Damn after Playing Phantom Liberty i came here to reflect what Edgerunners made me see Cyberpunk 2077 as i never personally was a fan of Sandavestan build.. I usually hack and say goodbye.. but now I can't Leave Sandavestan for any netrunner chip ~ This genre needs to bigger than Star wars is coz many things in both main game and phantom liberty + Edgerunners show is the reality we're heading towards. Can you think right now How many things are possible from Cyberpunk universe to reality in just about 2050 ? Can you simply visualize after covid how many other Techno-Organic virus and a crazy Technology revolution of war is gonna happen within 2050 to change the entire world right now. I mean whole world was on lockdown from Covid ( which is having it on easy mode) Will you remember UA-cam then ? XD lol ~ great vid dude
About the philosophy discussion ~ its actually very simple to answer a single question.. Why do we love to IMPROVE ? what are we improving ourselves for ? why do we hate mistakes.. Hell tbh myself & many ppl i know don't fear Death.. We fear Crazy big Failures. ^That kinda always gets me to believe just like Gravity exist in physical Science of matter.. there's a resource for thoughts and ideas and it doesn't matter how good Ai gets. Human will always Automatically improve and not just in crisis but the ability to "Take care of others" bio-soul-Programming code is unique as fkk.. hence yea i believe in SOUL lol..
Everything really does feel like a loop nowadays. It's nice how the show demonstrates the important idea that it's the interpersonal connections you make that makes the struggle worth it.
Cyberpunk both game and anime are literally "It's the friends you made along the way that matter ..." - And i love it, it has been so surprisingly refreshing, while being dark and often feeling hopeless it manages to evoke many strong positive emotions that make you glad you experienced this journey even if the ending is quite bitter.
After finishing the show a phrase popped in my head, “if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything”. That may seem odd, but David stood for nothing. He had no dreams for himself. “Reach the top of arisaka tower” was his moms. “Get to the moon” was Lucy’s. Running a crew was continuing Maine’s life. None were his own. In the beginning of the show he only liked BD’s, or living and experiencing through other people. He was an A student at Arisaka high. He had all the potential to change the world but the environment (night city) gave him no good direction or nothing “good” to stand for. So he walked the path of a Edgerunner, with the first group that felt like family to him. And followed the dreams of others. It was a beautifully tragic story and a great anime.
He stood for his friends. He wanted to protect them and honor their memory, but this spiraled deeper and deeper, a devil's circle. He saw no other option with his past experiences, than the road he followed in the series. He cared too much for others. Unlike the rest of the crew, who all followed their own dreams, he was less egoistic. But of course in the end he got more and more caught up with the chrome addiction and forgot to be reasonable. At least that's my view. Great anime.
Even if he would've joined Arasaka the corporate life isn't that different just more comfortable because of all the backstabbings and actual murder in the fight to climb the ladder. It talks about that in the Cyberpunk 2020 books.
Finally watched the show today, and I couldn't agree more. The closest thing he had to his own dream was wanting to make Lucy happy by making her dream come true. The problem was, he never saw himself as part of the dream, so he didn't think about what his place might have been in it - only his role in getting her there. Maybe David before he was all chromed out would've, but by the last few episodes he thought it was too late. So it was.
There's no happy ending in Night City. The Cyberpunk 2077 game reinforces this point by making the only "happy" ending you can achieve in the game literally being you leaving Night City behind with your loved ones and spending your remaining days with them. There have been other more "special" people before David. Morgan Blackhand, Johnny Silverhand, etc. Blackhand left for New York, while Silverhand died nuking Arasaka Tower. They're far more capable than David, being actual army veterans with tons more experience under their belt. And even they couldn't beat Night City.
Id say Blackhand beat Night City. Guy survived the Arasaka raid, cashed out, and is still kicking by the time of 2077. Ya, he didnt destroy Night City or change the world but he never wanted to
"So whenever your life essentially becomes an obsession with mastering the maze you were forced into, changing your behavior so much you lose who you were, how much of that was even your choice to begin with?" I really like this quote
I had mixed feelings about Cyberpunk Edgerunners. But when you said that this was meant to be more of a cautionary tale, everything just clicked. David wasn't meant to be a protagonist that we look up to and aspire to be. I never felt that and was confused as to what the point of his journey was. In the end, he fell into the same hole that everybody else before him fell into, even with the warnings given by those he cared about. This was meant to be a peep into what seems to be a neverending cycle in Night City. People attempt to rise up and rise above the system, only to realize that rising up WAS part of the system. A tragic tale, with a tragic man that we just happened to follow. Thank you for helping me understand this better.
Exactly! And that’s why I think the opening scene of the cyberpsycho’s death scroll was brilliant. He could’ve had a whole other animated series about his life. And in the city, it just happens again and again…
The show is Man vs Society, and it's portrayed accurately. Society always wins. 1984, Texhnolyze, Ergo Proxy, Devilman, Psycho Pass... The Society always wins. Also, sorry if the Joker ruined the word for you lol.
I'd argue it's more man vs business. The root of every evil traces back to corporations in cyberpunk. The majority of the society are the victims in the cyberpunk world.
@@mentalpopcorn2304 psst, corporations don't exist without mindless consumers. Night City may be particularly rife with corporations but corrupt governments still exist. Cyberpunk has always dealt with all the above factors, so putting the blame on "business" rather that corporatism and then solely on that is going to limit your ability to take in the greater message.
To me Maine telling David to run isn't to tell David to quit, but to keep going past the dead end that Maine found himself in. Maine had been running all his life, but he wasn't running away, but running to reach a level of meaning and greatness, and that's what all edgerunners were running to their graves in search of.
Something a teacher of mine talked about, and I can testify for is that David really resembles the struggles we face in latin america. And what a coincidence that he is also latino. Young brown and black people getting turned into gang members with the promise of one day becoming a gang lord, owning all the money and drugs they can imagine. Seems like an easier way out than all the struggles you have to face when you start from scratch. The city swallowed David and his dreams (planned by his mother of course) because there wasnt even a chance of becoming big in the first place. In places like these, you either are born rich, live in the gutter or become corrupted enough for you to have a chance to get out of it.
@@juhel5531 I agree with you and I didnt mean to say that everyone here does that. Some people live in extreme conditions and, sadly, are raised with that belief. Its easy for us to say that they have more choices from our perspective of privilege. But only they know what it is like to be raised in that environment. Better social programs, better and more equalitarian economy should be a most for whatever country has these kind of problems…
It's not even about becoming a gang lord. In my own latino experience, David exemplifies the allure and danger of uncontrolled opportunity, in a massively corrupt world, both morally and practically. He lives in a reality where your station in life is pretty much set in stone, unless you're remarkable enough, crazy enough, violent enough or just lucky enough. We, latinos, live in a cursed wonderland. There's opportunity for success, little to no taxes, even the weather is on our side, but this opportunity is barred by connections, corruption and poverty. You can lift yourself, but you need to know the right people, or get the right sort of help, or be in the right kind of mafia. It's a world that allows you to dream, only to pull the rug beneath your feet, as you strive to attain what once seemed possible.
@@juhel5531 Technically a lot of things could happen. Like USA don’t be a dick and staging coup every year. Or corporations nukes themselves out of existence. But reality is reality, David’s mom worked to her bone and see how far she got? Not very far. Luckily real world isn’t as depressed as night city yet but anyone with a functioning brain could tell the world is heading towards night city in a bullet train. And nobody cares to stop it. Cyberpunk is a logical analysis of neoliberal capitalism and its consequences.
