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Night City is THE Villain in this anime & that's why there was no grandious antagonist characters that overpowering it. I think it's a unique take that not a lot shows ever presented it like this. It's literally in the opening as a giant figure consist of Night City towering David & "shooting" him.

Regarding the lacking villains: I'm not saying this invalidates your points but doesn't the lack of a big person villain help underline the banality of evil this corpo driven world is all about? There's no grand puppeteer, just a company out to maximize profits. I mean, David gets shot in the head by a man made of skyscrapers in the opening. I feel like the city itself, the world, is the villain.

It's interesting because i didn't mind the lack of a strong antagonist character, to me the City itself and it's circumstances seemed like the best antagonising force to overcome, which is why i enjoyed edgerunners quite a lot more then all my Friends. Granted that is probably also due to me playing the Game so much that i got every ending and can say for sure, the City is the enemy, the City is despair.

I’d love to see a series about what’s beyond the Black Wall. Human made cosmic digital horrors beyond our comprehension clawing at us every second of every day, only being held back by a thin level of code that could crumble at any moment is the stuff of nightmares.

The only problem with this show is that it's only 10 episodes long. I feel like it needed like 13 episodes, so we could spend even more time with the characters and develop them even more then it already did in 10, which was really impressive already. 10 episodes force the show to go really quickly. I hope we get more Cyberpunk Edgerunners type shows that are in the same universe , but with different people in different situations and then have the shows tie together or at least reference each others events, affect each other. They could make a lot of Cyberpunk shows, since Night City has limittlles potential for stories.

The antagonist is Night City. People like Faraday, his Corpo handlers, even Smasher are all just themselves fodder feeding a beast of neon light and chromed metal that is Night City itself. The story isn’t about the crew fighting a particular bad guy or even a megacorp. Its a hyperviolent character piece where we peek through a brief window of our leads lives as we watch them try to assert what little control they can over their fates as they hurtle toward the only destination they were ever going to reach. even as we desperately wish for it not to come.

Confirmed lore: Doflamingo is in cyberpunk now

We all had "I really want to stay at your house" on repeat after finishing the show, right?

Goblin in Doflamingo's glasses is a different vibe . . .

The main antagonist was health insurance.

You should watch Psycho-Pass if you liked this. It’s one of the most fascinating cyberpunk settings that I’ve ever seen. It’s got some Minority Report elements but instead of predicting crimes the system just locks up people whose mental states could lead them to cause crimes.

This show fckn enraptured me.

Edgerunners counts as anime, so you can say include this in your anime picks

Cyberpunk, as a genre, embraces the "man versus themselves" form of conflict better than many others, which is always interesting. Solid revue of a well-done show.

"I really want to stay at your house" still makes me feel empty inside when it plays

I've found that many people didn't understood the themes of the series that I thought were the main topics, I'm thrilled to know what you founded watching Edgerunners :D

The true antagonists in cyberpunk are the city, the corporations, the system and the world itself. I think it's kinda the point that the "bad guys" are expendable. Just another fixer, just another suit. And I think that's the point. You can't just funnel your hate into a convenient vessel, can't go "oh that guy is the baddie, he is the source of the misery". No they are just another product of this dystopia, if it weren't them then it would be another person who would pick up the mantle. That's why in cyberpunk, there are no happy endings. There are happy moments, and we should enjoy and savor them as the brief instances of respite before we get submerged in this endless pit of despair and nihilism that is the world of cyberpunk.

Loved the review! You are able to recognize and celebrate the strong emotional story beats while also providing a detailed breakdown of the story beats, characters, animation etc. "Wake the fuck up Samurai! We've got a city to BURN!" "And now I miss you all the time..."

This show made me hate/love the Cyberpunk genre. Let me explain: The Cyberpunk style is AMAZING, and the cybernetics are cool. However everything else about the genre makes me want to NEVER live in it. Like Daniel said, it is just a world of debauchery. People tend to cyberize themselves to the point of barely being human anymore. Once David started doing it, I legitimately felt heartbroken. I could see his spiral coming from a mile away. This world scares me.

