Night City is open for business again. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is streaming now on Netflix, with all 10 episodes of the standalone anime series dropping worldwide on Tuesday, October 20 — and early reviews say it may even surpass the original.
The series is animated by Studio Trigger in collaboration with CD Projekt Red, and tells an entirely new story. Netflix's official synopsis calls it "a raw chronicle of redemption and revenge. In a city that thrives in the spotlight of violence, one question remains: when the world is blinded by spectacle, what extremes do you have to go to make your story matter?" The tagline: "New crew. Same hell."
Meet the new crew
Season 2 centers on four new faces. Weak Kingsley (Clancy Brown) is a washed-up cyberpunk legend — once known simply as "King," stripped of his chrome after surviving cyberpsychosis and now forbidden from ever using cyberware again. D (Nazeeh Tarsha in English, Koki Uchiyama in Japanese) is a Snake Nation nomad netrunner hunting the killers of his clan. Roman Carax (Valeria Rodriguez) is a 12-year-old cinephile documenting Night City on analog film, who insists "there's no craft or soul in BDs." And Talia Yang (Kimoy Lee) is a teen who fled her corpo parents and replaced most of her body with cyberware.
The series is directed by Kai Ikarashi in his directorial debut (he helmed season 1's beloved "Girl on Fire" episode), with showrunner and writer Bartosz Sztybor, scriptwriter Masahiko Otsuka, lead character designer Ichigo Kanno, and a score by Trigun composer Tsuneo Imahori. The opening theme is The Cure's "10:15 Saturday Night," with Petite Meller's "Watson" as the ending.
What the reviews say
Critics are largely enthusiastic. Polygon calls it "a true masterpiece," arguing the ensemble story is richer and more rewarding than season 1. IGN praises "spectacular season of television" with stunning fight scenes, while Mashable describes it as "a beautiful reminder of what makes us human." GamesRadar and CGMagazine hail it as brutal, beautiful, and deeply human.
Not everyone is converted: Gizmodo feels it can't quite outrun David Martinez's shadow, Kotaku says the devastating highs of season 1 never quite return, and Ready Steady Cut calls it scattered and uninvolving by the midpoint. The verdict so far: ambitious, gorgeous, and divisive — exactly what a Cyberpunk sequel should be.
Do you need to watch season 1 first?
No. Season 2 is fully standalone, with a new cast and no direct continuation of David Martinez and Lucy's story — it works without having seen season 1 or played Cyberpunk 2077. That said, season 1 remains essential viewing for the curious: it holds a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, pulled 14.88 million viewing hours in its first week, and helped push Cyberpunk 2077 past 20 million copies sold.
Sources: Polygon | What's on Netflix | The Futon Critic | Wikipedia
Watch: Netflix's official Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 trailer
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Silly Fun (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0