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Cyberpunk has been seeing a resurgence in recent years. The sequel to one of the fathers of Cyberpunk, 1982’s Blade Runner, was released on this day in 2017. Cyberpunk 2077 released in 2020 with the wildly successful anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners releasing this month.
Looking back at Blade Runner 40 years later and 2049 five years later, we can analyse how Cyberpunk has changed over its near 50 year history and how 2049 serves as a nice blueprint of how to create a Cyberpunk world that is not based in problematic tropes about Asian peoples and cultures.
.00:00:00 – Intro
00:05:17 – Why I love Blade Runner and Cyberpunk
00:08:45 – What influenced Blade Runner 1982
00:13:26 – The Orientalism and Xenophobia of Cyberpunk and Blade Runner
00:25:30 – How Blade Runner 2049 was swapped Asia for Eastern Europe
00:34:00 – The Politics of Blade Runner 2049
00:35:41 – Closing Thoughts
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Happy Blade Runner Anniversary to everyone 🥳🥳🥳 make sure to play the 1997 remastered game and read the book!
Wouldn’t all of this just fall under “capitalism”, I get that there is a lot of xenophobic underpinnings wouldn’t all of that just fall under the capitalist umbrella?
Cyberpunk 2077 has "The Man in the High Castle" complex, which is a misinterpretation of the book which tackles only the occupation of the US by foreign nations, when the book was written to create empathy in the US audience for the people whom lived in occupied areas in WW2, so it got that stuff about east coast being occupied by a Imperial Japan like corporation and east coast by European axis like corporation, which is way overdone in this genre, since the game syndicate took the same approach, funny enough the USSR also still exists in this universe, but we don't see much about it, and NC should be a amalgamation of everything in the world, which we don't see either, William Gibson criticised the game himself for being unoriginal, is just more of the same, things he and other already did, is dated, even tho is a fun game with a nice grim story.
Leftists are delusional.
I don't think you're actually finding a subversion but the intent. A lot of the "anti-Asian" coding is actually meant to be a criticism of AMERICA. Specifically, it was the view that American hegemony was not guaranteed under capitalism and that in fact it, like the British and other empires, would fall to newer powers. The thing is that only people who felt American hegemony was good would find this scary.
On the Japanese takeover in the 1980s:
The Japanese stock market was so lightly regulated that the median Japanese retail investor only realized 4% real returns when the market posted 20% real returns. The entire market system was run like a mafia-controlled casino designed to fleece naive investors with the glitz and fantasy of striking it rich in a weekend, and it was.
I agree. The real racists are people who like crap like blade runner. It's fake diversity.
You're reminding me of the Firefly TV series. The characters utter Chinese sayings passed down through the ages but there are barely any Asian looking characters in the series, supposedly.
Its great to see a socialist discuss pop culture and Sci fi movies and media.
you should talk more about how asians hate themselfs by doing all girls big eyes and white body type or what they kind is white.
asians are ashamed of their own culture.
and west men simp for asians.. its a mess.
but stop make it only white mans foult. you seem to think third world cultures are so good but in real life they suck donkey
take vietnam.. it wasnt just americans foult.. the south vietnamise helped and asked usa for help.. so they fighted aginst their own brothers.. but hey lets blame all on usa and white people
but the culture around there have faced many xhenophobian mentality for long time
Cybergeneration is hands down the best Cyberpunk adjacent property. It was a kind of sequel to R. Talisroian's Cyberpunk ttrpg. It follows the Edgerunner's kids as they fight a secret revolution against the new fascist regime, Incorporated States of America (it's not good because it's subtle). It forces you to think more about guerilla tactics and propaganda, because your characters are kids who don't stand a chance in a standup fight against government trained goons. Throw into that a nanite-plauge that gives some people superpowers and kills the rest and weird new versions of old Cyberpunk characters (like Jonny 5, Jonny Silverhands 5th clone) and you've got a great, unabashedly anti-capitalist setting for a ttrpg.
So why is this racist? Is it also racist to mix together Russian and European influences? The Asian esthetics, it''s just a cool look bruh, it's not racist.
