My theory is that it has much to do with a culture that grows up expressing ideas pictorially. During my (admittedly short .. just 1yr) time in Japan, I noticed that people don't just write in Kanji, they think in Kanji. They pun in Kanji - one way to pun in Japanese is to use a word that can resolve to alternative Kanji combinations whose combined meanings are funny in context. If they're fishing for an idea or brainstorming, they start drawing Kanji in the air with their fingertips.
And to me the cultural effect of this pervasive visual thinking nearly-since-birth is cool aesthetics. For example, the average "How-to" book in a Japanese book store is chock-full of diagrams and flow charts, with various sections outlined in garish colors like blue and orange, and different fonts for each different type of idea. (Also notice that China, whose characters Japan shares, has very cool aesthetics of its own. Both countries have beautiful landscapes, which probably contributes something as well).
Also, anyone who goes to Japan notices, that they go for totally-over-the-top-ness (for example, the Tokyo reggae subculture is populated by people with really huge dreadlocks).
So combining heavy orientation towards visual stimuli and color, a love of over-the-top-ness, and a healthy dose of anime with its romantic-teen-angst-cool, you get that awesome cyberpunk stuff. But I think it's not easy to characterize analytically as the Zen aesthetics, where the visual form is meant to represent a well-defined state of mind and personal character.
Also, anyone who goes to Japan notices, that they go for totally-over-the-top-ness
Strike Japan, replace with "America", and every last one of my coworkers would agree with this statement.
Here's the man on the street view: "When Americans build a car, you see, they don't think of putting it down a tiny little street into a big driveway. They think it is a covered wagon, travelling out west like you see in the cowboy movies. So they make it HUGE. And then you go to their cities and do they make little rinky dinky 10 story office buildings? No -- they make GIANT HUNDRED FLOOR office buildings. They're also culturally predisposed to liking swagger, because of the cowboys. That is why John Wayne and George Bush are so popular."
Yeah, I used a bad example. It's not really over-the-topness in terms of size or expense, like in the U.S. (where it's really an obsession with number-one-ness).
Have you ever seen the "Human Tetris" video? It's a Japanese gameshow. You might think that it's just one gameshow, but no ... all the gameshows have crazy-haired announcers who yell wild-eyed the whole time. I mean that kind of over-the-top-ness .. to me it's quite different :)
Yes, but an honest question from a non-American: Isn't that much/more/most/greater/grander of "everything" rather than over-the-top?
Over-the-top, to me, implies a taking something to-the-extreme-and-then-some, and it's in this latter phase of and-then-some where the essence of over-the-top-ness is happening, because it requires something new to happen. Making a building just more tall isn't any "new" it's "only" much/more/most/greater/grander of the thing that's already there.
Not that scyscrapers aren't impressive or anything and they are new in the sense that such thing haven't always been around.
To me, Pulp fiction has something of over-the-top-ness, but Rambo never had.
And to me the cultural effect of this pervasive visual thinking nearly-since-birth is cool aesthetics. For example, the average "How-to" book in a Japanese book store is chock-full of diagrams and flow charts, with various sections outlined in garish colors like blue and orange, and different fonts for each different type of idea. (Also notice that China, whose characters Japan shares, has very cool aesthetics of its own. Both countries have beautiful landscapes, which probably contributes something as well).
Also, anyone who goes to Japan notices, that they go for totally-over-the-top-ness (for example, the Tokyo reggae subculture is populated by people with really huge dreadlocks).
So combining heavy orientation towards visual stimuli and color, a love of over-the-top-ness, and a healthy dose of anime with its romantic-teen-angst-cool, you get that awesome cyberpunk stuff. But I think it's not easy to characterize analytically as the Zen aesthetics, where the visual form is meant to represent a well-defined state of mind and personal character.