Cyberpunk Edgerunners - No plans for 2nd Season

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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.
 
I agree with the over the top tone, should've been more dead serious with less concessions. Too bad we won't be seeing Luce again though, she stole the show IMO
 
Was it? It ends on a very clear cliff-hanger.
Scenes like that are more or less added as an "in case" but there was no plan for a second season, the creator/director said as much. All the characters are dead except one, it doesn't get more conclusive than that. If they ended it where it is then that would be fine, there really isn't a need for a season 2 in my opinion
 
I agree with the over the top tone, should've been more dead serious with less concessions. Too bad we won't be seeing Luce again though, she stole the show IMO

How did she steal the show?

I genuinely don't get people's fascination with Lucy or Rebeca. I found both of them to be bland and cliche.

Rebeca sole point in the entire show is to be this hyper violent loli archetype with very little to no depth. Who, of course, loves the protagonist.

Lucy starts off somewhat interesting and is then quickly relegated to the typical fridged female whose only goal in life is to be loved by the protagonist soon after meeting him.

Not trying to shit on anyone's parade, I'm genuinely trying to understand how come people think they're such incredible characters.
 
How did she steal the show?

I genuinely don't get people's fascination with Lucy or Rebeca. I found both of them to be bland and cliche.

Rebeca sole point in the entire show is to be this hyper violent loli archetype with very little to no depth. Who, of course, loves the protagonist.

Lucy starts off somewhat interesting and is then quickly relegated to the typical fridged female whose only goal in life is to be loved by the protagonist soon after meeting him.

Not trying to shit on anyone's parade, I'm genuinely trying to understand how come people think they're such incredible characters.
It's the typical "harem" anime trope. The protagonist has to have several women with an interest in him. The target audience appears to be teenage boys and that's where most of the Lucy/Rebecca love is coming from. The writers clearly don't feel their audience can comprehend a proper story without relying on the crutch of fan service to hold their interest.

Frankly I'm just surprised it was only two girls, I didn't get far enough to see if there's more than 2. I was expected this to be Sword Art online the cyber punk version
 
It's the typical "harem" anime trope. The protagonist has to have several women with an interest in him. The target audience appears to be teenage boys and that's where most of the Lucy/Rebecca love is coming from. The writers clearly don't feel their audience can comprehend a proper story without relying on the crutch of fan service to hold their interest.

Frankly I'm just surprised it was only two girls, I didn't get far enough to see if there's more than 2. I was expected this to be Sword Art online the cyber punk version

Well, that escalated quickly!

Aside from the fact that I don't really see how two girls sharing a certain interest in the same guy should be a "harem trope", my experience with Edgerunners audiences is very different: for what I've seen, many people loved Lucy while not caring at all about David. I've read tons of "Lucy had the worst ending" or "Lucy deserved better", while... well, knowing how it turned out for David and Rebecca, it's pretty funny/ironic.

A good show though, with episode six as the best one, imho. Nothing revolutionary, of course, but good. Still, character like Evelyn Parker or Johnny Silverhand, from my point of view, are light years ahead of Lucy, Rebecca or David himself.
 
Well, that escalated quickly!

Aside from the fact that I don't really see how two girls sharing a certain interest in the same guy should be a "harem trope", my experience with Edgerunners audiences is very different: for what I've seen, many people loved Lucy while not caring at all about David. I've read tons of "Lucy had the worst ending" or "Lucy deserved better", while... well, knowing how it turned out for David and Rebecca, it's pretty funny/ironic.

A good show though, with episode six as the best one, imho. Nothing revolutionary, of course, but good. Still, character like Evelyn Parker or Johnny Silverhand, from my point of view, are light years ahead of Lucy, Rebecca or David himself.
I'd be one of those who didn't care about David but loved Lucy :coolstory:
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How did she steal the show?

I genuinely don't get people's fascination with Lucy or Rebeca. I found both of them to be bland and cliche.

Rebeca sole point in the entire show is to be this hyper violent loli archetype with very little to no depth. Who, of course, loves the protagonist.

Lucy starts off somewhat interesting and is then quickly relegated to the typical fridged female whose only goal in life is to be loved by the protagonist soon after meeting him.

Not trying to shit on anyone's parade, I'm genuinely trying to understand how come people think they're such incredible characters.
Lucy stole the show by being more interesting than the main character. She should have been the protagonist IMO. None of them are incredible characters, it's just an entertaining show, that's it. The key to enjoying certain things is not taking them too seriously. Not everything has to be GOT level of quality, we're allowed to enjoy popcorn flicks every now and then. Yes Lucy is a fanservice character, it's freaking Anime, never once have I seen one without an ocean of old clichés. I found her to be the only truly enjoyable character though, David was too much typical hero for me
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It's the typical "harem" anime trope. The protagonist has to have several women with an interest in him. The target audience appears to be teenage boys and that's where most of the Lucy/Rebecca love is coming from. The writers clearly don't feel their audience can comprehend a proper story without relying on the crutch of fan service to hold their interest.

Frankly I'm just surprised it was only two girls, I didn't get far enough to see if there's more than 2. I was expected this to be Sword Art online the cyber punk version
Yeah, but to be fair David had zero interest in Rebecca, he only cared about Lucy. Then again, even some of the best-written shows have fanservice (GOT), I find those cases way more insulting to the intelligence of the viewer TBH. Fanservice is to be expected from an Anime, but from an A-level live-action show? That's when I really feel they're relying on cheap tricks to keep the audience
 
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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.
You do realise this is how disney has milked the shit out of Star Wars with all their braindead movies and streaming-series right?
Being knowledgable about something and wanting to milk it for cash is not equal to the intent of wanting to make a good series about a story within a given franchise.
I will give CDPR high praise for not falling into the cash-grabbing-contest that is streaming these days.
 