I just finished the series and the constant struggle to escape night city really resonated with me. About a year after I got out of highschool I got a job working for a mail delivery company that had a reputation for wearing people's bodies down but the pay was really good. My friends had worked their in highschool and they called it hell but to me it wasn't that bad. I made it through the first 3 weeks then the first 3 months and now it has been over 3 years since I started. My body has been worn down and I have started to notice lasting impacts on my joints especially my knees. One of my favorite hobbies, hiking and climbing mountains, might be impractical for me to do in the next decade and for what? I have a little bit more money but I feel like I haven't progressed in life at all. I used to always think that as long as I persevered I would be able to live a relatively comfortable life but now I am not so sure. I look around me and see people at so many different stages in life and I think to myself that maybe I'm just destined to fail or at least to not have the life that I thought that I might have. I am worried that growing up I may have developed a survivorship bias while observing the adults around me. They may have struggled at points but things all worked out for them. I've seen a lot of people now who haven't had life work out for them and I am worried that I might be one of them.
I believe we should take a page out of David's book. When his mother died, he had to find a way to not just survive, but thrive. He had to find a family again and he did in the edgerunners. Like David, we should be resilient, and being resilient is focusing your energies and attention on things you can control. Yes, that will require us to adapt, but we will be stronger for it. And yes, we might still fail at the end, but it will be on our terms and the consequences of our actions. I need my hands for my work and I had to give up art so that I don't develop carpal tunnel syndrome. For you, it might be giving up hiking, or it might be changing your career and finding something you actually enjoy doing for work. The most important take away from this is not just survive the rat race or Night City IRL, but thrive. Find family and friends to surround yourself, do something that gives you meaning and give back to the community to feel connected to society and not suffer our form of cyberpsychosis, depression, fear and loneliness.
Thats CDPR for you, these guys may not be the absolut master of video games we wanted them to be but they absolutly pour their love and passion in what they do no one can deny that
Edgerunners really took me back to 2018 with Devilman Crybaby. I was just as depressed after watching that too, especially so since both shows came out of nowhere and made me feel things that most shows don’t go for with such veracity. I would ask for more like them but goddamn it gets harder as you get older and find more to relate to in it.
This is exactly what I thought after watch edge runner. This video and comment was the first to make the similarities on how it leaves you as an emotional train wreck after watching and at the same time wanting more.
The anime was awesome. it shows(in a more extreme case) how rotten the world can be and how much people sacrifice to try to meet expectations, reach dreams to try and survive, that sometimes we loose ourselves and end up in this loop that feels meanigless.
And still it is way better than being a mindless drone in a communist hell like china or USSR constantly fearing to be erased for no reason at all. For me the movie Brasil or the book 1984 depict a universe infinitveley more terrifiyng than Night city. In this universe you dont even have to option to die in the light, to be remembered, you live and die like as a number.
When I was at the "Past and Future section" something suddenly dawned upon me. You know what is so fascinating? The fact that older Things have found their way back into our society through new ways. There is Fashion, Flip-phones, LPs, Gory OVA shows, the cyberpunk genre and etc were all things of the past and they are returning thanks to new technology! and Netflix somehow managed to get some of the best Cyberpunk in recent years like Altered Carbon, Cyberpunk edge Runners and Arcane (although Arcane might more be like the Cyberpunk aesthetic) Cyberpunk is by far the most philosophical genre by design and that's what fascinates me so much. a genre that's both cool and philosophical at the same time. now excuse me for I'm going to watch "tears in rain" again!
I'ld say Arcane tackles a lot of themes that are found in cyberpunk. Class struggle, self identity in a large uncaring world, even HexTech is kinda similar to cybernetics, with some magical flavour. After all, the aesthetic and genre of Arcane is steampunk, which has similar roots to cyberpunk. About the old things coming back, there's a philosophical concept by Mark Fisher called "the slow deletion of the future", which is a process that replaces the cultural idea of a possible future with retrofuturism, or how the people of the past saw the future. For Fisher this is caused by living in a cultural climate where capitalism is considered a natural and unchangeable state of humanity, and where the consequences of said system are acknowledged but not dealt with.
As a newcomer to the genre, I feel like the exploration of transhumanism is way more interesting than the whole "we live in a society" stuff but Edgerunners (and Robocop of all things) are great examples of how to do the ladder really well.
I shared some similar thoughts on the theme of edge runner. It interesting how it starts off with his mother being worked to the bone so she can get the better life for her son. David was pushed to be the top of his class. This early part was needed to put in some context. Dave's mother did not use much in a way of chrome and was burning out. She dies because of social pressures that let to crime, her bad health, and insurance policy. David pushed to the top of his class. It strike me as the big fish idea in schools but at the end Adam Smasher was the bigger fish. Cyberpunk as a genre in the West was also criticism to neo liberalism ( Reaganomics), and the damaging affects it has. And you see the city as nothing but neo liberalism. And there are so many problems in the real world and that world. The last thing I also thought about is how this does not fallow most anime formula's. Dragon ball you see the power creep. The good guy wins as he steps up to fight to big bad of the season. This turned the idea on its head. Especially when Adam Smasher shows up.
I’m surprised that so many people were surprised that David died. They pretty much told us in the intro and they kept reinforcing that in each episode.
Largely the point of the show is well something rather harsh that more people need to hear.... You're not special you don't have a destiny and the harder + faster you go will ultimately lead to your destruction because there's only so far you can rationally take things before the rubber band snaps
Yuh the brightest flame burns the fastest yadda yadda yadda, but if you're staying next to the flame that burns slowest you might as well go stand in total darkness
This show really surprised me because I went into it not expecting anything. And then when I saw that last shot where Lucy sees David on the moon. It hurt. So so bad. I think this show found me at a good time because I also feel like I’ve been pushing myself so hard and I just cannot stop. It’s as if this show really understood me.
This comparison from 6:30-7:00 or around those times when they compare cyberpsychosis and the need to chrome yourself up to real life substance abuse is why i love their analysis. I had this same thought when i was watching it but i couldn’t verbalize it but wow.
New HidingKun Vtuber model oh shit hot damn plus a upload my day got better for sure also when David yelled *_It's Chromin TIME_* that was the point of Cyberpunk Edgerunners to me
As someone who's played the tabletop game for years far before CD project red touched the franchise, I absolutely adore how cyberpsychosis is portrayed in the anime. It is much more real to how the tabletop operates. In the table top the way cyber psychosis is developed is through a humanity score. Your initial humanity can be anywhere between 10 and 80 dependent on your empathy stat. To a maximum of 80 and a maximum of eight empathy which can never increase. Every time you gang a cybernetic not only do you lose humanity which is a score Point much like HP, but you also have a permanent 2-point loss to your humanity for every cybernetic and a permanent three-point loss for every piece of borgware. When you're humanity goes down a threshold, beneath every tenth percentile, you also lose a point of human empathy permanently. If your empathy is seven, and your newest piece of hardware lowered the max to 68, you permanently now have only 6 empathy. Which mechanically in the tabletop can become very dangerous for any edge runner who starts to now deal with tragedy and depression and other factors of the terrible World they live in bearing down on their mental state and damaging your humanity. You may feel like a badass playing a solo fitted with all the newest cyberware, but when you're maximum humanity is 40 you're going to find yourself in mental peril very quickly. And the only way to regain lost humanity is through therapy or through the use of extremely close connections you create with other human beings, things of which anchor you into reality and with your humanity actively flexing and working your empathy. As an example: without suitable therapy, coupled with alienation and emotional unavailability from someone whom you previously relied on emotionally, plus fitting yourself with all the latest Chrome, can easily send someone cyber psycho in the face of tragedy. If that rings any bells I just described what happened to David Martinez.