I kinda felt the true antangonist of edgerunners and frankly the game was night city it self, it creates glory seekers like Maine and V while also supporting corruption from corps. But i really liked *spolier* at the end. Also like always loved your review, you very eloquently described why this show is special (Unlike David)

on the topic of animation, i think that's just studio trigger style, they animate in 2s, and usually kind of do a lot of stills and skips in animation out of personality more than lack of ability....tho it could be budget too hahaha. i think most if not all of their shows look like that, which can get tiring. Other than that, great review, really enjoyed and agreed with all your points. ps: read "worm" :)

Thanks for making this one spoiler free

I love tragedy and Cyberpunk is full of it. Pondsmith is a solid world builder in the genre.

♫And it cooooooomes back oooooooover the hooooooorizon to beGIN! ♫

Excellent review, Daniel! I'm long overdue in watching Edgerunners, and I hope to do so soon! Even if it was super hyped, it nonthless seems to be a great series all the same! :)

They definitely nailed the "make the audience tear up with one line of song" test.

lets fucking go the intro is awesome and I would never have dreamt that you review this awesome series

DUDE I JUST FINISHED WATCHING IT YESTERDAY YOOOOOO

“Not my favorite show of the year.” Daniel, it’s the second week of January.

And people called Steins;Gate a slow-burn when the number of episodes made the time spent with the main cast much more solid and feel natural, enough for me to connect and care. Hopefully, you do Steins;Gate in the future, Daniel. Might be up your alley.

Nice gear, choom! 😎

I always thought of the main characters as less of the focus of themselves, and their relationships between eachother as the main drive and focus. Like how black pepper and vanilla are pretty standard flavors used in everyday cooking, but if you've ever had black pepper vanilla ice cream, you'll know that the focus isn't the flavors themselves but the contrast and relationship between them that makes the dish so exciting and different.

i loved the soundtrack for this show

Since you have already done Cowboy Bebop and the Ghost in the Shell movie. Would you be willing to do a review on the "Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex?" The English dub was the same studio and the music is also by Yoko Kanno. It dives more into personal problems, politics, as well as the ethical problems of rapid Cyberization of a populace.

Haven’t watched a new anime in aaaaages, but this is giving me big Ghost in the Shell Vibes! I’m excited to check it out! Thanks for all the work you do Mr. Goblin!

The oddest complaints I find about this show are that the downward spiral and the bleak ending are too easy to ‘see coming’, as the ENTIRE POINT of a classic tragedy structure is the tension between characters you desperately want to end well and a narrative and world that make it horribly obvious that it won’t.

It's a great compliment to a show when your greatest complaint is that it was too short. Me, I've not really delved too deep into cyberpunk worlds, and the tropes and themes don't really resonate too well with me, but I'm glad people have really enjoyed it. And I think if you've enjoyed *Cyberpunk: Edgerunners* as much as you have, you may enjoy *Andor* which has a lot of similarity to the cyberpunk genre.

I wouldn't say there is a single thing, in the game at least, that does Cyberpsychosis justice into it being this amazing introspection of the world. But I would say that reading all of the journal entries on it and paying close attention to all of the characters that you meet that are heavily augmented is itself bits of sometimes surprisingly nuanced and interesting writing. Spoiler Warning, I guess. Plus there is the fact that the whole thing might not be what people think it is. That instead of it actually being about the implants, it might instead be about the feelings of powerlessness and alienation that are literally everywhere in the setting. So are you a Cyberpsycho because of the cybernetics? Or are you one because up till this point you've lived your life relatively powerless as well as alienated from all the people around you? It is a defining feature of the setting that, "Human life is cheap." Does power corrupt? Or is it having tons of power with little oversight leads to abuse of said power and thus more alienation from the people around you? Is Cyberpsychosis real? Or is it that everyone carries so much trauma and there is no way it could get better in this system...so they system created a boogey man to absolve itself of all responsibility.

I wasn't crying at the end of this show. You were crying at the end of this show.

Enjoy that one song making you cry forever now... you know the one.

Great drip, but it lacks a hot pink feather coat.

