‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2’ review: A beautiful reminder of what makes us human

An aspiring filmmaker with an analog camcorder, Roman sees Night City through a different lens.Credit: NETFLIX

I went into Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 fully expecting to have my heart broken. Again. After all, the original 2022 anime from CD Projekt Red and Studio Trigger made us fall in love with David and Lucy, then reminded us that love isn’t enough to survive Night City. Four years later, I still can’t hear “I Really Want to Stay at Your House” without feeling a little emotional.

How do you follow up a story that resonated so deeply with audiences? More importantly, how do you make people care that much all over again? As it turns out, by telling a very different kind of story. Edgerunners 2 doesn’t just live up to its predecessor. In some ways, I think it surpasses it.

That’s not a declaration I make lightly. The first Edgerunners was a remarkable achievement in animated storytelling, a kinetic, emotionally devastating tragedy anchored by David and Lucy’s love story. But I don’t think the measure of a great Cyberpunk story is how thoroughly it breaks your heart. What I love about Edgerunners 2 is that it finds its emotional power somewhere else.

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Rebellious teenager Talia has replaced nearly her entire body with cyberware, much to her mother’s dismay.Credit: NETFLIX

Rather than centering its story on one relationship, the second season introduces a new ensemble of characters whose lives intersect in unexpected ways. There’s Roman, a young aspiring filmmaker who would rather experience Night City through the lens of his analog camcorder than through the simulated reality of a braindance. Then there’s Talia, a rebellious teenager who has replaced nearly her entire body with cyberware, much to the horror of her mother, who enlists her ex-boyfriend, a past-his-prime edgerunner named Weak, to track her down. And there’s D, a Nomad driven by a desire to avenge the destruction of his clan, even as the identity of those responsible remains a mystery.

Then there’s Capri, a mysterious digital consciousness whose search for a human host introduces another dimension to the story’s exploration of identity and what it means to be human.

A washed-up edgerunner named Weak gets pulled back into Night City’s chaos when an old flame asks him to find her daughter.Credit: NETFLIX

They don’t necessarily have much in common, and their motivations aren’t always aligned. But as their stories begin to overlap, Edgerunners 2 becomes less about any one person’s journey and more about the ways people influence one another, often without realizing it. It’s an approach that gives the series a different emotional texture from its predecessor, allowing its characters to exist as individuals while gradually revealing the connections between them.

In a city that treats human life as disposable, there’s something incredibly tender about watching people discover that their lives can mean something to someone else.

And it’s those connections that make this season so affecting. These characters are shaped by loss, ambition, rebellion, and the circumstances of their lives. They’re not necessarily searching for companionship, but their encounters with one another have a way of changing them. In a city that treats human life as disposable, there’s something incredibly tender about watching people discover that their lives can mean something to someone else.

For writer and showrunner Bartosz Sztybor, the challenge of following up the first Edgerunners wasn’t simply recreating what made it successful. It was finding a different way to explore the same philosophical questions.

“For me, the second season asks the same philosophical questions, but the answers are different,” Sztybor told Mashable. “We have different characters; they make different choices, so the consequences are different.”

It’s an approach that makes Edgerunners 2 feel like more than a continuation of a beloved anime. It expands our understanding of what a story set in Night City can be, and what makes those stories worth telling.

Night City looks a little different this time

The first Edgerunners dazzled with its vibrant neon palette and sleek character designs, but the second series embraces a grittier aesthetic, with darker imagery, thicker lines, and a distinctly retro sensibility. There’s an unmistakable influence of ’80s and ’90s anime in its exaggerated character designs and explosive action sequences. I particularly love the way D’s hair becomes bigger and spikier during moments of heightened intensity, evoking the gloriously over-the-top power-ups of Dragon Ball.

A Nomad with a score to settle, D is determined to avenge the destruction of his clan.Credit: NETFLIX

That retro aesthetic was intentional. Sztybor told Mashable that when he first pitched Edgerunners 2 to Studio Trigger, he envisioned a tribute to the cinema of the 1990s. Director Kai Ikarashi responded by suggesting that the animation itself pay homage to anime from the ’80s and ’90s.

“I think it was such a powerful fit,” Sztybor said. “It’s super cool that he instantly got the idea, and he came back with this visual approach.”

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But one of my favorite visual choices is something much simpler: So much of Edgerunners 2 takes place during the day.

Night City is practically synonymous with its neon-soaked streets and perpetual sense of darkness. Seeing more of the city in broad daylight gives the series a different texture. The sunlight doesn’t make Night City any less dangerous, but it does make the world feel more lived-in. There’s a strange beauty in watching moments of everyday life unfold against a backdrop of extraordinary violence.