“Orientalism signifys that Europeans are more civilized and should rule over them”
That’s never the impression I’ve gotten from “orientalism” or the “fetishization” or “exotic-ness”
The impression I’ve always gotten is that Asia – Japan in particular – is MORE civilized and MORE advanced than European cultures and that’s why it became more dominant in these fantasy worlds.
“You have Hong Kong, China and Japan all mixed into a blender without trying to tell a story about these people”
That’s sort of the point of multiculturalism isn’t it? A bunch of cultures thrown into a blender and mixing together – which again is a forward thinking sort of thing that we would expect to see in the future.
I think maybe you have a point but I think the point isn’t relevant to what people perceive today and I think by raising your point alongside old issues that irrelevant to today, it’s sort of digging up the racism of the past and inserting it into something that it really isn’t today. So while this may have had relevance 40 years ago – I don’t think it does today and I don’t think that’s how anyone perceives it.
If it isn’t perceived to be a certain way than why do we need to bring it up to change the perception to something that it isn’t?
When you walk around Pacifica there are blackface signs where the gang called the voodoo boys hangout. That's really fucked up because this game doesn't need that.
Don't judge me but am I the only one who thinks the world of cyberpunk is a beautiful world design but not a world you would want to live in?
Wait what blade runners look was from teesside? It's like a mile from me.
This is satire right?
Cyberpunk evolved in an era where Japan's economy was booming and there was a very real perception that they would overpower all western economies and take over.
This is why Japanese corporations are prominent in cyberpunk, and why Japanese and eastern culture is pervasive in them, because powerful economies and cultural spread go hand in hand.
The notion that this is borne of xenophobia is naive, presumptive and needlessly combative.
That cyberpunk worlds are dystopias are because of the genre and not the culture and this is easily proved by one movie-
Back to the Future 2.
BttF2's future 2015 is widely regarded as one of the most bright and positive future depictions seen in any media. Even the parts of that world described as slum-like are cleaner and better than anything in the contemporary 1980s.
And guess what? Marty's boss in that future is Japanese. Stereotypically native Japanese at that. The implication there is the same as in the cyberpunk genre – the Japanese have taken over and are now running American corporations. From what little we see, this Japanese man is in a position of total power. We also see other elements and influences of Japanese culture in that world.
Again. In an almost entirely positive world depicted as somewhere people would want to live in.
You would perhaps understand this had you grown up in the 80s or bothered to research that time period with anything other than a cursory glance. But since neither is true, your takes on media remain as wrong as your takes on NATO.
The entire shadowrun game universe is a fun romp through all the cultural and racial essentialism of LotR and cyberpunk and it’s great.
I prefer solarpunk. It’s pretty funny though. If you explain what solarpunk is to someone and they’ll probably respond like, “that sounds pretty boring. Cyberpunk is way cooler!”. But the main theme of most cyberpunk stories is “NO! You don’t want to live in a world like this!”.
The Tiger Claws aren't problematic in Cyber. They were, back in 2020, a triad gang, period, and called the Tiger's Claw (the name change was a good idea.) Over the next 50 years, they took over all the other Asian criminal groups. That's not problematic, they're not an amalgamation for no reason.
I like another viewpoint on blended culture in the cyberpunk genre. On one hand I could imagine some kind of racist-to-counter-racist movement, like all westerners are put together, all the asians group themselves together and racist gangs fight racist gangs in the slums of late stage capitalism.
another point of view might be the generall loss of culture or significant cultural differences forced upon people by the hypercapitalist society that has grown, people don't have the time or can't afford to keep their cultural heritage alive. it's like the worst melting pot imaginable
Maybe cultureless society would be a good term…or something like: capitalism as culture
i love it because its racist
It may be a new addition, but I think Stray by far is my favorite piece of cyberpunk media.
It has this throughline of hope and love and caring for others and the persistence of life itself that I really like a lot. (spoilers) Humanity may have died out, but there are androids to keep their light alive and keep culture and art thriving in the cities. Humanity may have destroyed so much and created the Zurks in doing so, but even then, it is still life that is flourishing, even if detrimental to other life (artificial or otherwise). But the Androids care for one another, they welcome the cat and love him, they play games, they make SO MUCH ART!!! There are still class divides and cops and commentary on them, and a little bit of that orientalism perhaps (being based on Kowloon Walled City), but all of it is so small and big at the same time and all of the characters are just vibing and living their lives, it's amazing!
