Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

[K]

Are people watching this with English or Japanese voiceover? I switched back and forth during the first episode, and couldn't quite settle on what sounded natural.

[Stig]

14 minutes ago, K said:

Are people watching this with English or Japanese voiceover? I switched back and forth during the first episode, and couldn't quite settle on what sounded natural.

 

Usually I go with Japanese but went with English this time round and it all sounds pretty natural and good, plus Giancarlo Esposito is one of the voices.

[ZOK]

1 hour ago, K said:

Are people watching this with English or Japanese voiceover? I switched back and forth during the first episode, and couldn't quite settle on what sounded natural.

It’s Japanese, so in Japanese.

[SpagMasterSwift]

Do Franz Ferdinand sing the theme choon in Japanese too?

[ZOK]

No, they sing in English.

[Stig]

Finished it this morning and I really liked it.

 

One thing I didn't particularly like

Spoiler

was them killing everyone off. Didn't feel like Becca needed to be killed too, but I guess at the end of the day it just shows how powerful Arasaka is. In a lot of shows and films, the Edgerunners would have succeeded and taken the cooperation down but these lot really came no where near. 

 

I guess it sets us up for any future Cyperpunk shows that we better not get too attached.

 

Overall though, I was thoroughly entertianed though and hope they do more case there's loads of stories they can tell withholds of different factions around the city.

[Thor]

Watched two episodes tonight and really enjoyed them, which is unusual because anime stuff is really not my thing, but it helps that everything is recognisable and familiar from the game, so I can relate. Pretty good so far. Also love the use of the music from the game, it really is a killer soundtrack ... apart from that fucking Franz Ferdinand shite. 

[Alan Stock]

I'm also two episodes in and loving it. The art style, the music, and how faithful it is to the game/universe. The characters are compelling and weirdly it feels a lot more humanistic than the game, D has way more personality than V. Its really pacey which I like, although I do agree a bit with what one reviewer said where it feels like it could leave a bit to breathe. Its a visual feast and the stylised action is really cool. I really didn't expect this to be any good until the reviews came out, so its a very nice surprise. Might even get me back into the game!

[ZOK]

Alongside all the other recognisable bits I love the sounds, the phone calls especially are a real trigger. And D’s theme, Who’s Ready for Tomorrow, is great.

[Thor]

And finished, rather enjoyed that! In fact the only thing I didn't like was them using Franz Ferdinand for the intro. All that great music on the game soundtrack, and they use an old song from one of the wankyest bands ever. 

[MK-1601]

I didn't mind that song but skipped the credits after the first time because they were so long. A 10-15 second sting would have worked much better.

 

The scene where they infiltrate the Maelstrom gang was so cool, kind of made me wish the game had co-op or properly useful AI sidekicks outside of a few story bits.

[Alan Stock]

Finished now, and yeah its really good. I do agree with some of the critisms, its too fast paced at times, it kinda loses it at the end with the plot and goes a bit too stylised with the combat. Also ending spoilers:

Spoiler

Killing everyone sucked, I'm fine for shows to do that but they had some cool characters and its such a shame to lose nearly all of them in what is already a very short series. And the character dynamics go off the rails towards the end, by taking Lucy out of the picture it loses a lot of its relationship pull.

 

That said, visuals, sound and use of the franchise were top tier. There's so many great shots and sequences in here stacked one after another that put other anime to shame. I really hope they make a second, longer series with more breathing room and explore other facets of this amazing universe. Definitely one to watch and probably the best videogame adaptation ever (although I've yet to see Arcane, that's up next!).

[Keyboard Koala]

On 15/09/2022 at 15:36, K said:

Are people watching this with English or Japanese voiceover? I switched back and forth during the first episode, and couldn't quite settle on what sounded natural.

 

Same here.

In the end I went for the (high quality) English VO, as it's supposed to be set in the US.

[Broker]

I really enjoyed this, obviously it’s absolutely beautiful and the animation was incredible. The world building was excellent. I liked the characters and enjoyed the whole thing a lot.

 

On 17/09/2022 at 10:40, Stigweard said:

Finished it this morning and I really liked it.

