunk movies?
- Prior to 1980: 2% (1)
- 1980 - 1989: 45% (23)
- 1990 - 1999: 29% (15)
- 2000 - current: 24% (12)
Total Votes : 51
The 80s
And truly, it’s not that suprising. There are a bunch of terrific cyberpunk movies from the 80s that are very influential, and very well known. In looking at my Star Ratings, the movies I rate with either 9 or 10 stars from the 80s include:
Couple that with other wildly influential flicks like Akira, Bubblegum Crisis and Tron, and you have an absolutely rockin decade! The Golden Age of Cyberpunk was more than just the books.
The 90s
However, I have to say that I’m still pretty torn about my favorite decade. Some of my absolute favorite cyberpunk flicks come from the 90s, especially for animes. Just for animes, the 90s brings us my all-time favorite anime, Ghost in the Shell, not to mention
For films, the 90s, which came in second overall, is still fairly decent, with films such as The Matrix, Hardware, Dark City, Hardware, eXistenZ, Twelve Monkeys, and Terminator 2.
The 2000s
I consider the current decade the most creative for cyberpunk movies. Here we get a plethora of terrific, unheard of, and sometimes low-budget cyberpunk flicks, a number of interesting experimental flicks, not to mention bunches of great animes. All too often we hear the comment that there are no longer any good SciFi movies being made. I strongly contend that there are more great ones than ever - they just rarely come from the big studio houses. Relatively obscure but terrific movies from this decade include:
- Avalon
- Casshern
- Cypher
- Immortel
- Natural City
- One Point O {Paranoia 1.0}
- Puzzlehead, and
- Save the Green Planet
Other than Save the Green Planet, I don’t think any of these got anything but a DVD release, and Save the Green Planet had a brief theatrical release 2 years after it was out. In addition to these, we get a ton of awesome animes like GITS: Innocence, GITS SAC, Fragile Machine, Texhnolyze, Metropolis, and Wonderful Days.
Prior to 1980
While it’s not surprising that only one person voted for movies prior to 1980, there are clearly some terrific ones not to be missed, including the original cyberpunk movie, Metropolis. Other MUST SEE films include La Jetée, THX-1138, Alien, and A Clockwork Orange, if you consider that cyberpunk.
So what did I choose, you ask? I picked the 90s. 
This post has been filed under Poll Results by SFAM.
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