A Serious Critique of Cyberpunk Edgerunners

[@PaxTubeChannel]

Thanks for watching. If you enjoy my videos, you can support my work here: www.buymeacoffee.com/PaxOfficial More coming soon! Just to be clear about why I consider this a ‘Western' anime - It was a collaboration between Americans, Poles, and a Japanese animation studio. Americans and Poles wrote the story, while Netflix (an American company) was its sole distributor and thus had the final say on everything. I consider the defining characteristics of an anime to be who wrote it & controlled it, not who animated it.

[@1685Violin]

You forgot to pin the comment.

[@PaxTubeChannel]

​@@1685Violin Whoops. Thanks for letting me know! Fixed.

[@Beret413]

Pin momment

[@NiNadaNadie]

studio trigger is also pretty western for a japanese studio

[@luispacheco7197]

@@PaxTubeChannel do you agree that trigger studios is a very bad anime studio

[@joecrazy9896]

Technically wearing a cross is just typical Latino fashion really because a majority of them are Catholic or have that background. Whether or not they are actual practicing Catholics, that's a whole other thing.

[@kingbaguette1843]

As a Latino myself, I can’t stand non practicing people wearing crosses. It gives off lukewarm Christian’s vibes.

[@sonicthehedgehog1606]

Well most latinos are religious

[@PerezosoDoom]

I would say it's a big problem, over here.

[@kingbaguette1843]

@@kathleendelcourt8136 A faith has a certain set axioms that one has to believe and a certain set of rules that one has to follow to be part of that faith. If you’re not gonna believe in the tenants of your religion and your not gonna follow it’s rules than you shouldn’t call yourself a member of that religion. If you chose to deny the teachings of your religion but still claim membership to it, that makes you a hypocrite and a fence sitter.

[@kathleendelcourt8136]

@@kingbaguette1843 And who cares? And who's gonna be the judge of it?

[@Skully_14]

The main point of Edgerunner is that California sucks

[@IanB3rry]

Cyberpunk 2077- California sucks CP Edgerunners- California sucks GTA 5- California sucks Fallout 1, 2, New Vegas: California sucks

[@vincentthendean7713]

@@IanB3rry Project Wingman - Nuke California... ... TWICE

[@thehysker0697]

@@IanB3rry Feels like Californians are sending SOS signal

[@GLASSMOSCOWANDBEIJING]

​@@IanB3rry didn't New Vegas take place in the Mojave desert in the outskirts of Las Vegas which is Nevada. You know OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA? The only form of California in that game was the NCR and I will give you that it still sucked ass

[@TS10852]

@@GLASSMOSCOWANDBEIJING Las Vegas is California. Simple as.

[@Derrad333]

Cross necklace is theorized to represent david's innocence and he does lose it along the way

[@viensolis]

So you do relate that the cross, Jesus, is and was an innocent figure?

[@silverhawkscape2677]

​@@viensolis Technically yes.

[@FoxyGal18]

​@@viensolisuh, yeah? 😒

[@mrbigglezworth42]

Arguably he lost it long before the show started. Life in a dystopic place like Night City doesn't allow for such a thing to survive. Just look at how unconcerned he was during his trip to school. He passes by bums, people masturbating in public, a crime scene to a BD scroll he had, and not a single thing really phases him. The city robbed him of his innocence long before he got chromed up.

[@AdventureThroughLife]

​@mrbigglezworth42 not be the "AKSHUALLY" guy, but religion plays a bigger part in the cyberpunk universe than the anime portrays. So does race. Every intersection of groups in cyberpunk hates all the others who have it better than them. It's a deeply jealous and resentful world split across every characteristic you can imagine, just like in prisons. Imagine the people of cyberpunk to be racial gangs with religious lines dividing each race into different smaller gangs as well. Then add class divisions on top. Religious gangs like the valentinos use religion to live with themselves after every horrible crime they commit to live on.

[@CrowningBrowning]

The thing about cyberpunk is its supposed to be a twisted dystopia. You're supposed to be shocked by the terrible things happening in the streets. They don't even eat real food it's all bugs and processed junk. Thing is idk how it got that bad. If mega corps own the city wouldn't they clean it? Perhaps people suffering below makes them easier to control? I'm not 100% sure but I know you're not supposed to admire anything about night city, save for some cool architecture. All in all I dig the vid.

[@marvalice3455]

it's not that shocking though. it may have been in the 80s, but shock value has a shelf life shorter than milk on the counter in louisiana.

[@darthjekyll3648]

Lab grown meat, and sexualization everywhere. The show is a good thing for what it was saying for its world. Don't let the world go through this. And it's just around the corner if we are not careful. The game and anime helps us realize the logical future we have I'd we don't stop going further down the path we are.

[@PapaMist]

@@darthjekyll3648 It was a cautionary tale providing no real alternative paradigm of existence or life. Just futuristic squalor and hopelessness emblematic of cyberpunk. So a solid 8/10 show. Nihilism rules us already in popular culture, so the message felt prophetic AND depressing.

[@measlesplease1266]

​@@PapaMistit's being forced on us to control us.

[@ishitrealbad3039]

Cyberpunk is just bad for the sake of being bad, it's not even explained in the game itself.

[@goodboi42]

What scares me the most is how people have lost compassion in this dystopian future. But what scares me more is that it is slowly turning into a reality. Like, they don't care that the person in front of them is also another HUMAN. In fact, it seems as if being a "mostly organic human" is a bad thing (as shown in ep 3).

[@travv88]

We see the foundation of this irl

[@sandercohen9712]

It's called a behavioral sink

[@KeanuChrist]

Cyberpunk is based around a world shaped by corporations. Corporations have more money, and power than countries. They have “Corporate wars” instead of “World Wars.” Arasaka in the video game just reduced their work hours to 100 hours per week so their employees can “spend time with their families.” The dystopia you see is literally where we are heading. Corporations today have already created a man-made inflation to keep their profits high for their stockholders since profits were “record-breaking” during quarantine.

[@huk5414]

ZeitgeistMovement Moment

[@measlesplease1266]

It's conditioning

[@andrazprelec8263]

"Western" anime, made by a Japanese studio, based on a game made by Pols

[@misterpotato427]

You dare question thy holy Pax? Heretic.

[@kovaakskomet2990]

If you question a video like this it immediatly falls apart

[@FirstnameLastname-yk2js]

​@kovaakskomet2990 ye, and he seems to be thinking that his opinion and tastes are valid critique. The only valid critique I heard from his is the show was to short. Which I agree with. But considering that he gets the basic facts about who made the anime, it was already going to be a bad review.

[@terrencemoldern2756]

The work is Western and yes I’m sorry to tell you... but JAPAN has been HEAVILY WESTERNIZED since the 1950s and going forward... Or did we nuking them and effectively turning them into our b* ch not happen in that small head of yours?

[@terrencemoldern2756]

@@FirstnameLastname-yk2jssome views are valid sorry to say. Everything he said is backed by reality... Just cause your smooth brain @$$ doesn’t understand facts doesn’t make it somehow lesser...

[@mauser98kar]

I think, it isn't an issue of endorsing the unsavory lifestyle. We should give this show more credit - it went out of its way to show us that this whole lifestyle leads nowhere but death and grief. Most of the characters by the end of the show died because of it! Same goes for gore, nudity and whatnot - it is shown senseless, soulless, hollow. Which is the exact theme of Cyberpunk the game, the show and the setting itself - complete and utter nihilism destroying people and the world. Its not done to promote anything, quite the literal opposite - it looks wrong and feels wrong on purpose, it should make you retch. Life in the show means nothing, its cheaper than dirt - and it is so very wrong, and the show, well, shows it. Under the kitch and neon of edgerunners and cyberpunks lies madness, sorrow and death. I think, the characters trying to thrive and stay positive in their hellish predicament is one of show's strongest sides. It does not promote their lifestyle, but it humanizes them, it shows that even despite all things they do and suffer they are still humans. Bad humans, troubled humans, but humans nevertheless. And this fleeting humanity of ephemeral punk who rise to die next day is probably the only hope left in their world. P.S. Yeah, lack of lore sucks. The show is targeted to people already familiar with the universe, clearly, and it doesn't bother to tell you fine details. Which is, well, quite a bother.

[@terrencemoldern2756]

Hmm some fair points. Though I do think the show glorifys the cast and their roles. “They show that this lifestyle only leads to misery, death and greed...” Yes but do you know what else they show? That David has no other choice. They heavily lean on David supposedly having nowhere else to go to “justify” him turning to this lifestyle... and even in this show. They continue to justify the lifestyle over the course of the run time. Even when the gang does objectively messed up things like murder or theft. The show runners are careful to make sure that it is only ever done to really bad people or people who were victims of circumstance. They go out of their way to display David and the crews actions as being necessary, understandable and even potentially good in many cases. Even in the case of the poor assistant... it is shown in the show that David killed her over his cyberpsychosis... aka “he didn’t mean to...” Thus leading many viewers to excuse his action as being out of his control.

[@terrencemoldern2756]

You say that the show demonizes the lifestyle. But, the truth is that it barely does. It demonizes it to the extent that they criticize really evil characters like Adam Smasher but excuse David as just being someone who “had no other choice” or “hit the last straw...” The show equally tries to legitimize the protagonists actions which in turn makes their crimes and this lifestyle appear to be less bad then they actually are. Its like how in real life people use the death of family members to justify riots like we see from BLM. Pax points on this are valid and sensible.

[@mauser98kar]

​@@terrencemoldern2756 What do you mean? It literally shows how David ruined himself into an insane addict. Yes, his last act was noble, but that was a swan song of a crumbling, doomed person who destroyed own self over worldly obsessions. In the end even the love he felt for Lucy was not enough to save him - so far gone he was in the hellhole that is the Night City. I cannot fathom how all of this, portrayed in brutal, "in your face!" manner could possible justify, condone or promote self-destructive insanity that is the way of cyberpunk. It does one thing that may seem positive at the first glance, namely - it give cyberpunks this heroic allure of rebels. If we look closely, however, this is not done to promote their way. And for this we must look at the bigger picture. By the way - I am writing this as a person who is familiar with Cyberpunk genre in general and Cyberpunk 2077 setting specifically. This knowledge augments and scews my perception in equal measure. So, why cyberpunks made to look heroic and why this is not a good thing or a promotion of their way of life. The Cyberpunk genre is often know by this catchy motto of: "High tech. Low life" Cyberpunk 2077's motto is the same, except there is a thir part: "High tech. Low life. No hope". Its this third part that is the focus of the setting - its a stagnant world with no future. Not even the release of death will save its people - the system of the world is not falling apart but is stable, hence stagnant. Stagnant in its corruption, injustice and pain. This is why cyberpunks have this strong heroic allure, being one of few people who try to shake up the stagnation. And this is also why they are not actual heroes - most of them, at least. Being spawned by their horrible world, they are mere parts of it. They no more heroic or rebellious than the corpos they hate. Just a different type of cogs in the grand machine of Cyberpunk 2077. Where what's left of humanity is hopelessly rotting alive in world made endless Limbo. The closest analogue of cyberpunk would be a romanticized bandit in a corrupt country, often seen as "maybe bad, but more honest and authentic than those greedy higher ups". Being in fact just another type of evil. Cyberpunks, the living cogs inside the machine of their world, spin endlessly - and pointlessly. They chase their wild dreams born out of pointlessness around them, wear themselves down and be replaced by another set of cogs. Rinse and repeat. Thus, their existence - rebels without cause or even an actual rebellion - perfectly encapsulates the "No hope" aspect of Cyberpunk 2077. In futile struggle against the overwhelming system, they burn themselves and others to the ground. Achieving and changing nothing. But of course, it takes context of the Cyberpunk 2077 setting that series did a barebone job of delivering!

[@mauser98kar]

@@terrencemoldern2756 "No other choice" - exactly!!! This is the setting's motto of "No hope" written on every surface, in every character, in every scene! They did it so subtly - perhaps, way too subtly - that people take it as endorsement, when it is in fact an aesthetic core of the setting! But it is the results that puts the dots over i's. They have burned themselves to the ground, leaving a pile of corpses and a few miserable, broken souls. This is the ultimate end-result of the way of cyberpunk - burn bright in the world of stagnation, sometimes in a vane hope that the light of your burning will illuminate the way for the others! But even such mastodon of rebelliousness such as Silverhand was proven but an empty idol, whose rebellion did nothing good. Such is the world of Cyberpunk 2077, such is its tragedy. No hope, no future, no certainty, only a struggle with uncertain end.

[@cwinchcarwash2629]

one hope for your P.S. is that if we get more stories animated in this world, there's opportunity for more lore i hope!

