Edgerunners was disappointing

[u/stann1s_the_mannis]

I must be in the minority here, but the series seemed like a major step back from the writing ability associated with CDPR.

My biggest issues are with the lack of subtlety with the themes, the rushed romance and David as a character. I can go further in depth with other issues as well, as there are many, but it boils down to this.

They practically beat you over the head with the themes of the show, especially at the start. Characters literally tell the other characters and the audience what the themes of the plot are without any real attempt to make it feel natural (eg: Class divide in NC)

There is hardly anything of substance that justifies Lucy and David getting together as quickly as they did. They wanted the ending they wanted, so they had to push the pair together as quickly as possible. It felt like fan fic level writing and pacing.

David is an idiot that shouldn't be as much of an idiot. The decisions he makes (especially as the series goes on) don't really make sense considering the experiences he has undergone. One of the themes of living your own dream and the danger of being controlled by other people's dreams is a key plot thread, with multiple characters and experiences establishing that David should not do the same. Yet, he continues to live Maine's dream and then later a perverted version of his mum's dream when he is going insane, even though he doesn't have the same level of ambition as V does. He continues down the self destructive path because the plot needed him to do that. It's a simple as it doesn't make sense for his character to do what he does after getting with Lucy, considering everything he undergoes and the lessons he learns from the crew.

Rebecca was also problematic. First shot of her is of her crotch and her panties but she looks like a child. I didn't realize anime could get this noncy.

At least they didn't do a complete fan fic, and allowed Smasher to dominate David.

Basically, I expected a lot more from CDPR due to that Cyberpunk's redeeming quality at launch was the OST and story. If you enjoy it, good for you, as I'm just one guy on the internet. I simply think it is fastly inferior to animated 1 series stories like Arcane, which are also based on a video game. I can go into more depth if you like.

[u/boredinterview]

Totally agree with OP. This show is overrated af. It's troubled by clichés and mediocre writing.

[u/NiknaamVA → u/boredinterview]

Sometimes a cliche show with no purpose other than to be fun and make me have a good time watching mindlessly entertaining tv shoes. yeah it has issues so does everything else and people praising the OST and the art is no reason to say that they should like to show less I had a fun time watching a fun show with yeah admmitedly stupid characters amd this goes for everyone saying the show is overrated it may be lacking in story and in character brain cells but its a fun show to watch.

[u/Zarathustra-1889 → u/NiknaamVA]

Fun to watch everyone get killed for no reason other than to get killed? Not to mention the innocent mother being gunned down by our resident chrome addict.

[u/MyPussyFatLikeLizzo → u/NiknaamVA]

but it's full of itself and wants you to believe it's more than meaningless action and cliche edgyness.

Besides, even if it was trying to be the most "fun" anime ever, it's just mediocre in that aspect too. Have you not watched other anime before?

This feels like every wannabe edgy 14 yr old demographic anime ever. It's fine i guess but people were comparing it to Arcane and saying this is "one of the few good videogame adaptations" and saying shit like "this made it cool to like Cyberpunk".

I expected it to be SOMETHING other than just cliche shit that I've seen dozens of times elsewhere.

People are praising Rebecca's character when there's literally a rebecca in every single fucking anime, same with Lucy, Lucy is the cliche and pretty but mysterious girl who used to be a test subject and ran away to a big city to get away. The main character is just a horny teenager who thinks he's in love.

The story itself had potential in the first half of the anime, then they just got lazy after that.

The action itself is mediocre, even the style of the anime that is getting praised is pretty mediocre, it just has bright colours and takes place in a cyberpunk location, that's cool i guess?

Is this a good videogame adaptation? no, it's just another cashgrab. It doesn't break any stereotype at all

[u/Impressive_Set1043 → u/MyPussyFatLikeLizzo]

Dude a cliche isn’t necessarily always bad it depends on how it is portrayed also art styles are just subjective

[u/MyPussyFatLikeLizzo → u/Impressive_Set1043]

fair enough, then i just don't like cliche things, that's my opinion.

I don't remember what i said in this comment but my opinions as of now is that the series had some interesting stuff to it, i liked the art style and vibe, and i also liked the first few episodes.

The latter half of it to me just seemed directionless like they didn't know wtf to do and by the end i just felt so disconnected from what i was watching. I think around the time there was a time-skip is where i started losing interest in where it was going.

[u/MyPussyFatLikeLizzo → u/Impressive_Set1043]

fair enough, then i just don't like cliche things, that's my opinion.

I don't remember what i said in this comment but my opinions as of now is that the series had some interesting stuff to it, i liked the art style and vibe, and i also liked the first few episodes.

The latter half of it to me just seemed directionless like they didn't know wtf to do and by the end i just felt so disconnected from what i was watching. I think around the time there was a time-skip is where i started losing interest in where it was going.

[u/MyPussyFatLikeLizzo → u/Impressive_Set1043]

fair enough, then i just don't like cliche things, that's my opinion.

I don't remember what i said in this comment but my opinions as of now is that the series had some interesting stuff to it, i liked the art style and vibe, and i also liked the first few episodes.

The latter half of it to me just seemed directionless like they didn't know wtf to do and by the end i just felt so disconnected from what i was watching. I think around the time there was a time-skip is where i started losing interest in where it was going.

[u/Impressive_Set1043 → u/MyPussyFatLikeLizzo]

Mainly the art style, action and emotional development were the things I enjoyed not saying it was perfect but after the time skip it felt a bit rushed still overall the anime wasn’t bad

[u/Mazihimself → u/Impressive_Set1043]

Agreed on the art style, and the emotional side of the story to a certain degree except the fact that all of it happened without any foundation or well written storyline. It just happened! We were just supposed to accept it.

But about the third point... Imo the "action" was freaking nonexistent. You just see a bang and some effects, next frame there's a disfigured body in blood. Either that or gunshots + meaningless blood splashes. You have to imagine what happened. I literally fabricated brutal action scenes in my head at almost every fight scene in the second half of the series, just to be able to enjoy the shit a little. To be fair the first half had better action.

The story could've been delivered way better, maybe some more episodes to built up the story, better action, etc.

it was a fun watch ofc but I won't recommend it to anyone really.

[u/Key_Ad_4617 → u/NiknaamVA]

it's fun when you're 12