I’ve been debating whether or not to recommend Akudama Drive. The anime definitely starts out in your standard cyberpunk city with giant billboards and bright neon lights, but then the majority of the series actually takes place on a train and in the wasteland. That wouldn’t immediately disqualify it from being cyberpunk of course, but the show also focuses more on the characters and their interactions than your standard cyberpunk themes.
I wouldn’t say this is a “style over substance” anime, even though there is a lot of style, it’s just that the substance here is something other than cyberpunk themes in my opinion. The core theme of the anime is really “what does it mean to be a criminal?”
So the anime is well-made, has great animation, and great characters. And it takes place in a cyberpunk city for part of it but in my opinion it doesn’t have many cyberpunk themes. For those who’ve seen it, am I being too harsh? Is it obviously a cyberpunk anime and I’m just being too nit-picky?
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47QY-u0CXMo
It’s streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll
Personally, I always watch anime with subtitles. I never do dubs, even when they’re well-made. So I’m not really the right person to ask regarding this particular dub.
Heh, fair 'nuff. I’m pretty agnostic most of the time, unless a particular show has a known “better” version. For example, IMO, Cowboy Bebop (of course), Trigun, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners are all fantastic English dubs, but as counter examples I can’t stand the English dubs of Naruto or FLCL, off the top of my head.