[@gfin4576]

I would categorize this as a Japanese anime, made by studio trigger with input from Mike Pondsmith, (the creator of the cyberpunk red tabletop RPG setting) and lead writers at CD project RED. It is distributed by the American company Netflix on their streaming service. (and maybe the American and polish influence does change how this product ended up now that I read your comment)This story is a tragedy, think romeo and Juliette, and how the families toss aside their hatred at the end. Where is the positive message to be had in this story? The positive lesson I took from the end of cyberpunk edgerunners, is that even in such a dystopian world people can find solace in things like love and friendship, even if it is a version of it that are warped from what we know them to be. The world of cyberpunk is warped and immoral, and the people in it (including our protagonists) are not nearly powerful enough to change it. But that is not grounds to fall into nihilism. David turning to his new "friends" and new life to escape his grief avoids his decent into nihilism by falling into crime. David does not make good choices in this story, and I believe that that is cautionary. David's own mother commits the systematic theft of Cybernetic parts to put her son through private high school. I believe that this is the justification that David wanted to justify his decent into crime. The hope that persists in David is that he can realize Lucy's dream, but his character flaws lead him to his doom while pursuing enough money for 2 round trip tickets. Religion is almost completely absent in night city, save for the Latino Valentinos gang, and a sect of Buddhist monks, who reject trans humanism outright. like our world, religious symbols are used as a fashion statement in night city. I think if you saw what Mike Pondsmith has created in the cyberpunk setting, you would see that he shows this as a world that we should avoid moving towards. all of the negative aspects of American culture are heightened in the cyberpunk setting, to show us what to avoid. If cyberpunk is not a Japanese anime partially because of it over sexualisation, then would studio trigger's previous project "kill la kill" not be considered Japanese anime as well? Kill la kill is a story ultimately about " liberation of sexuality" and rejection of conservative clothing, a very western progressive message, but coming entirely from japan. "Just to be clear about why I consider this a ‘Western' anime - It was a collaboration between Americans, Poles, and a Japanese animation studio. Americans and Poles wrote the story, while Netflix (an American company) was its sole distributor. I consider the defining characteristic of an anime to be who wrote it, not who animated it." -Pax Tube. I would love to hear your opinion on Kill la Kill, as I think it warrants deconstruction from our point of view. It does promote traditional family structure though, now that i think about it. Love the content and the arguments it makes me think about, keep it up brother, God bless.

[@yekkub9425]

I dont think they ever have premarital s** in Kill la Kill though. I've never watched it however, so I dont know.

[@baldkiwi444]

@@yekkub9425 i watched it a long time ago so i may be wrong, but i don't remember there ever being sex at all

[@gfin4576]

@@yekkub9425 i dont think i talked about pre-marital sex in my comment. i did talk about over sexualisation and liberation of sexuality in the context of clothing.

[@gfin4576]

@j0sh why does everyone in my reply's only care about the kill la kill part.

[@yekkub9425]

@@gfin4576 That's way less harmful than normalizing actual premarital s**. Still harmful from what I've seen of the show.

[@ggooch97]

Edgerunners is a matter-of-fact character study/Tragedy. Its not justifying anything, but its showing you something scary. Its a cautionary tale. Also, cyberpunk is known for being "low life, high tech". Cyberpunk (TM) is style over substance.

[@myusername3689]

I think you need to make a video on what real Nihilism is because quite a lot of “nihilistic” works sound a lot more pessimistic or cynical than actual nihilism.

[@CantusTropus]

In practice, there isn't a whole lot of difference between those things. Nihilism tends to make you pessimistic and cynical, because if there's no meaning to anything, why wouldn't you be pessimistic and cynical? It's the natural reaction to nihilism. Some people might decide to try and drown the existential dread in empty pleasure-seeking or trying to strive for their own goals, but this is basically just cope.

[@The6thMessenger]

@@CantusTropus Ever heard of Optimistic Nihilism?

[@sonicthehedgehog1606]

@@The6thMessenger still the same thing but with cope

[@oaxis8198]

@@The6thMessenger We're in a whole new territory dude. just walk away and try not to look back. maybe link this in your local discord for some hahas.

[@Ninja07Keaton]

@@CantusTropus Spare me. The true cynics are those who devote themselves to ideology. After all, a cynic is one who has a low opinion of humanity. And who would hate humanity more than those whose ideology has been slighted by the very nature of the species? Between those who don't care at all and those who care to the point of violent hypocrisy, I'll accept the former. Because at least those who don't care will leave me alone.

[@motivationallizard6644]

A critique of your critique: 1. Cyberpunk isn’t a nihilistic setting, it’s a corporatist dystopia created to criticize modern corporatism. Like 1984 was created to critique authoritarian in the 1940’s and 1950’s cyberpunk was created to critique the influence of corporations in modern society. It’s not an intrinsically nihilistic story in the way that it’s authors write it, and if anything the theme of both the game and of the anime is that you can overcome a hopeless situation. In cyberpunk this situation often manifests from the mega corporations that control society. Night city is a pseudo city state separate from the us government and it’s effectively ruled by puppet politicians paid by corporations like arasaka, mil tech, and trauma team. The reason night city is such a horrible place is because these corporations effectively block anything that would hurt their bottom lines. For example, Arasaka and Mil-tech manufacture firearms, and as shown in the show, do everything they can to make the markets as unrestricted as possible, flooding the streets with weapons. This of course isn’t a problem for arasaka and mil tech executives, who live in high rise skyscrapers far away from cyber psychos and edgerunners, but it is a problem for the average person who has to deal with these things on a regular basis. Every time an arasaka executive orders a hit on a mil tech transport a civilian gets caught in the crossfire (like David’s mom) and the same goes for cyberpsychos. This is meant to illustrate both the broken nature of night city as the people have no real voice to change their otherwise miserable lives but also to critique real world issues like gun control in the United States which are largely perpetrated by corporate opposition to even sensible gun reforms. David doesn’t have a real choice in this scenario after his mother dies. He’s bullied at school, where he’ll likely be kicked out due to not being able to afford tuition, and there’s no honest work in night city either. David’s own mother was scrapping by to just afford an apartment and still had to commit crimes to pay for his education at Arasaka (this is mentioned by his bullies who are dumbfounded at how David could afford the tuition). So David’s options are to live a stagnate life as a low corporate employee, where he’ll likely die from a cyberpsycho or corporate mercenary, or to become an edgerunner and try to make serious cash to upgrade his standing in life. Therefore, he chooses the path of the edgerunner as his only way out in a world where his options are so horrible. David’s story is also anything but nihilistic. Sure the saying in the show and the game is that “there’s no happy endings in night city” but David’s is about as happy as you can get. David never had a goal in his life. It’s made clear that the highest positions in Arasaka are won through nepotism and with his mom dead he’d never even get the chance to sniff an executive seat let alone graduate. Therefore he takes charge of his life in a kill or be killed world and makes a name for himself as an edgerunner while finding love with Lucy. David never finds meaning in this life though and the only thing that keeps him sane is Lucy. That’s why in the end he sacrifices himself for her. As long as Lucy gets to live and accomplish her dream, that makes david happy because in his world that’s the best a guy like him can get. He gets his happy ending, becomes a legend in nigh city, and his girl lives out her dream. It may seem morbid considering how he dies but in a world ruled by corporations who couldn’t care less about giving david a good life, david was able to rise to the top of their towers, destroy it and provide for his family in the end which is anything but nihilistic considering that David found meaning in his life through Lucy. This isn’t meant to make you feel warm or comfortable though. David’s death is tragic and gives a realistic tone that’s often lacking in modern dystopia’s where the hero’s inevitably win making its societal critics all the more powerful. 2. On the cross bit, David is Latino. Most Latinos, whether practicing Catholics or not, still perform a form of cultural Christianity through wearing Christian paraphernalia like crosses. David’s cross also symbolizes his innocence which is gradually eroded as he venture’s throughout night city. Edgerunners never meant to introduce Christianity into its story (idk where you got that idea from). 3. I have no clue why you brought up the men vs women physical debate because it’s made clear in the show and the game that the cybernetic enhancements in the series give people ridiculous physical abilities and even superpowers. Hell, the sandevistan literally allows you to move at super speed and perception blitz the average person. Also the fight scenes aren’t meant to be realistic. The show is directly based on a game where (you guessed it) the violence is exaggerated. This also doesn’t mean that the tension is sucked out of the plot. Rebecca’s brother literally gets his blown off halfway through the series and it clearly establishes that the protagonists aren’t safe. Heck, all but two of the main casts characters are dead by the end of the series so unless you watched a different show idk where you pulled this from. Also in your critique of this you literally show an scene from the movie gladiator as a good example which literally has gladiatorial combat, death, and dismemberment. So unless you just have a double standard and desire to critique the show rather that critically evaluate it I don’t understand this criticism. 4. On the nudity, there’s an entire episode devoted to showing the problem that sex creates in night city. David literally kills the porn director that pawns gore videos and idk if you actually watched that episode considering that you don’t even mention it or it’s themes and mostly just skim over it while not acknowledging it. Edgerunners also never mentioned marriage because it has no place in their society. David and Lucy never got married because they’d literally die before either of them could realistically settle down. This is a part of real public policy because people won’t get married if they feel uncomfortable or unable to settle down (hence lowering birth rates) and creating a bad problem in the process. To me this seems more like your projecting your world view on to a series that pretty explicitly goes over why these things aren’t possible and why it’s bad that there’s so much gore and porn, and saying “well I still don’t like it”. It’s childish and refuses to seriously acknowledge what the series is trying to convey through its story. 5. On grief, this is literally a main part of the story. David only goes psycho after Maine and the rest of the crew start to die off. Rebecca also had a pretty obvious emotional reaction to her brothers death and copped through it with her connection to David which was made evident through her developing a crush on him. I seriously don’t know how you missed this considering it’s the main plot for about half of the series. Maine’s “addiction” is also a main part of the series. David’s only role model/ father figure is Maine so he obviously follows in his foot steps and continues doing the only thing he knows, edgerunning. It’s pretty obvious that this isn’t good for David but he literally can’t do anything else because it’s the only way he can make a life for himself in night city and the world. He can’t even run away because, newsflash, the rest of the world is even worse than night city. If you played the games you would know that but you clearly didn’t do your research into the setting while making this video. There’s no trad Catholic place they can run away to because there’s crime and mega corps everywhere and governments are too weak to enforce laws. 6. Lastly, Arasaka does face consequences for their actions, just not in the show. Literally one year after the climax of edgerunners V (the protagonist of the game) takes them and Adam smasher down. Again, do your research.

[@luisguilherme2964]

Damn. This is a very good critique.

[@kdash2657]

A critique on your critique. Include spacing if you want people to read your wall of text.

[@motivationallizard6644]

@@kdash2657 that’s why there’s numbers separating the points and paragraphs. This is KZbin not AP English, learn to read.

[@jonathacirilo5745]

​@@motivationallizard6644 some spacing would still be nice tho.

[@mirceazaharia2094]

Your comment would be infinitely more legible and therefore your ideas would be propagated much more easily if it were to be broken apart into PARAGRAPHS. AAAAAAAAH, WALL OF TEXT, I HATE IT NASGEHHRJSBFBJEHRBR

[@JustUsCrazyBoyz]

No symbolism in this show, good or bad will save you from the feels.

[@hx615]

It's more of criticizing the genre than criticizing the anime. Very Matt Walsh, just out of place from every angle.

[@uraloser5553]

4:38 Wrong, it is because Christianity is completely irrelevant and unimportant to the story the show is trying to tell, and incase you've forgotten... David is Latino, Christian symbols, and practices are wholly ingrained into Latino culture, even in the real world, and the world of Mike Pondsmiths Cyberpunk is no different. This is an excellent video on how NOT to critique media.

[@arcanumcoto]

This review has so many things wrong with it that I could probably write an essay longer than this video just covering them. But let's go over the main ones: Edgerunners does *not* endorse crime, as is evident by the ending. What you seem to not understand is that the protagonists aren't meant to be good people. Nobody is in Edgerunners. It's a show about shitty people living shitty lives. Onto your points about government: The Megacorps ARE the government. The "actual" Government at this point is just controlled by them, as is evident throughout the entire show. They control the City. Now about the whole nihilism thing: Edgerunners, and Cyberpunk as a whole uses nihilism to further its main point - that we, as a people, have to get our shit together before we let the actual world turn into a hellscape like Night City, where we CAN'T solve our problems anymore. It's a cautionary tale that uses the threat of nihilism to further Caution. And that's not getting into all of the problematic social and political undertones of this video... But, just as a sidenote, your "Difference of the Sexes" criticism of combat falls completely flat when you take the time to look at the show. Your starting body doesn't matter, because it isn't augmented - it is *replaced*. Plus this entire video gave off "Angry Right-Winger" vibes...

[@AquilaChryaetos]

This entire yt channel does

[@leonardopeixoto1623]

This. It's absurd how many things this dude got wrong or intentionally distorted about the show to fit into his warped perspectives and beliefs lmao

[@PerezosoDoom]

I wouldn't consider "Edgerunners" at all as "Western", Netflix only gave the money, the producers are from Studio Trigger, and all people involved are Japanese. I would even say, this is a very Japanese work, if you know something about 90's anime and their double standards when it comes to criticize hypersexuality while also indulging too much on it. This actually reminds me of the short "Me!Me!Me!" of the same studio, as it seems to be a stand against escapism, while unnecessarily showing too much tasteless sexual content.

[@telacreiste8244]

A SUS ÓRDENES ARTURO MANUEL C.P.🇩🇪 🏳️‍🌈

[@jonoegrafico]

@@telacreiste8244 la casquería es un manjar de los dioses.

