Anime: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 161i5

just because of some bugs and unkept promises people hate the game and love the anime, but the game has a main story at least 27x better than this. be sure you play the game first or at least watch it from youtube if you can't play it (I don't recommend both of these if you are eventually gonna play it) cause the show literally steals some of the joy you should experience while playing the game.

characters are totally unrelated to the game (except 1) but some of them are kinda like shallow shadows of them.

the series has a generic MC who gets bullied at school, finds basically an almost deus ex machina and somehow he is the only one who can use it without any side effects (so original, right?). he achieves speeds he shouldn't even be able to see around without an eye implant but no one bats an eye on that.

music is just above average even with akira yamaoka

has some unnecessary gore in it just to make it look cool.

still an enjoyable show since we couldn't experience some of the awesome world elements of cyberpunk enough in the game

The initial response from the community regarding this show was nothing but praise and lots of 10s flying around. On the other hand my reaction to it was complete apathy since I was looking at the whole thing from a neutral perspective. Once you do that most shows are nothing special and Edgerunners is no exception. Let’s get this out of the way right away. The reasons so many people liked it are:

1) It did not suck like the videogame it was based on (the bar was set very low)
2) Anything by studio Trigger is always praised and is well animated (the studio’s fame played a part)
3) It has an ‘underdog in a ghetto going up the ladder’ type of story that appeals to most young people (especially those living in large cities).
4) The ending is tragic (most people are used to happy endings).

Although these reasons can be enough for someone to like such a show without needing to elaborate any further, the moment you see past them and you focus on more technical aspects, you realize the show is nothing special. The plot is fairly typical, the characters are average people, and there is no big objective they have to fulfill. It’s essentially a social drama set in a sci-fi setting. It has action as well, but it’s not the focus of the show. If anything it exists as a break from the drama as well as for keeping awake the impatient sakugatards.

Anyways, watching the show with no biases in favor of the above reasons results in boredom. The biggest issue is how it doesn’t try to explore a profound message about humanity in bigger than life situations, which is what cyberpunk used to do in its glory days. Watching classics like Bladerunner, Johnny Mnemonic, or Ghost in the Shell make you question everything, they stick to your brain with their superb atmosphere and never leave. Edgerunners on the other hand is… a social drama about people living in a slum and doing petty crimes for making lots of money. There’s nothing to explore or ponder. Take out the sci-fi angle and it’s a show that could happen in any lowtech society. Touches like the implants gradually making you insane can easily be swapped with drugs. So basically the core genre is underused and as a result the whole show becomes able.

Another issue is the characters who are average people. None of them is super important or has a high enough position of power for feeling like someone worth following for 10 episodes. Their objectives are also petty and shortsighted as they never go beyond making money through petty crimes. They ain’t even as cool as the gangsters in games like Gran Theft Auto or Yakuza . You are just not made to care about them and when someone dies you feel nothing was lost.

The third issue is more like a result of the other two. Although there is a lot of action, it’s about typical people doing petty crimes. Despite being well-animated it doesn’t feel epic because it’s about nobodies doing nothing of importance. Thus even the sakuga goes to waste. It didn’t feel like that when I was watching Akudama Drive or Rage of Bahamut, since the characters there feel important and so does everything they do.

The fourth issue is the pacing which gets really wonky because of a time skip in the second half of the show. Character dynamics change out of screen and the rest of the plot goes on overdrive because it is not given enough episodes to develop properly the new status quo. Basically, the changes are sudden and are not given the time to settle in before the anime ends.

The verdict for the show can best summarized as EEEEEEHHHH. Compared to the far more popular titles of the same genre it is very simple. It doesn’t explore the setting much, it doesn’t have a charismatic cast, all the effort in the action and animation department goes to waste since there is not much to hold you in, and even when there is it is ruined by a rushed second half. Edgerunners may seem highly regarded for now, but it will be forgotten by most as soon as the next season comes up and everyone will be dancing around the sakuga of Chainsawman.