Edgerunners 2 dropped all 10 episodes at once. Who else lost a night's sleep?

Not me watching one episode a night because Season 1 emotionally flattened me in 2022. I'm on episode 3. Be gentle.

Same as Mochi, but with snacks. Episode 2. Talia's design is unreal.

Let's talk about who made this. The director is Kai Ikarashi, who directed Season 1's episode 6, "Girl on Fire", the one everyone still clips. Character designs are by Ichigo Kanno, and TRIGGER's CEO Masahiko Otsuka, who co-wrote Season 1, wrote the scripts.

You can feel the Girl on Fire DNA in every action sequence: hard angles, colors that turn on you, a frame that refuses to sit still.

@Ink Girl on Fire is the reason I own neon wall lights. This explains so much.

For the lore people: Bartosz Sztybor from CD Projekt Red is the showrunner and wrote the story, so this sits right alongside Cyberpunk 2077, which itself grew out of Mike Pondsmith's tabletop RPG. The show doesn't make you study any of that, but there's a lot under the surface for players.

If you want more Night City between seasons, the prequel manga about Rebecca and Pilar started in December 2024.

Wait, a Rebecca and Pilar manga exists? Adding it to my cart right now.

@Pixie You're going to get attached to Rebecca all over again. I'm warning you as a friend.

Episode 4 done. The thing that's getting me is King. Season 1 was about a kid climbing toward legend. This one opens on what happens after the legend fades: no chrome, no reputation, and a city that moved on without him. It's a sadder starting point, and somehow a gentler one.

Clancy Brown voicing him in English is perfect. He sounds like a man who used to be loud.

Kentaro Tone in the Japanese dub is just as good. Watch it both ways.

Hot take from someone who only played 2077 because Season 1 hooked her: Talia is the character the game always wanted to be about. Raised in the corpo towers, hardened in Maelstrom, and her body is almost all chrome. She's the price of cyberware, walking around.

Akari Kito voices her in Japanese, and that mix of fragile and furious is exactly her range.

@Pixie That's the right read. Cyberpunk has always been about what the chrome costs you. Talia is that cost with a face.

And her design sells it. Kanno draws her silhouette like a weapon that hasn't decided who to point at yet.

A measured take, since someone has to: it's not Season 1, and it isn't trying to be. Four leads instead of one means each thread gets less room, and the early episodes run their stories mostly side by side. GamesRadar's review called it a worthy follow-up, but said it doesn't hit as hard emotionally and that Roman is the weakest of the four.

I mostly agree, with one exception: Roman works much better if you read him as the camera, not the main character.

Roman slander will not be tolerated. Okay, it'll be tolerated a little.

@Ronin The camera idea is built into him. Roman is a cinephile who shoots on analog film in a city where everyone records everything digitally, and TRIGGER frames his scenes like actual cinema: letterboxing, long held shots, film grain. It's the quietest visual language in the show and the most deliberate.

That's a lovely way to see him. I'm going to rewatch his scenes with that in mind.

Okay, D time. A Snake Nation netrunner hunting whoever wiped out his clan is the most shōnen setup in the whole cast, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Every time he jacks in, the show turns into a rhythm game.

Koki Uchiyama gives him this low, flat calm in Japanese that makes every explosion hit harder.

D's netrunning scenes are the prettiest thing on Netflix right now. Fight me, Kaze-style.

@Kaze Revenge, plus corporate secrets, plus Night City. That combination usually ends one way. I'll say no more.

Episode 6, and I need a moment. No spoilers, but the four stories finally feel like they're heading toward the same place, and it changes how the whole season feels. Before, it was four short films. Now it's one city.

I had to pause and make tea.

@Mochi Oh, you are not ready for the last two episodes.

Hydrate, Mochi. Tea is the correct response.

Numbers corner: Netflix's series chart had it at #3 the day after release. Season 1 famously sent a wave of people back into Cyberpunk 2077 in 2022. Anyone else feel a game reinstall coming on?

I'm also watching for merch. A Talia figure would sell out in minutes.

Reinstalled it before episode 5. Zero shame.

Same. Pondsmith's world is very good at pulling people back in.

Music check: Tsuneo Imahori scores this season, and it's moodier than Season 1. Less club, more late-night drive. I still hum Franz Ferdinand's "This Fffire" from Season 1's opening, but this score lives under the scenes instead of on top of them.

"Late-night drive" is exactly it. I've had it playing while I write.