[@telacreiste8244]

@@jonoegrafico sirve para recargar precioso zinc, te da ganas de hacer ejercicio

[@Anonymous-qb4vc]

More of a collab

[@TheOzumat]

I wouldn't call the hypersexual imagery in "Me!Me!Me!" unnecessary. It's there to attract the type of audience that needs to hear the message.

[@Mateo-oq7ui]

What you said about David resorting to crime and the show somewhat implying poverty justifies criminality made me interested in seeing what you'd think about the similar situation in The Great Pretender (another pretty good Netflix anime) where the main character also falls in with a criminal organization (though con artists rather than murderous mercenaries) and he repeatedly tries to get out of it and get a honest life throught the show, but keeps falling back into crime.

[@johnnotrealname8168]

I had that problem too, they are not just attacking rich people but the poor as well and that really irked me.

[@bnotapplicable7000]

You know I get your point and they are a legitimate consideration. But having watched it and as a Christian I have to say it was very very good and had some good messages. David is a case of Victim Mentality brought to its natural conclusion. He was wronged, he chose to do wrong to others because he was wronged, he perishes in pursuit of power, lust, a fake sense of honor - while performing wrong ideas for the wrong reasons. The city while aesthetic is exactly how you described it. And that's the worst part of it. You realize the actual 'punk' label for what it is - a warning. The anti-'virtues' of Nihilism, anti-law, sexuality are all ratcheted up to 11 and is a good mirror for current society to view itself and motivations. Sex outside of marriage is really bad! This even if unintentional actually highlights that belief. Loved the video!

[@MichaelPFord]

Notice how this guy complains how bad the people in this show are and ignores the fact that their apparently depraved lifestyle gets them killed and then concludes that clearly the show is encouraging depravity. TLDR: you are overthinking it. You are the biggest piece of propaganda tied to this show right now.

[@PDMM-mr2hd]

this is what radical christianity does to your brain, this guy has plenty of takes like this

[@JJLiew]

I think you're missing the point of the show, or rather the point of Cyberpunk here. It's supposed to be a degenerate world to show how bad things can get; a dystopia we want to avoid. It's a show for adults and you're not supposed to think "yup, that's normal" watching it. The theme of nihilism is also subjective, I and many others view it as living the life you have to the fullest and dream big.

[@The6thMessenger]

Yes, thank you!

[@denishrg9843]

"Bro just consooom" Absolutely retarded take, this kind of nihilism literally always leads to hedonism

[@lilbirb082]

This dudes only problem with the show is that it depicts things that go against his trad cath values, he is way too braindead to look past the surface level of media

[@elobservadorobservante1605]

ironically, nihilism's entire point is being overcomed, not embraced.

[@bababooey6361]

You can take that approach but the meaning behind overcoming it is non existent. You may feel valiant in your crusade in fighting a world of non-meaning but even your beliefs are empty fundamentally

[@elobservadorobservante1605]

@@The6thMessenger religion being mentioned in a catholic channel? what a surprise. and as Pax said, the main characters has a cross neklace at some point, wether christianity still exists or not is unexplained.

[@elobservadorobservante1605]

@@bababooey6361 again, Nietzche's whole point was that nihilism is not an end but a mean, something to be defeated to become a Superman.

[@sonicthehedgehog1606]

@@The6thMessenger not really. Just be religion is mentioned don't mean it's a lecture

[@bababooey6361]

@@elobservadorobservante1605 I am aware of his belief, and it is preferable than the just wallowing in existential dread. The problem I'm pointing out is that because accepts nihilism in that nothing ultimately matters (ie no objective morality) all he can posit is the Superman to reinstate order. But even the Superman's beliefs cannot be deemed ultimately true on that if he is defeated, the beliefs would be replaced by another more powerful being(s). Put another way, you cannot escape nihilism as the beliefs become relative in relation to who is in charge. No one can have a rightful claim to Truth meaning why should I believe in the Superman's belief if all it means is that I follow his non grounded belief system? Just because he has right by the sword?

[@vulturekay2902]

Pax I like your content but I think you dont understand why it's a downer ending or the nihilistic themes of cyberpunk both the genre and series itself. 1. NC isnt apart of the New United states ; it's a FREE state. 2. David doesn't even have connections to his Christian roots due to the globalism of cyberpunk. 3. His story sets up the stage for V (the protagonist of cyberpunk 2077. 4. David becomes both a cautanary tale and legend. For the downer ending: To quote Johnny silverhand "Happier ending? Wrong city, wrong people." In a cyberpunk setting Bittersweet is all your gonna get.

[@superbroadcaster]

The function of cyberpunk as a genre and this franchise is to emphasize individual and societal issues, it's supposed to look horrible and it usually focuses on the dark side of capitalism but that happens a lot already

[@MichaelNVADE]

My overall take away from Cyberpunk Edgerunners is that the depictions of violence and overt over the top sexuality is to prove a point that this isnt a society we want in any way shape or form. Same goes for Transhumanism, since if you go overboard with your chrome, you'll eventually slip into Cyber-Psycho territory, which has been depicted as something demonic. Also Night City basically being this den of degenerates, and that the city is in California, is pretty based imo, since California sucks lol. I also really liked how David was a competent male mc for once in awhile. He died protecting a girl, and even the girls didn't steal his spotlight. I think the way Lucy, Rebecca, Dorio and Kiwi were written perfectly, and didn't step into that cringe 3rd wave feminist garbage we see in modern day western entertainment. David died a hero, a protector and as a man. Also Maine basically being a big brother to David was sweet too! Overall, I didn't expect I would of loved this anime this much, especially since I've never cared about the game or the original tabletop. Honestly, I just care about Edgerunners.

[@TheMrShnickers]

Same thoughts as well strangely the women actually acted feminine in this cyberpunk world, especially Lucy being the heart to David and David not being a bumbling idiot but a man dealing the consequences of his actions

[@amrana99]

You nailed it with this comment. I was really taken aback by the hyper sexualization, violence, corporatism, transhumanism, and many other problems/themes presented in the show. But I believe that is the entire point, to show the audience that this is the future we are heading towards, and we should do everything we can to prevent that. IMO, the show wasn't perfect or a masterpiece, but it was still really good. It was just weird going online and seeing modern feminists/coomers saying the nudity, masterbating, porn, sex, and hyper sexualization all in public for everyone to see is actually a good thing. It's like they want to end up living in that type of dystopian future 🙄

[@PhunkMaster-VivatChristusRex]

People aren't smart enough to understand that media may or may not be a critique of a subject/subjects. The danger of normalization remains.

[@Mardanzo]

the only reason why David wears a cross necklace is because he is hispanic and hispanics being catholics that wear cross necklaces is a stereotype.

[@Kenulas]

in lore the hispanics still have Christianity, and there are churches, but buddhism is far more popular in cali because its a japan colony.

[@terrencemoldern2756]

Ok so basically what you guys are saying is that David is Christian. He just doesn’t practice or show any belief in the faith? Are you faking serious...? Its almost like... Pax whole point is that David is Christian. Yet doesn’t act like it 🧐

[@Mardanzo]

@@terrencemoldern2756 just think of the fat guy from breaking bad who was a devout christian despite being a gang member

[@dogguy8603]

​@@terrencemoldern2756newsflash, not eveyone who is religious is a good person

[@terrencemoldern2756]

@@dogguy8603 obviously. My point is to highlight how dumb it is to claim he is religious at all anyways because there’s no indication of that.

[@wunclerlaufenbumcorneliusu7047]

Edgerunners would've been boring and long if it had to discuss a century's worth of fictional history. This show wasn't made for people who didn't read the sourcebooks/play the game.

[@OrionTails]

It would've been even more boring if it were Christian.

[@thatkidfromknowhere6746]

The woman vs man thing is just straight up stupid...firstly not everyone has the same implants, we have seen less than a handful of female brawlers and the rest use hacking tech or long ranged weapons and all the same the strongest members are all men so how are the men and woman being on par a problem??

[@LoboGuara5bruxaria]

I find the video very interesting, but i also agree that the Man vs woman view to be rather flawed at the very least. A major reason is that, aside the "not all implants are equal" as you brought up, but there is also the fact that while greater physical poweress is important in a fight, it is not always enough to ensure a win. Fights to the dead can be incredibly unpredictable and determined by factors not related over who is the strongest combatent. After all, there a matter of who is fatser and more well armed combatent, and if just raw physical strength was all that was needed to win a fight, guns and knives would never be invented in teh first place...

[@Tiagocf2]

In a world where people have guns for hands is non-sense bringing up biology as an argument to begin with

[@andoi9292]

You have to stop pretending Netflix has all the responsibility when it comes to the storytelling. I work in animated feature films and I guess I have a soft spot for the animation and the style. I'm in BaseFX that worked on Wish Dragon and for some reason Sony or Netflix usually get majority of the credit when they were mainly the distributors and investors. I am assuming Netflix is purely distributional and majority of creative rights belong to Studio Trigger. In fact, CDPR hated the loli design of Rebecca but Studio Trigger was against the request to have her redesigned and ultimately made the last call to keep the character design to their vision. The cinematography, soundtracks, direction, style and pacing should all be credited to Studio Trigger, and one thing we all agree is that they blew it out of the water with the story they were given with. It's a show about what being human is all about, in a city that tears humans up. A system built to further increase the distance from poverty to rich, that encourages vices to numb and suppress their desire for true human connection. But nonetheless, you started asking questions that made me think about watching it with you and how annoying it would be. Animators work on different shots and in can be up to interpretation on how they will execute it, which means continuity can be excused for style, clarity and coolness, especially in anime. I will excuse the criticisms made about the story as the writer is mainly responsible for that, but the execution is done marvelously and Studio Trigger deserves more love. In a world full of sequels and superhero movies, its nice to support original stories with new characters. People usually preface on what the show did right at the beginning. It's just upsetting seeing how eager you are to point out the flaws. You will not survive in Production, you do not know how to give critique or notice the good in people's work. Noone will want to work with you. So I suggest you tap into what people might enjoy about it and understand that there are different tastes. Cause I have to be honest, you sound so square and such a buzzkill. Someone who would probably make a deep movie that has no entertainment value because you are too much brain and too little feels. You focused on all these themes and lost yourself in them, but everyone else who watched it, saw a tragic story about the remaining humanity in Night City, fighting for love.

[@mihaeroff436]

Cyberpunk is a great genre that shows our way towards the abyss.

[@gfin4576]

so ture

[@micheallove8177]

The review is very bias and wrong because it doesn't have open mind. It frame it as a feel good anime went it's a story twist tragedy. I mean look at his channel it just a modern day Christian just showing bias to the review

[@mihaeroff436]

@@micheallove8177 I disliked the review as well. Christians can't accept the fact that reality is miserable and belief itself won't change it.

[@micheallove8177]

@@mihaeroff436 I want make clear nothing with his view infact I am Christian myself but you clearly see his extreme bias. Hell his channel was his biggest give away. I learned to accept that good people can so bad stuff or bad people could do good things. So please don't assume we are all like this stuck up people

[@youcantbeatk7006]

@@micheallove8177 It's not even a modern day Christian. He's a tradcath LARPer.

[@tashatectretius5718]

Not long before I watched edgerunners I started reading Don Quijote and looking at them side by side I learned some things. The core of the story is that David is a failed rebel but a successful knight. Lucy is a " manic pixie dream girl" in modern terms but that role existed long before like Beatrix in The divine comedy or any of the women in chivalric tales that are essential for the initiation of a wondering knight. David is the wondering knight walking in circles and the core of the tragedy is that Lucy shirks off her responsibility as a Guiding light and instead tries to undo the initiation. At the end of the day David has an honorable death as a knight by protecting the " princess" and not by fighting the corporation as a rebel. He ascends in the sky like the sun and lucy stays behind because she tried to be independent and broke from tradition. I think Don Quijote would recognize David as a worthy Wondering Knight. Lucy is the more the protagonist of the series and they probably made that change because the usual croud hates the manic pixie dream girl trope and they tried to make her more feminist and independent. This is the cause of the alienation between them. I dont know is this was intentional or not but it has a realistic outcome. As for the nudity, edge runners has the most sterile sexual intimacy ever and its not accidental. When david gets in the suit we se he has no genitals and Lucy likelly has none herself. When they are naked it is too casual because there is no magic no humanity.

