Cyberpunk: Pacific Rim Deep Dive (Japan, China, Korea, Australia and Others)

The dark future is not confined to the United States... China has fallen into civil war, Japan has once again emerged as a high tech great power, Australia is rapidly deteriorating into a wasteland and much more. This video will seek to explore the Cyberpunk history of East Asia and Australasia.
Sources:
Pacific Rim Sourcebook (Supplementary Sourcebook for Cyberpunk 2020 TTRPG)
Cyberpunk RED (Core Rule Book for Cyberpunk RED TTRPG)
Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Music Used (All from Cyberpunk 2077, OST or Radio Tracks):
0:00-2:06 - "Cyberninja"
2:06-15:59 - "Modern Anthill"
15:59-23:25 - "There's Gonna Be a Parade"
23:26-31:18 - "Consumer Cathedral"
31:22-37:32 - "Mining Minds"
37:33-43:24 - "Tower Lockdown"
43:24-48:18 - "Kang Tao Down"
48:18-54:00 - "Bells of Laguna Bend"
54:01-54:24 - "To Hell And Back"
54:24-57:25 - "Rite of Passage"
57:25-1:00:31 - "Modern Anthill"
1:00:31-1:06:31 - "Code Red Initiated"
1:06:33-1:09:10 - "Modern Anthill"
1:09:10-1:21:34 -- "Cloudy Day"
1:21:36-1:24:38 - "Consumer Cathedral"
1:24:39-1:29:49 - "Streetfighters"
1:29:49-1:33:04 - "The Streets are Long-Ass"
1:33:04-1:37:50 - "Scavenger Hunt"
1:37:52-1:41:28 - "Kang Tao Down"
1:41:28-1:44:37 - "Outsider No More"
1:44:37-1:47:46 - "Kang Tao Down"
1:47:47-1:50:37 - "Close Probing"
1:50:37-1:52:35 - "Atlantis"
1:52:35-1:53:57 - "Bells of Laguna Bend"
1:53:57-1:57:01 - "Extraction Action"
1:57:02-2:02:57 - "Night City Aliens"
2:03:36-2:11:41 - "Mining Minds"
2:11:43-2:14:40 - "Atlantis"
2:14:40-2:27:09 - "Bells of Laguna Bend"
2:27:11-2:28:11 - "Consumer Cathedral"
2:28:12-2:30:03 - "To Hell And Back"
2:30:03-2:33:27 - "The Sacred And The Profane"
2:33:27-2:35:59 - "I Really Want to Stay at Your House"
Intro: (0:00)
Japan: (2:04)
United Korea: (43:23)
China: (57:25)
Myanmar: (1:21:34)
Cambodia: (1:24:38)
Laos: (1:29:47)
Vietnam: (1:33:03)
Thailand: (1:37:50)
Singapore: (1:41:28)
Brunei Darussalam: (1:44:36)
Indonesia: (1:47:45)
Malaysia: (1:53:55)
New Philippines: (1:57:00)
Australia: (2:03:34)
Republic of Western Australia: (2:28:11)
New Zealand: (2:30:02)
Outro: (2:33:26)

[@BrandonJXN2]

Firstly, your voice is perfect for this type of content. Secondly, the long form style is perfect for a series as detailed as Cyberpunk. Thirdly, as someone who fell down the Cyberpunk rabbit hole of lore, I thank you tremendously for painting a picture of a completely bleak world so throughly. I look forward to your Cyberpunk uploads and I re-watch your Night City Deep Dive video a few times a week. Keep up the great work.

[@jakejutras5420]

​@@vailinator OK? Wtf

[@vailinator]

@@jakejutras5420 my bad bro i think someone was on my pc lol

[@grilledleeks6514]

@@vailinator I need to know what you said lol

[@hunter5822]

Agreed! I think his inflections and tone also lend well to his story telling style.

[@hunter5822]

I also watch his videos a couple times too. Great for doing something tedious to cause it pulls all my attention away from my boring task, making the experience 100x better!

[@1Invinc]

The best thing about Singapore in the Cyberpunk universe... is that it's pretty much exactly how Singapore is today. The only thing that Singapore in real life would never do, is turn over security to a foreign entity. However, one way Arasaka could have weaseled it's way into that super lucrative deal of providing security for the ridiculously rich island nation, is to allow Arasaka's Singapore division to be run independently with strict government oversight. Effectively, Arasaka Singapore's CEO would end up being an agent of the Singaporean government within Arasaka.