It would be interesting to see if religion/spiritual belief play a role in this. If you were to say become apart of a order of cyber monastic monks could this extensive group cohesion /spiritual belief dampen it? Cyberpunk always seemed materially focused to me, so it would be a interesting to see if spirituality of a kind could find its way back to this.
...are you talking about the 2013 Version (which I didn't ever get a chance to play) or 2020? Cause in 2020 the maximum Characteristic you can have is 10 (the human maximum) after which cybernetics were required to exceed that. The only other game that I think has a cap of 8 is the shitty Cyberpunk RED game.
This is one of the best shows I've watched shit year, and this video is like a birthday present to me. Thank you Hiding in Public for another banger video
09:58 ironically Cyberpunk originated from original board game with same title. That's because it was based on Johnny Silverhand who was titular "punk". When main meaning behind it was seeking freedom. Johnny represented freedom and what freedom truly is. Freedom in reality is simply doing what you want. Obviously in order to function in society we need to balance it, so we have to consider what we want in life, but respect what others too. Johnny was freedom to extreme, he was egoistical punk rocker. However, the game does not present it as bad thing fully. He was not afraid to show middle finger to his friends, family and even punch them in the face. He always did what he wanted. That's because he wanted to become opposition to controlling japanese society that took control of the world. Where people have blind obedience to rules, authorities. Where everything is based on cold meritocracy and slave like collectivism. This is why he chose name of band "samurai" as mockery of blind obedience. Cyberpunks caused anarchy, but in the end that anarchy was only thing stopping Arasaka from turning world into full dystopia. Where honest workers and tax payers simply supported that system and gave power to corporations that oppressed them. David in a way follows same idea as Johnny, just more moral way.
Cyberpunk did not originate with the board game. It came from Neuromancer and blade runner, using Noir fiction and combining it with cybernetic science and philosophy
8:57 caught me off guard, I've always hated the concept of working your ass off just for small moments of pleasure and a SLIM chance of living the dream life. I hated it. I hated the idea working yourself to waste every single day just to achieve something in life, not even living through each day, just surviving one day to the next because you're so exhausted. I wanted to end everything and to be honest I still feel the same every now and then but I've come to convince myself that I can spend my life striving towards something so at least when the end does come around, I won't have any what-ifs I'll know I have tried my best.
Video: *mind breaking depressing reality* ... ANYWAY V TUBER COMING OUT-- (I love this channel now, honestly the best video ive seen in a long time, cyber punk is my new favorite genre/universe)
I don't understand. David protected lucy and her dream in the end. He didn't do it for his name on a drink. Plus arasaka didn't plan for him to go berserk as he did. Yes nothing in NC changed from David's actions but i doubt he cared about that.
A little bit more on this from a longstanding Cyberpunk fan. The game and show are based on a tabletop RPG. A big thing about cyberpsychosis, it's not cybernetics that are really to blame, only a smaller contributing factor. Cyberpsychosis is a loss of humanity, which includes things like regular PTSD, and that humanity loss can be slowed through downgrading your cyberware and just plain ole' therapy. You could have 1 cyberlimb and become cyberpsycho from PTSD, or be like Smasher and have a full cyborg body, and not experience cyberpsychosis. Ad per the cause, the big thing when it comes to cybernetics, you won't lose humanity because your arm got ripped off and you needed a new one, you will however lose humanity if you have a perfectly working arm that you personally decide to chop off to upgrade it. Smasher didn't go cyberpsycho because he had his entire body blown away by RPG fire while in the corp wars, and legit needed to have it replaced with cybernetics. That being said, for those who are going to say Smasher clearly is a cyberpsycho, no he's not. He's a regular psycho, like we have nowadays. He just also happens to be decked out in cybernetics, cyberpsychosis is a very different thing that comes mostly from you deciding to separate yourself from your humanity (This flesh is weak and needs upgrading).
Smasher didn't become a cyberpsycho because he had abnormally low humanity to begin with, right? Which, funnily enough, is the exact opposite reason David was able to wear so much chrome. David was resistant because he had so high humanity, Adam was resistant because his was so low.
Interesting thing about cyberpsychosis is that human connections and increasing empathy and humanity causes a decrease likelihood of getting it. So David descent was due to the tension between him and Lucy as they both were hiding stuff and could talk it out
I just have to say that you did an absolutely amazing job in analyzing the many themes of Cyberpunk Edgerunners it was truly unlike the other videos I have seen. Absolutely amazing 👏.
Edgerunners, Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho Season 3, AOT S4 Part 2, and Bleach returning - all in one year. I don’t think this year is ever gonna get topped. I’m surprised to see anyone still streaming on Twitch, but I’m down to check it out - nonetheless.
Yeah it's a crazy year. Twitch just seemed more doable for survival rn. UA-cam takes a massive cut of every direct donation and twitch doesn't take any. Getting 50% vs 97% is a pretty substantial jump. But maybe something has happened recently idk I've kinda been out of the loop with the xqc miskif twitchcon drama stuff
@@HidinginPublic The donation thing sounds stupid, but I honestly don’t know much about the situation either. I’ve just seen quite a few YTers switch over to UA-cam for streaming completely now. I’ve only ever used Twitch for certain creators and the Valorant codes/Twitch prime rewards, so it doesn’t make much difference to me.
Is Bleach good? I don’t really watch anime but I loved edgerunners, and I thought bleach might be cool since it’s a ginger protagonist, which we don’t get much of anymore lol
Although I do get what you are saying, and it's a nice review on the human addiction for technology and it's social implications. I've always felt that the point of edge runners was just to amplify the point of the game, which is to say "the advancement of materialization and free market society does not mean a necessary improvement on both morals and quality of life" or in other words, success in this city is just an illusion (the city of dreams), as clearly seen, those who seek success in this city will only find it in death (dead mercs are seen as heroes), while those who think are in a social higher ground are just as cut throat as the rest of society trying to climb to whatever corp they can (corps die in masses for meaningless reasons just like mercs), the only people you get to see in a better position are those that live in ignorance and lack of care, however they are often casted out into the backlines of the story. David and the rest of the crew, did not die for an addiction of technology, they died desperate for meaning in success, not understanding that the only thing at the top was death.
5:25 you went through the entire series and didn’t even ATTEMPT to say it like they did Your special Edit: I vibe with this video and it’s message. Is being flesh machines with an idea of having free will but not actually possessing it is something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while, glad somebody made a successful video about it faster than I could. S a n d e v i s t a n
I finished Edgerunners today, and after it was over, I just thought "so what was the point?" I completely missed it. This is a great explanation. I can't believe I didn't notice the symbolism of David literally putting Maine's arm on himself after he had to run away like that. And then it's just Maine's arm (David's left) that's shaking! Brilliant.
Your question of "We were never in control?" is actually true for the series. David never happened to find the Sandevistan. Everything was orchestrated when his mom died - even to his death. Arasaka lost a valuble net runner, but in return gained the Sandevistan technology which they did not have till Edgerunners. With a full demo of usage. That was what Lucy was doing, trying to get rid of David's info from the internet but Arasaka was already in that as well. I grew up reading Neuromancer, Monalisa Overdrive, Mirror shades, and watching Bladerunner, Terminator. So around 2013 finishing Uni with AI being a front topic, I always wandered that there will be some break point where AI will overtake humanity. Where humans will rely more on AI. 10 years later almost going into 2023, I see this is absolutely the case. Everything that can be convenience into AI, will always will be delegated there. Even your appearance on Instagram, FB, Tinder, Twitter, is AI controlled. Heck take your job as a youtuber, if you dont meet the requirements of the AI algorithm, you will never 'make it' in youtube. For me this is bitter sweet. For years humanity rebelled against mother nature and replaced it as the creator. But now our own creation is at the precipice of replacing us. I knew AI will overtake us. My only question is now wondering when will AI judge we are an inconvenience. I wonder what they will do about it.