[@Yurik-the-marksman]

lucy is also inspire by zero two, guess how much you know what of zero two is out there, well alot, same thing is for lucy in the future

[@MALICEM12]

I wouldn't call Lucy a manic pixie girl at all. giving how much Cyperpunk, both as a genre and the game and show pull from Blade Runner (sort of the OG cyberpunk) and how blade runner is also a Noir film. to me it was obvious that Lucy was the cliche dangerous and mysterious "smoking lady" that's in almost all the old noir films. and one of the common tropes in noir is that the protag and the dangerous and mysterious lady have some sort of unconventional romance that ends in tragedy. also her aesthetics are far more "90's-2000s future babe" than they are manic pixie girl. she even has the iconic 90s-2000s future girl haircut. the same one Cortana from Halo and the Major from Ghost in the Shell have. her design is a retro throwback as much of Cyberpunk is retro and harkening back to the good ol'days of cyberpunk. also I wouldn't say that they have no genitals, but rather that they were just censored. the Barbie doll form of censorship has been used in anime for decades and even by the same animation studio that did edgerunners (Trigger, they did it in their previous works)

[@Yurik-the-marksman]

@@MALICEM12 those hairstyles are kinda my favorite ones Other than that’s I never watched anime, very little of it is fine and his way too much fan service, there’s always this trope of that one girl who just likes the main character and that’s mostly it, same for some generic action movie we’re the main character dates that one girl. It’s why I like escape from Tarkov raid, because the ending isn’t happy I want to watch stuff like American physco, breaking bad, fight club or other movies which have an better message I also hate it when they add gay characters for the thing it’s their only personality, I hate it when a whole characters personality is just being ‘woke’. I saw this one person on Reddit saying Palestinian people shouldn’t be supported because they don’t support gay people, it was the stupidest shit I’ve seen, because isreali people don’t support gay people either, and neither does Ukraine either

[@karby3179]

🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓

[@stinkysteve8392]

🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓bitch you could have spent the time writing this working out or somth

[@graxxor]

Think you’re over analyzing the cross and missing the point that many Latino people wear or display crosses prominently along with other Catholic paraphernalia without being religious themselves.

[@mangoman7346]

Bro would crumple if he saw pre-marital hand holding

[@Indarussiantv]

While I agree with most of the critiques, I think it's important to point out that the show does not glorify anything you mentioned. For example, with the VR porn stuff, while it doesn't directly state that "This is bad for society" it doesn't have to. It's classic 'show don't tell' which is essential to good storytelling . We don't need to be told it's bad to understand that it's bad. The world is corrupt and broken, and the sexual depravity if a part of it, we even see David reject and act disgusted when presented with it, and no character who is of a higher moral standing participates in it. We also see this when David is walking to through the streets, and it show cases how sex lost it's meaning in a world that lost it's humanity. To add to this, you said David and Lucy should have just gotten married, but that would be very out of place for a such a broken world. So while the critiques do make sense, it retrospect you really have to consider the worldbuilding, and just visual and subtle storytelling which does not glorify this world, or anybody in it. But i do agree there are better ways to portray and show these things, the way the show did it was lazy and over the top for no reason other than to appeal to coomers Or another point which you seemed to have missed the point on, is the critique of females being on the same level as males. Again, it's completely plausible that the line between female and male is merged because of the lost humanity of this world, which is a major theme. The tech implants destroy humanity, so it's not farfetched it just puts both genders on the same playing field, removing the natural order of things. Really, in this scenario it at least makes sense, instead of what they do in marvel and starwars movies, where females are just better at everything because they are female. So yeah, the feminism critique doesn't hold up at all tbh.

[@Tiagocf2]

most of the arguments he presented are like "welp this is non conservative so it's bad"

[@frankula]

@@Tiagocf2 this is what this dude basically does in all of his content...

[@cristianguanziroli3648]

i think you missed the point entirely. the characters arent suposed to be an example of anything. like in a mafia or crime movie, the show stays with "crime does not pay" , "there is no easy money" and that "transhumanism is bad"

[@ha3vy]

Your "objective criticism" is just 20 minutes of pure moralistic sobbing. I came to see an analysis on the seroes and it's characters, not an offended priest's rant. I dare you to watch any gangster movie without breaking into tears lol

[@YtCensorship]

Your soy latte is getting cold!

[@travv88]

Spy X Family analysis would be cool

[@gustyko8668]

That I would love to see

[@Good100]

Spy x Family is everything Cyberpunk isn't. Promotion of family values even when the family is originally for convenience. Violence is restricted to evildoers and is punished otherwise. The father is both present and respected, and even though the environment is in a state of cold war, doing the right thing is not considered impossible. Perhaps the one exception is when Loid defends Yor's past when Camilla implies that she was a prostitute, but then again, it's likely both he and Camilla know she was just trying to humiliate Yor with total lies.

[@travv88]

@@Good100 yea. it is pretty wholesome, it's nice to see. latest ep yor learns to cook, it's good.

[@Ian-ky5hf]

The cross probably indicates David’s willingness to care about and sacrifice himself for others.

[@Good100]

I thought it was just a decoration to emphasize that he's Hispanic.

[@Ian-ky5hf]

@@Good100 that could be also.

[@kovacsnovak6745]

@@Good100 double symbolism

[@HypnoChode74]

@@Good100I mean shit Hispanics pretty much made crosses fashionable. You even got Cholos an Cartel members rocking em an they do the most vile shit.

[@thefather2281]

My only real problem with this review is that he talks about how we shouldn't critique edgerunners information about cyberpunk 2077 but then critiques the show based off the corporation that produced the show . It's a bit hypocritical in the beginning that's all I'm saying

[@TheOzumat]

Tbh, half of the points he raised become irrelevant in the larger context of the franchise. Example: "why don't the characters rise up, end the corrupt leadership of the society they live in, and lead the people to a brighter future?" Well, because Edgerunners is a prequel to Cyberpunk 2077 and we still need that even bleaker story to happen somehow. Though, I do agree that Edgerunners felt rushed and would have benefited from a longer format and more character development.

[@ishitrealbad3039]

it's not hypocritical in the slightest.

[@stevenstone1381]

You should review devilman crybaby. It is similar with sex and violence but I personally feel its use to portray Earth as hell. It is Nihilistic but one of the side characters is Christian and there is a message about love. I feel like its oddly more enjoyable being a Christian because you understand someof the themes and biblical lore. On the other hand many don't understand it and just call it nihilisitc. Thats why I like devilman crybaby. It is art so it subjective and I subjectively got something from it. You should review it, I'd love another Christians perspective on it.

[@NekoNyaa00]

CDPR said Rebecca is a Loli fyi as they didnt want her in the anime but trigger said " the loli must stay"

[@BeautifulGreen252]

I'm tired of nudity I just wanna be happy

[@denishrg9843]

words from the soul

[@ncgerstell]

Most people are used to the "woke media" critique that is somewhat prevalent on youtube. I think what's catching a lot of people commenting on this video off guard is that this video is in some ways a general critique of overall Western media since the 70s which is far less common.

[@Dram1984]

Yeah, most anti-woke reviews just want to rewind the clock 10 years. Pax recognizes we need to rewind the clock much further than that

[@IckeDaer]

Well, as much as i appreciate most videos on this channel, i deeply recommend to read Nitzsches philosophy of nihilism first before judging it. In truth the reality is not as black and white most christians see it, but Nitzsche in his early years was a faithful christian himself and nihilism is by far not the "belief in nothing".

[@feuryie]

I agree with various points here. I do disagree with some like harping on about 'women shouldn't be as strong as men cuz 'fucking reality' that's part of the glory of anime, it shows humans witha peak level and a biological level that makes them equal to one another rather than the dimorphism which in itself has led to quite a few of the issues we have and is part of the big problem here in the west we're having when they excuse putting in ugly women as characters in games cuz 'realism' even the guys are beginning to suffer from needing to 'look real'. in the point is a fantasy world where characters are supposed to be gods, and the idea of woman has to be weaker than man gets boring so i'm glad most series drop this. and yes, transhumanism 'isn't' inevitable as an individual. but i believe as a society it'll be moved towards that level similar to how the sexuality which has made the value of real women a negative. society already is trying to go against christianity as a whole and edgerunners seems to use it more like an aesthetic for david than something to forward him, where in automata where the 'humans' are complete machines, knowing what god is seems to be at the core of survival and moving forward. also on the cyberpsychosis it has to do with continual additions of augments. you'll notice none of the women go through psychosis because they don't continue augmenting themselves. it points that the mind has a limit to the stability it has with the machine element but can handle it to a certain level. david and maine kept pushing it to such a level it eventually bested their durability. as for escape, it seemed like arasaka had satellites everywhere so while you could escape in the countryside for awhile, if they found you you'd have no way out. then again, i wondered, isn't the moon under a similar problem? i think the big issue with the anime outside the sacrifice for your love is that the big point that resulted is because of the trauma neither lucy nor david dealt with they didn't communicate with each other, so lucy was here doing missions to protect david and david was here gathering money for lucy's space flight, neither fully realizing what the other did and a lot of problems could have been avoided if they had. that said they still did show things of loyalty as david was loyal to lucy despite rebecca and even kiwi to a degree coming on to him, and the members of edgerunners showed loyalty to each other, even kiwi making a turn around after betraying them. and the main villain who was trying to manipulate david did get punished as did the trauma center who refused to save his mom. edgerunners has a lot of flaws but a lot of good points and is apparently tied to the game as apparently one of the drinks is named after david and your game character is wearing his jacket. i like the characters in this series despite not being into cyberpunk itself (as i find the game bland and ugly). but yeah, the anime left a lot to be desired if you wanted something different from a tragedy.

[@tayosonuga4563]

i had a feeling this was gonna wildly miss the mark, but jesus this was actually insane to watch, dawg just actually doesn't live in reality in the slightiest.

[@pippumax7085]

lost me on premarital sex monologue hard...

[@almalone3282]

Especially since Lucy is the only girl David sleeps with. So they where like married in spirit. (I forgot the actual word)

[@YtCensorship]

Why, because the truth hurts? Don't go complaining about modern women when you're part of the problem.

[@YtCensorship]

​@@almalone3282fornicaters

[@kapitan19969838]

​@@almalone3282 They're not married.

[@almalone3282]

@kapitan19969838 No, there's a term for couples who have been together for a very long time and are not married. I forgot the name, but the meaning is basically "married in sprit"

[@fett716]

To respond to the "why is David wearing a cross" thing... (spoilers) While this might not have been the intent, I took it as a clever way of foreshadowing his act of self-sacrifice at the end. That is one thing I like about the show; it doesn't overtly extol selfishness all that much, from what I recall.

[@johnnotrealname8168]

The selfish die with the selfless and all die a horrible death. Can be considered Christian.

[@yamataichul]

The video already lost me when it mentioned premarital affairs. Some people are willing to cheat and live a "christian" life, to abuse their spouse and offspring and yell in the name of Christ, all for proving to be "on top". Christianity is not at fault for failing marriages, but is often used by scummy people to justify their behavior and harm onto others. There was a time and place for institutionalized family values in 50's US, it went awful for some people because we are simply not made to be homogeneous

[@ishitrealbad3039]

not really a sacrifice when he was going to go down anyways and his gf being kidnapped was his own dumb ass fault.

[@__shifty]

you keep crying about "realism". suspend your disbelief bro. you're not supposed to nit pick if a woman would beat a man if equally chromed up. how would you know if they had equal tech? equal update versions or whatever? yet another example of the "criticize popular thing for outrage clicks" model from years gone by.

[@natekibatu3411]

You laid down no points whatsoever to disprove pax's points, I've been subscribed to pax for a while know, and almost none of the things he does are for clicks or fame. In fact if you see his other videos they're quite supportive and encouraging. Although he might have been a bit biased in this video, all his points have some truth to them and it's not okay to try and normalize them.

[@00fgytduydrtu]

Pax reviews pop culture from his own lense, to talk about societal, political, philosophical and religious matters.

[@allgy07]

@@supremeleaderfrancisco9062 i have found you

[@supremeleaderfrancisco9062]

@@allgy07 lol

[@supremeleaderfrancisco9062]

@@00fgytduydrtu pax is a hilarious nutjob

[@retrofuture1989]

Bro brought all his own biases in this cringe review 😭

[@gimmeyourcookiesbombs]

That's what a review is. If you wanted a summary you should have watched that and not a Christianity focused KZbin channel.

[@Living_ina_world_fullof_shit]

​@@gimmeyourcookiesbombs a review must be objetive, not based on your sense of what is right or not

[@gimmeyourcookiesbombs]

@@Living_ina_world_fullof_shit but as you can see I. The title it's a critique, which can be biased, not a review.

[@melvinmajtara4949]

this man morning routine is watching the chaos on the comment section

[@michaelmejia8678]

You are absolutely right with this review! David should not have become a criminal, and he should not have double-downed on body modifications. That fact that David suffers and ends up dying was simply the only logical result of his choices. That is why you never become a criminal, and why you should never do drugs. Your life is worth far more than that!

[@Sergei_Ivanovich_Mosin]

The only actual critique of the narrative in this show is how rushed the plot is at times because of the limited episodes they had to work with, everything else is basically just autistic tradlarper screeching

[@Aziz.500]

oh no,premarital sex,oh noooooo. How can it be. Oh no,they didnt depict christianity in the show,how dare they not follow the rules of my religion

[@SpicyTake]

How can you write a 22 minute script about this show and not say anything about capitalism? Specifically Night City is a city-state governed under a system called anarcho-capitalism.

[@OrionTails]

Political bias, basically. The guy is good at having “based opinions” but not good at doing research. He even called it American rather than polish. Really shows how lazy small KZbinrs can be.

[@andriaabashidze2497]

@@OrionTails small youtubers can be incredibly hard working but yeah, this guys is cringe af

[@kovaakskomet2990]

He only points out things that benifit his agenda

[@ryangreenwood5846]

You started off by saying youre in the perfect position to make as unbiased review of the show.. but end up injecting your religious viewpoints so much that it borders on propoganda . Do better. Not everybody wants your "catholic" worldview to become the norm ! As if catholicism and its proponents is free of sin.

