This article is part of a web-original series
Marco Cian (Hyogo)
Yes, finally the one you’ve all been waiting for. I’m sure, as soon as you all saw that I’d be covering cyberpunk anime over here on Connect, that you anticipated the biggest cyberpunk anime of all showing up. Well, wait no further, because the review is here. Honestly, I’m quite surprised that it’s taken this long for a full and proper review of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to show up on Connect. But better late than never, I suppose, especially since the upcoming season 2 of the show will be bringing more eyes to it.
So, let’s dispense with the banter and get straight into it, shall we?
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
David Martinez is a punk kid living in Night City, whose life, quite frankly, sucks. He’s poor, he’s about to be kicked out of school, his mother is killed in a drive-by shooting, and with nothing left to lose, David has a dangerous piece of cybertechnology implanted in him so that he can obtain some level of revenge and control over his life.
This tech alerts a band of edgerunners, black market mercenaries working for the highest bidder, to David’s presence. And after proving his capabilities with the tech, David is soon adopted by the edgerunners. Can he make a new life for himself here after his old life was so thoroughly destroyed? He’ll have to survive the mean streets of Night City first.
To be totally honest, I really wasn’t feeling this.
It’s definitely cyber and definitely punk. It easily fulfills all the criteria Arthur lists in his “Baaa, Humbug!” article. And yet I can’t get behind it simply because it’s ultimately a very shallow show.
By sheer coincidence, I happened to watch this the same time that Tyler Perry’s Straw dropped on the same streaming service. And as I watched more and more of Edgerunners, my mind kept wandering back to Straw. It was all I could think about, because so much of both works is simply the protagonist being beaten down by society to an absurd degree. And this is easily Edgerunner‘s greatest strength, how it showcases a depressingly plausible future where capitalism has fucked us even harder than it has before. It’s a world that, quite frankly, sucks.
But the problem is that the show doesn’t have any interest in exploring or saying anything about this world, other than repeating over and over again how much everything sucks in it.
AD Police and Kaiba were also bleak and pessimistic worlds, but they were also interested in exploring themes of identity, what it means to be human, and how even with all the bad that comes with it, good things come out of new tech too. Edgerunners though only wants to tell you again and again “Man, this world sure does suck, doesn’t it?”
The characters meanwhile are similarly shallow. More effort is put into their outward design than their internal lives, because while this Cyberpunk definitely wants to look cool, it doesn’t seem interested in anything beyond looks. It delivers a visual feast, but consuming it leaves me thoroughly dissatisfied.
But the real breaking point for me was Episode 6, for two reasons. Firstly, without getting into spoilers, this is when some characters that are supposed to mean a lot to us die like dogs. It’s intended as a powerful, emotional moment. And I felt nothing, because even as the show kept telling us how close our protagonist was to these characters, I didn’t really see that? It felt like we were just supposed to accept these characters were close because that’s the narrative role they were meant to fulfill.
But the bigger reason was that this episode revolves around the same SQUID technology from Strange Days, with none of the themes or ideas from that far superior movie. I love Strange Days. It’s a masterpiece. One of the true greats of cyberpunk. Even if you’ve never seen it, you’ve heard it in Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now”. That phrase? That’s sampled from this movie, from the exact scene that drives home its two central themes. Both the scifi “Memories are meant to fade, Lenny. They’re designed that way for a reason.” and the human “Have you ever been in love with someone who didn’t return that love?”
But does Cyberpunk have any interest in exploring similar themes and ideas with the same technology? Nope. It’s just like “Bro, aren’t these snuff films totally sick and badass?”
This was the point where I said fuck it. I don’t get paid for these reviews. I’m doing this out of the kindness of my heart. And I stopped watching.
Obligatory checklist section
Is this a Cyberpunk?
Cyberpunk is about the little people – Yes
Cyberpunk is pessimistic – [Snorts] Yes.
Cyberpunk isn’t about changing the world – Christ, it sure ain’t.
Cyberpunk is set in today, turned up to 11 – Uncomfortably so.
Cyberpunk wants to look cool – Yes, and, give it credit, it definitely succeeds.
I hope the Cyberpunk fans don’t come at me. But then again this site doesn’t have a comments section. So, enh. Seriously, go watch Strange Days instead. It’s much better.