(Spoiler warning: This review contains spoiler for this anime, the first season of Edgerunners , and the 2077 video game. Continue forward at your own risk.)
Let's get the obvious praise out of the way right at the start. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is a beautiful piece of animation—on par with the best-looking anime of the year, hands-down. From the instantly recognizable backgrounds lifted straight from the Cyberpunk 2077 game and the dynamic action sequences to creative touches like the analog film grain of Roman's cameras and the Capri's psychedelic dreamscapes, nothing in this show looks anything less than fantastic.
On the aural side, while there isn't a series-defining earworm like the first season's “I Really Want to Stay at Your House,” the soundtrack is still great. The background music is used excellently, and having The Cure 's “10:15 Saturday Night” as the opening theme works fantastically to set the show's tone.
Beyond the anime trappings, Edgerunners weaves many themes throughout its action, excitement, and explosions. It explores the relationships between family and found family, friendship and love, and guilt and revenge. But behind all of those themes is the one that ties them all together: the dichotomy between what you want and what will make you happy—and all the despair that comes from mistaking one for the other.
Weak Kingsly is a man who thought being king of the mercenaries in Night City was what he wanted. However, he ended up friendless, teetering on the edge of cyberpsychosis, and pining after a long-lost love. What makes him happy—what gives him a reason to live—is taking a fatherly role with Talia.
As for Talia, she is a young woman suffering from a degenerative disease that she's only able to stave off by adding more and more cybernetic implants. What she wants is to be beautiful and burn bright for the limited time she has on this Earth—not be coddled by her mother or used by her father. Later in the story, revenge drives her forward. However, what actually makes her happy is 1) the familial love of someone who understands what she is going through and 2) the fact that someone was able to capture her beauty on film for all to see—and still see that beauty within her whether she is chromed up or not.
Roman is a boy who wants to be seen through his art—the dead art of traditional filmmaking. But what truly makes him happy is the friends he makes who value him as a person—those who recognize his talent and passion and would ultimately die to keep him safe.
And lastly, D. D. wants revenge—believing it is the only way to alleviate his survivor's guilt. However, revenge proves to be not only hollow but also impossible to attain. Beyond that, he constantly chases the carefree joy he felt when he first bonded with Capri. Yet, in the end, what brings him happiness and peace is sacrificing himself to protect his friends (Roman and Omi) and the innocents he dragged into his mess (Talia and Weak).
In all these cases, the characters' individual wants rob them of the precious time they could have had being happy. That is the tragedy of Edgerunners 2 —and also the key ingredient that makes a Cyberpunk story feel like a Cyberpunk story. In the first Edgerunners , Lucy wanted to go to the moon, but what brought her happiness was the time she spent with David. In Cyberpunk 2077 , the happiest ending is the one where V leaves the merc life and fully embraces their found family.
If there is a moral to Cyberpunk as a whole, it's that, in a world as utterly uncaring as ours, don't get so focused on your wants that you miss out on the happiness that's already within your grasp—and Edgerunners 2 conveys this message expertly.
All that said, while thematically on point and visually stunning, Edgerunners 2 doesn't quite live up to the high bar set by its predecessor. With Weak, D, Roman, and Talia never forming a cohesive group, the focus of the anime is more scattered than in the first Edgerunners —and Roman and Talia's puppy love, while cute, never comes close to reaching the power and drama of that between Lucy and David.