[@llcdrdndgrbd]

This is an alternate history timeline so perhaps this universe’s Singapore didn’t have such a strong economy?

[@Tonius126]

Or arasaka took over by force and funded Malaysia for a invasion. Weakening singapore.

[@toheekang174]

I think it is rather concerning that Singapore is already dystopian enough in real life that there is no need to change it much further

[@wolfgangBuonarotti]

same with the Japanese justice system, from what i hear.

[@DogeickBateman]

@@toheekang174 Dystopian?

[@ikik1648]

Lol as a Chinese person, the cyberpunk civil war is very accurate to how Chinese civil wars usually go. Super dramatic twists & turns, millions of people dying, underdog faction has a huge comeback 😂

[@NeostormXLMAX]

it doesn't make sense how china didn't help north korea when they got invaded by the south, also the north apparently didn't use nukes? but middle east did have random casual nuke fights?

[@dgurevich1]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWjOpKtseZiXoqc

[@ShahjahanMasood]

​@NeostormXLMAX It is very weird yeah. The middle east part of the cyberpunk lore is so fucking bad. I hate it. Considering I am from the middle east doesn't help.

[@Carnefice]

​@ShahjahanMasood it would be wonderful if that happened in real life

[@ShahjahanMasood]

@@Carnefice Radiation will only make us stronger lmao

[@nyft3352]

the US being China's biggest ally in Cyberpunk doesn't susrprise me at all, China is already the major trading partner of the US in the real world, it's been for decades even. If anything, whoever wrote the lore can see the future or made the sociopolitical guess of their life.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

actually, china WAS the usa's ally in the cold war, people often forget the sino soviet split happened when the soviets invaded chinese land, and the chinese were furious and severed ties, the whole destalinization of later soviet presidents is bullshit, the real reason has always been land. after nixon's visit china became a us ally temporarily

[@aSipOfHemlocktea]

Oh yes it takes a lot of foresight to see two of the top 10 powers of the world working together

[@nyft3352]

@@aSipOfHemlocktea its still kinda ironic considering the US government and media won't shut up about their "concerns about China" and that bs.

[@cernunnos_lives]

China's economy is tied to the US. It's what was planned during Nixon's Era down through the 90s. All 3 nations wanted to build beyond the damages done during WW2. Technology and development is the only way to do this.

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

@@nyft3352 concerns about china? Wrote the future?Mate you sure as hell don’t know jack shit about China-US relations if you think these concerns are nothing burgers china isn’t even interested in allying with the US. For trade purposes its fine but an actual partnership? No country is an actual partner to china they are only convenience partners.

[@andychap6283]

Really appreciate this content other lore KZbinrs never touch. Really interesting. Your videos are always a daily highlight.

[@psyedk]

Choom this is insane! Preem coverage of the timeline, absolutely nova detail. Keep on waking night city up, you do good work

[@travelsizedlions]

Your cadence is ***exactly*** like Mr. Hands. I love it.

[@jacktomas1596]

Even in that timeline....... You don't fuck with the mouse.

[@MCMasterBro]

What's really funny, is that Bartmoss in his Guide to the Net says that their Net Security is tight.

[@cereskerrigan]

Ooh, something to watch on the way to work. Thanks choom!

[@Odyssey_Seeker]

This is a nova video. You are by far and away the best deep dive channel for anything Cyberpunk TTRPG on the NET choom. Don't shy away from long form vids, you excel at it! EDIT: I also really appreciate how you source the materials AND the music used. Absolutely preem!

[@alucard_0177]

nice pfp

[@timumbra2476]

@@alucard_0177thank you, you too :)

[@LolingStaz]

Lol as a Korean this is spot on! In fact it closely resembles Korea's actual history of constant military coups and their love of using animosity towards Japan for political causes. Also it's amazingly ironic that in 52:58, the conservative "Tanson" group is from Gwangju, where in irl known for being the most "progrssive" of the nation hahaha

[@charlesgarber5911]

Keep kickin' it with this content choom! Loving how you flesh out the sourcebooks and help fill in the narrative gaps that may exist, as there's always a lot that goes unsaid within TTRPG sourcebooks. Keep up the good work! ;)

[@purplepioneer5644]

I absolutely love these deep dives, and you make the best cyberpunk lore content I have seen on KZbin.