"What if we were never in control?" It would be Tuesday. You won't ever get to choose your path, but you can choose to walk it as well as you can. Focus on that. Life before death Radiant.
it's crazy how edgerunners managed to tell a compelling story with fun, memorable characters in only 10 episodes. the game didn't reach the same feeling for me, even though it tried to be so grandiose. sometimes less is more I guess.
Its pacing was superb. The world felt so fleshed out in such a short time and I didn't even play the game yet. Definitely makes me want to in a way but I just wanna watch the show again mostly.
in the end the game was not so grandiose, it tells a pretty small story of a dying man/woman looking hopelessly for a way out and some confort in a harsh universe
It's mainly to have something nice for seeing my reactions on stream. I won't be playing a character, just leaning more into my bag boy persona. Maybe that'll make it more accessible since you don't really watch vtubers
pretty good vid, waiting for the next manga review though! hopefully you could cover shimeji simulation in the future, it's a nice surreal series made as a pseudo sequel of GLT
A haven't finished edgerunners yet so I'm going to have to finish this video later when I do. I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say about it though. I have been really enjoying the series.
I may be not as smart nor knowledgeable as most of the people on the comment section here, but one thing i can tell for sure, a consistent pattern for a modern art of masterpiece is that: The casual enjoyer can appreciate it and the enthusiast can took apart a piece of said "masterpiece" with them and can sprung a vast lesson/takeaway from it. (Really enjoyed everyone take on what they get from this show, everyone is almost different and beautiful in its own way)
@@HidinginPublic I didn't expect more from Yuasa, but I did expect someone to try to piggyback off of Crybaby's success with spinoffs like a new Devilman Lady adaptation.
Interesting video the creator of the tabletop game said on multiple interviews The point of the game is that you cannot change or rescue the world but you can save yourself or Your love ones I need the video game spoiler alert the only good one is technically you leaving the city with the nomads don’t know if that brings anything to the table just an interesting thought
Huh! I saw something different in this show. The message I got was that there is a choice - to give up or to dream. And the show encourages people to dream, to give it all you got, and then maybe, just maybe, your dreams will come true.
i think it's a little more than just not being in control. It's about taking the control you have. Yes, at the end of edge runners david realizies he doesn't have as much of the control he wants and expects. He didn't get to go to the moon, he didn't have as much control over himself as he thought. But at the same time, he took back the control he had. He realized what actually mattered to him: Lucy. Cyberpunk edge runners in the end, at least to me, is just as much what we can't live without as much as it is what we can live with. David hit his breaking point. He could have left Lucy. He could have run. But in the end, broken and bleeding he made his choice. He had time. Over and over again we see the choice made to fight the corps. Jonny silverhand, V, David Martinez, Sasha from the music video. To some extent, it just doesn't matter. IF they ever did win, the beauty of what they did would be lost. The beauty of doing the right thing, even when it costs everything, even when it accomplishes nothing. That's beautiful and sad. We aren't in complete control. Free will isn't completely free. We won't completely break free of the systems around us, political, theological, emotional, and so on, until we're dead. It's nihilistic, but I think it's true. David rejected the system. He was trapped in it for so long, but it's only once he was dying, once he realized how little control he actually had that he was able to break free and make a real choice.
I've said it before and ill save it again; the system and the augmentations is the cyber part of cyberpunk. The punk part is sticking it to the man, being mad as hell, and doing something about it. They do live in loops and there's a thousand stories like David's but what is more free than fighting for what you believe in?
Maybe i don't get something but how can you like have less chrome than you had before? Like implants replace body Parts, so you would no longer have them.
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Damn after Playing Phantom Liberty i came here to reflect what Edgerunners made me see Cyberpunk 2077 as i never personally was a fan of Sandavestan build.. I usually hack and say goodbye.. but now I can't Leave Sandavestan for any netrunner chip ~
This genre needs to bigger than Star wars is coz many things in both main game and phantom liberty + Edgerunners show is the reality we're heading towards.
Can you think right now How many things are possible from Cyberpunk universe to reality in just about 2050 ? Can you simply visualize after covid how many other Techno-Organic virus and a crazy Technology revolution of war is gonna happen within 2050 to change the entire world right now. I mean whole world was on lockdown from Covid ( which is having it on easy mode) Will you remember UA-cam then ? XD lol ~ great vid dude
About the philosophy discussion ~ its actually very simple to answer a single question..
Why do we love to IMPROVE ? what are we improving ourselves for ? why do we hate mistakes.. Hell tbh myself & many ppl i know don't fear Death.. We fear Crazy big Failures.
^That kinda always gets me to believe just like Gravity exist in physical Science of matter.. there's a resource for thoughts and ideas and it doesn't matter how good Ai gets. Human will always Automatically improve and not just in crisis but the ability to "Take care of others" bio-soul-Programming code is unique as fkk.. hence yea i believe in SOUL lol..
Everything really does feel like a loop nowadays. It's nice how the show demonstrates the important idea that it's the interpersonal connections you make that makes the struggle worth it.
People put life in the every day
Cyberpunk both game and anime are literally "It's the friends you made along the way that matter ..." - And i love it, it has been so surprisingly refreshing, while being dark and often feeling hopeless it manages to evoke many strong positive emotions that make you glad you experienced this journey even if the ending is quite bitter.
People who don't have friends/partner - 🤡🤡🤡
After finishing the show a phrase popped in my head, “if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything”. That may seem odd, but David stood for nothing. He had no dreams for himself. “Reach the top of arisaka tower” was his moms. “Get to the moon” was Lucy’s. Running a crew was continuing Maine’s life. None were his own. In the beginning of the show he only liked BD’s, or living and experiencing through other people. He was an A student at Arisaka high. He had all the potential to change the world but the environment (night city) gave him no good direction or nothing “good” to stand for. So he walked the path of a Edgerunner, with the first group that felt like family to him. And followed the dreams of others. It was a beautifully tragic story and a great anime.
He stood for his friends. He wanted to protect them and honor their memory, but this spiraled deeper and deeper, a devil's circle. He saw no other option with his past experiences, than the road he followed in the series. He cared too much for others. Unlike the rest of the crew, who all followed their own dreams, he was less egoistic. But of course in the end he got more and more caught up with the chrome addiction and forgot to be reasonable. At least that's my view. Great anime.
Even if he would've joined Arasaka the corporate life isn't that different just more comfortable because of all the backstabbings and actual murder in the fight to climb the ladder. It talks about that in the Cyberpunk 2020 books.
Joining the school and being at the top isint a good thing to do in life. They are the worst of the worst in night city.
Finally watched the show today, and I couldn't agree more. The closest thing he had to his own dream was wanting to make Lucy happy by making her dream come true. The problem was, he never saw himself as part of the dream, so he didn't think about what his place might have been in it - only his role in getting her there. Maybe David before he was all chromed out would've, but by the last few episodes he thought it was too late. So it was.
In a way, one could say that he had a dream - and that would be to complete others close to him.
There's no happy ending in Night City. The Cyberpunk 2077 game reinforces this point by making the only "happy" ending you can achieve in the game literally being you leaving Night City behind with your loved ones and spending your remaining days with them. There have been other more "special" people before David. Morgan Blackhand, Johnny Silverhand, etc. Blackhand left for New York, while Silverhand died nuking Arasaka Tower. They're far more capable than David, being actual army veterans with tons more experience under their belt. And even they couldn't beat Night City.