I love how a crop top with doflamingo glasses equals cyber punk

I always treat Night City as a separate character by itself when I run Cyberpunk 2020, so it was pretty easy and unique to treat the city as a sort of antagonist of the show when watching it, even though the city is closer to a separate character in it's influence and hostility

Great music choice in this video!!

It's also very cyberpunk to have the antagonist not be a single person the world itself.

This show was much better than I expected! Really compelling characters and storyline. I loved that it stayed true to the Cyberpunk universe and city, bringing out the best aspects of this world.

Gawd, I wish so hard you would read and review Shadowrun's "Psychotrope" by Lisa Smedman, just to see your reaction.

Get Daniel, if you enjoy cyberpunk & existential crisis, I'd recommend Psycho-Pass (an original anime), mostly the first season (the films/later seasons are a bit hit & miss with fans). It gets a bit dark at times, with the violence being on similar levels to berserk, but less gratuitous. But if you enjoy the idea of a cyberpunk themed crime drama with small but interconnected arcs that lead up to a major arc, and debates over ethics in a corrupt government system, it could be something you'd enjoy. Plus the artwork is incredible if that's also appealing to you.

Hey Daniel, I picked up on the vocals sounding a little off when I watched it the first time. Watching it again, it comes across as a stylistic choice to reinforce the alienation or mechanization of humanity in cyberpunk. It’s the kind of thing most people won’t pick up on, but will still influence their viewing experience.

Been on my list for a while, this just bumped it to the top 👍

Highlight of this for me was hearing that you're running a Cyberpunk Red campaign! I ran a mini campaign with it in 2021 and it's a really interesting system. I would love to watch a live play series from you sometime if you ever want to put on something like that.

I literally have the most TRAGIC STORY involving this game. It's a super long story, but.... I have been disabled & stuck in abject poverty since childhood, had my whole teen & adult life ruined by being forced into the life of a lab rat, sick & disabled & bedridden for months at a time. I've dreamed of experiencing VR exclusively so I could escape my prison & experience my favorite genre ever- SciFi/Cyberpunk. From the moment I heard/found out about CP2077 being in the works, I got hyped more than I had for anything in my LIFE. And I am speaking from the experiences of being immersed into early-2000s TV shows like Xfiles, Voyager & SG-1 (writing fanfic of myself being saved by Voyager in a time travel accident & being cured by advanced med tech) & also how I lost myself in the original Avatar movie, seeing my first 3D & first IMAX at the premier, I got legit extra depression just from being able to relate so hard to Jake, but not ever having the option of going to Pandora in a new body)... My excitement of being able to possibly BE IN Cyberpunk, maybe even in VR, was palpable. I literally couldn't have wanted it more. Only one problem: I was dirt f-kin poor, and the only time I'd ever gotten a present as big as a console was the SNES when I was 8. The only gaming I'd done since I was 12 was playing WoW on PC with my dad until 2010-ish. Anyway, my (mostly deadbeat) dad was visiting from out of state in mid-2019 & I gushed SO much about wanting to save for a used PS4 if I could so I could get CP2077 when it came out (& I was also excited to try Last of Us, as the gameplays I'd watched touched me more than most movies I've seen) and he finally caved & just got me a PS4 at Walmart for my Bday & Xmas. I paid for about 10 physical games over the 2yrs I had the PS4 (including a rare Observer game & the brand new STRAY game I'd recently been psyched for) & a bunch of digital games. I had just gotten the used PSVR set on ebay after scrimping for 6 months. I was most hyped to try CP in VR & also to try exercising a bit on Beat Saber, which I already had on my console. Well, after spending all my time either fighting very debilitating symptoms, taking care of myself & my apt, having to try getting an online job to struggle to keep up with bills & minimum medical costs, I had spent 12yrs living alone & having to sell off everything I had of much value, so eventually I got down to only having my TCL TV & PS4, an old 2016 laptop I'd gotten on ebay in 2019 when I had to downgrade from my semi-decent desktop PC, and admittedly too many Cyberpunk merch/collectibles I'd accumulated over a year or 2. So, after never having the dexterity, energy, time & ability I used to have, to be able to even get the hang of the complex controller & trying TLoU, Days Gone, or Observer with minimal progress, and after trying 3x to adjust the VR settings to fit my glasses & big head, getting only a blurry uncomfortable resolution I could barely stand watching a movie in, let alone using hand-eye coordination, I gave up & had to sell the VR setup, and then also the PS4 & games shortly after. My dad just got mad at what I did to desperately keep the power on & said he wouldn't be getting me anything like that again. Also sad was the fact that before I could even try the game myself (which I had managed to get the huge Collector's Edition box of for $99 just 2 months after release!) I had the whole experience completely ruined by the torrential TSUNAMI of sheer revulsion & vitriol from everyone online & KZfaq especially!! The misleading clickbait thumbnails & memes are STILL going on to this day! Showing just the worst image someone grabbed from their 6yr-old base model PS4, from the maybe 25% of ppl who had that issue with the game! All because these ppl who are b1tching about how atrocious the game is are SO SPOILED that they've had a top-of-the-line $10k gaming PC, the flagship model of every console generation, and have had the best of the best graphical quality games for years! Well, I'm just a pleb who's been stuck in the stone age with my broke-a$$ laptop & no gaming for the last decade, so... compared to my last favorite game, Diablo 1, the insane sharpness & color of just the CP2077 splash screen literally made me 🤯🤯🤯 So yeah, I dreamed about losing myself in a world like Cyberpunk since I saw the original Stargate movie in the 90s, finally had my chance literally IN MY HANDS, then had no choice but to watch it slip away... Now, with my health deteriorating quickly & my chances of ever affording anything that big again becoming less than zero, my big dream is to get the closest cheap knockoff SteamDeck I can possibly find one day (hopefully before my time's up) & finally have an accessible way to play CP2077 & STRAY & Observer, & any of the amazing games I've only ever watched other's experience. Kinda like everything else IRL too... ❤️‍🔥✌️🐼

