ｃｙｂｅｒｐｕｎｋ　依蒸イ

Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that is often perceived as an urban, dystopian world wherein high-technology clashes with lowlife. It is deemed as a future within the past because of the styles of it being retro-ish but at the same time high-tech.

People in this universe are riddled with machines inside their bodies through body modifications and surgeries. Most often in movies and video games, like blade runner, ghost in the shell, cyberpunk 2077, cyberpunk cities can be seen as cities that are filled with neon bright lights partnered by a retro-cyber music that blends within the crowd. Numerous types of technologies/gadgets can also be seen being worn by people as accessories—flying/floating ships and cars roam everywhere and the demand for artificial intelligence is at its highest peak in the cyberpunk economy.

As a fan of movies, books, and video games. the cyberpunk genre intrigued me the most. From the art, the design, the style! It is very eye-catching and interesting.  Imagine a world full of inventors with absurd yet fascinating advanced technology inventions, robotic creations and pleasurable technologies designed for specific people with specific interests. Imagine a place where you can roam around and see a bright LED-filled universe? from the sidewalks to the billboards—everything is holographic and everything is like a real-life high-quality GIF.

What also pulled me to love this genre are the details put into the art itself. Shops and buildings for entertainment are all over the place and transportation would all-the-more be fantastic, ranging from motorbikes (as seen in the Japanese film animation, Akira), magnet-engineered trains (black panther) and as I’ve mentioned before, flying cars!

Now before we get too excited I’ve mentioned that this world is most often dystopian in movies. Which means it’s supposed to be an undesirable place despite it being beautiful, mesmerizing and advanced enough for humans to live in, conveniently. There are secrets that lurk within this high-tech world. Most of it involves, rebels, drugs, out-of-control robots/AI’s, and of course, punks. This is a world where cities are as close to being lawless—any kind of crimes are bound to happen. The cyberpunk world is a dangerous place full of gangsters and yakuza’s that control everything—which proves that money always gets its way and with an advanced and improving world, everyone is trying to get their noses into achieving more advanced technologies to gain power for themselves.

Of course, when there is light there is darkness. The disadvantages of the machines being injected into a person’s body could interfere with the natural body structures humans have which can have a damaging effect most especially to our nervous system which causes scary, and disturbing after-effects—the outcome of this scary modifications can give humans hallucinations, body malfunctions, and even death.

Setting all the seriousness aside, cyberpunk is a genre that’s very interesting to explain and to create a story out of. I believe in the future that we might reach this era of advancements and instead of a dystopian world, let us dream and strive to achieve a peaceful utopian world where we can all benefit from each other.

If you want to gain experience from cyberpunk and other worlds like dieselpunk and steampunk, I gladly suggest you role-play. Role-playing cyberpunk is a fun way to actually immerse yourself in the sub-genre so I really hope it would give you a new and unique experience because, for me, life is too short to stagnate and just focus on what’s visible in front of you; A spark of creativity and imagination can always and will definitely morph the way you think.

Would I recommend you to watch, read, play cyberpunk themed content? Heck yes.

DISCLAIMER: The GIF’s and images that were shown in this blog do not belong to me, they belong to their rightful owners. The artworks used are for critical and opinionated review only which is protected under the Fair use law, Section 185 of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.