It's the coziest cyberpunk story and setting I think I've ever seen, the soundtrack is IMPECCABLE, and it just plays so smoothly, it's such a peaceful and comfortable game
I think there is some truth, but you're painting the genre with a broad brush. In a lot of cyber punk Japan is just another country in a global economy. It's more about international corporations than specific regions. Even the Ridley Scott bit was mostly England and Amaerica. The Asian elements were a bit sloppy, but Hong Kong is a stretch
Cyberpunk 2077 is based off the Cyberpunk 2020 table top created by Michael Pondsmith, hie is a Black American man btw
Is fascinating how the 80's America fear of turning from colonizers to colonized was turned into a sci-fi cliché by later creators.
About the request in the beginning of the video for our favourite cyberpunk media, I suppose my favourite is the novel SnowCrash, I love that weird world of psychotic highway chases and Sumerian infohazards. Also there's the argentinian graphic novel Automatik Kilombo that I love but sadly can't recomend, because I'm not sure if is aviable in English (is a very funny story involving a band of thieves, right-wing androids, a corrupt goverment with the aesthethic of the Soviet Union but clearly capitalistic attitudes, and the mob)
Check out Solarpunk
My favorite cyberpunk thing so far is The edgerunners anime, I’m trying to break into the animation industry and I’m a big fan of studio trigger and their artists, which is the studio responsible for the anime, when they announced the show 2 years ago, I kinda smelled something fishy on the game’s journalistic representation and immediately transferred all my hype to the anime, and it totally paid off for me.
I kind of wish you'd made a bit more of the cross-pollination between Western and Asian Cyberpunk and not just mentioned it in your last sentence. It's always been a bit strange to me that so much Anime is clearly influenced by Western Cyberpunk media, given how the genre has this weird post-colonial attitude of simultaneous hostility towards and fascination with this "unspecified Asian" aesthetic. Maybe it's just not for us Westerners to examine this phenomenon, but it's interesting, if nothing else.
Ultimately what it always makes me think of is the last paragraph of William Gibson's afterword to the 1995 edition of Neuromancer where he tells the story of how during his first visit to Shibuya, "one of my two black-raincoated Japanese guides gestured up at all of this and said, in explanation, 'Bladerunner town, like Neuromancer.'"
I don't know why you didn't mention that Cyberpunk was written by a black man and there is a big difference between the genre of cyberpunk vs the vast IP that is several books deep that is Cyberpunk 2013, 2020 & 2077. Also there is a separation between what Mike Pondsmith wrote and what CDPR interpreted what he wrote which Mike himself called problematic which is something you failed to mention. I am also unclear when you use the term Orientalism to say 2077 participates in this because the Tiger Claws gang is featured but just as there is a black and latin gangs in there as well. There are indeed racist tropes within 2077 (which I don't feel you highlighted) but also there is also racism within the Cyberpunk universe used as critique of capitalism and racism and this is worth exploring properly. This video comes off as "asian people in game, therefore game is problematic" which is really reductionist. To me the game is like " What if America made their own version of Tokyo but it was a libertarian hell scape"?
For the Arasaka corporation I see the lore of Cyberpunk IP playing on the real xenophobia of the time that is was written but not as a warning that US is headed towards an Arasaka future and this is somehow a cautionary tale. What is interesting is that Johnny Silverhand (white man) nukes the Arasaka building (calls back to Hiroshima) , That V can be any race but was voiced by two white people, that Arasaka is the main villain but there are non Japanese mega corps that are just as bad however the focus is on Arasaka, that your latin or Mexican companion (Jackie) dies in the so early in the prologue, what does it mean that people who are not asian feature asian culture within their IP? How do black people view asian culture, can we Critique Pondsmith's source material? Why you only paid attention to what white people say about cyberpunk but not other minorities? That the game Snatcher written by the famous Japanese dev Hideo Kojima was heavily influenced by the Orientalist Blade Runner and what his take on the genre? You didn't even mention Japanese cyberpunk works like Akira& Ghost in the Shell…..
