Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is all the rage. But does the series convince in all respects? Anime demon Cortyn dares to analyze – and has clear criticism.
Just a few years ago, film and series adaptations of video games had a pretty bad reputation – and most of the time they were flops. Since the terrible series of “The Marios Brothers” or “The Legend of Zelda,” the cliché persisted for several decades.
However, in recent years, that has changed significantly. The Witcher series is celebrated, Arcane is considered a masterpiece even by non-gamers and even the upcoming series of “The Last of Us” looks promising.
The latest attempt to bring a video game to television screens is the series “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” and the hype is enormous. Whether it’s discussions about the “best waifu of the season” or memes flooding the internet – Edgerunners has made an impact.
However, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is unfortunately much less than it could have been. At least that’s my view.
About the Author:
Cortyn has been writing for MeinMMO since 2013, always with a particular focus on MMORPGs like WoW, but also RPGs like Witcher and Cyberpunk fall under that.
In his spare time, Cortyn inhales “always” anime series like others do a bag of chips and sends his colleagues bizarre manga memes that no one else understands.
The Story of Edgerunners Briefly Outlined
Without wanting to reveal all the details, here’s at least a brief overview of the starting position after the first two episodes:
Cyberpunk Edgerunners takes place a few years before Cyberpunk 2077 and focuses on the story of David Martinez. He is considered highly gifted and has accordingly made it to the academy of the mega-corporation Arasaka. However, the poor conditions of his single mother make his life anything but pleasant – he is bullied and considered an outsider. After the death of his mother, he unexpectedly comes into possession of a powerful implant, the “Sandevistan.” However, it belongs to Arasaka, which urgently wants it back.
David flees from Pursuit and subsequently survives as an Edgerunner. He joins a crew, completes missions for clients, and begins to augment his body with more and more implants.
Here is the Japanese trailer. The series is also available in German or English:
These are also already the two driving points of the plot. The company Arasaka, which tries increasingly hard to capture David in order to exploit his performance with the Sandevistan implant, and on the other side, David, who is making a name for himself as an Edgerunner with his team and fighting against the danger of becoming a “Cyber-Psycho.”
The name “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” is a deliberate double meaning. These “border crossers” act as mercenaries on the edge of legality. They undertake missions in a gray area of the law that could have consequences, but are often simply neglected. At the same time, they are always on the edge of becoming a “Cyber-Psycho.” To fulfill their role as mercenaries, the Edgerunners equip themselves with more and more implants and upgrades, which gradually tug at their humanity. An addiction to more and more upgrades arises until one day they fall into a frenzy and run amok – only to be shot by the police and military.
Studio Trigger was the Perfect Choice – Because They Can Do “Absurd”
Anyone who is a self-proclaimed (and proud) weeb and knows a little about the anime scene already knows Studio Trigger. The animation studio is still relatively young, has a few Gainax veterans (“Neon Genesis Evangelion”) but has already produced some of the most successful anime of recent years. The extremely absurd “Kill La Kill” is part of their portfolio, but the more colorful “Little Witch Academia” and the Mecha success “Darling in the Franxx” were also created here.
And after they had hormonally challenged teenagers controlling battle robots that for some unexplained reason only work when they are operated by men and women in doggy-style position (you just have to love anime, right?) – the crazy world of Cyberpunk 2077 should be a piece of cake, right?
To answer that directly: Yes.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners doesn’t shy away from much. Right from the first episode, the series makes it unmistakably clear what kind of uninhibited world it plays in, where every high has to be even more intense and absurd than the previous one. Again and again, you see men or women connected to devices in the background that apparently have no other purpose than to provide sexual pleasure – in broad daylight. At the same time, others seek their kick by experiencing violent excesses of criminals in cyberspace in a realistic way, becoming a murderous maniac themselves.
The choice of words is accordingly. Almost every second sentence includes some (sometimes quite creative) obscene insult.
Nakedness and sex are around every corner and no one is bothered by it. It wonderfully manages to depict this abandon and the associated loneliness in this world. Everyone acts cool and elevated, but in the end everyone is alone and only thinks of their own advantage. True connection is rare.
Night City in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners feels brutal and dark, and the series makes no concessions to avoid scaring off any target audience. They stayed true to the source material.
Colorless Characters in a Neon World
While Cyberpunk Edgerunners is, with all due love, not perfect. Because where the series relies on strong visuals in a dystopian world and a lot of brutal action, one aspect falls by the wayside: Deep characters and their development.
When I think back to the old works of Studio Trigger, I immediately have my favorite characters in mind. With Little Witch Academia, I immediately think of the sadistic-apathic witch Sucy, about whom I always wanted to know more than was shown in the anime. With Darling in the Franxx, I immediately see Zero-Two before me, who stood out with her conflict of love and crazy murderer and whose character development I loved.
With Edgerunners, that’s missing. With all the main characters, I never had the desire to learn more about them, because they all seem one-dimensional and above all functional. They have their place in the plot because the plot requires such a role. There’s the leader character on the brink of collapse, so the protagonist can somehow get to that position. There exists the careless brother character only so he can die and trigger a heavy reaction from the sister.
This is a problem that almost all characters in Edgerunners share. They do not feel like an organically grown team, but rather like soulless (but at least cool) characters that only serve exactly one purpose in the plot.
Accordingly, many of the deaths that occur in the series feel insignificant – because no character has plot armor. Death often comes, usually very quickly and unexpectedly, but is rarely truly impressive. One connects too little with the characters to truly embrace them.
The only one who stands out positively here is the cyber-lolita Rebecca, who appears endearing in short moments and in others bursts completely insane from one extreme to the next – and will almost certainly be the center of every second suggestive fanfiction.
The fact that they opted for less profound characters may be due to the comparatively short length of the series or a deliberate design decision. Because somehow, it also fits into the dystopia of Night City that people do not undergo significant emotional changes and character development – because if one needs a “development,” one simply installs the next cyber-implant and hopes that it’s not the final step to becoming a Cyber-Psycho.
Conclusion: Edgerunners is a Worthy Cyberpunk Anime – But Unfortunately Not More
In summary, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a damn fitting, brutal foray into the world of Night City and also works well if you haven’t played the game. The series never gets boring and races from one action scene to the next. Nevertheless, I was left with an emptiness at the end. Not because the ending was emotionally particularly moving, nor because the anime was already over. Just somehow it feels like after the end, hardly anything is different from the start of the series. As if everything somehow was meaningless.
And that’s why I also think that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners doesn’t need a second season. The series is self-contained, and at least I didn’t feel the desire to want to see more afterwards. It was good while it lasted – but it didn’t evoke the longing for more. Because ultimately, the series lacked what always makes me crave more: Characters whose journeys I want to continue following and about whom I want to learn more.
Edgerunners is a spectacle of effects that flashes brightly and impressively while it runs – and a day later, raises the question of whether instead of an intense fireworks display it could not have created something with a lasting impression.
But that is just my opinion. How did you like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners?