I have one point to argue and two recommendations Point: the lack of a specific villain was intentional, there isn't one! the real foil to the heroes and their enemies alike is the city. This is punctuated in the OP, when the silhouette that kill's David is just filled with skyscrapers. in my opinion, the city got the strongest character writing in thw show! Recc 1: Rafal Jacki, the creative director from CDPR (for the show) did a great interview on the FPS podcast over at skillup's YT channel, anyone interested in TV collaborative story writing should listen. rafal is incredibly sensitive and compassionate storyteller. Rec 2: if you liked what edgerunners has done to the game as adaption (adding subtense by telling completely different story, divorced from the game almost completely) narratively, then you should watch Chainsaw man's new anime adaption (just finished season one of 12 episodes- available crunchyroll). It gone the complete opposite way by being almost religiously faithful to the source material, apart from a few added scenes and sometimes single frames that changed completely how i viewd, and understood some characters. I think they even addressed some of your criticism of the source! Ther isn't a single frame that can be called lazy or cheap (lol, they reanimated full scene twice from a different angle, just for the sake of storytelling. each episode has unique fully animated ending sequence that also furthers the storytelling). it's a contender for best animation of the decade (with arcne in mind!!!)

I was amazed how hard this anime hit me. God, it was just fantastic. This and Arcane give me hope we may be able to do decent game adaptions. Here's for Elder Scrolls one day...

This show made me go back to the game, ended up loving the game this time around and recognizing so many details. That's how good the show is.

You made the link between WoT with the cyber-psychosis. In the game they tell you that it’s rare for women to get it where as it is very common for men. Oh, and to the point about an external antagonist, you are right, but I think the show was trying to point out that we are our own worst enemies, and in that I would say it did that quite well.

Also agree with much the sentiment here, that not having a strong villain was a bit because the city itself is the 'main antagonist'. And the not getting invested and easily replaceable corporate villains makes sense because, you don't WIN taking one down. Another just steps into their place. I do understand that I think you wanted a more personal Villain perhaps like maybe an example such as the Early Death being caused by said person as collateral and having a pay off of maybe revenge completed against said antagonist. Not sure if there was enough time to run an arc like that though. Show was short and sweet, and reminded you everyone in night city is living in the fast lane, slowly losing their collective minds. Live Fast, Die Young.

