Chiba City, Asian Graffiti and Japanese bars Moodboards

For my game environment, I chose to recreate the Jarre de Thé teashop location from the opening chapter of Neuromancer. The teashop is situated in the dangerous Ninsei area of Chiba City in Japan, so in order to identify the aesthetic qualities of the Jarre de Thé, I created moodboards based around the real Chiba City, Asian Graffiti and Japanese bars and restaurants.

The Chiba city of real life shares many aesthetic qualities with cities found in cyberpunk fiction. Chiba is made up of vast cityscapes and tall skyscrapers closely packed together, with many bright neon coloured lights populating the skyline at night. Similarly the city also blends modern and post-modern architecture with the traditional architecture of the Edo era of Japan, and despite the cherry blossom trees and traditional Japanese architecture, has similar aesthetic qualities to many other modern cities found across the globe.

The Asian graffiti featured above has many similar aesthetic qualities to Cyberpunk cities, the artwork features Asian characters rendered in bright neon colours, and traditional Asian folklore images remastered for a unique effect. Because of the public stigma towards graffiti, it can visually represent an urban environment and society that has degraded over time and shows an apathy by the governing class towards the residents of this society.

Due to the Jarre de Thé being located in a Japanese environment, I needed to identify several aesthetic qualities found within Japanese bars, restaurants and cafes. Similar to Cyberpunk fiction, these establishments often make use of red lighting and a blend of modern and traditional styles, such as the Chinese lanterns set against the graffitied walls, or the use of geometric shapes such as cubes and octagons surrounding the bar.