When Netflix announced its plans to develop an anime tie-in for “Cyberpunk 2077,” there were plenty of reasons to be skeptical. After all, the original video game was poorly received due to its numerous bugs and related issues, all of which took away from the fun of its cyberpunk world and Keanu Reeves playing a main character.
And yet, Studio Trigger quietly managed to deliver one of the best science fiction works in modern television with “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.” Like other recent celebrated video game adaptations, the anime series tells an intriguing all-new story featuring memorable characters, as opposed to merely copying its
Then, Netflix decided that “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” would not be a one-season show, actually. That being said, the newly-unveiled “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2” is not exactly a typical continuation, as “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” had a pretty definitive ending (one that involved a whole lot of corpses). Instead, it tells a standalone story focused on the world of Night City and the horrors its cyberpunk dystopia instills on its citizens as they desperately try to survive.
Specifically, “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2” follows two different plot threads. One involves Roman Carax, an aspiring documentary filmmaker who comes across a dangerous chip containing a digital living entity, only to get involved with a man seeking revenge for the killing of his clan. The other follows Weak Kingsley, a former edgerunner (one whose near-fatal bout of cyberpsychosis left him severely weakened) who becomes intent on looking after his old flame’s daughter when she finds herself entangled with a street gang. The result? A whole lot of carnage … and some of the coolest visuals on TV.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 has a more ambitious scope
From the get-go, it’s clear “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2” is trying to do something very different from Season 1. The latter told a simple and intimate coming-of-age story of a man who joins a group of mercenaries in order to survive his cyberpunk dystopia, only to slowly lose himself to the horrors of sci-fi capitalism and to the cyberware that’s taking over his body. This time around, though, the show features multiple storylines that slowly connect. More so, the series increases its scope significantly by tying in to both Season 1 and “Cyberpunk 2077” itself.
“Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” by comparison, mostly avoided connections to the game that inspired it, save for the very end when it introduced one of the scariest anime villains of all time. “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2,” on the other hand, centers on a chip that plays a pivotal role in “Cyberpunk 2077.” It doesn’t always work, and the show certainly loses some of the emotional weight that made Season 1 so great and effective. Nevertheless, the ambitious scope of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 speaks to the true focus of the series at large: Night City.
Yes, it’s a cliché to describe a setting as being a character in a story, but both seasons of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” are, at their core, about the impossibility of escaping Night City and its broken systems (not to mention, the brutal violence it inflicts on anyone who tries to make a name for themself and escape their station). It’s a world ruled by corporations, leaving people with little choice but to break their bodies with cybernetics just to get by at the risk of a terrible punishment.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 lives up to its genre roots
The cyberpunk sub-genre has lost its spark over the decades. Nowadays, even the word “cyberpunk” tends to refer to an aesthetic — i.e. a futuristic but gritty city full of flying cars and neon lights — more often than it does a specific school of storytelling. But that’s what makes this show so unique: “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” actually lives up to its genre roots by telling stories about futuristic tech, societal collapse, and lowlife characters unable to escape their dystopian reality no matter what they do.
We can see this in “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2” and its examination of corporations, like the concept of corporate wars (because corporations are basically countries with impunity now). In keeping with that, it’s made clear that the show’s dystopia is the outcome of corporations and technology running amok, giving rise to a hostile environment where lives are disposable and nothing is more important than the bottom line. By the same token, its conflict revolves around a piece of tech that grants its wearer incredible abilities yet causes their body to slowly break down, all the while putting them in the crosshairs of every dangerous and all-powerful corporation out there.
Of course, this is still a project by Studio Trigger (“Kill la Kill” “Delicious in Dungeon”), so its horrors all look absolutely stunning. To be sure, few shows have managed to make bodies explode in such visually striking ways, rendering gruesome displays of violence through bright colors and dazzling imagery. It’s sheer spectacle and absolute terror all at once.
“Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2” is now streaming on Netflix.
