Corporate Control

In Horizon City, corporations don't merely influence society—they are society. The theme of Corporate Control examines how every aspect of life, from governance to personal freedom, falls under the dominion of profit-driven entities.

Corporatized Justice

The Horizon Justice Force represents perhaps the most visible manifestation of corporate control. Unlike traditional law enforcement, Judges serve corporate interests first and foremost:

"Horizon's boys in black. Corporate security for the city. They still got cops in Japan? Lawyers? Courts? Juries? Gone. All of them. They don't exist in Horizon City. Well they do, they're just all called the same thing. A Judge. A Judge will kill you on the spot for breaking a law."

This system creates a perverse incentive structure where justice becomes a profit center. As the pilot explains to Emi:

"That's how they make the money. Between that and the prison system for repeat offenders, it's a cash cow, scan?"

Economic Exploitation Through Cloning

Cloning technology, controlled exclusively by Genetek Revival (a subsidiary of Vatgrown International), represents a sophisticated system of economic control. Unlike in Japan, where cloning serves as genuine life insurance, in Horizon City it functions as a mechanism for exploitation:

"They charge as much as they can for the initial clone but make the memory updates cheap enough to afford to make the initial investment seem palatable. What they don't tell you upfront is if you use your clone, you lose it. After that, you gotta pay the initial clone cost again before you get double tapped."

This creates a cycle of dependency where citizens must continually pay to maintain their "right" to exist after death—a right that can be revoked for economic reasons.

Corporate Territories and Laws

The legal structure of Horizon City explicitly privileges corporate interests:

"Corporate territories could write whatever exceptions to those laws they wanted into their corporate charter, and so long as it was ratified by the board of directors, it was officially law in Horizon City."

This creates a patchwork legal system where rights and protections vary based on location and economic status, with corporations effectively functioning as sovereign entities within the city.

Stratification and Control

The physical structure of Horizon City—divided into Red (poverty), Gold (business), Green (residential), and Blue (elite) levels—physically manifests the economic stratification that corporate control creates. Those at the bottom suffer the most direct oppression, while those at the top enjoy privileges and protections.

As Preston's experience shows, even those who enforce the system can become its victims when they challenge corporate interests. His confrontation with Chief Justice Pratt reveals how deeply entrenched corporate priorities are in the justice system.

Resistance and Complicity

Characters throughout the stories demonstrate different responses to corporate control:

• Richard Johnson initially benefits from the system before becoming its victim
• Emi Tanaka's scientific innovations are co-opted for corporate profit
• Judge Preston struggles with his role in enforcing corporate interests
• Akiko operates in the margins, taking advantage of corporate blind spots

The theme ultimately questions whether meaningful resistance to corporate control is possible in a system where every aspect of life—including death and resurrection—has been commodified and monetized.

Ethical Implications

The corporate control of Horizon City raises profound ethical questions about the relationship between economic power and human rights. When corporations can literally decide who lives and dies based on ability to pay, what becomes of human dignity?

As one character observes, the system isn't designed to protect people but to "make the yen flow from the people to the corporations." This stark reality forces readers to consider the logical endpoint of unchecked corporate power and the commodification of human existence itself.