[@bk83082]

Great job! I love Cyberpunk lore videos and appreciate what other creators are doing on their channels, but often times it feels like listening to a high schooler read the wiki page over gameplay footage. This video is an excellent example of a good presentation. It's a treat to hear all this information presented alongside context and insight with narration that sounds like it was actually proofread! Small details matter, thanks for showing effort. Subscribed.

[@beige_projection]

I'm from the Philippines, and when I saw the New Philippines in the section titles, I imagined something like Neo-Manila, but it turns out that the country has become more f'ed up lol. The businesses in Night City like Kabayan and Matapang Coffee, I imagine are from Filipino migrants who misses their country but can't return due to how f'ed up it is there. Thanks for the video. I'm almost finished with it. It's really well researched and well thought out. I wish R. Talsorian Games and CDPR would expand the lore to cover more info about how the rest of the world are during the 2040s-2070s era

[@thelordofcringe]

It wouldn't be cyberpunk if everything wasn't worse!

[@Warheart11]

Small note for the video too, but Kerry didn't just vacation there, he was actually born in the Philippines and that's probably partially why he loves his real coffee so much!

[@devgaikwad3813]

First i thought after looking at the title that you were talking about cyberpunk and Pacific rim crossover 🤣

[@Yoshi_702]

Ha me too, wouldn't that be kinda cool though

[@Midtierman]

Learning about the highly dangerous weebs that populate the cyberpunk Japan was a riot.

[@thecybersmily4794]

Great job. One thing to note that you mentioned in the beginning, the writers of the regional source books were from those regions. R Talsorian Games would be flooded back in the day from fans who would provide their view of what happen to their regions in 2020. I interviewed Derek Quintanar, thee editor of the CP2020 books, about where the ideas for the books came from. We talked about the various writers from around the world that he would have submitted to him.

[@eazibreezilemonpeezi]

Thank you so much for making these videos. Your Deep Dive into Night City is really well done, i rewatched that so many times lol. I hope you're doing the other areas too!

[@spamplz8578]

This cyberpunk history lesson is so good. I'm from Adelaide in south Australia and it's great to hear my lil city mentioned in such an amazing story lol

[@starpaladinnelaj]

Been waiting for more CK content from you. Can't wait to watch this when I get off work!

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@starpaladinnelaj]

@WatchmanGamingLore I certainly did choom! When it comes to long form CK content, yours is second-to-none! As for upcoming content, I'd LOVE to see a NUSA/Land Of The Free Deep Dive. For shorter content, a breakdown of the new PL trailer would be great!

[@ladooshka]

Thanks for the video!!! I was waiting for something from you. Going to watch now and then comment more 😊👍

[@brucepalmer8846]

I have listened to both of your long cyberpunk videos. Excellent. Simply Excellent. I have listened to over 5 hours of your cyberpunk bio's. Please make more. The edge runner bio would be fantastic to hear.

[@Direrain72]

This was very enjoyable. I really do enjoy the longer form content, especially on subjects like Cyberpunk. I think your idea of doing profiles on named Edgerunners is a good one. Perhaps along with that profiling some of the more notable corps that have come and gone or stay around. Either way, well done!

[@jamesjay11]

Good stuff, I bet it's time-consuming to make, but I appreciate it, my man.

[@FoxLenar]

Ty for this video, making my worktime so much better

[@MekoUnknown]

I love these deep dives. Keep it up man!

[@Undeadwilly13]

Another great one. Thank you for all your work man!

[@hybrid00legit]

I thought this vid was like 26 minutes at first but then I saw the time and stuck to the end and now I feel like I got a better context of the world in general for cyberpunk, pretty neat vid

[@arthurmiranda8896]

I can only thank you for the amount of effort gone into this video.

[@fearsomewarengine8228]

thank you for this. i dont have the opportunity to get those books and i love the world of cyberpunk so much. great video. would love to see the others too.

[@AzathothLives]

You know it is bad when I forget he is reading the 'real life' prologue and think that the history brief is fictional dystopia. A lot of these places got done dirty in the last two hundred years.

[@starryeyes5860]

I love deep dives into fictional worlds I'm interested in, satisfies my inner nerd..... Excellent video bro, really enjoyed it.

[@mathewweeks9069]

Your awesome dude and awesome video big fan of cyberpunk

[@imperiumgrim4717]

Preem hour vid Choom 👌🏾 make more of those please.

[@_essence_07]

You have the best cyberpunk videos on KZbin

[@npdady]

I love lore videos like this. Make more!

