It makes no sense to summarize the epic associated with Cyberpunk 2077 . It is enough to note that CD Projekt Red was defeated by its own ambition and fell victim to the inflated hype. The bad taste remains, but is it a little less so with the Edgerunners ?
The truth is, Cyberpunk shouldn’t be on older-gen consoles. And CD Projekt knows it perfectly well. The announced DLC for the game – basically a new opening and an attempt to regain deeply damaged will on the part of the community – on PS4 and Xbox One will simply miss. Cyberpunk 2077 – rightly so to a large extent – was typed as a multimedia title. Not only because it was an adaptation of the aged RPG system by Mike Pondsmith, but because of the potential of the accompanying media. If only the premiere of the – indeed ready – game went well with the Edgerunners, one could speak of a historic success. Oh yes – the anime and the potential reboot of the game discussion is just the beginning of the redemption road.
It must be admitted, however, that the animation of the Trigger studio is an amazing proposition. In the category of cyberpunk anime, it has been difficult to find something equally effective in recent years. Yes – there are titles with a better plot and deeper themes (for example ID: Invaded , and even Inuyashiki ), but in terms of animation – its fluidity, creativity, dynamics, it is absolutely top of the line. Which does not mean that the story of Edgerunners is a dud, although the source material is not the most grateful. CyberpunkMike Pondsmith was a child of his time; fully immersed in the obsessions of the 1980s. Orientalism was motivated by the paradigm shift of the world economy from the American to the Japanese one, and the whole was less of a deliberation over the degree of humanity lost with each subsequent implant (it’s more Ghost In the Shell , and even – a much more interesting RPG, Shadowrun ), and more – joyful basking in dystopian decorations. In this respect, the game adapts the material quite faithfully. You can have many interpretations of Johnny Silverhand’s fate, and a few side stories also touch on this topic, but the whole thing is quite superficial. This is not a criticism of Reds or Pondsmith. It’s just that this taste of cyberpunk puts style above all else and there is nothing wrong with that. Edgerunnershe deepens the universe in the first few episodes – even though the pace of the action requires warnings for people suffering from epilepsy, and the issue of style is taken deadly seriously.
But even if what happens on the screen is a real eye-catcher – the most important factor in a successful anime – the intriguing characters – it works very well. The main character – David, and the team he hangs out with, make a great set. There are stereotypes (a brawler’s father, a mysterious beauty with a wounded past, a crazy pseudo-child, zwyrol – a classic of the genre), but these stories are as engaging and engaging as the spectacular sequences.
Trigger’s anime is brutal, but the twists and spectacular scenes are well-grounded; fictional, dramatic, contextual. It is also a very colorful series, using the color palette as effectively as Great Pretender or Diamond Is Unbreakable , i.e. productions where colors are of great importance. The line itself, based on the vision known from the game, is at the forefront of industry standards, and slightly surreal treatments are close to the genius known from Devilman Crybaby .
Edgerunners looks good, but also sounds decent. The Japanese language version is significantly higher than the English dubbing (normal for anime), but this one is not bad, and certainly far from cringe. The music is quite diverse: Franz Ferdinand in the lead, swashbuckling rock, a pinch of punk, a lot of electronics and… Polish reggae. I didn’t think we were in a dimension where Dawid Podsiadła, Akira Yamaoka and Earth Trax could be mentioned in one sentence, but this is what needs to be done. This exploded soundtrack is usually emotionally matched to the scenes, although it happens that the music (mixed extremely loudly into a whole) is slightly distracting. Surprisingly – the aforementioned Polish reggae is not the most to blame for it.
Romances in the gaming and film-series industry are nothing new. We had failed attempts (remember Assassin’s Creed with Michael Fassbender?), But we also experienced quality ( Arcane !). How are the Edgerunners positioned in all of this ? Definitely on the surprise side. Something that could have been an empty shell calculated to increase interest in the game – defends itself. There are many opinions on the Internet that this series is much better than the original. What is attentive hyperbolization. Because comparing two such different forms of entertainment is a breakneck task, and also a constant dissolution of Cyberpunk 2077it’s shitposting in bad taste. Sure – CD Projekt Red overdid with marketing, it broke the last-gene issue and bug tracking. But after patches, on the right equipment, it’s still great entertainment. Edgerunners proved to be a great tool to promote a title that has just jumped in the number of players. And not just any, because by 300%.
However, most of all, it wins as a standalone anime that can successfully fight in a very competitive market. Cyberpunk is a style that is easy to ride, to make the topic shallow or not to provide sufficiently advanced production in terms of technology. But the Edgerunners escaped all these pitfalls. If this is the beginning of the road to redemption for Cyberpunk 2077 , we may have a grand finale!