[@Zeredek]

An interesting tidbit about the restoration vs surpassing of transhumanism - In the original Cyberpunk boardgame, cybernetic enhancement costs a "humanity" stat, which when reduced below a certain threshold turns you into a Cyberpsycho. However, prosthetic replacements for losing a real limb does not cost any humanity, since the boardgame also differentiated between restoration and surpassing.

[@jaskarvinmakal9174]

So it's more a tragedy than anything else, a cautionary tale in many respects. The lore also goes over this and the game has many redemption arks but even then there's no revolution or restructuring to remove the corruption. I still really like the series even if it's bleak, the series is more of a cautionary tale than anything else as far as I can tell. Which is to say I don't think it necessarily promotes the things it portrays.

[@GCS88]

Western Anime? Screenplay-Masahiko Otsuka, Yoshiki Usa Directed-Hiroyuki Imaishi Creative director-Hiromi Wakabayashi Composer-Akira Yamaoka Original audio: Japanese Pax, Your point is "Netflix (an American company) was its sole distributor and thus had the final say on everything" and that makes this a 'Western anime" so what do You think of: First love, Full time wife escapist, midnight diner (Japanese series) along with tons of Kdramas in Netflix are these Western? The Polish dudes at CDPR only supervised this anime as it was based on a universe they made, but its a Japanese adaptation prior to the game.

[@andriaabashidze2497]

this guy's just an extremely christian reactionary

[@rareGUNDAM_]

i would disagree that christianity isn’t a look. plenty of people wear crosses on shirts, tattoos, and necklaces without being the slightest religious

[@papersparrow899]

Christianity isn't a look, it's a relationship with Jesus Christ.

[@papersparrow899]

@Joe May you repeat that?

[@papersparrow899]

@Joe Sure that does happen, but the only thing is, If they can wear crosses, can they bear it?

[@papersparrow899]

@Joe Luke 9:23 Christian Standard Bible Take Up Your Cross 23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after[a] me, let him deny himself,(A) take up his cross daily,[b] and follow me.(B) A short thing I want to say, if it's okay. It's your choice to believe or not, remember, we've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and we were under God's judgement. But Jesus Christ came in, and made the sacrifice on the cross, taking the sins and taking the judgement and punishment on our behalf that we may be forgiven and clothed with His righteousness. And on the third day, He was raised from the dead, for He is the Son of God and is Lord. It's your choice to believe or not, whether it's your choice to believe or not, God bless you.

[@papersparrow899]

@Joe While people object to the fact that God sends people to Hell even though He's good, that's because He's right and just. You can't go to Heaven by being morally good, because no one is good, we've all done bad things.

[@osiria391]

glad you were able to critique the show on all fronts instead of hyperfocusing on the low hanging fruit(sexual content)

[@Anonymous-qb4vc]

Tasteless

[@felipeterranova2452]

you had ONE point right, that was saying that Edgerunners doesn't really explain a lot of it's themes... then because you are incable critique didn't do research on the source material and got everything mix up. you don't understanding the series is an L on the Show, but everything wrong in this review (pretty much everything) is yours for not doing research afterwards....

[@youcantbeatk7006]

I never played 2020, 2077, or Red and I still understood more than him. Weirdest part to me is where he brings up the "Is Rebeca a loli?" thing. Like I've literally never heard this discussion from anyone else before. What are you doing if you can't even figure out basic things about the show's lore or production but you're reading/listening to coomers argue about the show?

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

He's the opposite but equal side of SJWs ngl. Criticizes a show for not lining up with his bizarre radical views same as them. He also has the attitude down, blocking anyone who disagrees with him. He got owned by the internet over women with abs lmao. Dude isn't fit to scrub a toilet let alone a critique of this

[@felipeterranova2452]

@@ManiacMayhem7256 what is this own you talking about... This is the first video of him I see, so I'm curious.

[@zone181]

This guy missed the point of the show and dragged so many things

[@Hepheat75]

I do have to make a correction, America was never Catholic to begin with. America was prodestent at first, catholosim came to America much later.

[@leogarnier3406]

This is just nitpicking Cmon man the show is fire The fact that they don’t talk about David’s « Christianity » isn’t because Netflix is anti-religion You went too far bro but still, nice analysis

[@jetstreamsam7411]

The thing is, Cyberpunk 2077 *did* have religious themes. Jackie was openly Catholic, they make references to Christianity all the time, there are even weird cults in night city and references to eastern religions. Netflix just decided to ignore all that, like they did with witcher. Not only that, the criminals you work for in the game? Nothing like the Netflix show, they actually have a heart. I’m not defending the game, I’m just saying that what the show lacks, the game has.

[@potatoman6556]

Holy shit, this is soooo bad At least it's the funny bad kind of video, but still

[@Darthpsychonis]

All I got from this video was "this show is flawed because it doesn't match up with my own Catholic world views."

[@curtiswong7280]

Lmao literally

[@oriobi]

So basically this video is just....Oh no this doesn't align with my with my beliefs oh no!!!

[@frankula]

All his videos are ''thing not conservative, therefore, thing bad.''

[@JP-qb3ny]

One other good thing about the main character is he rejects the sexual degeneracy that’s pushed on him by the ripper doc in the first episode. But ya I’m sure Netflix didn’t want the story to go deeper into why sexual immorality is pushed unto the masses.

[@yekkub9425]

Were there any actual s** scenes in this show?

[@yekkub9425]

But what I find kinda dumb in this video (nearly everything else is facts) is the idea that surpassing the natural human body is sinful. I dont want to replace it as that is denying the way God created us in His image, but theres nothing inherently wrong with giving yourself superhuman abilities as long as there arent any harms that outweigh them.

[@yekkub9425]

@@mr.serious707 Bad take. Giving yourself super strength through technology isnt inherently any worse than eating protein powder to bulk up. Neither are things that you could do in the wild nor do they "restore" any human condition, but they are still good things to do.

[@yekkub9425]

@@mr.serious707 Have you ever considered the fact that God also builds limitations into our bodies for us to overcome? If God gives you oily skin, you dont have to just accept that and live your life with ugly acne. You can use that to better your work ethic and wash your face well so that you have good-looking skin, even if you use chemicals that you wouldnt be able to get naturally! If you are born with a birth defect that can kill you by adding unnecessary body parts, you dont just die. You get it cut out with a surgery! God commanded circumcision in the for Old Testament Jews, which is literally cutting off a part of your body that God designed you with! Although I do think that modern circumcision is extremely stupid and pointless.

[@yekkub9425]

@@mr.serious707 Regarding the borth defects thing, how is it any different? God created limits into that person with birth defects' body. Yet we use technology to surpass those limits by removing that body part entirely. Or how about using a prosthetic due to a birth defect causing one of your limbs to be deficient? In that case, you are removing a body part that God gave you and replacing it with an artificial body part. There is nothing wrong with that!

[@ZELLIOTTONE]

I feel like you’re looking at this from a Christian viewpoint n you don’t like gore. I really like cyberpunk

[@DatcleanMochaJo]

How can you be so based and yet have terrible mefia literacy? 😂 Bro the show doesn't promote nihilism and while I agree the world building could have been more fleshed out I got into the series with no issues. I didn't play the games beforehand either nor watch or read lore. Stick to history.

[@oranguman9360]

Here's the biggest problem with the show. David is a criminal equal to if not worse than the criminals that killed his mother. He engages in criminal acts willingly and is rewarded for it and even at the end David is rewarded for his negative outlook on life. If David was made to watch Lucy die and be the last survivor then live with the guilt of how his obsession and ambition led to the death of the people closest to him, he would be a more tragic protagonist and be more sympathetic as the main character of the story. Generally I thought it was an accepted rule of thumb that writers should punish their characters for their flaws to draw out the inner goodness of the protagonist but the world has become so nihilistic that only evil is stimulating and only pain is intellectual but they forget the banality of evil and the tedium of pain.

[@supremeleaderfrancisco9062]

he literally dies and if it ended like that this guy would hate the story even more because it doesn't overcome its nihilism

[@oranguman9360]

@@supremeleaderfrancisco9062 nihilism is generally considered a flawed school of thought, a dead end of thinking. The whole crux of nihilism is that "nothing matters and there is no meaning" and usually the rebuttal generally goes " if that is so, why engage in the first place" because to engage is to create meaning and to have meaning contradicts the proposition of nihilism, creating a paradox. I wouldn't say the story is nihilistic however, the story had a very clear message of "human connection" and it wasn't a bad show at all but what is frustrating is that it could have been so much more.

[@supremeleaderfrancisco9062]

@@oranguman9360 i agree and i actually like ur idea for the ending with david being all alone i just strongly disagree with him being rewarded for his outlook

[@oranguman9360]

@@supremeleaderfrancisco9062 I can see where that maybe the case.

[@blackpawlo]

Not 100% fair but 95% is good too; :P Edgyness was cranked up to 11 for shock factor. There is really no reason for David and Lucy NOT to leave Night City after they got enough money. Also David death is makes no sense Arasaka would want him alive for more testing and could use him as bait to catch Lucy again Those are things from top of my head

[@Noahthelasercop]

"Why don't the mega corps care whatso-ever about maintaining clean streets or public order?" I wonder that myself while navigating and observing the real world. The anime is just grabbing ever-present societal issues and showing how they might be in a future with an even more extreme class divide (which seems to be where the US is heading) amplified by the advanced technology of the future. Making you wonder things like that is maybe kind of the point. "Poor living conditions like those in night city can be traced back to human decisions and government policy." What's your point? People in desolate regions of Asia, South/Latin America and Africa alone are living in comparably bad or even worse conditions than what people have in Night City, except without the flashy futuristic technology. They are like that because of national and international human decisions and government policy that aggressively doesn't favor them. Just like how it doesn't favor the lower classes in Night City. "It promotes a nihilistic worldview. It gives us the idea that people have no power to change the systems they live in." A lot of people don't really have the power to change the systems they live in. Namely working class teenage minorities who get involved with gangs and eventually end up dying a premature death, like David. Not everyone is Lenin or Che Guevara. In fact, very few are. "Now I should point out that David wears a visible cross necklace through the entire show. However Christianity is never mentioned in the anime, and plays no part in the story whatso-ever" Iceberg Theory. Maybe this is too the answer to what you had to say about David's dad. Also, you answer this yourself with "If Christianity does exist in the Cyberpunk world, it went extinct in this city long ago." "Some of these are very bad people who have no problem with murder or theft if it benefits them financially [on Maine's/David's gang]" What kind of people do you expect the hyper-dystopian society of Night City/Cyberpunk to produce? It's also interesting to have main characters who aren't like regular main characters. "The idea that poverty justifies crime is itself something that perpetuates the crime-poverty cycle... The only way to break this cycle is for criminals to be removed from society, and for society to collectively agree to follow moral rules." The idea presented by Edgerunners is more akin to the idea that poverty leads to crime, which is a fact, agreed upon by those in the social sciences. The world of Cyberpunk, and the cyberpunk genre in general, is filled with poverty due to extreme class divides under capitalism, leading to an excess in crime. Systemic criminality (as presented in the show, and realistically) can't just be solved by removing criminals from society because poverty is sociologically tied to their existence, and itself needs to be addressed for possible reductions in systemic crime. Poverty is also kind of a defining feature of capitalism, which the show is basically criticizing by showing the horrible conditions people are living in and its correlation with crime. www.economicshelp.org/blog/2935/economics/inequality-and-capitalism/#:~:text=Another%20aspect%20of%20capitalism%20is,well%20as%20inequality%20of%20outcome. Additionally, the way that the criminal characters of the show work with the exact megacorporations that are suppressing the world makes sense. It happens all the time in real life where people have to make money to live and can't just reject a solid job, and is also likely a statement on how criminality is tied to the operations of those in power (especially corporations). The CIA is suspected of having ties with crack dealers in order to fund their violent Contras in Nicaragua. Coca-Cola funds corporate death squads in South America. Private prisons benefit from systemic poverty and the crime it leads to. Just like how the mega-corps in the show, as a by-product of the class inequalities they exacerbate, get access to a bunch of muscle willing to do essentially anything and break the law in exchange for money. "The show is rushed" I agree. It could've lasted for 2 or even 3 seasons and arguably been better that way. I also feel like this ties into your rant about the "silly" fight scene with Rebecca, as the creators could've been more dynamic and realistic with things in general if they weren't rushing so hard. I don't feel that Reb standing there and not getting shot removes all tension though. It's kind of a nitpick, as this happens all the time in basically every form of media (a main character casually doesn't die while facing off against a bunch of enemies), they were just short-circuited to molest their aim, and the show by that point has shown itself to be more than happy to randomly kill off any of its characters at any given time. "[Rant about sexual degeneracy]" Okay? I don't feel like criticizing your weird views on sexual degeneracy since that might be going beyond the scope of this comment, but sex and nudity throughout history have been very regular things. In the world of Cyberpunk, at least in Night City, societal conventions have broken down relative to the world now, so I'd imagine modesty isn't something that's especially valued. "What the show gets wrong is the idea that humanity embracing transhumanism is inevitable." I don't think the show is objectively saying this. It is just presenting a future where humanity embraces transhumanism. "None of the characters, even his sister Rebecca, seems to care that [Pilar] just died." They do, the characters all appear visibly upset by Pilar's death. They just have zero time to mourn because of their fast-paced lifestyles that disallow them from moping around, and also because of the fast pacing of the anime. Rebecca later references this incident in a kind of joking manner, which implies that edgerunners/criminals/people in Night City/Cyberpunk don't deal with death in the way that people do now, and that they are more likely to approach death from a nihilistic gallows humor perspective, which reminds me of how real-life soldiers described having this perspective on death during their time in warzones. "[Why would Lucy hide in the city?]" This is actually kind of a good point. My guess is that thinly populated rural locations, especially in the Cyberpunk world filled with bustling metropolises, would be easier to comb through and find someone who stands out, like Lucy. If she was found out, it might also be more difficult to escape since there would be less places to hide. She was probably taking the idea of "hiding in plain sight" to the extreme, as well as counting on the millions of other people in the densely populated Night City to act as buffers. "[The ending is too sad]" That felt like it was the point to me. People in the Cyberpunk world, even truly exceptional people like David, get chewed up and spit out on the regular. Without a happy ending. That also rings true for real life, albeit to a generally less exaggerated extent. "Since Arasaka never suffers blowbacks for their many crimes, the show kind of does tell us that crime pays." Yeah it does. The show is saying that giant corporations get to do whatever they want without getting their comeuppance, but not anyone below them: _"The petty thief is imprisoned but the big thief becomes a feudal lord."_ That's just a fact of the Cyberpunk world. It's also a valuable lesson, since that's largely how it is in real-life, unfortunately. "In fact, most of [Maine's crew]'s time in the show is spent working for one mega-corp against another. That's not revolutionary, that's being a hired gun for the establishment." I mean, a part of the show's name is literally _edgerunners,_ not _revolutionaries._ I also cover a point like this in the third and sixth paragraphs of this comment. "[The show doesn't push the degenerate LGBT]" Hmmm. "A core flaw of Edgerunners is inherent in the modern dystopian genre. This flaw is that writers have decided dystopias have to be inherently doomed. They can't have a happy ending." I don't think the show is saying that the world it's in is inherently doomed. It's just doomed for many people, like David and his crew. "You see, breaking out of a dystopia would mean the characters rise up, end the society's corrupt leadership, and lead the people into a new golden age. You know what that sounds like? Fascism. Can't have that. Wouldn't want to give the people watching any ideas, would we?" Please be joking. Also, David and his crew would never be able to do that, which is part of the point of the anime. They are just people, deeply flawed people with very limited power instead of your generically super-strong main characters that crush the dystopia they live in without breaking a sweat. When the society they're against gets serious about taking them out, they send in Adam Smasher, who maims and kills nearly every single one of them, without breaking a sweat. "Whether our civilization goes the way of Cyberpunk is something that's ultimately going to come down to us. If more of us changed our philosophical outlook of the world and mankind, maybe we could prevent it." True, but I don't think religion or Catholicism is the answer, as you seem to imply throughout the video. Cyberpunk ER and the entire franchise/genre behind it presents an opposition to corporations, hierarchy, right-wing social attitudes, capitalism, and fascism as essentially a major component of avoiding the cyberpunk dystopia.