First To wish the Goblin Horde a Happy New Year ;)

Solid review dude

Rebecca is best girl. Fight me.

I wish you had more visual or audio examples, because I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about for a lot of these points. But I guess you can’t put up too much because of KZfaq guidelines…. Either way, glad you watched the show and had fun

I whole heartedly agree that it should have been longer. The last 1/3 felt rushed. I did not binge watch this so I found myself going back to try and figure out " what has happened and how did we get here?"

Started watching yesternight, this comes at the best time haha. I liked the american/japanese hybrid production, I'm used to japanimation and this, plus the music, style, and universe feels pretty fresh to me who knows little about the cyberpunk genre

Imho one of the main points of the show is that there are no specific character that are the real antagonists - the city and the system as a whole is the true antagonist, and everyone is just trying to get by in their own way - even the SEELE-eyed man whose an antagonist stand-in of sorts :)

Thanks for reviewing this. My watching time is limited and I typically watch mainly with my family. This is not the sort of show they would enjoy. I've watched a couple of episodes and I liked it. But I was wondering if I should continue to invest time. From this, I'll sneak an episode in form time to time.

Ghost in the Shell is still the best to me the best cyberpunk property the two original movies, the 2000's tv show (that is free on adult swim's website), and the original manga. There is so much depth not only in the story but the designs of the world.

Oh man you just watched this show??!! It's soooo good! I recommend anyone that hasn't checked this out and has any interest in futuristic sci fi cyberpunk, DO IT!

i just wish cd project red actually cared about the franchise the same way do witcher. night city has endless story potential for any form of media

I loved David for his relationships with Maine, Rebecca, and Lucy. It's a character driven show so they were really stand out in that respect. I wish they had a couple more episodes but what we got was excellent. Also the antagonist in NC is always the corperations. Arasaka being one of the worse. Such a good show though especially for myself which I don't get into anime to often.

A bunch of the actual Netflix original anime (and by actual original I mean Netflix exclusive stuff instead of "Neflix got the license from a Japanese production committee and are pretending it's a Netflix original in the west") have 10 episode limits for some reason. Cyberpunk is one of them, but also Devilman Crybaby, Kotaro Lives Alone, The Way of the House Husband (tho this one got a second season) and Japan Sinks 2020. Normally, that would be a very rare format, as most anime are 12/13 episodes simply because they air weekly on TV for one season. And many anime already struggle with that in terms of pacing. So it's kind of a pain that Neflix, being unconstrained by TV slots, makes it even harder by having lower episode counts so often. I still think it's a positive overall to have more formats. Anime used to have more varied formats when direct to video was common and I'm glad Netflix is bringing back that variety (even if they don't put out great stuff most of the time). But I wish that would also include more 14-20 episode series.

I'd say that the main antagonist is Night City itself and that at the least is well executed. All roads, therein, lead to destruction

I really, really think you should watch Psycho Pass. At least the first season. Beautiful, dark, cyberpunk world with a terrifying system of justice.

I feel like the still image segments weren't due to a lack of time, but a lack of budget. I think they went all out on the scenes that mattered (and it clearly shows) and then saved where they could on the slower scenes.

Doflamingo

so good it made people forget what a trainwreck the game was/is.

That moment when you realize that cyberpunk Daniel is actually hobo Doflamingo.

02:44 I think that criticism is just because you might not have checked out EVA tv version. A large part of Japanese animation history is built on that kind of aesthetics, and it's really, really NOT modern taste. It's even not the modern EVA aesthetics, but sometimes you can see the shadow of great memories which is tv version of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

"...The original Tabletop RPG which I'm currently running a D&D campaign..." Arrrrggghhh.... the pain... THE PAIINNNNN.... Daniel. you just pierced my heart... full on max critical emotional damage... WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?????? ... I know that over in the states, D&D managed to seem like it is the only Pen & Paper RPG game in town, but... MAAAAAN... the D&D system is so BAAAAD for depicting the Cyberpunk world... why would you mod D&D for Cyberpunki instead of just running the game itself???? like... WHYYYY????? ugh... I need my blankie now, my soul is hurting....

