At least, it seems that I managed to convey what I essentially felt about Kaiba despite other confusions, so it wasn’t a total failure.

I agree with you about Kaiba’s warmth but I am not sure if I would classify Kaiba as cyberpunk (a genre I find interesting to watch but is not a favorite of mine precisely because of the lack emotion that you mention). Although I suppose Kaiba has some elements of cyberpunk (mainly the whole dystopia and memory altering concept) I feel that the fact that it is very whimsical makes it less cyberpunk. Not to mention the concept of memory alterations has no basis on reality. If I was to classify the series I would say it is a fantastical dystopian science fiction series. If anything I feel Kaiba has more in common with a series like Kino no Tabi with it’s fable like storytelling then Lain or Ghost in the Shell which are definitely Cyberpunk.

There is a definite harrow feeling that we get from episode 3 (and episode 2) when people’s memories, hopes and dreams are discarded like garbage. It really felt as if this world has reduced people to little yellow blobs, and what’s the point of having dreams and hopes and building up memories if they can be so easily disposed (like Chroniko and the girl from episode 2)? But what hit me the hardest in episode 3 was the fact that Chroniko’s aunt still remembered her. Despite all the suffering, despite her body being replaced with a machine, her precious time with Chroniko endured.

Likewise in episode 4, we are at first presented how disgustingly people change their bodies, but what follows next is a woman’s love and yearning for a companion (even if it’s a machine). She is reduced to a mechanical dog without the ability to speak, but you start reading more than cold sterile technology of yet another Cyberpunk world. This applies to other situations as well, including how Popo couldn’t completely contain Neiro’s feelings for Kaiba.

I personally think this breaking down of cold and sterile language that is presented in Kaiba (which, we are also familiar with Lain and other cyberpunks), and finding such exceeding and powerful gestures of love within it, gives birth to the type of warmth that differs from say, the warmth in Iyashikei shows like Natsume Yuujinchou.

So I don’t know…maybe we’re affected by essentially same thing in Kaiba, but our approaches to understanding it is a little different? Just a thought.