Normally I'm not interested in Studio Trigger works, more often than not, they have a cast full of jerks with hearts of gold (I personally loathe this trope), a style so over the top that makes (in my opinion) them look like newbies, with bodies radically changing proportions each scene and action sequences so packed and over-the-top that you can barely see what's going on. So when everyone started recommending me Edgerunners, I was actually a bit skeptical.
So lo and behold my surprise when this series showed me that this studio can do wonders if it has a good direction. There is still bits and bites from Trigger's over-the-top weirdness, but quite tolerable. This time the proportions are mostly kept clear and the fight scenes are 50/50, sometimes you can see what's going on, others its pure weirdness.
The start of the anime gives a good notion of what is to live in a crappy dystopia, fleshing out David's fall-from-grace, keeping the fact that he is special, but not THAT special at arm's length. Its always clearly stated that 1- There is always a bigger fish, and 2- you always pay for what you get, in more ways than one. The crew he finds is a surprising breath of fresh air: They do seem like a tight-knit group of runners, quickly opening up to David once he proves his worth, but at the same time they are clear that, in this underground life, they can backstab each other in a blink of an eye and keep parts of their personal lives well-hidden and clearly out-of-boundaries.
The middle, showing David's rise as a runner, has a superb piece of show-don't-tell action sequence, crispy-clear with a really good 'what a normal people saw' rewind that, frankly, I didn't thought possible for Trigger.
And then, the final stretch of the show. This is where gets really problematic to me, because it felt like the writers ran out of ideas on how to work this prequel story in an already established setting where they couldn't blow up a building or kill a huge distorted badguy, because everyone, everyone goes beyond grabbing the idiot ball. They grab it, they hug it, they become one with it, while attaching shonen clichés to replace their arms. All in order to direct it to an obviously tragic and completely avoidable ending.
This 'back to form' is so bad, that other fights with David fall back to the 'tell-don't-show' formula that the very same series proved they could do without, and it retroactively made a serious group of experienced runners look like newbie idiots. I'm not talking 'for the want of a nail' or 'inevitable ending in a crappy scenario', I'm talking 'completely disregarding anything remotely sane' levels of decision-making including 'stay right in the path of a five-ton beast while its charging at you'.
But in the end, it didn't ruin the whole series, just left a 'meh' taste in my mouth, and did what it was meant to do: Now I want to try the Cyberpunk game, warts and all. Good start, solid middle, bleh ending.
Anime Does what's meant to do, but nothing else.
Normally I'm not interested in Studio Trigger works, more often than not, they have a cast full of jerks with hearts of gold (I personally loathe this trope), a style so over the top that makes (in my opinion) them look like newbies, with bodies radically changing proportions each scene and action sequences so packed and over-the-top that you can barely see what's going on. So when everyone started recommending me Edgerunners, I was actually a bit skeptical.
So lo and behold my surprise when this series showed me that this studio can do wonders if it has a good direction. There is still bits and bites from Trigger's over-the-top weirdness, but quite tolerable. This time the proportions are mostly kept clear and the fight scenes are 50/50, sometimes you can see what's going on, others its pure weirdness.
The start of the anime gives a good notion of what is to live in a crappy dystopia, fleshing out David's fall-from-grace, keeping the fact that he is special, but not THAT special at arm's length. Its always clearly stated that 1- There is always a bigger fish, and 2- you always pay for what you get, in more ways than one. The crew he finds is a surprising breath of fresh air: They do seem like a tight-knit group of runners, quickly opening up to David once he proves his worth, but at the same time they are clear that, in this underground life, they can backstab each other in a blink of an eye and keep parts of their personal lives well-hidden and clearly out-of-boundaries.
The middle, showing David's rise as a runner, has a superb piece of show-don't-tell action sequence, crispy-clear with a really good 'what a normal people saw' rewind that, frankly, I didn't thought possible for Trigger.
And then, the final stretch of the show. This is where gets really problematic to me, because it felt like the writers ran out of ideas on how to work this prequel story in an already established setting where they couldn't blow up a building or kill a huge distorted badguy, because everyone, everyone goes beyond grabbing the idiot ball. They grab it, they hug it, they become one with it, while attaching shonen clichés to replace their arms. All in order to direct it to an obviously tragic and completely avoidable ending.
This 'back to form' is so bad, that other fights with David fall back to the 'tell-don't-show' formula that the very same series proved they could do without, and it retroactively made a serious group of experienced runners look like newbie idiots. I'm not talking 'for the want of a nail' or 'inevitable ending in a crappy scenario', I'm talking 'completely disregarding anything remotely sane' levels of decision-making including 'stay right in the path of a five-ton beast while its charging at you'.
But in the end, it didn't ruin the whole series, just left a 'meh' taste in my mouth, and did what it was meant to do: Now I want to try the Cyberpunk game, warts and all. Good start, solid middle, bleh ending.