Id say Blackhand beat Night City. Guy survived the Arasaka raid, cashed out, and is still kicking by the time of 2077. Ya, he didnt destroy Night City or change the world but he never wanted to
Blackhand is still in Night City, but he's now fat according to the radio
@@teslashark Being fat is the worst ending
@@Ken_9000 he got comfortable i dont think its the "worst ending"
@@changedcj007 not only that but his skils didnt fall off. He fucked up a squad of corporate agents on his own
"So whenever your life essentially becomes an obsession with mastering the maze you were forced into, changing your behavior so much you lose who you were, how much of that was even your choice to begin with?"
I really like this quote
Hell yeah.
I had mixed feelings about Cyberpunk Edgerunners. But when you said that this was meant to be more of a cautionary tale, everything just clicked.
David wasn't meant to be a protagonist that we look up to and aspire to be. I never felt that and was confused as to what the point of his journey was. In the end, he fell into the same hole that everybody else before him fell into, even with the warnings given by those he cared about.
This was meant to be a peep into what seems to be a neverending cycle in Night City. People attempt to rise up and rise above the system, only to realize that rising up WAS part of the system. A tragic tale, with a tragic man that we just happened to follow.
Thank you for helping me understand this better.
I get u but it doesn’t un-break my feels ;-;
Exactly! And that’s why I think the opening scene of the cyberpsycho’s death scroll was brilliant. He could’ve had a whole other animated series about his life. And in the city, it just happens again and again…
The show is Man vs Society, and it's portrayed accurately. Society always wins. 1984, Texhnolyze, Ergo Proxy, Devilman, Psycho Pass... The Society always wins.
Also, sorry if the Joker ruined the word for you lol.
I'd argue it's more man vs business. The root of every evil traces back to corporations in cyberpunk. The majority of the society are the victims in the cyberpunk world.
@@mentalpopcorn2304 When the society is business, is it really man v. business?
@@mentalpopcorn2304 Cyberpunk’s world is one ruled by corporations, it is still Man vs. Society
Communist regimes in the world should stand as proof that people don't need to open businesses to satisfy their greed.
@@mentalpopcorn2304 psst, corporations don't exist without mindless consumers. Night City may be particularly rife with corporations but corrupt governments still exist. Cyberpunk has always dealt with all the above factors, so putting the blame on "business" rather that corporatism and then solely on that is going to limit your ability to take in the greater message.
I love the resurgence of the 80’s/90’s ova style anime. I just hope the quality shows like this keep coming.
The streaming space really provides the perfect economic place for them ot come out. Hope to see more as well
wish it has the same animation quality no offense to the animators but still looks like a tv show not different from gurren laggan
@@alwaysangry2232 I mean that’s what happens. Physical media has a higher profit margin.
To me Maine telling David to run isn't to tell David to quit, but to keep going past the dead end that Maine found himself in. Maine had been running all his life, but he wasn't running away, but running to reach a level of meaning and greatness, and that's what all edgerunners were running to their graves in search of.
Something a teacher of mine talked about, and I can testify for is that David really resembles the struggles we face in latin america. And what a coincidence that he is also latino.
Young brown and black people getting turned into gang members with the promise of one day becoming a gang lord, owning all the money and drugs they can imagine. Seems like an easier way out than all the struggles you have to face when you start from scratch.
The city swallowed David and his dreams (planned by his mother of course) because there wasnt even a chance of becoming big in the first place.
In places like these, you either are born rich, live in the gutter or become corrupted enough for you to have a chance to get out of it.
@@juhel5531 I agree with you and I didnt mean to say that everyone here does that. Some people live in extreme conditions and, sadly, are raised with that belief.
Its easy for us to say that they have more choices from our perspective of privilege. But only they know what it is like to be raised in that environment.
Better social programs, better and more equalitarian economy should be a most for whatever country has these kind of problems…
It's not even about becoming a gang lord.
In my own latino experience, David exemplifies the allure and danger of uncontrolled opportunity, in a massively corrupt world, both morally and practically. He lives in a reality where your station in life is pretty much set in stone, unless you're remarkable enough, crazy enough, violent enough or just lucky enough.
We, latinos, live in a cursed wonderland. There's opportunity for success, little to no taxes, even the weather is on our side, but this opportunity is barred by connections, corruption and poverty. You can lift yourself, but you need to know the right people, or get the right sort of help, or be in the right kind of mafia. It's a world that allows you to dream, only to pull the rug beneath your feet, as you strive to attain what once seemed possible.
@@hombreg1 this! I couldnt have said it better myself, thank you.
@@juhel5531 Technically a lot of things could happen. Like USA don’t be a dick and staging coup every year. Or corporations nukes themselves out of existence. But reality is reality, David’s mom worked to her bone and see how far she got? Not very far.
Luckily real world isn’t as depressed as night city yet but anyone with a functioning brain could tell the world is heading towards night city in a bullet train. And nobody cares to stop it.
Cyberpunk is a logical analysis of neoliberal capitalism and its consequences.
@@juhel5531 well people who fall for those things are usually young so they lack maturity and experience
I just finished the series and the constant struggle to escape night city really resonated with me. About a year after I got out of highschool I got a job working for a mail delivery company that had a reputation for wearing people's bodies down but the pay was really good. My friends had worked their in highschool and they called it hell but to me it wasn't that bad. I made it through the first 3 weeks then the first 3 months and now it has been over 3 years since I started. My body has been worn down and I have started to notice lasting impacts on my joints especially my knees. One of my favorite hobbies, hiking and climbing mountains, might be impractical for me to do in the next decade and for what? I have a little bit more money but I feel like I haven't progressed in life at all. I used to always think that as long as I persevered I would be able to live a relatively comfortable life but now I am not so sure. I look around me and see people at so many different stages in life and I think to myself that maybe I'm just destined to fail or at least to not have the life that I thought that I might have. I am worried that growing up I may have developed a survivorship bias while observing the adults around me. They may have struggled at points but things all worked out for them. I've seen a lot of people now who haven't had life work out for them and I am worried that I might be one of them.
I believe we should take a page out of David's book. When his mother died, he had to find a way to not just survive, but thrive. He had to find a family again and he did in the edgerunners. Like David, we should be resilient, and being resilient is focusing your energies and attention on things you can control. Yes, that will require us to adapt, but we will be stronger for it. And yes, we might still fail at the end, but it will be on our terms and the consequences of our actions. I need my hands for my work and I had to give up art so that I don't develop carpal tunnel syndrome. For you, it might be giving up hiking, or it might be changing your career and finding something you actually enjoy doing for work. The most important take away from this is not just survive the rat race or Night City IRL, but thrive. Find family and friends to surround yourself, do something that gives you meaning and give back to the community to feel connected to society and not suffer our form of cyberpsychosis, depression, fear and loneliness.
@@ryanw7671 preach!
Edgerunners had something that I pray we see in more animes nowadays.
It had love put into it
Thats CDPR for you, these guys may not be the absolut master of video games we wanted them to be but they absolutly pour their love and passion in what they do no one can deny that
Edgerunners really took me back to 2018 with Devilman Crybaby. I was just as depressed after watching that too, especially so since both shows came out of nowhere and made me feel things that most shows don’t go for with such veracity. I would ask for more like them but goddamn it gets harder as you get older and find more to relate to in it.
This is exactly what I thought after watch edge runner. This video and comment was the first to make the similarities on how it leaves you as an emotional train wreck after watching and at the same time wanting more.
Definitely Crybaby's spiritual successor.
The anime was awesome.
it shows(in a more extreme case) how rotten the world can be and how much people sacrifice to try to meet expectations, reach dreams to try and survive, that sometimes we loose ourselves and end up in this loop that feels meanigless.
And still it is way better than being a mindless drone in a communist hell like china or USSR constantly fearing to be erased for no reason at all. For me the movie Brasil or the book 1984 depict a universe infinitveley more terrifiyng than Night city. In this universe you dont even have to option to die in the light, to be remembered, you live and die like as a number.
