A few years ago, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners arrived on Netflix as one of the best sci-fi anime of the 2020s. It’s very loosely based on the Cyberpunk 2077 game, sharing the general aesthetic of cyberpunk and the setting of Night City, but above all, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has its own plot and cast of characters. This is the true heart of the anime, and it is both the first season’s greatest strength and, potentially, the following season’s downfall.
Right now, fans are loving it Cyberpunk: Edgerunnersbut like many next-gen anime, the series runs the risk of losing fans as new seasons arrive. Many current anime get off to a good start with a jam-packed first season, only to end up feeling like they’re running out of steam as the story progresses. This is not 100% guaranteed to happen. Cyberpunk: Edgerunnersbut it’s a distinct possibility that fans should watch out for. What got the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners the anime so far might not go much further unless fans are willing to totally readjust their mindset on what this anime is about.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ characters and new features are what made it shine
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It’s easy to call Cyberpunk: Edgerunners a 10/10 anime, and many of its current fans would agree with this sentiment. Even if it’s not as notable as mega-hits like Demon Slayer Or Taste, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is likely to come up in conversations about must-see animated shorts and good sci-fi anime in particular. The real question now is why Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a very good anime, and how it works both for and against it.
The major factor is how, especially for a sci-fi anime title, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners presents a robust characterization. The science fiction genre is primarily about science, technology, and society’s relationship to those things, meaning that warm and fuzzy human emotions and characterization can take a backseat to robot uprisings or first contact with little green men. Then again, some sci-fi anime and other works do a great job of making the human element shine even more when compared to cold, hard machines, and that includes Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. The anime makes sure that the characters aren’t just excuses for high-tech action, but people who can interest viewers.
In particular, season 1 of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners worked so well because the main characters are beloved anti-heroes who are a perfect fit for the nightmarish and unforgiving setting of Night City. David Martinez is an exemplary anti-hero, kind and likable enough for fans to root for him, while being tough and dangerous enough to feel like the high-tech criminal outlaw that he is. So David is a hero to everyone, appealing to fans of tough-as-nails action while endearing himself to viewers who love lovable, vulnerable underdogs. Half the time, David is a high-tech badass who dominates the action, and the other half, David is a lost young man struggling to find lasting friendship and a place in the world. Its hardened outer shell hides a soft human heart, making it whole. That makes the blow double when David meets his ultimate fate at the end of season 1 as a doomed antihero.
Something similar can be said about David’s allies, including his friend Lucy and certainly the hot-blooded Rebecca, the latter of whom has a crush on David. David and these two girls formed a vaguely defined love triangle, a relatively rare trope in cyberpunk space, and it helped humanize them even more. It’s almost a refreshing novelty with the punkish found family that makes up the heart of Cyberpunk: Edgerunnersthis is a rare cyberpunk anime that is more about the characters than about a future society resisting oppression. Cyberpunk generally explores the street fight against the tyranny of mega-corporations or big governments, but in Cyberpunk: Edgerunnersit’s actually an afterthought, oddly enough. It’s a cyberpunk adventure showcasing the character, which served Season 1 well while giving Season 2 an obstacle that could prove nearly impossible to clear.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners needs to fully embrace a flexible anthology approach
The robust characterization, along with the exceptional production values and R-rated action, helped make Cyberpunk: Edgerunners‘ first season the runaway 10/10 success that it is. Now that most of the characters have been killed off, the next question is: what now? Last July, Projekt Red confirmed that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is on the way, including the return of much of the creative team from season 1. Now, fans know for sure that they will be getting more of this sci-fi anime. So the question isn’t whether fans will get a second helping, but whether that second serving will taste just as good. At the moment, there’s little chance that Season 2 will recapture the magic of Season 1, given how much fans loved the characters and their story. Season 2 will have a new cast in a new storyline, and it seems unlikely that Lucy, who survived Season 1, will return aside from the vague possibility of making an appearance. And even that is not confirmed.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 faces the formidable challenge of finding the lightning in a bottle that was 10/10 Season 1, and what’s more, today’s anime meta is not favorable for Season 2. It seems that even the most popular anime, like Taste And Kaiju #8might disappoint fans with their second seasons, even if nothing goes particularly wrong with these subsequent seasons. These days, it almost feels like some anime fans only have an appetite for the first few seasons of lightning in a bottle, the novelty wearing off too quickly. Of course, people like Taste And Kaiju #8 may still hold on to many more fans in later seasons because they are built for the long haul. But Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is not constructed like that, not with the death of the actors of season 1.
This means that unlike other modern hits like Taste, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners will and absolutely must rely on its anthology nature. It doesn’t have to be as if JoJo’s Bizarre Adventurebut in one form or another, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 and beyond must take advantage of this flexibility. There is no guarantee of success or warm reception from fans, but creators can at least try to ensure that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 feeling fresh but familiar both as a part of this franchise and as cyberpunk anime in general.
There’s still room to explore the genre and Night City in new ways, such as a compelling but distinct new protagonist in David, with a different take on their strange high-tech world. David was a battle-ready outlaw who embraced his thug family, and the new hero might be the opposite, with a surprisingly different philosophy and lifestyle in Night City and its ways.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 could still find success if it cleverly adopts new archetypes for the next group of heroes in a way that cyberpunk fans can enjoy, all without trying to build on what made David’s team so compelling. It’s a tall order, but efforts to follow up on the beloved project still deserves at least one shot to defy all odds, at least.