I binged edgerunners in like 2 nights. I definitely agree with the cyberpsychosis stuff you mentioned, imo the show is easily the strongest when focusing on said cyberpsychosis. My only major complaint personally is kinda silly but it was: [SPOILERS BELOW] The visual design of the Cyberskeleton. Idk I was just picturing something akin to a wolverine adamantium skeleton but with cybernetics when they kept saying the word cyberskeleton the last few episodes, so I just felt super meh about that. Otherwise I absolutely love the show, it got me back into the game a few months ago and led me to actually finishing a playthrough which I'm super grateful for now that the game is in a much better state.

I like Lucy as a femme fatale because I think most of the inconsistencies are actually her being more than a trope and having desires outside of what others expect of her. Particularly the fact that her greatest desire is contrary to to the rest of the main cast. The desire for more than personal freedom, the desire for freedom from fear and persecution.

There is not a main human antagonist. The true antagonist of edgerunners is night city itself.

Omg this cosplay is sooooo dope pls More croptops in Future Videos❤❤❤

2:50 still shots are staples of anime.

I agree with a lot of what you said, except idk about the sound stuff, and as for the villian... this is a classic example of man vs society/environment.

The animation part is kinda the style of Studio trigger. Mix between still images amd crazy ass animation. Not a time issue. My Favorit part about the cyberpsychosis is the fact that its not actualy caused by chrome but its just the chrome making mental illness and trauma act up and harder to surpress. Mix between drug overuse, dehumanization, overstimulation of nerves and big ass existing trauma. The fast pacing perfectly fits the message of it. Life fast, die fast. The Antagonist is the City. You can never win. The City will devour everyone any the corpos will just win

I gotta say while I think unbiasedly that the show is really good with a few problems, personally it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen. There were a few motifs and themes in the show especially with David and his downward spiral that reminded me of personal experiences, and I thought that it was really well done.

love the crop, daniel.

Studio trigger really does turn anything they touch to gold and nothing shows that better than the show's release turning the game from a universally panned flop to a post-launch success the likes of which the gaming industry has literally never seen

My favorite pitch for a season 2, and season 3 is we did the street kid, Now we do Nomad story, then a corpo story. Yeah, the "Nope, I am not about to cry" is too correct.

Daniel if you ever play the game you'll see just how accurate that cosplay really is

Good god, what a year for new shows 2022 was. As much as I loved Edgerunners, I don't even know if it makes my Top 10 new shows of 2022.

I saw some words from Mike Pondsmith that seemed to imply that cyber psychosis is just regular psychosis. Thus cybernetics aren't obliterating people's minds, the city/life is, and the insistent augmentation is a symptom

I didn't realize how much I love guys in crop tops till this video.

I totally had the same WTF reaction to all the voiced over still screen scenes…and then I wondered if it was a meta riff on how CP 2077 was buggy and incomplete on release, haha.

