Cyberpunk Edgerunners Netflix Show !Spoilers!

+
I have never so much as tried watching an anime before - because I didn't even like the short clips of it that I have seen. I also think most modern media in general is terrible. I can count on two hands the number of movies and TV shows I have genuinely enjoyed in the last five years or so.

That being said I watched Edgerunners and really enjoyed it.
I kinda get your reservations there but anime feels pretty free from the modern curse of movies/tv. Atleast if you avoid the dubbed animes that gets somewhat changed. If its your cup of tea tho i cant really say but i find anime too have pretty much everything..
 
But I am curious - do you guys think the series would be worth watching for somebody like me, who doesn't generally watch anime? The only one that I've tried and liked as an adult has been Death Note.
I may not be the best person to answer, knowing I love animes in general. When I don't know what to watch, I randomly pick up one anime that I didn't watch yet... Sometimes it's bad and I give up after few episodes or few minutes... And sometimes, it's great and I "devour" all the episodes in a row (like Black Lagoon that I didn't know before watching it).
Anyway, I would say it worth to watch it once (above all if you played the game), because it's difficult to say before watching... And if you already have Netflix, the worse which could happen it's that you lost a few minutes of your time, so not a big deal :)
 
I have never so much as tried watching an anime before - because I didn't even like the short clips of it that I have seen. I also think most modern media in general is terrible. I can count on two hands the number of movies and TV shows I have genuinely enjoyed in the last five years or so.

That being said I watched Edgerunners and really enjoyed it.
Thanks, maybe I will give it a shot at some point then. I would recommend Death Note btw, if you're interested. It largely avoids most of the worst anime tropes while the ones that it does fall into are generally put to good use, in my opinion.
And if you already have Netflix, the worse which could happen it's that you lost a few minutes of your time, so not a big deal :)
I never understood this attitude towards time, given that it's the only insurmountably limited resource that we have in our lives.
 
I never understood this attitude towards time, given that it's the only insurmountably limited resource that we have in our lives.
My point of view, you can't know that you wasted your time in advance. You only "know" after realizing that it was a waste when it's too late...
In my example of Black Lagoon, I didn't know in advance if I'll love it or not. It could very well have been bad and I would have wasted my time. But I loved it, so... it's the complete opposite.
Anyway, watching a "bad" anime is not worse than waiting 25 minutes to pay your shopping a saturday afternoon, been stuck in the traffic 1 hour on sunday when going on the beach or waiting 30 minutes in the "waiting room" to see your doctor... (or the anime have to be damn bad^^)
 
Last edited:
Anime, in my opinion, is more friendly for people with no knowledge about lore. Many rules, history of this world is pretty nicely explained , when in game, without knowing lore, you can be a little bit lost and you need a lot more hours to understand some rules, history. For example story about Rache Bartmoss. In Anime there is few moments, few sentences some graphic and you know what happened. In game you have to read some shard or do some side content and then maybe you will understand, maybe.
 
Frankly, I imagine this was a much-much smarter story for doing the former and not the latter. It's also receiving near unanimous praise and has a near 100% rating compared to the Witcher's 60%. The reason being that not being deeply philosophical means that it actually STANDS OUT compared to other cyberpunk anime as the concerns of David and company are where their next meal is going to come and the depressing reality of poverty as well as inability to self-actualize.

People have been doing lots of videos on this anime because instead of asking, "Do robots have souls?" it asks, "Why the fuck does education and medical care cost so much?"

Sharply put, but relatively accurate.

Expectations help, though, as does the presentation. Comparing the game and the anime isn't going to result in a particularly useful lesson-set, reception wise, other than the obvious comparisons.

250 minutes of passive watching someone else tell you the story vs 10 to well, hundreds of hours of interacting with and creating a large portion of the story.

The relevance and immediacy, though, not only of the brutality but the constant economic and societal pressure - now, that, that as you've said, is a big part of what makes the anime hit home for most people.

"Am I human?" I mean...how much does that really matter?

"Will I be hungry/hurt/even alive tomorrow?" Yeah, we all get that.

Street level stories are great, done right. The higher stuff is, too, and as Shin says, series like GitS are classics in a large part -because- of those questions.

But street level hits home for most of us.


Personally I felt like the anime did get deep into various issues (I guess that's what people mean when they say "philosophical"?)

For me, cyberpsychosis was explored WAY more intimately and in greater depth than in the game, which I thought was a really effective analogue for addiction and substance abuse. Plus they did an excellent job of exploring how people end up in that situation to begin with, linking it to socio-economic inequality, which in turns links well with the whole self-sacrifice-for-your-loved-ones theme. And when I say self-sacrifice, I don't just mean David's big hero moment, but also Gloria; busting her ass to make ends meet.

But, nitpicks aside, I thought the way they handled those sociological issues landed really well.

Plus the way it all came together in the end struck a chord in me that very few movies ever achieve. Hit just the right note.

Cyberpunk works tend to hit many targets that are philosophical even though people don't always associate presentation with philosophical aspects. I also believe that creators of Ghost in the Shell and SAC were more or less aware of that as many genre authors.

