/cyber/ - Cyberpunk & Science Fiction

They're set in japan because japan is well known for both being behind in technology and being really far ahead. They produce sophisticated robots there and some of the best metal constructed things made in japan can be considered the best in the world (along with Germany), but at the same time they still use fax machines, they still use flip phones, they still reek of the 80s. It was a noir feeling about it being both high and low tech, and also considering the economic turmoil in Japan (men are still the breadwinners and the females are the petite fragile housewifes, and not providing for the family or making a woman work means you failed as a man), there's lots of men who are in debt over in japan. It's filled with low-life people. Combine this with Japan being a relatively tiny country with this many people, it's already being overcrowded with lots of people living very low life. My best guess: people like Gibson just picked it randomly. From then on, people just went with the flow because when one thing starts a genre you follow its 'guidelines'. I mean, it's like having a mystery novel that has no mystery in it. Like you know who the killer is from the get-go. You can do it. It'll suck though because you're not following the guideline.

>>37812

This is completely off the mark. Japan was undergoing an economic boom in the 1980s. Japanese exports in culture, consumer electronics, and automobiles were dominant. Some people were practically convinced Japan was going to take over the world economically. Gibson and co. chose Japan because it was a key part of the Zeitgeist of the early 80s.

Of course, this all changed in the 90s with the "Lost Decade" and now the Japanese aesthetics are a retrofuturist artifact of the genre.

>>37835

yep, that and they went out of their way to look cyberpunk/futuristic, and really seemed to revel in the fact that they were what the future was supposed to look like

>>37835

>completely off the mark

Not really.

>>37849

>not really

Yes really.

>>37849

> people like Gibson just picked it randomly

Yes, it's totally wrong.

>>37835

This.

Japan had cellphones and GPS navigators years before they came to the west.

>>37941

Being Brazilian, I can say that a favela is more of a place for orwellian style literature. Usually the "donos do morro"(mob bosses) the favelas may make a lot of brouzouf with their drug and weapon trafficking, but still act like low-life criminals.

In comparison, our politics have the most advanced technology for brouzouf laundering and other illict activities.

In other words, Brazil would make a better detective story with cyberpunk setting than a Gibson style novel.

bumping this question

>>37981

Go to Afghanistan then?

>>37980

Yeah, and you have a pretty huge megalopolis too. It'd be rad.

>>41979

The geography of the Pacific Rim lends itself to cyberpunk themes. You've got ocean, mountains, and a densely packed wedge of people in between. There's always the threat of one big quake, volcano eruption, or tsunami slaughtering your whole city so there's more acknowledgement of life's ephemeral nature. That in turn leads to societal trends like street culture, miniaturization, and crazy lifestyles that give us a cyb backdrop.

>>38213

Gay quote.

>>42065

Shit post.

>>42073

Chicago is cyberpunk as fuck. It's basically the Sprawl as it exists in Neuromancer only with slightly less physical size. You've got the physical core of the North American internet and a ton of high finance, but you also have crippling poverty and more gun homicides than the average low-intensity war zone. It's also the city that invented skyscrapers and government corruption.

>>37806

>I don't like anime, manga, j-pop, otaku, cosplay or hentai

Most of that shit either didn't exist when cyberpunk started or was completely different from what it is now

As for why japan, simple: it was the highest high-tech place on earth in the 80s

Most japanese cities got bombed/burned to the ground during WWII, most buildings were made of wood so there was even less stuff left than in germany, so most buildings were much newer than in other major cities

To that add the economic miracle that made some people believe japan was going to become the #1 economic superpower

>>38213

>cyber-visionary

What a piece of shit that douche is…

>cyberpunk novels are mostly in Japan

Is this even true, though?

Seems more like authors thought other cities would be more Tokyo-like, but just geographically action usually takes place all over the world from Africa and Middle East to Outer Space.

>people like Gibson just picked it randomly

My take? I was reading Neuromancer while sitting on the Shin-Keisei line out of Matsudo (Travelling out of Tokyo and into Chiba).

Gibson went on holiday there once I expect. Neuromancer is a bunch of notes about Tokyo and Chiba laced with some dirty sci-fi. It was shockingly obvious once I looked around me and saw it.

Your interpretation may vary.

Japan is typically chosen for cyberpunk settings because they have the social structure that is evocative of Cyberpunk. Also, a lot of cyberpunk settings take place after some major event in the past (WW3, asteroid impact, economic crisis..)

Japan was nuked twice, millions died and two of their major cities were just irradiated dirt. But they rebuilt them bigger a better than before. Japan gets chosen because they've lived through nearly apocalyptic events and lived.

>>37812

This is some of the most misinformed retard drivel I have ever read.