No you ain't!
Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a flawed, but still entertaining, anime.
We see an already aimless and struggling David lose his mother quickly and immediately turn to cyber implants to try and make his life better.
We meet a a cold and calculating Lucy shortly thereafter who, in a roundabout way, recruits David into their group of criminals. The following section where the group pulls off a few jobs together is probably my favorite part of the show. The action is intense and we get what seem to be David's intentions for the remainder of the show as well as an early glimpse as to how the cybernetics are impacting him.
Unfortunately, the good vibes stop in episode 4 when the story makes it clear that any character is capable of dying when a cyberpsycho takes out one of the members of the group. And this is where I have my strongest dissatisfaction with this show: cyberpsychosis.
Basically everybody that meets David tells him that he is going to go psycho one day and there is nothing he can about it. The ripperdoc that he goes to says it pretty much every single time they interact. An exec who only knows enough about David to know he's enhanced points out that the road he's on only leads to ruin.
This idea of psychosis feels like a stronger antagonist than anything else the creators put in the show. The big strong guy in the group goes crazy with psychosis and really starts to lead the show in a darker, more nihilistic path than it already was.
Side note: I am aware of the themes of nihilism in cyberpunk media. I understand that the big idea in these types of shows/movies is that life is pointless and you're going to die someday, so why not go out in the blazes of glory.
The group is now smaller, but David continues with the group as the leader and now that Lucy has caught feelings for David she quits, basically doing a complete 180 on the character that she was established to be in the early part of the series. Obviously characters can evolve and have different motivations, but hers went from tryign to save enough to getto the moon to completely escape the horrible life that she had growing up to trying to "protect" David by doing next to nothing to stop him from continuing down the path to a violent death. This includes not stopping him from getting numerous implants that, once again, the ripperdoc makes a statement basically saying there is no way that David should be still alive.
The story moves on and the small group gets a big job from Faraday, portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito (I thought he did an okay job; didn't think his voice really translated as well to the medium as I thought it would). At this point, David has been told that he's pretty much on the doorstep of death and there's no saving him. To make matters worse for the group, one of their members sold them out and the point of the job is actually to get David into a suit that Arasaka (one of the intended big bads) built that literally no one is expected to be able to use due to the heavy strain on their body (what's even the point of that).
David goes on a rampage trying to kill Faraday for double crossing him and threatening Lucy, going more and more crazy as the rampage goes on. Once again, the action is great intense.
And then, something stupid happens, Arasaka brings in a character that was explained to be dead: Atom Smasher. This character is modded to the tee and if anyone was capable of wielding the suit David is in, it would be him. So why bother with David in the first place?
David gets the piss kicked out of him by Atom Smasher and gets one nice moment with Lucy before he is killed. Lucy goes to the moon alone in what the creators appear to have intended for a bittersweet ending that's 10 times more bitter than it is sweet.
Problems I have with the show (that I didn't already touch on): Why does David bother continuing to work with the group once he and Lucy are well enough off? They are shown to be in a massive apartment after David takes over the group.
The show has the bitter"sweet" ending for Lucy, but that's really the only character/entity who has any sort of a happy ending.
Pilar is murdered by a psycho. Maine goes crazy and kills Dorio which leads him to kill himself in an explosion. Julio, small time character, runs into a trip wire and explodes. David dies to his psychosis mixed with being massively overpowered by Atom Smasher.
Falco has his arm blown off and gets to live with the reward money they got for the last job. And all of his friends/colleagues are dead. Becca just gets crushed for some reason. Kiwi gets shot after Faraday turns on her. Faraday get obliterated. Atom Smasher doesn't get to use the cyberskeleton and remains under the thumb of Arasaka. Arasaka loses several employees, vehicles, and the cybersuit. Militech likewise loses several employees and vehicles.
In a show about characters that hate the big corporations, why is there not a stronger critique of them? Is it because the inspiration for the show comes from a game published by a large video game company that notoriously treats its employees poorly? Also, in the same vein, wouldn't these characters get wise to the idea that they have to be helping one of the big corporations no matter what fixer they get and no matter what job they take? Kiwi and Lucy prove to be great hackers, shouldn't they have been able to find information about which fixers are for which corporations since Arasaka apparently just has a list of every single fixer in Night City?
Some of the nudity in the early part of the series feels like its on brand for what is shown in the game and what you can expect from this setting (namely that sexual content is a massive part of the world through brain dances and how socially acceptable, more or less, they've become where people are watching them on the street). The nudity later in the series just feels kind of forced. Anytime Lucy and David are shown in their apartment they are shown completely nude to imply that they've had sex. And yet there is really no physical intimacy between these characters beyond a few kisses shared.
Some of the animation gets a tad sloppy at times, but that's not necessarily a huge deal for me.
Becca's death doesn't feel earned and Falco being alive at the end of the show doesn't seem super justified.
Things I really liked: The music
The animation most of the time
The action/gore.
The dark tone, before it goes off the deep end into depression porn.
Overall, I don't think the show is necessarily bad, but it's definitely not a great one either. I may be jaded because I was late into this show after seeing so much hype about it, that I just feel didn't quite materialize.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a flawed, but still entertaining, anime.