[@MALICEM12]

i agree with 90% of this. he really does just seem like a fish out of water and basically comes across as a door to door Bible thumper. he's literally just ranting about why the fucking CYBERPUNK DYSTOPIA isn't a good society. that's the whole point. I'd actually say the ending wasn't sad enough as it ended with Lucy basking in the sun on the moon smiling as though it was all worth it. rather than show her just being traumatized and not even able to enjoy it like how she looked in the ride there.

[@littleantukins4415]

Corpocucks care for themselves

[@midasra1132]

I agree with you here. This review feels like it didn't know what to critique. I imagine that he didn't agree with the show's worldbuilding or disliked that the main characters weren't some jolly good religious people who only wish to save the world and thus felt like the show itself is bad

[@tposeanteater]

I agree with this and I won't touch on lgbt representation since that's a whole can of worms but thank you for your time, this paragraph could took well over an hours so I appreciate it.

[@cakevokosztcs9443]

Great critics, however I think it would be important to note, that the show and the whole CP2077 universe doesn't even want to be realistic. Even in the game it is set between borders, questions that don't get answered. Although it is a HUGE advantage if you know the "lore" of it so you get answers to some of your questions but it's still incomplete. To round it up, I think the target audience was the already existing fanbase, and it is more of an eye-candy and content pushing.

[@Mr_Mistah]

Lol "CP"

[@cakevokosztcs9443]

@@Mr_Mistah yeah, editing that...

[@sirzorg5728]

Regarding the criticism of the combat-equality of both male and female cyborgs, I actually think it makes sense that technology would render the differences obsolete. Historically, lots of differences in human biology were rendered obsolete by technological advancement. I'm a short guy, and in a world of swordsmanship, I would be screwed by this, however I can operate a rifle just as well as someone much taller than me. Considering that in the cyberpunk world, all these warriors are augmented by computers, I suspect that a lot more advantages men have over women would be rendered obsolete. E.g. men have faster reaction time and more fast-twitch muscles, but if their augmentations are controlled by computers that give reaction times that make all human reaction times obsolete, then these advantages that men have over women are meaningless, and the real advantage is the quality of hardware you can afford. I know there are a LOT of differences between men and women, but it seems to me that the tendency would be for combat technology to make these differences more and more irrelevant as time goes on. What would NOT change is the human psychology of expendable males. Men are less risk-averse, and therefore they are much more likely to choose dangerous work than women are.

[@KeanuChrist]

In my opinion, watching Edgerunners without any knowledge of the game locks you out of the characteristics of the world. The world of Cyberpunk is ran by corporations and their greed. Instead of “World Wars,” they have a history of “Corporate Wars” where corporations hire or create their own military and wage war. Edgerunners is just a small tale in that huge world.

[@RaccAttack77]

Yeah, a lot of his complaints feel like grasping. Realized that when he said ‘Christianity isn’t a look, it’s a religion.’ People can say he’s being unbiased, but this just feels like an attempt at subtly saying ‘I hate Netflix and the cyberpunk genre.’

[@techpriestalex8730]

They cyberpunk is a big world but it's literally just night city. That's all everyone knows.

[@terrencemoldern2756]

@@RaccAttack77feels like you are grasping at crap to whine about. Seriously you have a problem with him saying a religion isn’t a look? He’s right. It isn’t. No one wears crosses just for style. Even if it’s apart of satanism they do it. Just upside down. Also lol he is biased. We all are. Doesn’t dismiss any of his points which you funnily enough fail to disprove any of.

[@terrencemoldern2756]

Tbh though that’s a fault on the shows part... Media should expect you to pay more money just to get the full coverage on. That’s like if I sold you a album then told you 2/3 of it were cut out but I’ll give it to you for another 40$... Its bs and should not be necessary to understand the world. Especially in a show.

[@lajtmaster06]

this might honestly be one of the worst takes i've seen on this show. and it's not just because you dislike it - it's because i find almost none of your points valid. first of all: you say you will "critique the show fairly", and yet look at it through the lens of your personal beliefs, particularly with a focus on religion. i have nothing against christianity, i was a raised an orthodox christian myself, but you just shoving catholisism into everything is by no means "fair critisism". second of all: worldbuilding. you criticize the fact that it's not explained why night city is the way it is. really? it's a setting. it doesn't need to be explained. do you question why in lord of the rings magic and wizards exist? the purpose of a setting is to set the stage for the plot of a show. it doesn't need to be explained why things are the way they are, it's just meant to show us how the world looks for the characters, set the confines of what;s possible and what's not. we as the audience are meant to accept it and subsuquently look at the unfolding events bearing it in mind. same thing with the absence of davids father. you say its an "important part of character development to ignore", but in reality it's not. how many characters you know are orphans? it doesn't really matter how david's dad disappeared, as it's a reasonable thing that could happen within the confines of the world, and the showriters assumed that audience members did not need to know exactly what happen. he could've died, left them, whatever. that's not what matters. what matters is that he is gone, period. you make some really stupid points here and there (such as the completely pointless divigation about how "women in the show are depicted just as good and in some cases better fighters than male characters) but honestly i think it's pointless to list them all here. you are painfully biased, yet somehow try to appear as if the values you follow are the ones everyone should, and all else is "degeneracy". come on.

[@insrync5697]

lol I just wrote a similar book above and saw your comment. Glad some people are still open minded and don’t just judge a show based on what they want to see. I agree with u, he completely misunderstood the entire premise of the show and only focused to depth details that are only in the show to provide the viewer with excess depth of the setting as to make the viewer aware that there is more to the world then is being showed through this storyline. Kudos my friend

[@jonathandevach2226]

keep saying its western, when its legit directed and animated by japanese comapnies. Only american thing is the written story.

[@littleantukins4415]

It's a corporate hellhole

[@KingOfInsanity777]

Not really an anime enthusiast, but nonetheless I'm always interested on good critiques on animation from Christian KZbinrs. Good job Pax! 👍🏽

[@lilbirb082]

"One way to prevent a dystopia is to discourage premarital sex" This has to be a joke

[@darthjekyll3648]

Wellllll........ Mr. Night was trying to prevent perversion and prostitution in the city. Was supposed to be a city for enlightened population.

[@ioioi_prx4639]

I think it's too off-topic for a critique but that's a true statement

[@Kenulas]

i can't wait for pax tube to make a video called "A Serious Critique of 1984" and complain about how the main character didn't overthrow Oceania or ingsoc leading a catholic golden age and how flawed it is for pushing degenerate premarital sex

[@supremeleaderfrancisco9062]

💯

[@Bluenamii]

My brain cells are actively dying watching this video.

[@MALICEM12]

I was going to go into more detail but honestly most people have already said what needed to be said. But honestly, this is really just Catholic whining about how a Cyberpunk dystopia, drawn from an established franchise, is in fact a fucking Cyberpunk dystopia instead of some trad cath utopia. It's just sad honestly. Most of your points come down to "well why is this technocracic cyberpunk dystopia a technocracic cyberpunk dystopia, people should be more Christian and moral." That's the whole point of the setting. Also I don't think the short Anime based on a game based on a TTRPG needs to explain to a Western audience why this society is this way when we are living in such a society ourselves. And if you really want to deep dive into the lore just read the source material.

[@d0tghost]

Feels like you're just nitpicking. You want the show to be a certain way, and can'tappreciate

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

If he wants media to fit his weird radical politics, he can either move to the Middlr East or just watch media made during the Hays codes

[@CyberCervine]

tbh my two issues with edgerunners is that The romance plot really is not convincing at first. It feels rushed and one sided until randomly Lucy has feelings for David that we didn't see before. There was no scene even in the montage of her warming up to him, or eventually showing a more softer side until BAM. David is kidnapped and his life is at risk so now she goes into protective mode with him. Yes ONCE they are in a relationship it feels more believable, but even then the scenes we see with one another where they are randomly in their house naked they don't really talk? I dunno their whole relationship just feels like two people who needed someone to cling onto because of trauma they both went through. The ending was amazing don't get me wrong, but it doesn't feel earned. I've been told Studio Trigger isn't the best when it comes to romance plots in their animes but I don't want to have that as the assumption given this is the only anime I have seen from Studio Trigger. My other issue is people saying that the anime is supposed to be sad and nihilistic as an excuse for my gripes with the plot and the romance aspect. If anyone knows anything about Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk, it's that Edgerunners only has a few elements of what his world is about. It's a short and sweet idea of what his actual world is like. Yes, Cyberpunk as a genre is supposed to be dark and make people feel hopeless, but I feel like people forget the part of where it's also about either rising up against the corruption or flat out escaping it and going on to live a happier life. Some Cyberpunk stories do end off on a nihilistic note, like the many endings of CB77, but to use it as an excuse as to why the anime Edgerunners felt so rushed as well as handled things very poorly is so stupid to me. I am a Mike Pondsmith fanboy that is why I am so critical of Edgerunners, it's not just the fact that the anime feels very flawed to me it's also people not taking into consideration of what Pondsmith's message about his world is. I'd argue that any of CB77's endings show it better than Edgerunners, but that also might be due to the fact that Edgerunners is not setting out to show Mike's message that he wants people to be inspired by. People are right about Lucy and David's story being one about tragedy much like Romeo and Juliet. However I don't feel this romance that everyone else does but I also understand that mostly comes from my problem with Lucy's character. She feels too flat and catches feelings too quickly without any evidence she had them to begin with. Also I don't outright hate the anime, I think I am more just pissy at the fact people hold it up like it's this amazing spectacle. The animation is FANTASTIC do not get me wrong and I SCREAMED when I saw adam smasher I love my favourite corporate cyberpsycho, and god dammit I love Rebecca and wished we saw more of her. Bottom line is that the plot was just too frustrating for me and the lack of lore makes me feel like this show should not be praised as much as it is. Yes I cried at the emotional parts with David, but shit man, I could not feel for Lucy.