You do realise this is how disney has milked the shit out of Star Wars with all their braindead movies and streaming-series right?
Being knowledgable about something and wanting to milk it for cash is not equal to the intent of wanting to make a good series about a story within a given franchise.
I will give CDPR high praise for not falling into the cash-grabbing-contest that is streaming these days.
Thank God, these awful "cinematic universes" are the worst thing that ever happened to the film industry
 
Thank God, these awful "cinematic universes" are the worst thing that ever happened to the film industry
I may understand you wrongly, but I sure don't hope that you're telling me you're glad stuff like solo, the sequels and such is a good thing?
All these movies are setup like big spectacles but storywise are shit for brains and riddled with plotholes and inconsistencies the size of a moon. And all that just because they could squeenze a little extra from the franchise due to 'viwership' or 'moneymilking-potential'.

[Edit]: to add, if I recall something similar could be said for GOT season 8 (I think it was) the outcry of how that went up in flames.
Or takes Star Trek, the Terminator... and I'm going to forget at least 2 more prominent examples right now.
Over the course of the last decade we've seen a steady increase of these revival projects where they (re)make something we already had for the simple reason it was good when it first came out.
Stories that were told long ago and have ended should simply just remain as such, not be revived just because.
 
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I may understand you wrongly, but I sure don't hope that you're telling me you're glad stuff like solo, the sequels and such is a good thing?
All these movies are setup like big spectacles but storywise are shit for brains and riddled with plotholes and inconsistencies the size of a moon. And all that just because they could squeenze a little extra from the franchise due to 'viwership' or 'moneymilking-potential'.

[Edit]: to add, if I recall something similar could be said for GOT season 8 (I think it was) the outcry of how that went up in flames.
Or takes Star Trek, the Terminator... and I'm going to forget at least 2 more prominent examples right now.
Over the course of the last decade we've seen a steady increase of these revival projects where they (re)make something we already had for the simple reason it was good when it first came out.
Stories that were told long ago and have ended should simply just remain as such, not be revived just because.
No, I mean that it's a good thing CDPR has NOT followed that model, that's why I highlighted your last line. I'm precisely saying that the cinematic universe formula is terrible and they should let old franchises stay dead as they no longer have the novelty factor.
 
No, I mean that it's a good thing CDPR has NOT followed that model, that's why I highlighted your last line. I'm precisely saying that the cinematic universe formula is terrible and they should let old franchises stay dead as they no longer have the novelty factor.
Ah, yes I see it now. Hadn't seen it was bold and so I was unsure which way I had to interpret it :)
 
It does depend how it was financed, too. For all we know, CDP made a loss on it and justified that as a promotional exercise for the game.

Take a series like The Expanse. It had a viewer following. But the terms its producers agreed with SyFy meant that SyFy had no right to repeat the show and, if memory serves, to stream it. Accordingly, SyFy were pouring a lot of money into a show that lost them money and it made no sense not to cancel it from their channel. At that point, the producers did not have the revenue to keep making it. It only carried on because Amazon picked it up as a vehicle for its streaming platform.

Not every series is financed the same way and most Netflix content is not produced directly by Netflix.
 
Take a series like The Expanse. It had a viewer following. But the terms its producers agreed with SyFy meant that SyFy had no right to repeat the show and, if memory serves, to stream it. Accordingly, SyFy were pouring a lot of money into a show that lost them money and it made no sense not to cancel it from their channel. At that point, the producers did not have the revenue to keep making it. It only carried on because Amazon picked it up as a vehicle for its streaming platform.
If only some other platform picked Raised By Wolves too... but no, they had to cancel the single most original Sci-Fi show in recent years :disapprove:. Meanwhile, trash like Disney Star Wars, Marvel and Netflix Witcher keep spawning like there's no tomorrow :disapprove::disapprove::disapprove:
 
I genuinely don't get people's fascination with Lucy or Rebeca. I found both of them to be bland and cliche.
If I remember, during the stream, they specified that Studio Trigger "said" to CDPR that the very first script their writers have submitted was not suitable for an anime at all. So, they (CDPR writers or Studios Trigger, I don't know...) reworked it, to make it fit "better".

I guess that why characters and story in Edgerunners seem to be more Studio Trigger ones rather than those that CDPR usually write. If one day there is another anime (whatever the IP, Witcher, Cyberpunk or their new IP), maybe CDPR should put more "trust" in their own writers :)
 
If one day there is another anime (whatever the IP, Witcher, Cyberpunk or their new IP), maybe CDPR should put more "trust" in their own writers :)
Ehh, should they though?
I recon it was always intended as a promo for the game. As such, making it as mass appealing as possible sounds like a sensible strategy.
Although I loled at the notion that the original script wasn't "anime enough" and studio had to rework it. Hope one day we'll see the intended idea, in one way or another.
 
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Although I loled at the notion that the original script wasn't "anime enough" and studio had to rework it. Hope one day we'll see the intended idea, in one way or another.
"Not anime enough"? Maybe Lucy's bare hips or David's transformer ending (I hated that, btw) weren't in the original script :coolstory:?
 
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