Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Momoka Terasawa as Roman Carax in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Cr. NETFLIX
At Anime NYC, Netflix revealed a number of updates on its upcoming anime slate, including new looks at titles such as the new series Fool Night, as well as titles in the more ambiguous zone of being ‘anime-inspired’, such as the second season of Blue Eye Samurai. Most exciting of all is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2,a follow-up to an anime season so beloved that it turned around public opinion on one of the most infamous video game launches in recent memory. A new trailer announces a release date of 20th October, following a visual onslaught of violent chaos in digital hell which has become synonymous with the Cyberpunkname. The new trailer mixes footage from the previous trailer with a handful of new shots, but the addition of dialogue gives a clearer idea of the personalities and character arcs in play this season.
Produced in collaboration between the game developer CD Projekt Red and animation producers Studio Trigger (known for series such as Delicious in Dungeon,and films like Promare), like the season before it, the story is set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, which itself is based on the setting of the tabletop role-playing game created by Mike Pondsmith and
This time, Kai Ikarashi takes over directorial duties from Hiroyuki Imaishi; Ikarashi was an episode director (and storyboard artist, animation lead and designer) on the standout sixth episode, “Girl on Fire,” after having also made a splash on other Studio Trigger series like SSSS. Dynazenon. There are other returning names involved, such as Kanno Ichigo, who is moving from animation direction and key animation to lead character design, as well as the writers Bartosz Sztybor and Masahiko Otsuka.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Kentaro Tone as Weak Kingsley in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Cr. NETFLIX
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Koki Uchiyama as D in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Cr. NETFLIX
Even with this sense of continuity in the creative team, however, Edgerunners 2doesn’t seem to seek a replication of the first series, instead starting fresh with a new story and a new cast of characters, no doubt due for their own tragic fate. The synopsis, so far, is as follows:
“Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 pulls you back into Night City, where lives become entangled to the extreme. Weak, a washed-up cyberpunk legend, is now forced to live without chrome as he searches for a sense of purpose in a world that’s passed him by. Meanwhile, the deadly nomad D sets out on a path to revenge that brings him close to corpo secrets never meant to be found. Across this ten-episode standalone series, uncover a story of family, obsession, legacy — and how your lens reflects the stories of the people around you.”
Once again, the season will follow a motley crew of Night City denizens with their own personal traumas, though the structure of a revenge story almost immediately differs, on paper at least, from the rise and fall of David Martinez in the first season.
“D” – a vague nickname reminiscent of the videogame’s “V” – will be played by Koki Uchiyama (Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia) in Japanese and Nazeeh Tarsha (Kaiju No.8, Hell’s Paradise) in English, as the story follows his plight to avenge his brothers in the Nomadic “Snake Nation” clan, which keen enjoyers of the video game will likely be familiar with. The cruelly named Weak Kingsley is voiced by Kentaro Tone (To Your Eternity) and the iconic Clancy Brown (who has lent his vocal talents to legendary animated series like Justice League). Another compatriot of “D” is a young documentarian called Roman Carax, voiced by Momoka Terasawa (Mao) and Valeria Rodriguez (Ranma ½). Lastly, the heavily augmented Talia Yang will be voiced by Akari Kitō (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba) and Kimoy Lee (Rooster Fighter) – Yang’s character already seeming like a tragic case as someone affiliated with the Maelstrom gang, another familiar name to players of Cyberpunk 2077 for their rather extreme philosophies around cybernetic upgrades.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Kentaro Tone as Weak Kingsley in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Cr. NETFLIX
Tying all of these disparate personalities together is Ikarashi’s expressive, jagged style of animation, with the new trailer doubling down on experiments with different textures appropriate for a world where humans are constantly plugged into a digital cyberspace: to go with the trailer’s talk of the line blurring between “redemption and revenge,” the line between human and machine has long since evaporated. Ichigo’s character designs are full of colour while also conducive to Ikarashi’s rather loose approach to animation, which often bends and transforms to fit the emotion of the scene (one recalls the famous final shot of a shellshocked David from the “Girl on Fire” episode).
The unique representations of concepts from Cyberpunkremain (such as the multiplying eyes showing ‘cyberpsychosis’), now alongside visions of more archaic technology such as digital camcorders and CRT televisions, with replicating images and logos calling to mind computing from the late 90s and early 00s, all exciting new expansions on the series’s visual palette (along with the usual visual tics of a show produced by Trigger). Where the synopsis brings up the idea of the “lens,” expect the visuals of the show to reflect this idea of differing perspectives of the world, as witnessed through different screens, different eyes (especially with Roman’s recording of events).
With all of this variety, the trailer presents one certainty – “Night City will burn again.”