[@szymstaf]

“Western anime??” The series was animated by Japanese animation studio Trigger under the supervision of Polish CD Projekt and premiered on Netflix in September 2022. -Wikipedia Edgrunners

[@Gyvulys]

The original cyberpunk universe written by an american, and this particular story written by CDPR. IF we compare this to anime, YES, this IS western. It was only animated by a japanese studio

[@szymstaf]

@@Gyvulys you are very wrong. its true that the universe was created by Pondsmith, but everything productionwise was made by Trigger. Screenplay was supervised by Masahiko Otsuka and Yoshiki Usa. Also original voice acting was done by Japanese actors. Both of directors who did Endgerunners are from studio trigger too.

[@Damian-ew1vl]

Never thought I'd see the day where Polish companies finally get called western... for better or worse

[@Maru54]

why would that be? As far as I know Poland has been a part of the western world since like forever.

[@Damian-ew1vl]

@@Maru54 I mean yeah but ever since the soviets occupied it and put it under the commie boot for 45 years, it's been reduced to "eastern Europe" with western Europeans taking great joy in mentioning it

[@computergamescritical6917]

@@Maru54 I mean, you can claim that and reasonably so, since Poland is a European country, but at the same time, Poland was under a socialist government since the U.S.S.R took over that piece of land and later established the Polish People’s Republic to rule over it. So, there was a divide between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, both in terms of culture, but also political, economic, and social ideology, and this only stopped after Poland ceased to be socialist. So I suppose it’s a matter of interpretation, you could argue that this divide was relatively brief, only lasting a few decades, and that Poland was or is still Western in all other ways that matter, etcetera, but you could also see how socialism is such a radical departure from the sort of beliefs people previously had, and how living under the Warsaw Pact, and being culturally distinct from Western European countries, could justify calling Poland not Western.

[@LezSpringfield]

Netflix is American…

[@Damian-ew1vl]

@@LezSpringfield they weren't in charge of anything, probably why the anime is any good

[@unrankedchevron742]

Smoking is pretty commonplace in Night City because most people have artificial lungs or some kind of filter in their respiratory system. So you get the high of nicotine without the negative physiological side effects. A lot of leftists actually didn't like the Cyberpunk video game. I'm not really sure why but it was something about how 'it's a product of the very consumerism it's supposed to criticize.' But honestly Cyberpunk 2077 pretty much depicts the 'fully automated luxury communism' that they claim they want. You can indulge in pretty much any vice and there's no consequences to your body. Your soul on the other hand, still gets degraded.

[@theingeniousone5141]

Cyberpunk was glitchier than fallout new vegas to.the point of softlocks

[@alanihodge9640]

I don’t think you know what communism is

[@theingeniousone5141]

@@alanihodge9640 he's talking about an ideology called falsc You can look it up

[@alanihodge9640]

@@theingeniousone5141 fascism doesn’t equal communism… at all the two can co-exist but they aren’t synonymous. And he used the word communism not fascism. Words have meanings please don’t talk to me like I’m the idiot here.

[@theingeniousone5141]

@@alanihodge9640 is your self esteem so low that you think I'm ridiculing you. No I am not Falsc stands for the ideology called Fully automated luxury space communism and liberals think cyber punk is supposed to be that

[@Venneroth]

Thank you for tackling this one, especially the way you spoke about it being a throwback to an older form of degeneracy. I caught myself thinking, "well, I guess that's not so bad." Appreciate the perspective, man, thanks.

[@yekkub9425]

I'd honestly say that graphic s** scenes and pornography is even worse than "2020s degeneracy." Both are still bad and should be combated.

[@CantusTropus]

@@yekkub9425 It's debatable which is worse. 2020s degeneracy is more aggressively unnatural, while 1990s degeneracy is more likely to appeal to the average person, thus arguably more insidious. You could argue that 2020s degeneracy is only possible in a society that's already been weakened by 1990s degeneracy.

[@yekkub9425]

@@CantusTropus Now that i think about it, high guardian spice is just a softer (yet still harmful and degenerate) form of 2020s degeneracy. True 2020s degeneracy would be sex scenes AND homosexuality, like I heard there is in the Castlevania show. In this case 2020s degeneracy is definitely worse. It's 1990s degeneracy with more filth added to it.

[@Ttegegg]

@@yekkub9425 hey want some Christian artifacts? Only 4,999 !

[@ItsStillMeLC]

I'll be honest and say, there were some good critiques at the start, but the ending half felt more like a summery because saying their bad life choices in their world as points for writing, felt really strange. This is because, given the context, they were never going to have a good life no matter what they chose. They just chose what was best in the moment because they didn't really have a fulfilling future for their lifetime other than to survive in a world where their lives were meaningless in the end. I'm not saying it as a nihilistic way, but what gives meaning to their futility was how they spent their time in the end. Hence, "You are not remembered by how you live. You are remembered by how you die." I know it's messed up, but that's why it's kind of appealing. The dystopia where you are completely unbound in every sense. Of course though, as you explained, it's very undesirable in many ways and it kind of helps to ground one in reality where we have the opportunity to not live like they do.

[@warrxnt]

Race, Gender, Sex, Religion and even. None of these actually matter in Night City. That’s the point that every entry in the Cyberpunk Franchise from 2020 to RED mention. That’s why I feel like you need to atleast read up on the materials of said series. As since it’s a spin-off. It still relies on the basis and building set up by its predecessors. The point is that Night City is a trap. On the front it’s painted as some huge City of Dreams but in reality, it’s a sinking pit of dystopian despair. People you’ve know for years double cross you, your own partners set you up. I saw someone say that the point of nihilism is to overcome it, and while that’s true and to a extent they do. That doesn’t mean that nihilism doesn’t go away in general. Yea the message comes down to “corps are bad” and it’s from a corporation, however that complaint misses the fact that in Cyberpunk the Corps are akin to Nation Superpowers. They have full on wars with each other with nukes. While still feeding off the lower class. Insurance prices for trauma team on the low end is like 400 eurodollars a minute from the time they are called, to the time you arrive at the hospital. If you run out mid way, they will drop you and leave you to die. No one in Cyberpunk is a “good” person. Especially in this Cyberpunk universe, everyone has some dirt on their hands. Also the sexualization part. Yea nah I don’t agree with that. It’s a city of pure depravity. So sex is a big part, but again this goes back to what I said about nihilism, when it all boils down to it, it’s about the characters realizing that they themselves do not matter unless they work for a corp. So why care? I could say more about things I disagree with, but imma just leave it there.

[@Dark_Eurphoria]

It also seems like he wants all of his morals to be in edge runners and it’s literally a dystopia.

[@Dark_Eurphoria]

Also, what he thinks atheist are like even though it’s shown that atheist make only 0.1% of the prison population: 17:00

[@horseface31]

As long as you're touching on cyberpunk, I have a video suggestion for you. In the cyberpunk game there is a mission where a convicted murderer found Christ in prison and wants to video himself being crucified to spread the word. That is a gross over simplification but I'd like to see you make a video about it.

[@TallicaMan1986]

That was a pretty good mission.

[@shadowpriest2574]

Eh, he crucifies himself? Isn't that suicide and thus not good at all? Sure there have been Christian saints who were crucified, but it was not of their choosing.

[@HayaseMTSR]

Bro just says "Yea I want fascism" brother what 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@gimmeyourcookiesbombs]

Fascism is better than even what we have rn.

[@piotrkrauze2208]

My brain is melting from watching this. Pax how in the world are you uncertain that is a message of caution, and not a promotion of this lifestyle. you saw, and acknowledged the dystopian world, where life is shit, unjust, meaningless and full of brutality. How anyone with their right mind would misunderstand that... But the claim that broke me was: "man and women are are not equal even if they're cyborgs, because of their biological differences" isn't the point that they're robots, so there are no biological differences? Also, loosing yourself by becoming a psycho, is a reference on addiction, the main character is an addict. Transhumanism isn't the cause of him loosing his mind, addiction is. Terrible analysis, but an entertaining video non the less :)

[@MossyLeaf687]

"wanna prevent a dystopia, one way to do that is to discourage premarital sex" You lost me me with that line lmao

[@Rand0mname]

It's a tad unhinged, isn't it?

[@samuru101]

​​@@Rand0mnameA tad unhinged is still better than fully unhinged.

[@Gyvulys]

@@Rand0mname It's kinda true though

[@samuel5742]

If every character is a psychotic criminal, and the writers wouldn't want to portray gay people as remotely questionable, then it'd be unthinkable to have a gay character in this.

[@playerguy2]

Let me preface this with: This comment is in good faith. You invited commenting and I disagree on many of your points. And being that this is a long comment, *TL;DR:* I strongly disagree with just about all but one statement in your video, that being that we have control over our own lives. I will not go into the minor disagreements. Anything not mentioned does not neccessarily mean I agree with. here we go.. "cyberpunk game franchise" Cyberpunk is a genre, Cyberpunk 2077 is a game, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is what you are reviewing. Sloppy terminology confuses your message, as there are many other works with the same or similar title. "I'll note here that while we've been shown that Night City is a hellhole, we're never explained _why_ it's such a hellhole..." No, but you said it yourself, Night City is just a high-tech version of L.A. Failing that, the explanation can be inferred from little bits of world-building like Gloria struggling to pay for David's tuition despite working in medicine/first aid _and also selling chrome on the black market._ The setting can just be assumed to be an outcome of Laissez-faire capitalism. That idea is reinforced by the surgeon suggesting David pay for visitation/burial services when Gloria is injured in the drive by shooting, or when the trauma team rushes to people dyeing only to leave behind all who didn't pay for the insurance (policy holders) Mind you I, like you, have not been exposed to *any* lore before watching this, and everyone I talked to did not cite this as an issue they had while watching. Maybe it's the less America-centric view we shared, maybe it's chance. "Members of the audience who don't know cyberpunk are left asking "why are things this way"" Arguably a good thing that the audience is asking themselves good questions about the setting. I did too, until I thought about it. See above. "...but the show still has a duty to at least give the audience a summary I guess that would mean explaining complex societal problems that Netflix is scared to talk about..." Oh boy. - I prefer the "show, don't tell" approach. Your review is the first and currently only example of this failing here. - Netflix is the publisher, they had no input on the script. All they could do it choose to not publish ("sponsor") it. - The world looks pretty complex and fleshed out to me. I see nothing out of the ordinary for a more high-tech version of a run-down part of L.A. "...instead the most we get are references to the megacorps who run everything but this this still doesn't explain why the city is so bad why don't the megacorps care whatsoever about maintaining clean streets or public order..." When's the last time Facebook did an act of kindness? When's the last time Alphabet helped alleviate homelessness _anywhere?_ When's the last time Nestle was not accused of a crime like child-slavery or equivalent? They're not "bad by default" They just don't care, it's not profitable. "...also isn't it interesting that Netflix a corrupt corporation is here to tell us what corrupt corporations really look like..." Again, not Netflix, it's not just "the corporations" who are "bad" Best I can tell, this was either pulled out of no where or this sentence should be considered an insult. "Edge Runners just wants the audience to take it for granted that the people running night City are all heartless scum and nothing can be done about it." Depending on what was intended by this, either: - Yes, this is a dystopian setting. - Any setting shown would require the audience to accept it before the story can be told. If the setting was modern-day Russia, 1984 Germany, Hogwarts, that would still apply. "like those in nice city can almost always be directly traced back to human decisions and government policy" this part made me think I misunderstood your intended message. Yes, greed and a poor system of governance resulted in greedy people in control. Morals are a Luxury that is rarely profitable. That's the gist. "a city being a hellhole is not an inevitability" Right, but _a_ setting must be chosen before the story can be told. 3:09 "this brings us back to the first problem with the show: it promotes a nihilistic approach." "promotes" is a strong word. Again, I got none of that and failed to find anyone who shares this idea. "it gives us the idea that people have no power to change the systems they live in despite the countless historical examples of that happening" If it's easy, feel free to fix the issues in your country. - it's not that simple and - even if feasible - it's.. - that's not the story being told the story being told is that of a kid trying to survive in Night City, not a Garry Stew being perfect and fixing all of the issues of their society. "...it's become a popular world view among the people with power in America..." Man would I love to see a (primary) source for that, but at this point it's no longer relevant to the show being critiqued. 4:08 "we're never told what happened to David's dad and that is never explored seems like an important part of his character development to ignore but okay" I fail to see how this is relevant. The storytelling needs to be dense and the best way to add this information would likely be forced exposition. "show don't tell" 4:16 "now I should point out that David wears a visible cross necklace through the entire show however Christianity is never mentioned in the anime and plays no part in the story whatsoever" *Correct, religious faith is not relevant to the story what-so-ever.* 4:31 "the obvious explanation here is that being an infamously anti-christian company Netflix didn't want to have an actively Christian main character can't have that" If that were the case, the necklace would likely be removed instead. Also, nihilism and religion can go hand-in-hand I semi-recently picked up the "I'm the Grim Reaper" webcomic. I enjoyed it. " one positive of edge runner's depiction of dystopia is that it shows some things we actually would see in a dystopia..." followed by examples Which begs the question: why was this brought up as a negative before? 5:18 "sexual Liberation is shown as the political tool for control that it is" - the scene shown there is what anyone walking in would see, while they get to experience something close to being on the moon - sexual liberation is a political tool? I can't find any sources on or logic behind that. - sexual liberation is _shown_ to be a political tool? _..how?_ - those headsets are *consumer electronics* like VR headsets, but better This goes for everything after this on the topic 5:33 "and actually Edge Runners itself engages in the exact over sexualization it criticizes" Ok, but does it criticize it? When? I must've missed that too. 6:00 "those who die are cremated without any funeral and have their ashes dumped into metal cartridges" not the case if you pay up. The hospital is a for-profit company. They're shown to be feared even by Maxxtech and the local police. The metal container is basically the contemporary urn. 6:04 "if Christianity does exist in the cyberpunk world..." As mentioned, Christianity is not relevant here. 6:19 "very telling since a healthy belief in God could provide some much needed respect for human life to the city" There are alternatives.. 6:31 "he's left on his own he's no longer able to afford rent or his education.." the ability of his to afford education is debatable he was semi-kicked out for trashing the school's infrastructure with a modded headset. 6:51 "in the show he suits himself up with cyborg technology and joins a group of edge Runners which are basically criminal mercenaries" a sub-par recap of events, but _basically, yes?_ Most people have some body modification, as they are as vital to one's life in the city as a computer and internet access is nowadays. "edgerunners" is the _name_ of the group of outlaws. they are not just hired-guns. 6:59 "all of the show's protagonists are criminals and not sympathetic criminals either some of these are very bad people who have no problem with murder or theft if it benefits them financially" they're not just after cash. it's even established they mainly focus on large corporations. Sympathetic is subjective. I found most of them at least somewhat likable. Mane was the father figure, Lucy has character growth, which helps, Rebecca is a fan-favorite, etc.. 7:13 "in some cases they actually work for the Mega corpse" Faraday, like the other fixers, are not "megacorps" this is even explicitly said near the end. 7:25 "now one one issue I have is that David didn't have to become an outlaw even though he was poor he was still a healthy young man and probably could have found honest work" Bold assumption. Given the state of the world in the setting, this may not be the case. On top of that, "he could've found a job free of crime or corruption" is irrelevant. He chose this path. Every hero's-journey story could've been cut short if the protagonist just simply ignored the call to action, but they (normally) don't. 7:35 "David the show presents it as common sense that someone with a hard life will resort to Crime" ..No one I know saw it that way.. never mind the fact that David literally had access to a military-grade peace of chrome and knew someone who would put it on him. 8:06 "many people in David's situation then turned a crime as an easy way out" Define "easy". 8:15 "the only way to break this cycle is for criminals to be removed from society and for society to collectively agree to follow moral rules" Only thing I can think of as a response to this is "Gosh, why didn't I think of that!?" If it were that easy, dystopia would be a far-fetched concept. --------------------------- if you got this far, congrats, there's a part 2 in the replies