[@oldyeller1111]

Another great vid, thank you for making it. With the oldee source books out of print (afaik) these make for a nice overview of what they contain. Your content reminds me a lot of Bigred40tech over in Battletech, though with a bit more going on visually :)

[@DustInTheLight]

I just started a Pacific Rim Red campaign this weekend, and have been picking through source books. I can't believe this came out this week🎉

[@stevendiaz9034]

Where do you get your sourcebooks? Do you get them online? I want to get into the tabletop but im unsure where to start

[@timothybeaulieu5103]

@stevendiaz9034 Amazon and Noble Knight Games are where I always found my stuff. Noble Knight in particular specializes in this kind of vintage materials.

[@Direrain72]

Ohhh this is goin on the work playist, Imma listen to this tonight!

[@Reichtangle]

Amazingly good Video. Very enjoyable

[@Tuhoeterra]

As a kiwi the NZ scenario is actually pretty reasonable.

[@tomalexander4327]

I'd happily watch a Cyberpunk Japan movie.

[@chrismcguinness5405]

Crazy informative choom! Thank you. Euro could be cool.

[@icemelt981]

Nothing quite lovely like sleeping to a lore video about the trifles of megacorps ❤

[@nafeesr6377]

Good to listen to during work!

[@CRYOKnox]

Great Video sadly I realized to late that it contains spoilers for LD last season, but well now I'm.lookonh forward to finally watch it.

[@davidschluter1911]

Thank you so much ❤❤❤

[@hamish-k]

Great work I think for next long video you do the rest of the USA with cyberpunk phantom liberty dealing with more of The USA it would hopefully get interested from viewers and from your videos we already know about the USA so it would be good to get that done and then move on to the of parts of the world after I'm sure it's going to be interesting whatever cyberpunk book you do

[@xingwang9246]

TD;LR: Every country is f*cked up...

[@GabrielSantos-rg5rl]

Each one of these books just show how rich is this world

[@spazma_]

Love your content Then you are at it can you do a video about Europe in the cyberpunk age, i think there are sourcebooks that cover Europe.

[@VeRG1L_47]

This is amazing

[@squigglesmcjr199]

Very well done

[@TheEldritchGoth]

I really like the idea of doing profiles for individual legendary characters

[@halloweye4613]

My choomba! Hell yes I can not wait to dive into this tonight! Another quality vid! Of that I have no doubt!

[@loC2ol]

Love this! More! India not included in this region breakdown?

[@jackie2966]

Great video! Could you please do one about Europe?

[@myballspaul4889]

awesome vid👍 European/Eurasian and African/ middle eastern deep dives would be amazing!

[@bwackbeedows3629]

What do you call a heist in Japan? *A Pacific Rim Job! 🥁🎶*

[@Gyrfalcon312]

Aw, Hell no! 🤣

[@unknowngod8221]

rimworld player: oh you mean "rimjob"? 😏

[@mkvector9539]

I live in the suburb of Rockdale in Sydney, New South Wales. Right next to Botany Bay.

[@GOWvMatchstick]

The Bosozoku wasn’t just motorcycles, they drove and modified cars too, the modifications are usually extremely flamboyant and loud.

[@dalegribble7939]

One thing that I would change about the Korean section of this is changing the name from zaibatsu which is Japanese to chaebol . Which roughly translates to Rich family they are the owners of massive mega corporations within South Korea and received support from the government in order to expedite development. This led to them controlling massive amounts of South Korea's economy and its government Ps. If I got the pronunciation on that one wrong please forgive me my Korean is rather bad

[@LazerDuck-uj2cc]

"sydney is overcrowded, polluted, and decaying" oh so no change then?

[@sorrenblitz805]

On the roads it was a white line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice.

[@brtt1159]

New Zealand just chilling fr

[@armchairphilosopher6880]

Awesome

[@IIARROWS]

Finally it's over. I've been watching this multi-hours documentaries in chunks, downloading and mostly playing while walking. I would personally prefer shorter videos, easier to manage and less intensive on my phone storage.

[@antonmasalev1244]

i can't believe i locked till the end of the video, but it was interesting

[@Gyrfalcon312]

It's quite astounding how much detail Mr. Pondsmith and his team have lavished upon this area of his alt. universe. They really did consider very small details in places outside of his beloved Night City, just to make the entire world more believable. Also, a Grand Tour of Europe, please? Edit 3 - Your real-history primers for the various Cyberpunk-ed nations was awesome! I haven't been reading my world history as I should, so it was a most pleasant surprise to get those bits of history.