When I was at the "Past and Future section" something suddenly dawned upon me.
You know what is so fascinating? The fact that older Things have found their way back into our society through new ways.
There is Fashion, Flip-phones, LPs, Gory OVA shows, the cyberpunk genre and etc were all things of the past and they are returning thanks to new technology!
and Netflix somehow managed to get some of the best Cyberpunk in recent years like Altered Carbon, Cyberpunk edge Runners and Arcane (although Arcane might more be like the Cyberpunk aesthetic)
Cyberpunk is by far the most philosophical genre by design and that's what fascinates me so much. a genre that's both cool and philosophical at the same time.
now excuse me for I'm going to watch "tears in rain" again!
I'ld say Arcane tackles a lot of themes that are found in cyberpunk. Class struggle, self identity in a large uncaring world, even HexTech is kinda similar to cybernetics, with some magical flavour. After all, the aesthetic and genre of Arcane is steampunk, which has similar roots to cyberpunk.
About the old things coming back, there's a philosophical concept by Mark Fisher called "the slow deletion of the future", which is a process that replaces the cultural idea of a possible future with retrofuturism, or how the people of the past saw the future. For Fisher this is caused by living in a cultural climate where capitalism is considered a natural and unchangeable state of humanity, and where the consequences of said system are acknowledged but not dealt with.
As a newcomer to the genre, I feel like the exploration of transhumanism is way more interesting than the whole "we live in a society" stuff but Edgerunners (and Robocop of all things) are great examples of how to do the ladder really well.
Also, it didn't spawn as many misinterpretations of what Cyberpsychosis is which is always a plus in my book.
In cyberpunk, the technology changes us in bad way, and the loss of humanity is its theme.
the whole concept of "cyberpunk" is where we're headed if society doesnt change , its kinda in the title of the game and anime if you didnt notice .
@@Retr0_Blues cool. How does this stop me from finding other things more interesting?
@@pleasecallmedoku7215 ... you found it interesting enough to click on a video talking about it ...
I shared some similar thoughts on the theme of edge runner. It interesting how it starts off with his mother being worked to the bone so she can get the better life for her son. David was pushed to be the top of his class. This early part was needed to put in some context. Dave's mother did not use much in a way of chrome and was burning out. She dies because of social pressures that let to crime, her bad health, and insurance policy.
David pushed to the top of his class. It strike me as the big fish idea in schools but at the end Adam Smasher was the bigger fish.
Cyberpunk as a genre in the West was also criticism to neo liberalism ( Reaganomics), and the damaging affects it has. And you see the city as nothing but neo liberalism. And there are so many problems in the real world and that world.
The last thing I also thought about is how this does not fallow most anime formula's. Dragon ball you see the power creep. The good guy wins as he steps up to fight to big bad of the season. This turned the idea on its head. Especially when Adam Smasher shows up.
I’m surprised that so many people were surprised that David died. They pretty much told us in the intro and they kept reinforcing that in each episode.
i had a feeling around episode 4, but by episode 7 i was basically 100% sure lol
Largely the point of the show is well something rather harsh that more people need to hear.... You're not special you don't have a destiny and the harder + faster you go will ultimately lead to your destruction because there's only so far you can rationally take things before the rubber band snaps
Yup. The insidious part is you're forced to use the rubber band atleast some of the time, and you don't have a clear gage for when the snap will occur
Yuh the brightest flame burns the fastest yadda yadda yadda, but if you're staying next to the flame that burns slowest you might as well go stand in total darkness
@@npc6817 a burning flame is still a flame all the same.
@@SaberRexZealot it's a metaphore genius, learn to burn a little
@@npc6817 we’re all burning man. We can all choose at what rate
This show really surprised me because I went into it not expecting anything. And then when I saw that last shot where Lucy sees David on the moon. It hurt. So so bad.
I think this show found me at a good time because I also feel like I’ve been pushing myself so hard and I just cannot stop. It’s as if this show really understood me.
Lol fuck David. What about Rebecca. I unironically played the entire game again just to completely humiliate Smasher. Justice for Rebecca
As someone who doesn’t watch any anime I loved this show. I love the art style and reminded me of Akira.
This comparison from 6:30-7:00 or around those times when they compare cyberpsychosis and the need to chrome yourself up to real life substance abuse is why i love their analysis. I had this same thought when i was watching it but i couldn’t verbalize it but wow.
The 2020s Cowboy Bebop. To some that ending is a weight to carry.
New HidingKun Vtuber model oh shit hot damn plus a upload my day got better for sure also when David yelled *_It's Chromin TIME_* that was the point of Cyberpunk Edgerunners to me
That was my favorite part too
@@HidinginPublic Hell Yeah bud
I’ve been waiting for this!
Thank goodness I did it then. Hoo boy
As someone who's played the tabletop game for years far before CD project red touched the franchise, I absolutely adore how cyberpsychosis is portrayed in the anime. It is much more real to how the tabletop operates.
In the table top the way cyber psychosis is developed is through a humanity score. Your initial humanity can be anywhere between 10 and 80 dependent on your empathy stat. To a maximum of 80 and a maximum of eight empathy which can never increase. Every time you gang a cybernetic not only do you lose humanity which is a score Point much like HP, but you also have a permanent 2-point loss to your humanity for every cybernetic and a permanent three-point loss for every piece of borgware.
When you're humanity goes down a threshold, beneath every tenth percentile, you also lose a point of human empathy permanently. If your empathy is seven, and your newest piece of hardware lowered the max to 68, you permanently now have only 6 empathy.
Which mechanically in the tabletop can become very dangerous for any edge runner who starts to now deal with tragedy and depression and other factors of the terrible World they live in bearing down on their mental state and damaging your humanity.
You may feel like a badass playing a solo fitted with all the newest cyberware, but when you're maximum humanity is 40 you're going to find yourself in mental peril very quickly. And the only way to regain lost humanity is through therapy or through the use of extremely close connections you create with other human beings, things of which anchor you into reality and with your humanity actively flexing and working your empathy.
As an example: without suitable therapy, coupled with alienation and emotional unavailability from someone whom you previously relied on emotionally, plus fitting yourself with all the latest Chrome, can easily send someone cyber psycho in the face of tragedy. If that rings any bells I just described what happened to David Martinez.
It would be interesting to see if religion/spiritual belief play a role in this. If you were to say become apart of a order of cyber monastic monks could this extensive group cohesion /spiritual belief dampen it? Cyberpunk always seemed materially focused to me, so it would be a interesting to see if spirituality of a kind could find its way back to this.
...are you talking about the 2013 Version (which I didn't ever get a chance to play) or 2020?
Cause in 2020 the maximum Characteristic you can have is 10 (the human maximum) after which cybernetics were required to exceed that.
The only other game that I think has a cap of 8 is the shitty Cyberpunk RED game.
This anime hits different both emotionally and physically
This is one of the best shows I've watched shit year, and this video is like a birthday present to me.
Thank you Hiding in Public for another banger video
Sure, thanks for watching! I really enjoyed edgerunners a lot
if both the game and anime taught me anything, Night City swallows you whole and spits you out mangled
Nice to see an analysis that understand the basic philosophical underpinnings of the cyberpunk genre.
Surprisingly rare considering how many other videos there are! The how to drink one is good
09:58 ironically Cyberpunk originated from original board game with same title. That's because it was based on Johnny Silverhand who was titular "punk". When main meaning behind it was seeking freedom. Johnny represented freedom and what freedom truly is. Freedom in reality is simply doing what you want. Obviously in order to function in society we need to balance it, so we have to consider what we want in life, but respect what others too.