[@playerguy2]

Part 2/2 8:29 "You could argue that edge Runners isn't endorsing the lifestyles it portrays but I don't know like I said they did make every protagonist a criminal" The incorrect assumption here is that "the protagonist must be good". for another example: Is Dead Pool good? He _is_ the only main character.. He could donate every organ he has over and over again. Free money! Here, there is no such "free" option. 9:07 "women work right alongside men now I understand that they're all cyborgs but women and men being perfectly equal Fighters as they're shown in the show is still a bit unrealistic even with tech enhancements women would still be behind men due to Natural biological factors let's stop and think about this logically if technology affects both of the Sexes equally then doesn't it follow that men would retain most of their biological advantages over women" I need to break this down a bit. - That tech affects women equally to men is an assumption. if the entire body is replaced, that should not hold true. "women and men being perfectly equal" - but are they really? what makes you think that? 9:47 Her size isn't that inconsistent. Generally she's almost 1 head shorter, but in that scene she's clearly hunched down slightly. She even lifts her head higher in the clip you showed. 10:15 "Edge Runners is actually a textbook example of how montages and time jumps don't replace real character development" Few people thought the show "rushed" the plot. None told me the montage/jump cuts were out of place. 10:30 "blood and gore is off the charts and just unnecessary" Animation is courtesy of Studio Trigger. They're.. known for that. Granted this is matter of taste, but yes. 11:27 (and 12:30) I don't get the whole section on premarital sex. To my understanding marriage is basically just telling everyone else you like this person with extra steps. Given the setting of the show, is marriage _really_ not a moot point? 11:43 "a big problem with so-called adult Western entertainment they believe that sexual degeneracy equals good content for older audiences" it is my understanding that sexual content serves the same purpose as fan-service in anime, but is otherwise no different to the alternative, just not needed to be shyed away from. 11:53 "what makes a good story for adults isn't mindless sex or nudity it's a deep story complex character meaningful symbolism and a positive message" No offence but it seems to me all of that you've missed in the show you're critiquing. Maybe there isn't much of a positive message, but the rest is there. If not, then why is the metacritic score so high? 12:08 "reality is that nudity is put into these shows for coomers to gawk at and to demoralize the audience" I don't think we agree on what "demoralize" means. 12:20 "one of the big strengths of the anime genre is that it strongly avoids premarital sex" Simply not true for all anime, but I'd rather not go through hentai just to prove anyone wrong here. 12:30 "ironically premarital sex is part of what leads to dystopia as it creates fatherless children rampant abortion STDs infidelity and a general breakdown of family culture hey guys if you want to prevent a dystopia one way to do that is to discourage premarital sex" [citation needed] My parents were married but got a divorce Of my friends, one who's parents are not married probably has the healthiest family relationship. the entire section on the morality of trans-humanism Where's the line in the sand? if one's heart fails, should they be allowed to get a pacemaker? no? could they replace a valve with a plastic one? or do they have to sacrifice a pig's for other person's life for it instead? if a limb is amputated, can you _restore_ it's function with a prosthetic? or is that not allowed because a running blade may be more effective at running that a human leg? Who are you to teach others on the topic of morality? 15:24 "Rebecca seems to care that he just died in fact Rebecca's only complaint is that she didn't get to kill him herself" I found the joke funny, but that aside: Can that line really be taken literally? Because I wouldn't. That aside, I don't know anyone personally who got along with their siblings well. 15:36 "...I guess that's not nihilistic enough..." Nihilism is not relevant here, see above. 16:51 "main villain of the show ends up being a mega Corporation Called arasaka.." They've been shown, hinted at being "the big bad" from episode 2. I'd hardly call that _"end up being the X"_ 16:58 "...their ruthless and atheistic with no regard for human life whatsoever just" That has been covered before, but why the mention of "atheistic"? Why not berrade the writers for making David an atheist? The motives have been clearly spelled out in the show, even scene in the video as you say this. 17:25 "would they really go to look for you out in the random Countryside?" They couldn't be bothered to even look for her in Night City, but how do you suppose they'd survive in the harsh conditions outside the city? Barren lands with no vegetation for miles and non-arable soil and no water are not condusive to human life. 17:40 "she and David also have many opportunities to run away together and start a new life but they foolishly choose not to" Aside from calling it foolish, yes, that's an accurate recollection of events. 18:01 "eventually arasaka takes notice of David and hatches a plan to trick him into testing their new war cyborg suit" They noticed in episode 1. This was clearly spelled out. 19:19 "..but if the anime really wanted to solidify this it could have shown some other ways out for the characters" Let me re-phrase that: "If the writers wanted to depict a dystopian, hopeless ending, they could've shown some alternative ways out of the situation." If they had a good way out, a choice, this would either be a comedy or stupidity on the caracters' part. 19:27 "could have given the audience a bit more to feel like things weren't all for nothing they ended up writing themselves into a corner" In the nicest way possible: *this was the intended message, story, and ending from the beginning. The complex story, morals, characters, motivations, everything you asked for was provided, only to be slapped away.* (see 11:53) 19:34 "..if they had given David and Lucy a happy ending after all the immoral things they'd done it would basically be saying crime does pay but even then when we look at the villains since arasaka never suffers any real blowback for its many crimes the show kind of does tell us that Crime Pays.." Right, you get it! It's a sad story about the hopelessness, not inherent evil. Being a jerk of a company is profitable, so why change? ..But then you put the gif of Capitan Jack Sparrow going "oh..".. So now did you get the message of the story or not? Much like a middle-schooler reciting the laws of motion, you literally said it aloud, but then failed to understand what they mean. 19:52 "in an interview one of the anime screenplay writers explained that the gangs in the cyberpunk world attempt to use violence to overcome the inequality of wealth and status in their society he points out that this life of crime comes with its own set of problems this does explain some of the show's philosophy" But then why all of the comments on David becoming a criminal? Why the negative points for "the lack of explanation for why the world is like it is in the show"? "but I still think it could have been done better.." then go ahead, go make millions. Writing good stories is hard. If you have better ideas, feel free to share. 20:14 "Edge Runner crew doesn't take a principled stand against all megacorps in fact most of their time in the show is spent working for one megacorp" - they clearly can't afford to "just be criminals" - Faraday is not a megacorp, he's just wealthy and wants to climb the corporate ladder - he literally said this aloud multiple times at the viewer. morality is a luxury 20:20 "That's not revolutionary, that's being a Hired Gun For The Establishment" .. Correct. Your point being..? 20:26 "as you can tell Edge Runners has a lot of flaws" I don't, no. 20:31 "didn't take time to properly flesh out the characters with the precious time it had" Even those who I've heard say the show was rushed, not dense would disagree with that stance. 20:40 "I will point out that unlike in other Western shows I've looked at like High Guardian spice Edge Runners lacks anything LGBT a surprise to be sure but a welcome one" I both fail to see how this is note-worthy and don't care. 20:56 "I suspect this might be related to how the show also was released in Japan but I can only speculate" I, again, don't feel like browsing hentai to prove anyone wrong here. 21:23 "a core flaw of edge Runners is a flaw that's inherent in the modern dystopia genre this flaw is that writers have decided that dystopias have to be inherently doomed they can't have a happy ending" Wouldn't be much of a dystopia if everyone were happy. In fact we normally call that a utopia. 21:35 "breaking out of a dystopia would mean the characters rise up and the society's corrupt leadership and lead the people into a new Golden Age you know what that sounds like fascism can't have that wouldn't want to give people watching any ideas would we." What a mess.. - yes, stories like that exist - no, The US is not a facist organization - no, that's not what happened in 1945 Germany - "breaking out of a dystopia" would mean it's no longer a dystopia. (see above) 22:13 "we don't have to be like the characters in Edge Runners we have more power to change our lives than we often think" 100% agreed.

[@00fgytduydrtu]

Boy, I could read all of this, but I got a lot of work. From the gist, I realise you are a left wing socialist. I would reccomend you watch sone of zoltanous and keith woods videos on the relation of capitalism and your ideology. What left wing socialists fail to understand is that the very system they think they are fighting against is using them for its own benefit. Capitalist Realism is also a Good Book. You seem like a smart lad, so I iquire you to research Third Positionist Critics of your Beliefs. Its a shame to see so many with revolutianary spirits being abused in such a way

[@playerguy2]

​@@00fgytduydrtu To be completely honest, book recommendations and a level-headed response are the last thing I expected from this novel of a comment. Thanks.

[@00fgytduydrtu]

@@playerguy2 NP. I was a left winger for a good while, so I know what its like. I then, because I am a more social conservative, became right wing, and I had to supress my socialist leanings, till I discovered the third position

[@Razorstolemycar]

@@playerguy2 Wow that was one of the longest comments I've ever read! But I agree with all of your rebuttals! I mean 90% of this review is just a pissed off Christian complaining that this show is too sinful when that's literally the point of the show! And one point that really made me raise my eyebrows was when he basically implied that this show promotes transhumanism. When that couldn't be further from the truth. Because literally almost everyone in the show is against David constantly injecting himself with more upgrades. And plus it shows that you lose yourself from taking too many upgrades. Like Maine going full on psycho from his upgrades and dying after losing everything! With David sadly falling in the same deadly lifestyle as Maine and getting killed for it!

[@Neji641212]

I would like to point out that this show is not completely western, thats why there is not much of lgbt propaganda etc. The script for the story was prepared by Polish director. Poland (mostly catholic) is at the edge of western world and can be described as the bridge (both metaphorical and geographical) between west and east. This is the reason edgerunners is more distinct. I think that nihilism and helplessness is a core feature of steet kid life (1 of the 3 communities in the cyberpunk world). It could be better explained in the show to understand what's wrong with the dystopian world, but still it's rather promo to the game.

[@MALICEM12]

not to mention the Japanese aspects are very present as well

[@samanthablack7990]

"LGBT Propaganda" 💀

[@Joshua-om9so]

@@samanthablack7990 yeah wtf? what did the OP mean with that and do they know that Cyberpunk (a polish game) is full of LGBT elements?

[@PopPopPopPop]

Lmao reactionaries having takes like this on a genre like cyberpunk is funny to me

[@MALICEM12]

@@PopPopPopPop less "reactionary" and more just christian zealot