Cyberpunk Edgerunners - Review that No One Asked For

Has anyone ever told you that you should watch Arcane? That it was actually really good? I mean… don’t get me wrong, you SHOULD watch Arcane, but my point here is that Edgerunners has hardly reached the same size audience that Riot was able to do, even though it also came from a popular video game. If you’re anything like myself, the only thing you know about Cyberpunk is that it was a game that got delayed like 50 times, and then when it was finally released it was… unplayable. While I’ve heard that the game is better now that they’ve patched it all up, it’s still the first thing I think of when hearing the word Cyberpunk. That is, well, until I watched Edgerunners. Let’s not get it twisted, I think that this show did end up being relatively popular, but there aren’t that many sites listing it as a more popular anime; and frankly, that’s a shame. I’ll be upfront and direct: if you haven’t watched Cyberpunk: Edgerunners yet, you are really missing out. It was a clear standout from the anime in 2022 and easily one of the best of the year. IN FACT, I’ll say it - for me, it was the best anime of the year. Am I being objective? Probably not. I mean Mob Psycho III, Made in Abyss II, Chainsaw Man, and so many other heavy hitters came out last year too. But even those anime, all of which I loved very much, didn’t strike me as hard and ruthlessly as Edgerunners did. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to like the show at all. I had previously skimmed through the first episode and thought the pacing was strange and wasn’t all that interested in the plot. I ended up deciding to watch it because I kept seeing this one clip on Instagram that really just seemed like a vibe and I finally sat down and gave it a watch. My initial opinions of the show were immediately disproven as when I actually paid attention to the first ep; I was blown away (imagine that). The story plunges you right into the life of David, a struggling student at the bottom of the social ladder in what is a brutal dystopian society. He seems like a typical haughty anime protagonist, but even from the beginning, it’s clear that there’s a little more to him. This is one of the things that is so brilliant about this anime. The characters are extremely distinct. Their designs showcase their character personalities and are unmistakably unique (kinda like Jojo’s lol). Every character serves a direct purpose in the plot and even those who seem flat often offer plenty to the story. They portray the unforgiving nature of the society they live in and what it takes to claw to the top of it. As dystopian fiction often is, I expected Edgerunners might be somewhat dark - and uh, yeah, it is dark. There’s blood and gore, corruption, backstabbing, and everything else you might expect. Studio Trigger does NOT pull punches in the violence department. The action scenes are carefully choreographed and very brutal. If someone is getting shot point blank with a shotgun, you’re gonna be shown the guts flying out the other end. That’s the kind of anime this is. It’s Studio Trigger going all out, showing off their ability to animate some of the most hardcore scenes I’ve ever watched - and trust me when I say there are some real moments of genius in here. Aside from the characters and animation, I would also vouch for the story being heart-wrenchingly grueling (even I’m not sure what this means but it seems right). The pacing in Edgerunners is very, very fast. The show is only ten episodes long, which is of course two less than a standard season. I would contest that this show is also much, much denser than most anime are. Every episode is important and full of things going on. There’s no filler and no bullshit in a single one of them. There are times, because of this, that I wish there was a little more time to spend on certain aspects of the show. It may also be because of this episode count that there are a few, uh, strange or rushed scenes (especially regarding dialogue). I think these moments of strangeness are part of what keeps me from giving it a straight 10/10. Other than these issues with the show, I was absolutely blown away by it from start to finish. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that takes you by the neck and never let's go. The soundtrack is astounding, the animation is peak, and the story is heartwrenching - please, if you haven’t given this one a watch, give it a go and come back and read the spoiler section of this review! (It’ll also be posted on my blog) :D Spoiler Section and Analysis: Did you watch it yet? Nice! Now let’s talk about episodes 1, 6, and 10. For me, these make up the crux of the show. I mean episode one dives into a crazy guy fighting militarized law enforcement alone and beautifully sets up what is to come in the rest of the series. If I were to describe this show in one word, it would be inevitable. That’s not to say that it’s overly predictable or anything like that, but