We see an already aimless and struggling David lose his mother quickly and immediately turn to cyber implants to try and make his life better.
We meet a a cold and calculating Lucy shortly thereafter who, in a roundabout way, recruits David into their group of criminals. The following section where the group pulls off a few jobs together is probably my favorite part of the show. The action is intense and we get what seem to be David's intentions for the remainder of the show as well as an early glimpse as to how the cybernetics are impacting him.
Unfortunately, the good vibes stop in episode 4 when the story makes it clear that any character is capable of dying when a cyberpsycho takes out one of the members of the group. And this is where I have my strongest dissatisfaction with this show: cyberpsychosis.
Basically everybody that meets David tells him that he is going to go psycho one day and there is nothing he can about it. The ripperdoc that he goes to says it pretty much every single time they interact. An exec who only knows enough about David to know he's enhanced points out that the road he's on only leads to ruin.
This idea of psychosis feels like a stronger antagonist than anything else the creators put in the show. The big strong guy in the group goes crazy with psychosis and really starts to lead the show in a darker, more nihilistic path than it already was.
Side note: I am aware of the themes of nihilism in cyberpunk media. I understand that the big idea in these types of shows/movies is that life is pointless and you're going to die someday, so why not go out in the blazes of glory.
The group is now smaller, but David continues with the group as the leader and now that Lucy has caught feelings for David she quits, basically doing a complete 180 on the character that she was established to be in the early part of the series. Obviously characters can evolve and have different motivations, but hers went from tryign to save enough to getto the moon to completely escape the horrible life that she had growing up to trying to "protect" David by doing next to nothing to stop him from continuing down the path to a violent death. This includes not stopping him from getting numerous implants that, once again, the ripperdoc makes a statement basically saying there is no way that David should be still alive.
The story moves on and the small group gets a big job from Faraday, portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito (I thought he did an okay job; didn't think his voice really translated as well to the medium as I thought it would). At this point, David has been told that he's pretty much on the doorstep of death and there's no saving him. To make matters worse for the group, one of their members sold them out and the point of the job is actually to get David into a suit that Arasaka (one of the intended big bads) built that literally no one is expected to be able to use due to the heavy strain on their body (what's even the point of that).
David goes on a rampage trying to kill Faraday for double crossing him and threatening Lucy, going more and more crazy as the rampage goes on. Once again, the action is great intense.
And then, something stupid happens, Arasaka brings in a character that was explained to be dead: Atom Smasher. This character is modded to the tee and if anyone was capable of wielding the suit David is in, it would be him. So why bother with David in the first place?
David gets the piss kicked out of him by Atom Smasher and gets one nice moment with Lucy before he is killed. Lucy goes to the moon alone in what the creators appear to have intended for a bittersweet ending that's 10 times more bitter than it is sweet.
Problems I have with the show (that I didn't already touch on): Why does David bother continuing to work with the group once he and Lucy are well enough off? They are shown to be in a massive apartment after David takes over the group.
The show has the bitter"sweet" ending for Lucy, but that's really the only character/entity who has any sort of a happy ending.
Pilar is murdered by a psycho. Maine goes crazy and kills Dorio which leads him to kill himself in an explosion. Julio, small time character, runs into a trip wire and explodes. David dies to his psychosis mixed with being massively overpowered by Atom Smasher.
Falco has his arm blown off and gets to live with the reward money they got for the last job. And all of his friends/colleagues are dead. Becca just gets crushed for some reason. Kiwi gets shot after Faraday turns on her. Faraday get obliterated. Atom Smasher doesn't get to use the cyberskeleton and remains under the thumb of Arasaka. Arasaka loses several employees, vehicles, and the cybersuit. Militech likewise loses several employees and vehicles.
In a show about characters that hate the big corporations, why is there not a stronger critique of them? Is it because the inspiration for the show comes from a game published by a large video game company that notoriously treats its employees poorly? Also, in the same vein, wouldn't these characters get wise to the idea that they have to be helping one of the big corporations no matter what fixer they get and no matter what job they take? Kiwi and Lucy prove to be great hackers, shouldn't they have been able to find information about which fixers are for which corporations since Arasaka apparently just has a list of every single fixer in Night City?
Some of the nudity in the early part of the series feels like its on brand for what is shown in the game and what you can expect from this setting (namely that sexual content is a massive part of the world through brain dances and how socially acceptable, more or less, they've become where people are watching them on the street). The nudity later in the series just feels kind of forced. Anytime Lucy and David are shown in their apartment they are shown completely nude to imply that they've had sex. And yet there is really no physical intimacy between these characters beyond a few kisses shared.
Some of the animation gets a tad sloppy at times, but that's not necessarily a huge deal for me.
Becca's death doesn't feel earned and Falco being alive at the end of the show doesn't seem super justified.
Things I really liked: The music
The animation most of the time
The action/gore.
The dark tone, before it goes off the deep end into depression porn.
Overall, I don't think the show is necessarily bad, but it's definitely not a great one either. I may be jaded because I was late into this show after seeing so much hype about it, that I just feel didn't quite materialize.