Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 Finds New Layers of Humanity Beneath Mountains of Tech
A more ambitious and sprawling season shows the full potential of Cyberpunk.
The Cyberpunk world got off to one of the rockiest starts in recent memory. The flagship game Cyberpunk 2077 launched with an extraordinary array of bugs and subpar world development. It took the premiere of Netflix’ anime spinoff, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, to truly show the promise of this world’s premise.
The series’ first season gained a strong fan base thanks to gorgeous, yet violent, storytelling and immersive worldbuilding. Four years later, fans finally have a new iteration to continue exploring the techno horrors and corporate malfeasance of Night City. Season 2 of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is an excellent addition to this world, taking a somewhat different approach that reveals new layers and fresh contrast. It takes time for the various characters and plot threads to congeal, but once it does, there’s excellent payoff.
While the first season was centered around protagonist David Martinez, Season 2 follows a network of characters whose stories become deeply intertwined. Weak (Kentaro Tone) is an edgerunner dealing with severe downgrades after surviving going cyberpsycho. He’s asked by an old love to rescue Talia (Akari Kito), a young girl with a cyberware addiction, from the transhumanist body modification cult Maelstrom. Roman Carax (Momoka Terasawa) is a 12-year-old budding filmmaker who loves classic cinema over braindances (tech that allows someone to record and play back a person’s experience). Finally, we have D (Koki Uchiyama), a netrunner on a mission of revenge against the clan that massacred his own.
While last season built out a sole protagonist-focused, and more emotional tale that criticized the implications of a hyper-capitalist world controlled by a handful of companies, Season 2’s comparably de-centered network of protagonists has both costs and benefits. It becomes a great story of corporate malfeasance and dangerous technology, but it takes a while for characters’ roles and interconnections to become clear. Once they do, it matches the emotional impact and critical edge of the first. Each main character’s arc is well-developed and satisfying as a whole, and they build towards a strong finale.
As these characters intersect and their journeys proceed, much of the action is captured by Roman’s 35mm camera, adding a charming component to a season unafraid to be gritty, complicated, and horrific. This part of the narrative is the most surprising, and a big part of its unique success as a series full of transhumanist characters. At face value, Roman feels like an odd fit in this tech-dominated world full of digital dangers. Momoka Teresawa’s delivery has an innocence and warmth to it that calms the chaos around his character, and his relatable, retro (from their perspective) dreams suggest that there’s some humanity left in a world that often follows characters leaving their own humanity behind. It’s delightful, and the contrast works.
Koki Uchiyama gives an exceptional performance as D, who begins the series as a traumatized, wrathful hunter but has an interesting evolution as the series progresses. It’s a well-written arc that allows him to have as much complexity as any character in the series’ first season. Akari Kito also delivers a fine and layered performance, creating a Talia that’s easy to empathize with. Her connection to Roman is well-utilized, resulting in some of the series’ most moving beats while providing an anchor to Talia’s humanity that the narrative benefits from.
A bigger cast of characters this season ultimately works in the show’s favor.
The emerging connections between the various characters do successfully provide significant complexity and some great scenes that often prove highlights in each characters’ arcs. Like most great ensemble series, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. On the other hand, the sophomore season does consequently require a lot of set up before narrative clarity and emotional investment. It builds ultimately towards great and satisfying ends, and there’s no shortage of heady discussions of in-world tech horrors and corporate malfeasance or exciting combat.
Altogether, this season adds surprising new layers to both the series and the overall Cyberpunk world as a whole. It’s more evident than ever that there’s a lot to explore here, and if the series continues beyond two seasons, there are unexpected new avenues that feel fresh in a world like this. Season 2 is a little uneven thanks to a slower start, and audience investment in these new characters might suffer. Like a lot of world-class anime, however, it ultimately finds a strong balance between emotion and action by the end. D, Talia, and the gang are great characters backed by strong performances, while Roman adds a level of unique relatability that anchors everything together. It’s ultimately an excellent overall season, revealing a side of Cyberpunk we rarely get to see.
