According to CDPR's Japan team, there are currently no plans for a second season of Edgerunners. It's a bit unfortunate because when I first heard about this project I had such high hopes but I couldn't make it all the way through the anime. The tone and exaggerated anime tropes just removed all the elements of what made it cyberpunk.
Granted, they have said the plan was always for a one off story but if you're knowledgeable about the industry then you know that any show that brings in record viewership or subscribers would have gotten a new season regardless of what the plan was. Squid game was only planned to be one season because it was originally supposed to be a film. Stranger things, Castlevania and so on. Netflix doesn't just drop things that are successful.
For me one of the things that could have opened this series up to a wider audience would have been to aim for a mature audience and I don't mean just having gratuitous violence and fan service. If anything those things appeal mostly to a younger fan base that realistically aren't paying for subscriptions. The typical trope of using teenagers, over the top characters, the attractive female companion there just to be saved and the low hanging fruit that is fan service just cheapens the story. I think focusing on the more mature, dramatic themes and taking the story a bit more seriously would have gone a long way in bringing in more eyes to the series.
Now I still firmly believe we will have more cyberpunk 2077 related anime in the future, probably with the next game. I do however hope they take some lessons away from this. Trigger is a great studio but I don't believe they're best suited for this kind of story. The over the top, almost comical tone of the anime was too much of a departure from the game. If they can improve on these things then I'd certainly be more interested and so would my friends who aren't typically into anime.
Granted, they have said the plan was always for a one off story but if you're knowledgeable about the industry then you know that any show that brings in record viewership or subscribers would have gotten a new season regardless of what the plan was. Squid game was only planned to be one season because it was originally supposed to be a film. Stranger things, Castlevania and so on. Netflix doesn't just drop things that are successful.
For me one of the things that could have opened this series up to a wider audience would have been to aim for a mature audience and I don't mean just having gratuitous violence and fan service. If anything those things appeal mostly to a younger fan base that realistically aren't paying for subscriptions. The typical trope of using teenagers, over the top characters, the attractive female companion there just to be saved and the low hanging fruit that is fan service just cheapens the story. I think focusing on the more mature, dramatic themes and taking the story a bit more seriously would have gone a long way in bringing in more eyes to the series.
Now I still firmly believe we will have more cyberpunk 2077 related anime in the future, probably with the next game. I do however hope they take some lessons away from this. Trigger is a great studio but I don't believe they're best suited for this kind of story. The over the top, almost comical tone of the anime was too much of a departure from the game. If they can improve on these things then I'd certainly be more interested and so would my friends who aren't typically into anime.