 

One thing I didn't particularly like

  Hide contents

was them killing everyone off. Didn't feel like Becca needed to be killed too, but I guess at the end of the day it just shows how powerful Arasaka is. In a lot of shows and films, the Edgerunners would have succeeded and taken the cooperation down but these lot really came no where near. 

 

I guess it sets us up for any future Cyperpunk shows that we better not get too attached.

 

Overall though, I was thoroughly entertianed though and hope they do more case there's loads of stories they can tell withholds of different factions around the city.

 

RE: Becca

 

Spoiler

I felt like her moment when she threw Lucy in the car was indicative of her deciding that she was going to go out with David. She clearly loved him, but accepted that he didn’t feel the same way and decided to express that by buying into his dream of saving Lucy and going all the way through with that with him. 

 

[ZOK]

I thought this was excellent from start to finish. I’m surprised some people felt it started strong and tailed off, for me the last four episodes were the best of the lot.

 

And regarding the end…

 

Spoiler

…the team had to die, and Arasaka had to win, otherwise the game world where Arasaka still reign supreme wouldn’t really make sense.

 

[Sel Feena]

On 02/10/2022 at 17:21, ZOK said:

I thought this was excellent from start to finish. I’m surprised some people felt it started strong and tailed off, for me the last four episodes were the best of the lot.

 

And regarding the end…

 

  Hide contents

…the team had to die, and Arasaka had to win, otherwise the game world where Arasaka still reign supreme wouldn’t really make sense.

Spoiler

Yeah it’s weird how I’ve seen  some folks have pushed back on the tone and the ending, but that’s Cyberpunk in a nutshell. No happy endings in Night City

 

 

[fasteasyfree]

That was flipping fantastic. You really want the 'hero' to win in the end, don't you?

[jonamok]

Just finished it, really good stuff. Arcane is still the best animated show (game related or otherwise) that I’ve seen in the last year, but this was on par with Hit Monkey in second place. Hope they make some more.

[Alan Stock]

This is an insightful interview into the making of Edgerunners, best put on a background podcast:

 

The bad news is that the guy being interviewed was basically the creative director of the entire show and he's left CDPR along with a few other writers who worked on the show. Of course they are only a part of the team but certainly if they make another Cyberpunk anime it won't be quite the same. Maybe that's a good thing but it is a shame. The guy that left sounds like he'll be continuing pushing other similar projects for other games companies.

[Naysonymous]

Just finished this and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a lot.  

Spoiler

I'm just gonna stick my thoughts in a spoiler tag because I'm not sure what counts and what doesn't and parsing the odd sentence here and there just seems like a chore for everybody.  However, first things first I really appreciated that the show was a tragedy.  Probably because we are so conditioned now to seeing the rag tag team of misfits to take on the man and win (or at least ride off into the sunset) that playing with those expectations was a refreshing change.    I'd have liked to have seen a few more character arcs fleshed out, I'm not sure Maine really earned the reverence David had for him, certainly not to the point where it drove his every decision in the second half of the plot and maybe another episode of them bonding and winning could have done that, as could a bit more on Kiwi's heel turn and Lucy's "I just need a bit more time" angle which just felt like a construct to bring her back towards the end. However, I'm nit picking here because the good massively outweighs the bad. Some of the scenes and sequences are just beautiful and Night City looks better here than it does in the game. I'd quite like to see the game rendered in this style, presumably some PC mod will exist at some point and that might be fun. 

I liked the Cyber Psychosis angle too, it's a thing that now I've seen the show feels like it was underexplored in the game and could have been a really interesting feature.  The whole question of humanity has been well explored but this was a take which I'd certainly not experienced before.  Maybe it's just because I'm not particularly well versed in sci fi, but here it really did feel like it worked.   I liked Adam Smasher's appearance too, again it's that whole subversion of expectation thing. He didn't just beat David, he did it easily and took out half the crew on the way too. It's just that reminder that Night City is the main character here and there's so much that could be done with a world.  The show has made me really excited for whatever comes next with the game.