rather, that there are things you think might happen, that you really don’t want to happen, but that has to happen for the cohesion of the story. I remember in episode one, I started to get more invested when David has a conversation with his mom about how he hates the school he attends. Her response: “why the hell have I been busting my ass so hard” followed by her statement about her dream for David to stand at the top of the Arasaka tower is when I realized that this show might not be a triumphant one. We’re told that his mom has had to do unsavory work on top of her normal job just to allow someone of David’s social standing into this prestigious school. While this idea is not a new one, her doing so in a dystopia gives it a different spin and makes the rebellious son/supportive mom trope a much more complex and twisted feeling. The fate of their relationship is then abruptly ended as they get into an accident and she dies. More accurately, they are killed by the results of those trying to progress through the social ladder. What this sets up is the ongoing theme of David living, and eventually dying, for the dreams of others. His ability to carry others’ dreams is what allows these wishes to succeed at all. As we come to find see, nobody’s dreams are achieved without the selflessness of David, whether it be climbing the social ladder or something else. Lucy, who carried her pipe dream needed her cyber boyfriend to not only believe in her, but actually be the reason she was able to afford to go to the moon at all. Likewise, through a brilliant progression of very literal self-sacrifice and mutilation, David stands at the top of the Araksaka tower, granting his mother’s wish (although this idea is completely recontextualized). It’s an absolutely stunning moment when he and Lucy jump off of the building as well - playing “I Want to Stay at Your House” and tying the couple together in astounding fashion. Episode 6 is easily the strongest episode in the show, and one of the best standalone episodes I’ve seen in anime. Right off the bat, it’s unclear what is going on, only that something is very off. When I first started this episode, I actually had to double-check that I hadn’t skipped one as it felt like we were put into a completely different place - and well… we kind of are. Placed into Maine’s chrome-infected mind, this episode is absolute fucking chaos. We watch as his psychee switches from reality to a long distant past. The juxtaposition here is really incredible and also incredibly tragic as Maine, like David, believes that he is special, and that only he can climb out of the tragic scenario that they find themselves in. After killing Dorio he loses himself, but there is a very important part where he tells David that “he can’t do it.” Unlike Lucy, who believes in David as his lover, Maine tells David that he can’t do it in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to keep David from walking down the same path that he did - one of becoming a chrome-infused robot (this scene is certainly open to interpretation though). It’s clear by the end of this, however, with a stunning scene of David holding Maine’s arm in the car, that he is bound for the same end. This is the turning point in the show into tragedy - the inevitability of the soul-crushing society, the fact that no one is special (unless), the impossibility of dreams. I’ve already talked a little about episode 10, the finale, in which the most famous shot featuring Lucy and David jumping off the building is shown (and holy shit is this a crazy payoff). We also meet Adam Smasher, who is important because he is the only person in history to have gone entirely chrome and survived. In other words, he is the only person in the show who actually IS SPECIAL. This appears to be, however, at the cost of his own humanity - someone who has completely given up their soul to the corporate monster. David, despite how much aluminum junk he has inside him and how much it has corrupted him, remains human. Smasher is a cold, indestructible war machine. Don’t get me wrong, I did watch the scene where he offers David the opportunity to become one of his own, entirely chrome. To me, this is just further enveloping from the mega-corporations, corrupting and taking over anything that may be of use to them. And with David’s death, we cut to a scene in which, through his sacrifice - Lucy is finally able to achieve her greatest dream: making it to the moon. It’s a real “what did it cost” moment and sincerely heart-breaking. She laughs briefly as she remembers her and David’s virtual experience together on the moon in episode 2, but is destroyed by the reality of his death leaving her in solitude. She really is one of like literally two characters that manage to live, and it almost doesn’t seem worth it. MAN! This one is a good one - there’s honestly so much more that I could talk about, but I’ll leave it at that. I hope y’all enjoyed Edgerunners as much as I did.

Score: 9/10