Johnny was freedom to extreme, he was egoistical punk rocker. However, the game does not present it as bad thing fully.
He was not afraid to show middle finger to his friends, family and even punch them in the face. He always did what he wanted.
That's because he wanted to become opposition to controlling japanese society that took control of the world. Where people have blind obedience to rules, authorities. Where everything is based on cold meritocracy and slave like collectivism.
This is why he chose name of band "samurai" as mockery of blind obedience.
Cyberpunks caused anarchy, but in the end that anarchy was only thing stopping Arasaka from turning world into full dystopia. Where honest workers and tax payers simply supported that system and gave power to corporations that oppressed them.
David in a way follows same idea as Johnny, just more moral way.
Cyberpunk did not originate with the board game. It came from Neuromancer and blade runner, using Noir fiction and combining it with cybernetic science and philosophy
@@HidinginPublic i mean Cyberpunk as name of genre
I wish I could watch through it again fresh without stopping. Cyberpunk Edgerunners would have been worth a marathon.
8:57 caught me off guard, I've always hated the concept of working your ass off just for small moments of pleasure and a SLIM chance of living the dream life. I hated it. I hated the idea working yourself to waste every single day just to achieve something in life, not even living through each day, just surviving one day to the next because you're so exhausted. I wanted to end everything
and to be honest I still feel the same every now and then
but I've come to convince myself that I can spend my life striving towards something so at least when the end does come around, I won't have any what-ifs
I'll know I have tried my best.
You take that back, the David Martinez is a perfectly serviceable drink
"I just need this to get through the day" oof, felt that one.
god i LOVE when u make a video about my particular favs its a mood booster fr
Glad it lined up for you that way!
Video: *mind breaking depressing reality*
...
ANYWAY V TUBER COMING OUT--
(I love this channel now, honestly the best video ive seen in a long time, cyber punk is my new favorite genre/universe)
I don't understand. David protected lucy and her dream in the end. He didn't do it for his name on a drink. Plus arasaka didn't plan for him to go berserk as he did. Yes nothing in NC changed from David's actions but i doubt he cared about that.
Awesome analysis. You touch on what not many commentators do regarding cyberpunk, which is it's deeper philosophy.
I really like the video dude. How you said sandevistan was… Interesting. But it’s great.
A little bit more on this from a longstanding Cyberpunk fan. The game and show are based on a tabletop RPG. A big thing about cyberpsychosis, it's not cybernetics that are really to blame, only a smaller contributing factor. Cyberpsychosis is a loss of humanity, which includes things like regular PTSD, and that humanity loss can be slowed through downgrading your cyberware and just plain ole' therapy. You could have 1 cyberlimb and become cyberpsycho from PTSD, or be like Smasher and have a full cyborg body, and not experience cyberpsychosis.
Ad per the cause, the big thing when it comes to cybernetics, you won't lose humanity because your arm got ripped off and you needed a new one, you will however lose humanity if you have a perfectly working arm that you personally decide to chop off to upgrade it. Smasher didn't go cyberpsycho because he had his entire body blown away by RPG fire while in the corp wars, and legit needed to have it replaced with cybernetics.
That being said, for those who are going to say Smasher clearly is a cyberpsycho, no he's not. He's a regular psycho, like we have nowadays. He just also happens to be decked out in cybernetics, cyberpsychosis is a very different thing that comes mostly from you deciding to separate yourself from your humanity (This flesh is weak and needs upgrading).
Smasher didn't become a cyberpsycho because he had abnormally low humanity to begin with, right? Which, funnily enough, is the exact opposite reason David was able to wear so much chrome. David was resistant because he had so high humanity, Adam was resistant because his was so low.
@@wlt3585 It's more that Smasher's cybernetics were a necessity. David's was an active choice to replace perfectly functional flesh with chrome.
@@dmdeal7562 So you think that had he went through the process without having to, he would've succumbed to cyberpsychosis?
@@wlt3585 Most likely. He works with Arasaka, so it's possible he could've gotten free therapy, but somehow I just can't see him in therapy LMAO.
The starting soon screen looks dope. Also amazing video
Thanks and thanks
Now this is a beautiful video essay. Well done man.
Interesting thing about cyberpsychosis is that human connections and increasing empathy and humanity causes a decrease likelihood of getting it. So David descent was due to the tension between him and Lucy as they both were hiding stuff and could talk it out
cant wait for the streams to come back, also good video hiding
Me too. I am majorly missing streaming
Lovely Vid.... I'll be watching more of your stuff
Thanks! I'll try to get better about posting
Hell yeah, new Hiding video!
Looking so forward to the Vtuber debut stream. I miss the streams a lot and can’t wait for it~
I miss them too. I'm hoping if I hold back for the debut it will be perceived as more momentous ig. Fingers crossed
@@HidinginPublic It will work out! We’ll be there to welcome all new people with open arms. They’ll love it ^_^
I just have to say that you did an absolutely amazing job in analyzing the many themes of Cyberpunk Edgerunners it was truly unlike the other videos I have seen. Absolutely amazing 👏.
Edgerunners, Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho Season 3, AOT S4 Part 2, and Bleach returning - all in one year. I don’t think this year is ever gonna get topped.
I’m surprised to see anyone still streaming on Twitch, but I’m down to check it out - nonetheless.
Yeah it's a crazy year. Twitch just seemed more doable for survival rn. UA-cam takes a massive cut of every direct donation and twitch doesn't take any. Getting 50% vs 97% is a pretty substantial jump. But maybe something has happened recently idk I've kinda been out of the loop with the xqc miskif twitchcon drama stuff
@@HidinginPublic The donation thing sounds stupid, but I honestly don’t know much about the situation either. I’ve just seen quite a few YTers switch over to UA-cam for streaming completely now. I’ve only ever used Twitch for certain creators and the Valorant codes/Twitch prime rewards, so it doesn’t make much difference to me.
Is Bleach good? I don’t really watch anime but I loved edgerunners, and I thought bleach might be cool since it’s a ginger protagonist, which we don’t get much of anymore lol
Although I do get what you are saying, and it's a nice review on the human addiction for technology and it's social implications.
I've always felt that the point of edge runners was just to amplify the point of the game, which is to say "the advancement of materialization and free market society does not mean a necessary improvement on both morals and quality of life" or in other words, success in this city is just an illusion (the city of dreams), as clearly seen, those who seek success in this city will only find it in death (dead mercs are seen as heroes), while those who think are in a social higher ground are just as cut throat as the rest of society trying to climb to whatever corp they can (corps die in masses for meaningless reasons just like mercs), the only people you get to see in a better position are those that live in ignorance and lack of care, however they are often casted out into the backlines of the story.
David and the rest of the crew, did not die for an addiction of technology, they died desperate for meaning in success, not understanding that the only thing at the top was death.
5:25 you went through the entire series and didn’t even ATTEMPT to say it like they did
Your special
Edit: I vibe with this video and it’s message. Is being flesh machines with an idea of having free will but not actually possessing it is something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while, glad somebody made a successful video about it faster than I could.
S a n d e v i s t a n
5:25 you pronounced it that was for the comments....and I am that comment. Keep up the incredible work
It's a yummy pronunciation
You really have a good commentary voice, It's nice to listen to and suits that avatar lol
Thanks haha
This was such a solid analysis. Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Absolutely eloquent and thoughtful video Hiding! Your word choice is fantastic and your scripts are stellar!
Thank you Zach! I'm still trying haha
Heeey!, It's a shame I only just saw this, it's really awesome you've gotten a vtuber model my guy!