Idk….. just missed a lot of juicy stuff to dissect imo. Cheers.
Great video! Although… Your pronunciation of Denis Villeneuve was so jarring.
Bruh didn't you already make this video?
Came here to ask if Rememberance of Earth's past series is worth reading
Favorite Cyberpunk thing? Ghost in the Shell '95
As a Japanese that grew up in the US during the 80s and 90s I never thought the west could tell the difference between any of the Asians, that said its not like I can really tell the difference between the European countries so, I dunno, maybe its just the fact people really can't differentiate the differences of people that live far away?
Cyberpunk in the 80s from an Asian perspective is always internesting in this sense, mostly anime but, its vastly different from the Western ones, of course there is no weird imagery of Asian stuff around town since it takes place in Japan, and for some reason the protagonists are usually part of the police or some kind of govermental force that inacts justice, which is usually just seen as evil popo in the west.
What i heard:
So obsession with japanese, thai, vietnamese, or chinese aesthetics of culture is racist.
But then tolkein is racist because it is Euro-centric.
But then Blade Runner is not racist or anti-asian because they eat sushi.
The intro was such a dogshit disaster I had to stop watching the video.
The orientalism in "Ghost in the Shell" is really blatant and over the top. :p
I think a lot of people forget in a post Star Wars world that Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and that "good" science fiction tries to extrapolate what the future will be based on current technology and trends. Now remember that Cyberpunk was created in the 80's with the advent of of the internet, computers, and Japan literally kicking U.S. butt in technology and education, one could reasonably assume that the future would lean more toward Asian dominance economically and corporately.
And yeah their was a LOT of xenophobia going on at that time, and you see it in a lot of the media of the period, but an Asian aesthetic in itself is not synonymous with racism. Japanese cyberpunk for instance for all practical purposes superficially looks exactly like western cyberpunk, yet the stories are told from an Asian perspective, whereas Western (American) cyberpunk is generally focuses on it from a different perspective.
It only makes sense that modern cyberpunk would move away from orientalism, because the future as envisioned from the 21st century is way different that that imagined by someone from 40+ years ago.
Yo that's some clickbait horseshit that you put Edgerunners in the Thumbnail when you're not going to talk about it and haven't seen it.
To me, Ghost in The Shell, Akira were very influential along with Bladerunner. As I grew up I just assumed the Asian presence was because of globalization and as rendering some sort of homage for the great works in cyberpunk in Japan as if they were unavoidably linked. However I must admit it in the first Bladerunner it is a backdrop only, no explanation and I just filled the gaps. Your reasoning makes sense. However I think it's really hard to de-link Cyberpunk from Asia because they have great cyberpunk. The best solution I see and also fitting to our own dystopia is to include more cultures as you say.
Gaming-wise I would recommend: Cloudpunk – very on point in this Genre.
Fd sent me. Subbed!!
This was cool.
If anyone likes Bladerunner or played the game. You may like this. It's a fan-made Concept Album story set in the same universe. The music is different. But it somehow captures the mood. At first, I thought, what's this? but if you turn down the lights. Give it time. It somehow works. Doesn't push Asian but explores other areas of such a dystopian future. Hope you don't mind me posting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oed5njZUg0&list=OLAK5uy_lxTWKZigEZvdummO7TCySTFncCGcfU33A
He probably should’ve watched the cyberpunk sore before this. I think it’s really relevant
I love the Shadowrun universe. Cyberpunk/urgan fantasy hybrid.
It's fairly jarring to come across any critical analysis of the cyberpunk genre that omits any comment on gender representation. You had a section on how the environment is represented & the influences behind it (both creative & socioeconomic). Ignoring the cyberpunk trope of overt right wing/conservative misogyny & patriarchy that is very present in the media used for examples comes across as an odd personal bias/blindspot. Noticing the weather, but not the women, kinda weird man
The feeling of alienation is what I like about cyberpunk.
Do one on how racist mortal kombat is. Please ruin all entertainment thanks.