# Texhnolyze (2003)

> In a decaying cyberpunk city called Lux, three rival factions fight for control while prosthetic bodies and a sentient-seeming metropolis shape every life.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/8185

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 20
- Episode runtime: 23 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction, drama
- Network: Fuji TV
- Cast: Shizuka Itoh, Satoshi Haga, Hiroshi Tsuchida, Shizumi Niki, Takashi Inoue, Takehiro Koyama, Jouji Nakata, Eiji Yanagisawa
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409630/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: slow
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: bleak, melancholic, contemplative, oppressive

## What critics say

Audience reception is positive, praising the dark, atmospheric world-building and philosophical ambition of this cyberpunk anime.

## Synopsis

Texhnolyze (2003) is a Japanese cyberpunk anime series created for Fuji TV and produced by Madhouse, a single-season limited series of twenty episodes. Set in Lux, a decaying city its inhabitants call The City and treat as a sentient force, the story follows Ran (voiced by Shizuka Itoh) and Ichise (voiced by Satoshi Haga) as their lives tangle with the Organo, a professional conglomerate with criminal ties in the prosthetics business. Kaego Oonishi (voiced by Hiroshi Tsuchida) and Doc (voiced by Shizumi Niki) move through the city's underworld, while the Union, a fanatical populist group, and Racan, a marauding gang of Texhnolyzed youths, fight for control of the streets. Each episode is built from bodies repaired with mechanical parts, back-alley deals, and violent confrontations that expose the cost of power. The tone is bleak, slow and contemplative, with an atmosphere of rain-soaked dread and existential unease. Its visual style is dark and oppressive, and its themes of identity, control and the price of flesh connect it to the philosophical side of cyberpunk. Fans of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Serial Experiments Lain and Psycho-Pass will find resonance in its neo-noir mood and layered dystopian world.

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