We can think, say Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger related to big questions but people tend to forget Sartre. For me Sartre's critique built towards importance of realization, that we can keep thinking some big questions and never get there or anywhere if we get stuck on those. Importance of asking the question, if philosophical ideas (Locke and Mill were philosophers) are compatible with homo-sapiens. Like Marx took Mills ideas, bastardized them, and we all know how well that worked before its collapse.

Or that silly guy with mustache and his idea of super human. Like narrow gene pool wouldn't create existential threat if something like bird flu or something happens. But hey let's just think big thoughts! :D

Cyberpunk asks questions with scenarios, education, healthcare, nihilism from streets to corporate ladders about sustainability and while we all have our immediate concerns, think about long term consequences too. It's no way less philosophical matter than wondering what soul is or if there's a soul.

But I am curious - do you guys think the series would be worth watching for somebody like me, who doesn't generally watch anime? The only one that I've tried and liked as an adult has been Death Note.
I don't really watch anime either, for me it's about the cyberpunk genre. Sometimes I wonder some aspects of genre, sometimes I try to find if there's anything about cyber samurai's before Gibson's Neuromancer. I think he came up with that but do I really know?

Anime is cyberpunk beyond its title and IMO worth watching. Medium isn't restricting it by any means.
 
Cyberpunk works tend to hit many targets that are philosophical even though people don't always associate presentation with philosophical aspects. I also believe that creators of Ghost in the Shell and SAC were more or less aware of that as many genre authors.

Dancing around the philosophical points, the thing to state clearly here is Cyberpunk Edgerunners is NOT a stupid anime.

It is a very smart and very well-written anime.

The issues and characterization it deals with, despite its hyper-stylization, are real.

It's just its protagonist is a 17 year old kid who does some very STUPID things and the audience is left to realize that he's being stupid and the writer are aware he's being stupid.
 
I would like to thank CDPR for this beautiful show that fleshed out the world of cyberpunk more. Now I have a reason to bust Adam Smasher's butt again since he killed David in canon.

P.S please do a season 2! I know it's expensive to make one but I love the world of cyberpunk and want to see more of the locations!
 
I would like to thank CDPR for this beautiful show that fleshed out the world of cyberpunk more. Now I have a reason to bust Adam Smasher's butt again since he killed David in canon.

P.S please do a season 2! I know it's expensive to make one but I love the world of cyberpunk and want to see more of the locations!

I'd love for a season 2 with canon characters:

Maybe Judy, Dex, and Evelyn with the incident that drove Dex out.
 
I'm not into anime really, and judging by the trailer this wouldn't be an exception, so I'm far from the target audience for this and will probably skip it, but it's nice to see some genuinely positive press around the Cyberpunk brand again. Encouraging for the future of the franchise if CDPR can keep this momentum going.

But I am curious - do you guys think the series would be worth watching for somebody like me, who doesn't generally watch anime? The only one that I've tried and liked as an adult has been Death Note.
So long as you don't go in expecting it to be smart or philosophical. Death note is a somewhat high bar. If you liked CP2077 then give it the 3 episode test and see if you like it but don't go in with high expectations.
 
So long as you don't go in expecting it to be smart or philosophical. Death note is a somewhat high bar. If you liked CP2077 then give it the 3 episode test and see if you like it but don't go in with high expectations.

It's very much like Cyber City Oedo 080 in that the primary thing you will see is guns and pretty people and horribly evil monsters. Plus guns by pretty people killing the horribly evil monsters.

But there's some social commentary too.
 
My point of view, you can't know that you wasted your time in advance. You only "know" after realizing that it was a waste when it's too late...
In my example of Black Lagoon, I didn't know in advance if I'll love it or not. It could very well have been bad and I would have wasted my time. But I loved it, so... it's the complete opposite.
Anyway, watching a "bad" anime is not worse than waiting 25 minutes to pay your shopping a saturday afternoon, been stuck in the traffic 1 hour on sunday when going on the beach or waiting 30 minutes in the "waiting room" to see your doctor... (or the anime have to be damn bad^^)
I agree that there are some unavoidable time wasters like trying something out for the first time, not knowing if you'll like it. But you have to learn from past mistakes to avoid wasting your time again in the future. If the beach that you waited to go to for an hour was shit, you wouldn't go to it again (you'd probably also learn to avoid rush hour so that you don't get stuck in traffic next time). If you then eventually discover that going to the beach in general is, for some reason, not your thing, then you might reconsider going to any beach at all, unless it offers something extraordinary that other beaches don't.

So, in this case, I have already tried watching some anime, and I've found that it's just not my thing, which is why I'm curious if the Cyberpunk anime rises above the typical anime tropes or if it embraces them. Basically, is it an extraordinary anime with a CDPR story that's just wrapped with an anime illustration style or do the anime influences go deeper and affect the actual characters/story/structure?
 