Lucy type characters are a staple of cyberpunk.. it's what makes cyberpunk cyberpunk. Cyberpunk from the VERY start had these types of characters. The best example is Molly Millions. The Razor girl from Johnny Mnemonic and Neuromancer (not sure if she is in the rest of the sprawl trilogy as I haven't read the second and third book yet.. currently reading burning chrome, the anthology one). Not only is she a badass assassin / body guard who has razors coming from her fingertips. Her background was basically copied for a large part by the story of Evelyne Parker in Cyberpunk 2077 SPOILERS (character back story, she briefly talks about it in the middle of Neuromancer) Molly used to be a doll. AKA a lady of the night AKA working girl. Dolls get these chips that basically put them to sleep when a client arrives. An AI then takes over to suit the needs and preferences of the client. Dolls work in massive buildings made out of smaller glass / plastic (acrylic) cubicles. Literally the whole doll thing is exactly the same in cyberpunk 2077 lore, not sure about the board game. Even the building of the doll house Clouds (in 2077) was similar to how they were described in Neuromancer Molly did this work because she wanted to augment herself and become the razor girl that she is today. But that sht costs a lot of money plus you need to go to Chiba/Japan since there's where the best docs and clinics are. Molly says "You just wake up.. and have a lot of money all of a sudden. It doesn't feel like you've worked at all.. it's just free money, at least that's what it feels like" (paraphrasing). She wakes up with some sore spots, sometimes a little more sore than usual but nothing more. Her bosses eventually find out about her augmentations that she kept on the downlow because it's not allowed for a doll to have such hardware. But her bosses after finding out, don't say anything. In fact they give her a massive raise (still nothing compared to what they earn of her) and start treating her as royalty. She starts making good money etc. One day Molly goes to Japan again for another upgrade. During the procedure the doc's mess up and touch her chip, they don't know it's there or something. This messes her chip up and she starts having these dreams.. In her dreams gets a glimpse in to her "work" .. Some of the thing she sees .. she really likes, some not so much .. well mostly not so much ... not at all in fact. Eventually they become horrific nightmares. But she soldiers on for the money and the upgrades. Then one day she wakes up next to some fat dude, her hands are covered in blood, she recognizes the guy, it's the mayor. On the other side is the lifeless body of a young girl. Her bosses had been using her to make snff films with very very high paying clients. A very similar thing happens in cyperpunk 2077.. I think in fact that snff was likely a lot bigger part of the game. But they probably left a lot on that cutting floor. In comparison in 2077, Evelyn is a doll hired by the voodoo boys (gang of mostly Hatian hackers obsessed with cyberspace) to make a braindance (first person recording/VR recording that inc the entire sensorium) of Yorinoby Arasaka's penthouse to set up a heist (basically honey trap him, seduce him, get into his suite and record.) She also contacts a criminal middle man (fixer) Dexter DeShaw who then hires the main protagonist.. You. To do the heist. Evelyn gets too greedy and tries to double cross Dexter and also the Voodoo boys. But none of that matters because the heist goes wrong. Then Evelyn hides under the protection of the moxes (a female gang) for a while before returning to work in clouds (the doll house). Because she knows too much the Voodoo boys want to take her out. They do this by launching a cyber attack on her while she is working/in doll mode which leaves her comatose but also FULLY aware of her surroundings and what is happening. She can feel, hear, taste and see everything. After that it gets REAL grim. First her boss .. after trying to get her fixed. SA's her over and over. When he's bored with SA'ing her, he sends her to a ripperdoc (usually a back alley dock that does cybernetic modifications). A creep called Fingers. He tries to fix her but after he fails, her boss tells him to just keep her as a payment. Fingers in turn contacts a fixer called Wakako Okada.. a small Japanese lady. Who then sells Evelyn to scavengers (horrific psycho's who kidnap people to steal their enhancements .. basically like the organ mafia only much more deranged). They decide to use Evelyn for black market SNFF BD's (Brain dances are virtual experiences in which you can also feel what's happening.. this makes it like reliving a memory). At first they plan on just ending her in the first BD.. but when they realize has all this incredibly expensive doll hardware in her body.. they decide to use her over and over and over in multiple snuff films, torturing her and making her experience the gruesome ends of countless other girls and boys. Remember .. throughout all of this. Evelyn is conscious. (yeah btw, FK Wakako .. bruh selling someone to scavengers for snuff is grim af even for a fixer. She does give you the coolest Katana in the game however.) You can save Parker and even end her SA'ing boss. But she's comatose and traumatized beyond belief, she passes away not long after.

You should check out Chainsaw Man, Daniel, BECAUSE you've read the manga. The show is just infinitely better despite being the same very story. It may as well be the best adaptation in several years, no less. Unbelievable honestly.

Maybe another studio will make another Cyberpunk series.

It's definitely true that there isn't a good antagonist to really latch on to and I feel like they tried to rely too much on Adam Smasher's reputation from the games especially since they kind of shoved him in at the very end. But, what was more than enough for me is just the hopeless feeling of fighting any Corp in this world, especially Arasaka. I think the world building really makes you feel how hopeless David and Lucy's goals are if they try to take on this all powerful entity.

Daniel if you like this, I would reccomend checkin an out an old show called Almost Human with Karl Urban and Micheal Ealy. One of the best cyberpunk tv shows I have ever seen, even if it was short lived.