[@HuckleberryMcRib]

Please do Eurosource Plus next, Im running Eurotour and would love something digestible for my players. Keep up the good work though dude this shit slaps

[@elperrodelautumo7511]

Yes. Please

[@TheDirtyPineapple]

The main gang in the Philippines being called the "I Don't Care Club" is strange. After this book was made, there was a woman who was killed by a dirty cop after singing "I don't care " to taunt him during a power trip. If they ever do an update, I hope that becomes the event that forms the gang.

[@jm8254]

This is amazing content. Do you have patreon

[@halkfurcrestfallen3328]

will you make more lore for other areas? I would love see the lore for deep downers[Underwater citys}, Spacers and drift Nations. i cant find much on these cultures.

[@WatchmanGamingLore]

I’d love to, unfortunately there’s not much to say yet. The Deep Down, Drift Nations, and the Highriders have maybe a paragraph of explanation each in the core rulebook. Until a new book comes out explaining them, there’s not much for me explore.

[@halkfurcrestfallen3328]

@@WatchmanGamingLore that's understandable,Im just super curious about them as I got into cyberpunk Red pretty heavily.

[@ilesalmo7724]

I wonder if the 2016 Biopod Tank Rampage was one of the first Cyberpsycho-incidents

[@uncomptepro]

Looking forward of a Europe video.

[@mattschaning9697]

Great video! Where did the animation footage from the latter parts of the Japan section come from?

[@wathanyuapipattarakul5713]

Looks like Edgerunner, which is an official anime set just before CP 2077

[@The_Blyatman]

I'd love to see the UK one, but any cyberpunk lore would be awesome. I want MORE. anything.

[@Bean_Can_]

If melbourne is in ruins then the cyberpunk version of australia is doing much better

[@weirdestpersonguaranteed2244]

I hope you do a Europe one too

[@ubxtch]

Cyberpunk Orion NEEDS to be set in Japan!!! Or that red planet you hear ads about in cp2077

[@mathiasgreber8899]

Id really love a Cyberpunk game set in Tokyo

[@NeostormXLMAX]

read neuromancer, the thing this is based on, the original night city was in chiba

[@llcdrdndgrbd]

My dude, you missed India! Apparently India is included in the lore which makes absolute sense, but the very unrealistic thing is according to the cyberpunk wiki India and China sign a treaty opening their borders to each other

[@NeostormXLMAX]

if the Naxalites won then china and india would have warmer relationships

[@edwinvillalobos7159]

I’m not even mad at this tidbit I just find it hilarious that you inadvertently stuck to the one China policy, purely for the flow of the video, but it’s still funny

[@tsuneki9199]

We actually have an actual corporate city in Japan. It’s called Toyota city in Aichi prefecture. Oh and they are building a new one called Woven city.

[@manuelmontesdeoca9552]

I swear your voice is that of young "Mr. Hands" in Cyberpunk 2077

[@MrLabelasEnoreth]

Please do one for South America if you haven´t already!

[@KhoaLe-uc2ny]

the Vietnam part is almost spot on aside from the oil spil from the 2nd corpwar.

[@parkerburrus289]

Hope you do the Americas, Africa, Europe and the Middle East

[@pronoydutta614]

These lore videos are great. I'd say individual personalities aren't as interesting as topics involving socio-economic differences, culture, political histories, tech and sub culture.

[@DjOzKid]

As a Australian this is amazing, Angus young= acad lol that is great

[@mercurialblonde]

Came for the lore. Stayed for the William Burroughs type voice

[@eversor10]

Nice

[@softlightlaboratory]

Fell asleep. I guess gotta re-watch 🙄

[@crozraven]

30:57 Hold down a sec... Is that DOOM slayer before DOOM 2016 & DOOM Eternal existed??!

[@benjaminphilips7506]

I would love to have this guy DM a Cyberpunk Red or 2020 TTRPG

[@skullman-us7wn]

The koala had a good run for an animal so utterly evolved to not survive

[@hunter5822]

42:00 woah woah woah, where is this animation from?!?!?!

[@aldavedario4818]

I'll definitely join the Grappler gang

[@kubatomczyk1801]

There was an amazing book called hang kuo i think....its an amazing futuristic novel.

[@Acranify]

wouldent mind seeing how europe has faired in the Cyberpunk verse if there is enough information on it

[@username12120]

Quite a bit of information, 2 whole sourcebooks, even.