Edgerunners 2 is here to give us a chaotic, violent, and interesting experience with a new group of protagonists and a strange entity that brings back many memories from Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk = great stories
One of the things that has become a staple in Cyberpunk is the great storytelling. Whether it’s something that develops over time or something explosive that doesn’t last much but still leaves an impression, we can’t deny that Cyberpunk is filled with dozens of these stories.
Fortunately for us, Edgerunners 2 continues to live up to expectations that would be unrealistic for other franchises, but not for Cyberpunk.
It all starts with multiple pieces of a puzzle spread all over Night City. As the series progresses, everything gets connected in a way that is a bit predictable, but still organic.
Night City is a synonym for corporate overlords who can do whatever they can and get away with most of it. This time, Arasaka and Militech (the usual bad guys) aren’t as involved as in the game or the first Edgerunners season.
Instead, we have Kang Tao, another corporation that is just as despicable and evil as their Japanese and American counterparts.
What makes it different is the fact that the entire family of a Kang Tao executive is heavily involved in the main plot. The most interesting thing about this is that we can see firsthand how far a corpo parent can go to save their daughter or to help their company.
While that was one of the most interesting topics to me, there are so many other things going on that are worth mentioning. There’s lust for revenge, an attempt at redemption that is motivated by real love, fear of death, and the unstoppable desire to do whatever is needed to survive. Even if that is something many consider worse than death itself.
Overall, the story was fantastic. I got invested in the first episodes despite not having enough context about all the characters involved.
An odd mix of characters that fit perfectly
For some reason, after watching the trailers, I believed that Weak, D, Talia, and Roman would become a team and work on dangerous jobs, similar to what we saw in the previous season.
With the game and Edgerunners revolving around mercs, I made the mistake of assuming it would be the case for the second season, but I’m glad that they took a different approach. Instead, we got to see the journeys of multiple protagonists and how they all connected at the end of the series.
While they aren’t active mercs, none of them is a stranger to ruthless violence. Even if it’s just a series, I’m always impressed by how gruesome some of the deaths are and how the people react to them.
As someone who doesn’t live in a major city, I can’t help but remember that strange sensation of feeling incredibly small and unimportant when going to a place that is populated by many millions of people. Everything feels diluted, especially the tragedies and misfortune of strangers you see on the street.
Night City takes this to the next level with people being almost stoic when someone gets killed just meters away from them. Even Roman, a 12-year-old kid, doesn’t flinch when witnessing a massacre. Even if it’s not real, I can definitely see the inspiration behind it, and that’s what makes it hit even harder.
Cyberpunk has characters that are very complex, and even if Weak, D, Talia, Roman, Kiril, and Avida don’t fall into this category, I think that they’re still well-defined.
The best surprises were Kyoko and Capri. Kyoko was very annoying most of the time, but she managed to have her little redemption right at the end of the series. Without her, everything would have been destroyed.
I loved the concept behind Capri. Something not as powerful as an AI and “containable”, but still incredibly messed up. Too bad we didn’t get to see her properly at full potential.
Humanizing even the most messed-up characters, sometimes even making them relatable, is not an easy task. Human beings are complex and can’t be portrayed as purely good or bad. Many nuances must be taken into consideration before labeling someone with these terms. Cyberpunk has always understood this perfectly, and Edgerunners 2 is no exception.
Back to Night City
As someone who has played hundreds of hours of the base game and Phantom Liberty, it was so satisfying seeing so many things from the game and the first Edgerunners in this second season. Not just locations or references, but map images, vehicles, and sounds.
Every time someone was called, I instantly went back to my first playthrough of the game. Or when a specific highway showed up, I was able to remember some of the missions that took me there.
The one thing that didn’t click with me is the fact that D was never the target of either the NCPD or Arasaka. Someone broadcasting the assassination of corpos and never having to worry about getting flatlined? That’s impossible in Night City.
Even if Arasaka is in shambles, they clearly have the manpower to deal with it, as shown in the last episode. And the NCPD couldn’t have someone making a spectacle of murdering Arasaka suits, especially with how many of the police are often on corporations’ payrolls.
This is what kind of broke some of the immersion for me; I simply can’t believe that he and his little cult could get away with causing so much chaos without being punished. I wanted D to go down fighting against MaxTac. It would have been such a great moment.
An ending that gives me mixed feelings
The first Edgerunners season was chaotic, incredibly intense, violent, and even heartbreaking. To this day, I haven’t met anyone who wasn’t moved by that series. With Edgerunners 2, I was expecting something as devastating as the first season, if not more, and for better or worse, that didn’t happen.
Cyberpunk is no stranger to tragic stories: David Martinez, V, Songbird, Aaron, Barry, Jackie, and Randy are just a few, but great examples of it. Ultimately, I was preparing to endure something similar, but it never got to that.
I definitely felt sad about Talia and Avida, but it wasn’t even close to what I experienced the last season when everyone but Lucy got killed in such a gruesome way.
English dub does it again
I watched this season in three different languages: Japanese (original), English, and Spanish. Out of all three, the English version was the worst of all by miles. It’s so frustrating that every character speaks with that edgy tone that is such a constant in the English dub.
It’s not just the tone, but the lack of individuality and creativity in most of the voices. The human voice is arguably the most powerful tool to transmit and create a personality, and that is almost nonexistent here.
This isn’t aimed specifically at Edgerunners 2; this has been a problem in almost every anime I’ve watched since the 2000s, and unfortunately, it’s present here. It’s so strange because this only happens in anime. Cartoons or videogames have amazing English versions, but for some reason, anime is always very bad.
This isn’t a dealbreaker by any means, but it’s still something that I wanted to mention.
Final thoughts & Review Card
Edgerunners 2 is a fantastic story that perfectly captures Night City’s aesthetic and “personality”, both its good and bad sides. The characters are great, the story is very interesting, and there are so many things that will remind you of the first time you played Cyberpunk 2077.
My favorite thing in terms of visuals is how it looks modern, but when we saw scenes through Roman’s camera, it looked just like many anime from the 90s. A simple but very clever trick that shows how some “vintage” stuff is supposed to look.
While I can’t say this is my favorite story of the franchise, I believe that it’s still a fantastic series that anyone who loves this universe must watch.
The best thing is that the Edgerunners 2 hype doesn’t end with this season. The game is receiving a brand new update that will feature two new side quests, dual wielding, and a few new things that will give us a refreshing sensation.
cyberpunk: edgerunners 2
Format
Anime
year:
2078
studio:
TRIGGER
RELEASED:
October 20, 2026
LENGTH:
10 episodes
For:
Any fan of CD PROJEKT RED
Similar:
Edgerunners
Cyberpunk 2077
Strengths
Strong world-building
Excellent visual and sound design
Compelling characters
Great story
Weaknesses
Climax is lackluster compared to the first Edgerunners
Bad English dub
Ratings