Always nice seeing you posted
I finished Edgerunners today, and after it was over, I just thought "so what was the point?" I completely missed it. This is a great explanation. I can't believe I didn't notice the symbolism of David literally putting Maine's arm on himself after he had to run away like that. And then it's just Maine's arm (David's left) that's shaking! Brilliant.
I think of it like don't do drugs just because other people are lol
Great vid, but bro the san-dav-is-ston? LMAO
Great video best boy!
(also, the SMT ost is perfectly fitting here 👌👌👌)
Thanks Yuki!!! Ooowaaaa
Your question of "We were never in control?" is actually true for the series.
David never happened to find the Sandevistan. Everything was orchestrated when his mom died - even to his death. Arasaka lost a valuble net runner, but in return gained the Sandevistan technology which they did not have till Edgerunners. With a full demo of usage. That was what Lucy was doing, trying to get rid of David's info from the internet but Arasaka was already in that as well.
I grew up reading Neuromancer, Monalisa Overdrive, Mirror shades, and watching Bladerunner, Terminator. So around 2013 finishing Uni with AI being a front topic, I always wandered that there will be some break point where AI will overtake humanity. Where humans will rely more on AI. 10 years later almost going into 2023, I see this is absolutely the case. Everything that can be convenience into AI, will always will be delegated there. Even your appearance on Instagram, FB, Tinder, Twitter, is AI controlled. Heck take your job as a youtuber, if you dont meet the requirements of the AI algorithm, you will never 'make it' in youtube.
For me this is bitter sweet. For years humanity rebelled against mother nature and replaced it as the creator. But now our own creation is at the precipice of replacing us. I knew AI will overtake us. My only question is now wondering when will AI judge we are an inconvenience. I wonder what they will do about it.
Moral of the story.
Don't drop out of school
Arasaka wouldn't have given him a chance if he just graduated normally tbh
@@HidinginPublic Unless his "self" assimilates as part of the loop
"What if we were never in control?" It would be Tuesday. You won't ever get to choose your path, but you can choose to walk it as well as you can. Focus on that. Life before death Radiant.
it's crazy how edgerunners managed to tell a compelling story with fun, memorable characters in only 10 episodes. the game didn't reach the same feeling for me, even though it tried to be so grandiose. sometimes less is more I guess.
for me the game is exceptional, best I've ever played! story telling was brill imo
Its pacing was superb. The world felt so fleshed out in such a short time and I didn't even play the game yet. Definitely makes me want to in a way but I just wanna watch the show again mostly.
in the end the game was not so grandiose, it tells a pretty small story of a dying man/woman looking hopelessly for a way out and some confort in a harsh universe
Been expecting this video for 2 weeks
Whoopsie
Finally a new video
Yeah....
You really have a way of using words. Great video and analysis
Thanks. I appreciate it
I wasn't expecting a reference to How To Drink, mad props 👍
He made a good vid
Love your style man. Gotta love the SMT IV theme music amirite?
It's a really good fit for edgerunners imo
Wasn’t expecting you to have watched How to Drink’s video
He really did do a good job of breaking down the cyberpunks genre
Yeah he did a great job. Better than most the other cyberpunk videos talking directly abt the show imo haha
Another great video!
And a Vtuber debut, huh? Never been to into them but I'll support ya cuz I love your content
It's mainly to have something nice for seeing my reactions on stream. I won't be playing a character, just leaning more into my bag boy persona. Maybe that'll make it more accessible since you don't really watch vtubers
@@HidinginPublic Thats good enough for me!
pretty good vid, waiting for the next manga review though!
hopefully you could cover shimeji simulation in the future, it's a nice surreal series made as a pseudo sequel of GLT
A haven't finished edgerunners yet so I'm going to have to finish this video later when I do. I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say about it though. I have been really enjoying the series.
I may be not as smart nor knowledgeable as most of the people on the comment section here, but one thing i can tell for sure, a consistent pattern for a modern art of masterpiece is that:
The casual enjoyer can appreciate it and the enthusiast can took apart a piece of said "masterpiece" with them and can sprung a vast lesson/takeaway from it.
(Really enjoyed everyone take on what they get from this show, everyone is almost different and beautiful in its own way)
I can't believe we got a sequel to your Devilman Crybaby video before we got a new Devilman anime post-Crybaby.
I can - yuasa doesn't typically double dip haha
@@HidinginPublic I didn't expect more from Yuasa, but I did expect someone to try to piggyback off of Crybaby's success with spinoffs like a new Devilman Lady adaptation.
I don't know how to express this using other ways but damn I love your voice
Thanks! It's better than the alternative
Well said! People who have reviewed Edgerunners negatively have zero media literacy ability
I needed this thank you
Sure, thanks for watching
I don't really care for anime but I really enjoyed Edgerunners. I loved the style, the colors, the story. I really hope we can see more like this.
This gave me goosebumps bro
Interesting video the creator of the tabletop game said on multiple interviews The point of the game is that you cannot change or rescue the world but you can save yourself or Your love ones I need the video game spoiler alert the only good one is technically you leaving the city with the nomads don’t know if that brings anything to the table just an interesting thought
HE POSTEDDDDD
Finally
Love the into, I'm going to try my hand on making one like it
Loved the video my friend!
Thanks Shaz
Genuinely beautifully written, very insightful commentary. Im impressed!
Yup, i hate when ppl just become part of the sad life they were trapped in, and never truly get out :’) makes me sad
I just want everyone to be alive and season 2 as well 🥺
That doesn't seem too likely
@@HidinginPublic well I hate this show 🤨💔☹️👎
Huh! I saw something different in this show. The message I got was that there is a choice - to give up or to dream. And the show encourages people to dream, to give it all you got, and then maybe, just maybe, your dreams will come true.
i think it's a little more than just not being in control. It's about taking the control you have.
Yes, at the end of edge runners david realizies he doesn't have as much of the control he wants and expects. He didn't get to go to the moon, he didn't have as much control over himself as he thought. But at the same time, he took back the control he had. He realized what actually mattered to him: Lucy. Cyberpunk edge runners in the end, at least to me, is just as much what we can't live without as much as it is what we can live with.
David hit his breaking point. He could have left Lucy. He could have run. But in the end, broken and bleeding he made his choice. He had time. Over and over again we see the choice made to fight the corps. Jonny silverhand, V, David Martinez, Sasha from the music video. To some extent, it just doesn't matter. IF they ever did win, the beauty of what they did would be lost. The beauty of doing the right thing, even when it costs everything, even when it accomplishes nothing. That's beautiful and sad.
We aren't in complete control. Free will isn't completely free. We won't completely break free of the systems around us, political, theological, emotional, and so on, until we're dead. It's nihilistic, but I think it's true. David rejected the system. He was trapped in it for so long, but it's only once he was dying, once he realized how little control he actually had that he was able to break free and make a real choice.
I've said it before and ill save it again; the system and the augmentations is the cyber part of cyberpunk. The punk part is sticking it to the man, being mad as hell, and doing something about it. They do live in loops and there's a thousand stories like David's but what is more free than fighting for what you believe in?
5:26 SAHNdeVIStan lmao
This is good stuff though
Goated pronunciation
I'm probably gonna watch cyberpunk edgyrunner so ill play this on silent
It's good
Maybe i don't get something but how can you like have less chrome than you had before? Like implants replace body Parts, so you would no longer have them.
Well done, and i must agree with this video bro
Thanks, although you hadn't finished when you left this! I still appreciate tho
@@HidinginPublic yeah huh I totally uhhhh did
I'm surprised you haven't covered Ergo Proxy & Berserk yet.😱
Great video. 👌
Thanks!
I'm the Persona 4 lad
This guy is like my fav, he's got really good taste
Me?
@@HidinginPublic yes 🙂
Does edgerunners bring anything new to the table of the cyberpunk genre or anime?