Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Review:

Recommended by my friends Detrezo and Vivichuu

This show really surprised me. I was recommended this show a really long time ago by my friend Vivichuu, but I never watched it because I was under the false assumption that you had to play the Cyberpunk games to appreciate the anime. Turns out that's not really true at all. I was going into this expecting a mid-tier, weird anime. All I knew about it was that there were cyberpunks, whatever that meant to me at the time, and that characters got naked at points.

The first half of this show was a let down for me. With only 10 episodes, I expected a lot more from the entire first half. I decided to split my watch time into two parts, 5 episodes each. The first 5 episodes were just kinda mid to me. Pretty interesting setup, but not a great story with a set goal in mind. The second half of this anime changed that, though.

This shit turned the fuck up when it started focusing more on David's goals in mind. He wanted to basically reach his goals for the ones he lost on the way. I think the fact that he was put on a time limit makes the entire thing super impactful as well. The tonal shift of the show in the 2nd half really surprised me. I was taking a semi-long break from watching this show after seeing the first 5 episodes because I was dissatisfied and dissinterested. I was really thinking to myself: "this won anime of the year?". However, going into the 2nd half, I assumed that the show was just getting started and that there was much more to come. I was right.

The entire 2nd half of this show is very reminiscent of Plastic Memories. Aira's time limit as a robot almost entirely matches the concept of David's Cyberpyscho time limit.  They both are put on a clock and need to do what is important to them within their respective time limits. They also both lose control over their consciousness and become violent and crazy. I love this concept of a time limit so much, and both shows do it in a unique and beautiful way. I think Lucy and David's relationship became much more impactful as we discovered that David was going to die. 

Let's talk about the ending. Lots of character deaths, a big time skip, and the main character's death. That is a hard pill to swallow for some, but I think it was done really well. David was gonna die anyways, and the fact that he wanted Lucy to live and see the moon was so emotional to me. I think it impacted me on the level of Rengoku's death from Demon Slayer. I will say that the way they did Rebecca's death was a little dirty. Like they just smashed her ass into the ground and that was that. I guess that's just how crazy things were getting. I also think Kiwi's death was super sad. They executed her death very well from a story perspective, but it was so sad. She just wanted to live her life after that. Another thing I want to mention is that I feel like the world didn't really change that much after David's death, besides getting rid of Lucy's problems and getting rid of some of the scum on the earth. I just think it's very interesting to know that there is still corruption out there after all of that. It's a very unique ending and isn't a 100% happy one, which is really nice if done right. Some anime will kill off 90% of the main squad of characters and still have a good ending. This is thankfully one of them.

Anyways, I finally wanna talk about music, visuals, and some issues I had. The music was very fitting and had a different vibe to it than most anime I've seen. It was really solid! Not the best aspect of the show, not the worst. The visuals were also very solid! I'd put them very close to Chainsaw Man's, maybe a bit worse though. The pacing was a bit questionable though. Definitely my main struggle with this show. At times, it was way too fast (they were cramming too much at once and zipping through interactions), sometimes it was just right, and the first half was kinda shit compared to the second in my opinion. Not the most consistent show ever, especially for how short it is. The scene where Lucy and David were just talking at the end of the 2nd to last episode was perfect. It was a nice, calm interaction. I wish they did this more often with these types of scenes, but in the first half they treat such interactions like they're fucking speedrunning. Another complaint I had, which really isn't a big deal, is how the characters are naked all the time. Kinda weird detail to throw into the show but hey who cares at least it doesn't do it like Future Diary. 

Other than those complaints, the show was super solid and I'm really glad I watched it. I can definitely see how it won anime of the year, and I'd say this is better than Bunny Girl Senpai and worse than Chainsaw Man. Bunny Girl Senpai doesn't have the best concepts and amount of action that I want in a show, and Chainsaw Man is a really solid first season with better pacing, music, and visuals. 

We're almost at #50...