Studio Trigger’s animation remains as kinetic and visually inventive as ever, but there’s also a greater sense of texture to this world. For all its explosive action and grotesque cybernetic violence, Edgerunners 2 also makes room for the ordinary. And sometimes, those glimpses of everyday life are what make Night City feel most human.

Edgerunners 2 is also a love letter to filmmaking

That affection for the past extends beyond the animation. In a world where technology can simulate almost any experience, there’s something refreshing about a kid who just wants to capture real life on his camcorder.

Roman’s curiosity and enthusiasm make him one of the show’s most endearing characters. He approaches the world with a sense of wonder that feels almost out of place in Night City, where most people are too busy trying to survive to appreciate what’s around them. But where others see chaos, Roman sees stories worth telling.

Roman sees a story worth capturing in D.Credit: NETFLIX

I found myself particularly drawn to the way Edgerunners 2 treats analog filmmaking as an art form rather than an outdated technology. In a world where people can experience someone else’s memories through a braindance, Roman wants to create something of his own. His camera becomes a way to engage with reality rather than escape it, and his enthusiasm for filmmaking feels like a small act of resistance against a culture obsessed with artificial experiences.

Sztybor said Roman emerged from his creative conversations with Ikarashi, with whom he bonded over a shared love of cinema. The two frequently communicated through references to directors and movie scenes, eventually deciding that Roman would serve as a connective thread between the show’s characters.

“We decided that with so many characters in the storyline, Roman will be this character that will somehow connect all of them,” Sztybor explained. “And we’ll be able to put our love for cinema into this character.”

It’s fitting, then, that a character so interested in observing other people’s lives becomes central to bringing those lives together. Roman doesn’t just give Edgerunners 2 a way to celebrate filmmaking. He gives the series another way to explore what it means to connect with the world around us.

Even in Night City, connection changes everything

For all its cybernetic enhancements, corporate conspiracies, and breathtaking displays of violence, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has always been a deeply human story. The first series found its emotional center in David and Lucy, two people whose love for one another became both a

Edgerunners 2 takes a different approach. Rather than centering its emotional narrative on a single character or relationship, it explores how people can change one another simply by entering each other’s lives.

Talia’s pursuit of independence leads her into some dangerous corners of Night City.Credit: NETFLIX

There’s a particular kind of loneliness that comes with feeling like you don’t belong anywhere. It’s a feeling that seems almost inherent to Night City, where people exist on the fringes of a society that has little regard for their humanity. The characters in Edgerunners 2 are no strangers to that isolation. Some have built their identities around the things they’ve lost. Others are still figuring out who they want to become.

Beneath all that chaos is a surprisingly tender exploration of the human desire to connect, to be seen, and to find meaning in one another.

But what I love about this season is that connection isn’t presented as some magical solution to their problems. These relationships don’t erase the characters’ pain or absolve them of their choices. Instead, they offer the possibility of seeing themselves and their circumstances differently.

Sometimes another person can remind you of a part of yourself you’ve forgotten. Sometimes they can challenge the beliefs you’ve held onto for so long that you no longer remember who you were without them. And sometimes, simply having someone beside you can make an otherwise unbearable world feel a little less lonely.

That’s where Edgerunners 2 finds its greatest emotional power. It’s still an extraordinarily violent series, and Studio Trigger certainly hasn’t lost its appetite for gore and spectacle. Beneath all that chaos is a surprisingly tender exploration of the human desire to connect, to be seen, and to find meaning in one another.

Night City hasn’t become a kinder place. Its inhabitants are still subject to the same systems of violence and exploitation. But even in a world designed to make people disposable, the relationships they form can give their lives meaning.

Four years after Cyberpunk: Edgerunners broke our hearts, its successor reminds us that even in the darkest of places, we can still find something worth holding onto.

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Crystal Bell is the Digital Culture Editor at Mashable, where she leads coverage of the creator economy, internet culture, and digital life. Her work focuses on the people, platforms, and communities shaping modern entertainment, from YouTube creators and livestreamers to fandoms, social media trends, and the evolving relationship between technology and culture. She also oversees the Mashable 101, the publication’s annual list recognizing the internet’s most influential creators.

Previously, she was the entertainment director at MTV News, where she helped expand the brand’s coverage of fan culture, K-pop, and the internet’s most passionate communities. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, PAPER, NYLON, ELLE, Glamour, NME, W, The FADER, and elsewhere on the internet.

She’s exceptionally fluent in fandom and will gladly make you a K-pop playlist and/or provide anime recommendations upon request. Crystal lives in New York City with her two black cats, Howl and Sophie.