So, in this case, I have already tried watching some anime, and I've found that it's just not my thing, which is why I'm curious if the Cyberpunk anime rises above the typical anime tropes or if it embraces them. Basically, is it an extraordinary anime with a CDPR story that's just wrapped with an anime illustration style or do the anime influences go deeper and affect the actual characters/story/structure?
Honestly, like I said, difficult to be "objective", I love the game and I love animes in general (I'm able to watch a full season of an anime and find it not really good, but without feeling that I wasted my time^^).
So if you ask me, yes, it's better than most animes that I watched (at least it's in top ones). On other hand, there are plenty of other animes that I'm 100% sure to not recommend at all for those who generally don't like/watch anime...
So my advice for Edgerunners is it's worth to take a look (at least the first episodes, which are short anyway).

I'm sure in the case of Arcane for example, a lot of the audience weren't gamers nor anime fans and really enjoyed the series.
 
Last edited:
I agree that there are some unavoidable time wasters like trying something out for the first time, not knowing if you'll like it. But you have to learn from past mistakes to avoid wasting your time again in the future. If the beach that you waited to go to for an hour was shit, you wouldn't go to it again (you'd probably also learn to avoid rush hour so that you don't get stuck in traffic next time). If you then eventually discover that going to the beach in general is, for some reason, not your thing, then you might reconsider going to any beach at all, unless it offers something extraordinary that other beaches don't.

So, in this case, I have already tried watching some anime, and I've found that it's just not my thing, which is why I'm curious if the Cyberpunk anime rises above the typical anime tropes or if it embraces them. Basically, is it an extraordinary anime with a CDPR story that's just wrapped with an anime illustration style or do the anime influences go deeper and affect the actual characters/story/structure?

I love the game, I have watched one other anime.. back in the early 90's. (screenshot of anime below).. I tried edgerunners because of the game, it took me a little while to get into the story but I was grabbed at episode 1. The music in the game is just superb and that little trip in episode 1 where david makes his way to school had me hooked.

Now it seems like you know much more about anime than I do. I don't think you will enjoy it. I think you will be looking out for stereotypes and that will turn you off when you spot one.


1663489367307.png
 
It's just its protagonist is a 17 year old kid who does some very STUPID things and the audience is left to realize that he's being stupid and the writer are aware he's being stupid.
And in-universe they make sense, for 17-year old kid, with all that has happened to him. He's no different from Sarah and certain choices she did in Hardwired in that aspect.
 
So watched 5 episodes. Not my thing. Its better with japanese audio, its just something that rubs me the wrong way. Art is pretty ok, not the best ive seen but not the worst either. Very Cyberpunkish and you will req most locations since its pretty faithfull to the game locations. Action packed and alot of mature stuff like i expected. Will se if i finish watching but i dident hate it atleast :D

Edit: figured it out! Trigger did Little witch academia and Kill la kill. I knew i req that style from somewhere. Kinda know why it bugged me now. O well ill probably finish the season atleast.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, Studio Trigger definitely has it's own Style ^^
True, it kinda bothered me with the details. Sometimes its very detailed and sometimes its not detailed at all. I knew ive seen that sometime before but took me a hot minute too figure out (more like 5 hours but :D) Not my type of style and it annoyed me in killlakill too but not enough too not watch it.
 
I agree that there are some unavoidable time wasters like trying something out for the first time, not knowing if you'll like it. But you have to learn from past mistakes to avoid wasting your time again in the future. If the beach that you waited to go to for an hour was shit, you wouldn't go to it again (you'd probably also learn to avoid rush hour so that you don't get stuck in traffic next time). If you then eventually discover that going to the beach in general is, for some reason, not your thing, then you might reconsider going to any beach at all, unless it offers something extraordinary that other beaches don't.

So, in this case, I have already tried watching some anime, and I've found that it's just not my thing, which is why I'm curious if the Cyberpunk anime rises above the typical anime tropes or if it embraces them. Basically, is it an extraordinary anime with a CDPR story that's just wrapped with an anime illustration style or do the anime influences go deeper and affect the actual characters/story/structure?
If that's the case then I honestly wouldn't recommend it. It leans very heavily into anime tropes, from the teenage protagonist to the eye candy secondary female damsel that has very little agency.

It lacks any of the nuance and philosophy typically associated with anime in this genre and focuses more on the over the top hyper violence and fan service. To put it simply, It feels marketed to teenage boys.
Post automatically merged:

I'd love for a season 2 with canon characters:

Maybe Judy, Dex, and Evelyn with the incident that drove Dex out.
I'd only want that if they take the story seriously. I'd hate to see those characters acting exaggerated and cartoonish when they had such depth in the game.
Post automatically merged:

So watched 5 episodes. Not my thing. Its better with japanese audio, its just something that rubs me the wrong way. Art is pretty ok, not the best ive seen but not the worst either. Very Cyberpunkish and you will req most locations since its pretty faithfull to the game locations. Action packed and alot of mature stuff like i expected. Will se if i finish watching but i dident hate it atleast :D

Edit: figured it out! Trigger did Little witch academia and Kill la kill. I knew i req that style from somewhere. Kinda know why it bugged me now. O well ill probably finish the season atleast.
That's the thing with Triggers work. I don't think it suits every type of story. The themes explored in CP2077 require nuance and Trigger is just over the top, exaggerated movements that are almost comical and of course Fan Service. It just doesn't fit and it feels like they changed the tone of the story to fit their vision.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom