UNLOCKED: Get Anime'd: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Episodes 1 & 2

Welcome to Get Anime, the anime watch-along podcast with the hosts of Get Played.

I'm self-proclaimed cyber psycho, Heatheranne Campbell.

I'm self-proclaimed automated fleshlight, Nick Weiger.

And I'm self-proclaimed human-but-trash, Matt Apodaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere anime podcast where this week we are talking about cyberpunk edge runners.

Yes.

And in light celebration of the revamping of the game and also the release of Phantom Liberty.

Right.

And I've noticed that this anime has kind of been,

you know, I don't want to say recirculating, but it's just, it's kind of back in the zeitgeist, I think, for that reason.

And people have been talking about it a little bit.

I saw it appearing more in the top of people's algorithms.

And we all watched this when it released, which I felt like was like 2021, but it was actually just last year.

Isn't that wild?

Oh, my God.

Really?

Doesn't it feel much longer ago?

It was like 2022 when the show came out.

I watched it on my, I converted an old Mac classic and watched it on my Mac Classic on Netflix.

And it was...

It felt like the most cyberpunky thing I could do at the time.

Yeah.

So this time I'm watching it on televisions and it's fucking gorgeous.

Very, very

just visually appealing show.

Just looks fantastic.

I think this might be the autumn of cyberpunk.

The autumn of cyberpunk?

Because like there's people are revisiting it.

Yes.

Because of the new release.

And so much of the feedback has been so complimentary.

Right.

And then this anime is already a classic.

A year later, it is.

Instant classic.

a

poll to you guys from Reddit, like the R anime subreddit.

And

it's like the top 25 sci-fi anime of all time.

And Edge Runners is in the top five.

And it's in the top five with shows like Steinsgate and Evangelion, like big, big hitters.

And I don't think it is the recency bias.

Because it's been out long enough now that I don't think that people are like,

oh, oh, cyberpunk.

It just came out last week.

I love it.

I'll put it in the top five.

It's a year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's interesting.

And there was, you sent us a thing, too.

You maybe said this just now.

Where people are like, now's a great time to watch it again.

Yeah.

That's what we're doing.

Yeah.

It's what we're doing.

We're watching it again.

So if you didn't watch it the first time, you get, hey, now

hop along, hop on board.

And if you did watch it the first time, I encourage you to re-watch it because I think it's a show that benefits from a rewatch, especially knowing the season-long arcs, which we won't spoil in this initial talk through.

We'll go along this journey as it progresses.

We're not going to talk about the end game until we get there.

I never finished it.

You never finished it?

I never watched it all the way through.

Oh, Matt.

Oh my God, Matt.

Oh, my God.

Oh, no, Matt.

What a show not to finish.

I watched, I think, maybe.

I think I maybe watched the first four or something.

I don't know how many I watched.

Oh, my God.

It is.

This shows.

And this is not a spoiler.

Yeah.

this show sticks the fucking landing yeah 100% yeah I'm excited I'm excited look I'm excited that cyberpunk's back I'm just excited about yeah I'm realizing when you said the autumn of cyberpunk I thought you were talking about like kind of the the micro genre the aesthetic but the aesthetic but you specifically mean of cyberpunk 2077 the property the

the because if i say the fall of cyberpunk it sounds like oh i'm talking about the end of cyberpunk yeah i'm trying this is the autumn yes of cyberpunk yeah and i think it's going to sneak up on people in in a way that we weren't expecting because this year has been so fucking stacked with games and anime.

Right.

So like you're going to come into the fall not thinking,

oh, everybody's going to be talking about cyberpunk again.

And I think they are.

I think so, too.

And also, I'll just say this show was.

It was really smart of CG Project Red to make this show, to approach Studio Trigger specifically, to give them the artistic leeway to make what they wanted to make, make,

because it made, it elevated the entire, to your point, it elevates the cyberpunk like IP.

Like it makes this seem like cooler.

It makes the world seem richer.

It informs what's happening in the game.

Like, I know that there's been additional content that has come from the anime that's been populated into the game world,

but also it just makes it all feel like bigger and richer and more lived in in general.

I know that I'm wishing for a multiverse that is several universes away from this one.

But can you imagine a year where all these games came out and then now that Cyberpunk is at the place where they wanted it to be on release?

Right.

Three years later.

Three years later.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine if it had been held and this year, that version of Cyberpunk 2077 and the anime had dropped at the same time?

Like...

People would be like, I don't know what game of the year is.

Yeah, it's interesting to think about because it's like,

I feel like I've just seen a lot, a lot of stuff.

Obviously, as of recording, the update and the DLC aren't out yet.

They will be soon.

Yeah, they're not quite out yet.

We're a few days away.

But everyone's talking about

how fucking good it is and how, or at least the update and how the update really makes it feel like a completely different thing.

But aside from that, I'm just seeing people playing the game.

Raw still like playing it without this update and are loving it and are showing all this crazy like there i saw a combat you know like when we would watch um

or we'd send each other the last of us to uh like combat encounters like how sick they were i saw stuff recently from cyberpunk that i just like had never even occurred to me before yes unbelievable stuff is it is it jumping over a fence and commanding everyone to blow their own brains out

not dissimilar to that yeah it's uh it's definitely but you know we'll talk about i think we'll talk more about the game yes on the podcast about video games, Get Played.

That's our sister podcast.

Well, actually, this is the sister podcast, isn't it?

They're both sisters.

They're sisters.

Yuck.

Yeah.

And the twins.

Guys.

I can't wait to talk about this anime, and I really can't wait to watch it now that I know that Apodaka hasn't seen the end of it.

But before we talk about cyberpunk Edge Runners,

we normally like to dabble in like our own personal watchdowns.

Yeah, sure.

In a segment called,

what's it called again?

What We've Been Weebin.

What We've Been Weebin.

Hi, it's me, Ash Ketchum from the hit series Pokemon.

I was kicked off the show

for scabbing against my own Poke Union.

And now it stars somebody else.

But here I am on Get Played asking you, Nick Weiger, what have you been weaving?

First off, it is get anime, not get played.

You're not in the main feed, just so you know.

What the fuck?

You're behind the paywall.

Why do you keep doing this to me?

Well, I just want you to be clear.

I just don't want you to think like I'm going to be in played.

You know, anyone can download it.

No, you do have to subscribe.

And one's not better than the other.

One's not better than the other.

It's still, you know, the show is a good one.

You want to be on a fucking anime show?

I hate anime.

You hate anime?

Yeah, those assholes kick me off my own show.

Oh, boy.

Yeah, you get some bitterness towards the genre as a result.

Well, you know, but I think you have a great legacy.

I think there's something illegal with a Charizard.

She's illegal.

Like, committed a crime together or something to the Charizard.

Yes.

Oh, boy.

It being vague makes it worse.

It's one of those things.

Yeah, exactly.

Can't wait to see that documentary.

Use your imagination and then use it again on New Imagination Plus.

Then you get an idea of what I did.

The documentary is going to, it should be like one movie, but they're going to make it a six-part series with a lot of filler, a lot of extra interviews.

Exactly.

We get the story.

Yeah.

Why is Brock talking for like 70 minutes?

And they, they, uh, you know, when they do the, like, they put somebody in silhouette and they'd make their voice.

We know it's Mewtwo.

We know it's Mewtwo.

It's obvious.

It's like, who else is shaped like Mewtwo?

Anyway, look forward to that.

I'll be checking that out.

But what I've been weebing, Ash, to answer your question,

is

I'm Zom100.

I'm continuing to watch that.

Their most recent episode as of this record is their horniest episode yet, which I was very excited to see.

A lot of fun.

There's a new character, Beatrix, who is

something of a weeb herself.

She is a German expat who moved to Japan just as the zombie outbreak occurred.

And she came because she is a huge Japanophile.

So she is just there, like, you know, she steeped in the culture and was very excited to experience it and see the society that she'd fantasized about from afar.

But when she arrives, zombies are everywhere menacing everybody.

So she has joined the party.

We have our core four now, the four characters.

And

yeah, it's a, it's, I think I mentioned the past two episodes, got a little bit more meditative, more melancholy, more talking about like what it's like to, because the whole thing is about

existing in a corporate world and

being brought down by capitalism.

And so it's kind of a joyous thing when this apocalypse happens because all these characters are freed from the shackles of having to be a worker.

But, and the past two episodes were kind of like really laying it on thick with those themes.

This one is just full on, like,

it's a party.

Like, we're getting an RV.

We're going to kill a bunch of zombies, gonna light them on fire, and then we're gonna go to a hot spring.

So, yeah, it's great.

The naked guy has some of his best naked guy stuff yet.

And

it's just such a purely fun show.

And I don't know if anyone who's listening is watching.

I assume a few people are at least.

But if you're not and you're looking for something that's just pure fun, I would heartily recommend it because I'm laughing out loud watching this thing.

It's a blast.

I love to hear it.

And I'm worn out by zombie shit, so I should be skeptical, but it's just so joyous.

Do they, with this naked guy?

Well, I told Matt, you'd love this show.

Yeah.

But I think I mentioned him before on the podcast.

Basically, every episode,

he's not normally naked.

He's like, he's a clothed guy by default, but he has kind of in his back pocket that he will just get completely naked at some point for some purpose.

And it's either like he's just so excited or it's like, you know, like,

I can create a distraction by using nudity and it'll just get completely naked out of nowhere.

And the episode find the way this episode does does with the way all the episodes, they always find a way to sneak it in, but in a way that kind of surprises you and catches you off guard.

It's just like a hard cut to him completely naked in some context, and you're kind of figuring out what his plan is.

So, what are they doing, though?

Are they like, is it like a black bar situation?

Great question.

There's, there's, what they actually do is really, it's, they draw a squiggle, like a squiggly line over like his goods.

So, like, it's like, you know, it'll be like a little, like someone would scratch it out with a, with a colored pencil over his like butthole or

penis and balls.

What?

Wait, but why?

That's not how a butt should be.

You shouldn't be able to look at a butt and see the hole.

Well, it depends on how he's positioned because sometimes he's kind of leaning over, trying to present himself for, you know, for some purpose.

I'm just saying, if it's just a butt crack, they're not going to include it.

But if it's like hole is implied,

away with disgust.

Look, you asked for the mechanics of what was being covered up.

Trying to give you some details.

I got it.

Here's the thing.

I got an answer.

And then Heather's clarification really

did something.

It shouldn't be able to see the whole.

It's well executed.

That's me.

Someone else go.

Hey, Heather, it's your turn.

What have you been weaving?

Well, thanks, Ash.

I have been weaving Finland saga, season two,

which

the most recent episode I watched, I don't know what number I'm on, saw the return of some season one characters and

sort of like a vision of a would-be Viking afterlife.

And it was such an excellent episode and reminded me of all of the things about Binland Saga season one that really hooked me on the show.

I'll admit, I was giving the show a shot because I'm like, I loved it so much.

I'll sit through all the farming episodes.

I'm fucking tired of farming.

I get it.

I get it, it, guys.

You're showing me like the actual dredgery of Viking culture.

And I can applaud your accuracy because I am in Viking classes and reading more about Vikings and more fucking science literature than I have ever read in my life.

You guys would love to know the dude.

You'd love to, speaking of naked dudes.

Did you want to know a Viking fact I learned this week?

Yeah, I would love to.

So when they are preparing the body in a funeral pyre, where they're like putting it on the ship and they're going to like set the ship on fire, they don't put the ship out to sea.

They've set it on fire on land.

And

after 10 days of revelry and just

like the worst, most fucking disgusting rituals, and that's saying a lot because I'm the one who likes combat.

The last thing that happens is that everybody in the village turns away from the boat and a naked guy walks towards the boat backwards covering his asshole with his hand wow and a torch in his other hand and when he gets up to the boat without looking at it Indiana jones style he can throw the torch onto the boat set it on fire and then everybody else can light the boat on fire why is he covering

because there's like there there's some fear that right before they send you away, something might be able to get in.

Oh, interesting.

And so everybody looks away from the fucking boat, and the guy who lights it on fire has to cover his orifice.

Right.

He's only facing the boat orifice.

Yeah.

In order to get over to the boat to light it on fire.

Yeah.

I would just say, like, why not just wear pants?

Because the pants will get cursed.

Okay.

Got it.

You got to get, you got to get all the way up to the boat naked, making sure ghost doesn't get in.

I'll tell you something.

If it's pants or my asshole, I'm going with the pants getting curse.

I can get new pants.

Yeah, I can toss those cursed bands.

Well, maybe once you get close enough, the pants aren't enough.

Oh, you can go through the layers.

Yeah.

At that point, you're like, I might as well just be naked.

Yeah.

I'm surprised nobody ever put like a stone in there.

We don't know.

I bet you they did.

Yeah.

Some like wily guys, like, guys, I'm not going to touch that.

Yeah.

Don't worry, guys.

I came prepared.

Anyway, watching Vinland's Saga to supplement my Viking education.

And

it is shock.

The more I learn about Viking society, the more shocked I am at the research that went into Vinland Saga.

Like,

up until

and including some of the swords being imports from areas that Vikings had conquered.

So, like, all the swords aren't universally drawn.

It's not always the same kind of sword that everybody's holding in Vinland Saga.

There's a couple different kinds of swords, and one of those kinds of swords is a reference to an area conquered by Vikings.

Wow.

It's pretty good, right?

Yeah, very much so.

Not something I can bring up in class when everybody's talking about the Viking stuff that they consume that week.

I'm like, oh, I'm watching this Japanese anime called Vinland Saga.

They'd be like,

get out of class.

Really, you think so?

So here's the thing about an elective Viking class.

Yeah.

Most of the people in the class are over the age of 60.

Got it.

Except my professor.

Yeah.

And there's one younger woman.

Professor's like 400.

Yeah.

She's simultaneously young and old, dead and alive.

No, she's, she's a, she's a young woman.

I never, I can't tell anybody's ages anymore.

Um,

but there's a young, a young woman, and then the rest are like old people.

Yes.

Who are like, well, I want to learn more about Viking.

And they're also, they're extremely well educated.

I went in like.

And it's on Zoom.

You, so you could see everybody.

Yeah.

I went in.

I went in like hoity-toity about like, oh, I'm a smart person.

I'm going to fucking rock this class.

And they're asking questions like,

do you think that in, say, let's talk about the battle of 673 and the archaeological evidence from Hastings?

And she'll be like, yes, yes, yes.

That paper, that paper.

Like, it's like, wow.

I'm like, holy shit.

And Vikings are supplementary education to these people whose primary form of education seems to be medieval history.

Sure.

Interesting.

It's fucking intense.

There's this meme going around on TikTok right now where women ask their male partners how much they think about the Roman Empire.

So Mary got me on that fucking meme without me knowing what the meme was.

She texted me, how often do you think about the Roman Empire?

Yeah.

I answered honestly and earnestly once a week.

And she was like, holy shit, what?

And I was like, what?

And she's like, what are you thinking about?

And I'm like, I mean, recently it's been about like whether or not the fall of an empire is visible to the citizens or if it is an invisible process and suddenly you aren't able to be on the road anymore.

Because I feel like it is pertinent to say,

current situations on planet Earth.

Yes.

And she's like,

what?

What else else do you think?

And then like, we talk about Roman Empire for a bit.

And then days later, I was on TikTok and saw the meme.

And I was like, son of a bitch.

I'm going to make this promise.

Yeah.

I'll never think about the Roman Empire.

I'll get you to.

No.

I don't want to think about it.

I don't want to know a goddamn thing about it.

I'll get you to.

I'll tell you something about it.

What?

They had like lavatories, like communal lavatories, and their equivalent of toilet paper were sponges that were set there on sticks.

On sticks.

And everyone used them.

But they'd dip them in like vinegar issues.

Yeah, they dip them up.

They dip them in.

Oh, good.

But at least they're covered in vinegar.

The cleanest substance on earth.

Well, what's crazy about a communal shitter is that it means that people are like chatting.

Yes.

It was an open room with multiple toilets and you'd sit around talking to people while you shit.

Yeah.

That's not, that's alien to me.

That's like you might as well be from from a different planet to describe that shit to me.

Yeah, it's horrific.

Yeah, and it wasn't like it was flushable.

No.

Though they do, they did like.

This is one of those things where every detail about it is worse than the thing you just heard.

It's really bad.

They did, like, they did have,

I mean, they had running water, which is crazy.

Yeah, aqueducts are wild.

So, like, maybe there was like a river underneath the shitters.

Maybe.

It's no wonder they fell.

I um

I like it, it is disgusting and it's weird to think about, but I think there's two, like, first off, like, light, like, people

bring it back.

People were just like dirty and disgusting.

Like, hygiene was on a completely different level.

Totally wrong.

Not true.

That's just the Roman thing.

People were not like, yeah, people were hygienic.

I think that is an Enlightenment

era way of making older cultures seem more disgusting.

And like, now we are, we are beyond that.

Because, like, we know for a fact

Vikings, which came significantly after the Romans, a day of the week was named about bathing.

Like, and, and all of

their contemporaries who wrote about Vikings were like, these guys are so clean.

Like, they are so well groomed and so bathed.

Yeah.

But, like, the Romans were clean.

Like, people bathed.

People did bathe.

So

I guess they scrubbed their asses with the fucking dirty shit.

That's what I was going to say.

It's like more what I'm talking about is this specific context.

It's like so, it's so disgusting in terms of how we and so on and agenic versus what we think of as using the bathroom.

Like there was not the idea of like I'm gonna go to a hand washing station and scrub up with soap and hot water.

But but but beyond that, it's just like life was so fucking boring.

You'd have shit to do.

Like there was no, you were lucky if you were literate and then had access to any reading material, but probably you had to like go like like watch like a court musician or a fucking uh go to the theater and watch an orator for any sort of entertainment.

So all you had to do was like sit and talk and like fuck and stuff.

Like you had nothing to do.

And then also everyone was drunk all the time.

So I think that's the other layer of like, I think if you were just like shit-faced, then the idea of going to take a dump next to your buddy and having a conversation is like a little bit less weird.

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Let's talk about Cyberpunk Edge Runners, a show that is also disgusting in its own way.

So, this was developed by CD Project Red, who made the game, and Studio Trigger.

Studio Trigger was founded by a Gainax veteran, Studio Gainax veteran, named Hiroyuki Imaishi, who also directed this show.

And the other notable hit, Studio Trigger's made a bunch of shows, but Kill La Kill, I think, is their most notable other project.

so i'm going to go through a bunch of of polish and japanese names so i apologize if there's any mangling here uh was created by rafael zhaki and the screen story is credited to bartos stybor uh the script is uh masahiko otsuka and yoshiki usa and uh i mentioned imaishi is the director

Let's start here.

What was everyone's reaction to this the first time upon release?

And Matt, I know you didn't finish it, but like you're watching however many episodes you did.

Like, what were you thinking when you were watching this initially?

I just remember being, you know,

I think we were sort of like lukewarm to positive on the game.

Like we were like, the game is kind of dumb, but it's good.

You platinum did, Heather.

I know that you really liked it.

I mean, I finished it.

Yeah, I think we did.

We all finished it.

I did really enjoy that game, despite it's a real warts and all situation.

And its initial release, it was very buggy, and a lot of it was unfun, but I thought the narrative design was so strong.

Yes.

So going into this, I remember being like,

what I mean,

I think the world is interesting enough to see other things about it.

And if we're not going to get more story in the game right now, I'm happy to see more stories in Night City told elsewhere.

And I remember thinking that this, like these first two in particular, being like, these are great.

These are interesting.

And they really set up

what the next bit of it is.

It's a good table setting, I think, these first two episodes of the season.

Yeah, Heather, and you watched it obviously in your own setup.

What was your reaction watching this the first time?

So, my first response was

the opening scene is everything I want in an anime.

It's one of the most violent things that I'd seen in a long time.

Oh, yeah.

So, I was like, oh, okay.

I went in with a bias, and that bias was, there's no way this is going to be good.

Like, there's no fucking way.

It's going to feel like as good as like the animatrix was, it wasn't great.

Like you weren't like, oh shit, the animatrix years later.

Like a lot of these sort of tie-in anime projects, like I never even watched the Blade Runner anime.

Black Lotus.

Yeah, I never, I never watched Black Lotus because you're like, these are just sort of like.

Is that what it's called?

There's a show called White Lotus.

Is that what you're thinking of?

No, I think it's Black Lotus.

Did they do a White Lotus anime?

Jennifer Coolidge making like really funny faces in the anime.

Oh, you guys.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

So I went in low.

Yeah.

Low hopes, curiosity.

And then somewhere around the midpoint, I started saying to my wife,

my then fiancé, now wife,

I think this show is great.

Yeah.

And I don't know how it's it's great.

And then

the final couple episodes, I was like, oh, this is like a tier one anime.

And I can't believe that it's cyberpunk.

Yeah,

my reactions paralleled yours.

I think it was a little bit less skeptical going in just because I'd heard it was good.

I think word of mouth had spread at that point.

And I think this one and League of Legends Arcane, those two anime kind of came out around the, well, that's not, I guess not an anime, but I mean, like, those two animated series

realizations of video game properties properties came out around the same time frame and they were both like critically well regarded and both of them i think people were like huh okay uh and this one i you people can people can listen to our played episode where we covered this on initial release uh if they want to dig that up through the archives to hear our our actual reactions but what i remember being is like wow this is shockingly good and then yes having a point by the end where i was like wow this is just like an incredibly well crafted season of television i can't believe they pulled this off and i think the big thing that that

the things that I remember from this that I retained on this

watch through is, first off, every episode feels consequential, to Matt's point.

Like every episode, there's something happening where it's like, oh, shit, that's really going to advance the plot.

And the other thing is, it's just a triumph of aesthetics.

It's just such a gorgeous show.

The character designer is Yo Yoshinari.

And I think just like the...

Just the character designs in particular are so cool.

Like, like, they all look so great.

The palette is, is awesome.

Everything is just soaked in neon.

Both day looks and night looks are just so, you know,

those, those

Miami Vice sort of palettes, you know, it's just, it's, and, and there's so much yellow used, which shouldn't work, but it's such a great dominant color.

Mary came in while I was re-watching the show, and she was like, it's, uh,

why has everything gotta, got, kind of, gotta look like Blade Runner?

Yeah.

And I was like, yeah, it sort of set the, the, the tone for

generations of cyberpunk stories on screen, right?

I do think what sets apart cyberpunk is the color yellow.

Yeah.

Which you never see

a non-neon standard yellow used as like a motif.

And it's it's used so

uh it proliferates through the opening credits and it's also in David's jacket.

Like it is a it is a visual icon, like the visual iconography of cyberpunk.

The subway cars, I believe, are bright yellow.

And it really fucking works.

Yeah, it's awesome.

It's a great looking shoe.

It feels good.

Yeah.

And there is this little bit, because speaking of the character design, I just, I feel like

at some point I wanted to get this information out.

I might as well do it now.

But this was a quote you maybe saw.

The site was Anime Sen Pie where I found this, but this is talking about the character of Rebecca, who is like the, you know, she comes about not in these first two episodes, I don't think, but she is like a presence throughout the series.

The child-bodied

character.

Yes.

And

I'll just read this quote.

Rebecca's character concept was sent to CD Project Red initially, and they said, she is a lolly.

There are no lollies in Night City.

She doesn't look like a Cyberpunk 2077 character.

However, Trigger's reply was shortened to the point.

No, the lolly must stay.

So they just kind of put their foot down.

I don't know.

I mean, I think it was a great decision because they think it is a really cool character design and they think it kind of like fits her sort of, you know, spark plug sort of personality.

But I think that also just kind of generally speaks to the autonomy that

Studio Trigger seems to have been granted, the trust that CD Projekt Red had to be like, okay, you know, take our property and do what you want with it.

And also that it's not even, of course, their property to begin with, which will,

you know, which is another thing.

But yeah,

and I'll also just say that I watched the subtitles the first time through.

I watched all this, I watched them all subbed.

For this one, I'm kind of doing something where I'm alternating.

So Heather and I are going to trade off which episodes we're driving.

And so I'm watching the dub for episodes I'm driving for ease of note-taking, and then subs for episodes where I'm not doing that, which is also an interesting experience.

But I don't know.

I think both audio tracks are really good.

I think the English acting is great.

That's good to know.

I'll never know that.

But I'm glad to know that it's good.

Yeah, I think a lot of people will probably watch it and dubs.

And so I do think it is a ⁇ I think it is a ⁇ yeah, it absolutely honors the original version.

All right, first episode, episode one, Let You Down.

Unless anyone else has any thoughts before we go in.

Let's let her rip.

Or Doc.

Matt.

That was good.

Let You Down is the first episode.

So we start with a squad of cops making small talk in the rain.

And then a cyber psycho

walks up and absolutely just fucking head pops a cop with a fucking point blank, just head exploding round.

And then we get into this thing that Heather talked about, this Verhoven level bloody shootout that is just so awesome.

It's just such a great cold open because it just sort of immediately entrenches you into this world of just like, it is merciless.

It is brutal.

Cops are going to get fucking just killed by the dozen.

I love the moment where we see the Sendevastan, which is the cyber implant we learn about that lets him matrix around a squad of a semicircle of cops and he fucking head shots all of them, just kills them all.

And it's just, you've got this hyper-militarized police force that's gunning down the cyber psycho.

But yeah, it is just the sheer.

the sheer uh uh you know intense brutality of this i i just i i think it's i think it's awesome i like i like the way they and i don't remember this being the case in the game so maybe it's just been too long but i like the way you see what a cyber psycho looks like in Edge Runners, which is this, like,

their eyes are multiple planes of 2D eyes that are sort of like shifting all around their sockets.

And

that's the designation for cyber psycho.

And I don't think that was in the game, and it's great.

Yeah, there are cyber psychos in the game that you encounter, but yeah, I don't think it's rendered in the same sort of way.

It is, it is, it is awesome.

It's, it's, you're right.

It's, uh, it's a great visual representation of that.

So we have the sequence.

We transition to David is watching this.

David is our protagonist, is watching this as a brain dance, sort of a VR simulation, a VR recreation of this.

A Strange Days.

A very Strange Days, yeah, yeah.

A Strange Days, Catherine Bigelow, James Cameron movie that Nick and I were just talking about right before this.

Holds up.

Holds up.

I mean, it's fucking gnarly.

Yeah.

But it holds up.

Okay, so

in terms of choices of the aesthetic choices of this game, I really like that they just rep

this anime, but I said game because I misspoke and said game because I was thinking about the game UX, which is just rendered as part of the animation.

And they do that for the voice and the video calls, and it works really well.

Yes.

And I don't know how much of that came from CG Projekt Red or not, but it's just like it's really effectively integrated.

Yeah.

No notes.

Excellent work.

Also,

have it, it's been a couple of years since I've played Cyberpunk.

So hearing those audio cues

felt warm and fuzzy nostalgic to me.

Like I was like, oh, when I hear that phone ring, I'm like, oh, it's that thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There were a couple of things like that where I was like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, that's nice.

I also want to say that this show is

the soundtrack,

the vocal soundtrack for this show

is the music that plays on the radios in Cyberpunk 2077.

And

the songs in the game game are largely forgettable.

But once they're repurposed by

Edge Runners, they take on meaning.

And when you hear them in the game after you've watched

Edgerunners, you're like, oh, oh, God.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

And that's a really cool redefining of the

sort of diegetic music of the game.

I should mention a name real quick that I should have mentioned earlier, which is Mike Pawnsmith, who is is who created the cyberpunk role-playing PNP game that is the basis for 2077 and this anime, and seems to be an interesting and very creative dude.

Okay, so after this, yeah, he's watching this.

He's talking to a Ripper Doc who has sent him this Brain Dance,

and he's talking to him through the in-game

voice chat system.

The Ripper Doc sends him a really quick, explicit porno clip that he watches at at Braindance.

Again, just like it does a good job of just plunging you into the deep of like, this is what you're going to get in this show.

You're going to get files to get new.

Yeah, exactly.

I love things like, and I think this is the kind of thing where the anime does a better job of the commentary that the game is attempting, but like David not being able to afford the washing machine in his own home, that that's paywalled.

It's just like, oh, yeah, that's the thing they are going to do.

At a certain point, it's going to be a pay-per-use in the dishwasher and my rental.

And if I don't have enough money, then I'm not going to be able to do it.

That's already the case.

Like,

if you don't own your laundry machine, you have to pay money in order to use it.

And if you run out of quarters and your fucking shit's not dry, you're fucked.

Right.

But there's a difference when it's like in your own home.

Yes.

Right.

Like, this isn't like a laundromat he's going to or a shared laundry.

A subscription service to your own laundry.

Exactly.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bring it.

Bring it.

Let's ride it out for these last nine years.

I do want to just point out nine.

You can,

a lot of those shared laundry units,

they have these like boxes on them that have like a

keyhole on them.

You can buy that key.

I love that.

Just

so you know, you can buy that key anywhere.

I think I've told this story on the pod before.

There was a kid at my school who got a color copier when color copiers were not a thing yet.

And he started color copying dollar bills, cutting them, bringing them to the laundromat, feeding them into the quarter exchange, getting quarters so that he could do his laundry.

Amazed that works.

And it worked because it was so early.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then was eventually arrested.

Wow.

But for a while, he was like running a scheme so that he could get his laundry done.

Look, don't even, this is the last I'm going to say about this.

Laundry should be free.

You're already paying fucking rent.

Anyway, that's my concurrent take.

So he, so David's mom is on, sleeping on the couch.

He's talking to her.

She is actually, the cyber psycho

attack attack has been reported on the news and she is on TV as part of the medevac crew that cleaned up after the cyber psycho attack.

And so we're just getting a lot of info here up top.

But

it's all, you know, it's, I think it's pretty efficiently and effectively conveyed.

And we are also getting that the cyber psycho had this military grade implant that has disappeared.

And as this is happening, Gloria gets a scrambled call from some unknown hooligan.

And that's that's after out of of this scene.

Then we get just like, and I think this is part of what's fun about this anime:

it has great walking around in the same way that what's, you know, the game, I think, is

pretty good about this.

Like, the moments where you just kind of get to walk around and explore Night City, it certainly got better with the updates.

But it does a good job of just representing this fully realized world, just how nasty it is.

I love the move he does where he steps off, he's just walking and just kind of moonwalks off the edge of

a little

lift and then falls into a trash pile, like just walks, just steps into a bunch of garbage things and they break his fall.

Just so cool.

I like that the backgrounds in the anime are actual locations from the game.

Yes.

It's like, it's like

if you were watching

an anime,

here's a deep cut.

Gunsmith Cats is one of the few anime that takes place in Chicago.

And whenever I would recognize

a location, I'd be like, oh, shit.

Wow.

And the same feeling applies here where I'm like, oh, I know that I know where that is.

I know that building.

I know that bar in Cyberpunk.

What's the premise of gunsmith cats?

It is a group of scantily clad Chicago girls who are obsessed with guns who are like bounty hunters for low-level

crimes

in Chicago.

I'm not going to watch that.

Don't.

Sounds too ribald for me.

Tell me anything about that.

It has an excellent action sequence or two in it.

Like, truly great and a really good car chase, too.

Did you watch it because it was set in Chicago?

I think it was one of those anime where so few things were available when it came out.

Got it.

That I was like, oh, this fucking show.

But it was a very lushly animated OVA.

So, like, it holds up.

It's gorgeous.

Wow.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm looking at some images from there.

It looks like De Bear's guys are in it.

Ditka.

Get Ditka in there.

He'll stop the gunsmith cats.

So,

okay.

So David is walking around the town.

Great walking around.

I love just people using drugs, you know, using the fleshlights, puking in public.

It's so fucking nasty.

It's like Roman Empire shit.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to live.

No, you absolutely don't want to live there because that's the thing.

It's like they make it look cool, but they also make it look fucking gnarly.

And you understand why people want to get the fuck out of there.

Having just come from Europe, cyberpunk is an American show.

It's like you don't get those same sort of like

urban sprawl environments in European cities.

So, like, the feeling of cyberpunk is the feeling of Los Angeles or San Francisco or New York.

Like, it does not really work if you're like in Berlin.

Well, and I imagine also like in, you know, in a Japanese city, too.

This is in, and this was a Japanese studio that made this.

I think Mike Pawnsmith is American, so that would make sense.

How many autojackers would you have to see on the street before you guys would be comfortable walking down the street with an auto jacker on?

I just don't think I could do it.

I don't even want to get my toenails in public.

I don't think I'd walk around with a visible auto jacker.

I'd be above using an auto jacker in private, but I think in public, that's just a bridge too far.

Like, what if it became like

many auto jackers want to sponsor the show or something?

In your lifetime, though, like, if it was like a thing that people just did in coffee shops, you don't think like if it

I

have no threshold for what this would be like, so I don't know.

That would be the, I mean, the thing that would have to come first is that like shitting your pants in public is acceptable.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like, it's not like we're not going to jump straight to jacking off.

Well, like, I've I've seen people look at like pornography, like, on a plane or like at a library.

You know, I've seen that move, but that still is not like, that's not an invitation for me to look at porno.

Like, I'm still not comfortable even looking at porno on.

I'm not sure guys doing it.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

And so if that became more standardized, I think I'd still be just a little bit squeamish about it.

Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

Those like toilets that

they have these like public toilets that are, they look like

when you're inside of them, it looks like they're glass and you can see out.

Oh, yeah, I know what you mean.

That's, that's, that's horrific.

Yeah, those are unnerving.

Because like, you know that on the outside, they can't see you.

Yeah.

But like, you don't really know that.

Yeah, it's good.

It breaks your brain a little bit.

Okay, so there's, there's a bunch of that going on, but everyone's very comfortable with that in Night City.

And

David is just like, he sees kind of like a vision of like a, you know, like a woman's hair at first, and then he thinks he sees a woman from behind, and then she disappears.

So we we just kind of get that seated.

Then we're at Arasaka Academy, which is the corpo academy that David, where David attends, fully privatized education in the future.

You're going to basically, you know, Microsoft

high school.

And so he's being indoctrinated in all this corporate shit.

This other kid, Katsuo, calls him in class and at first maybe seems like he's his friend, but then you learn that he's kind of his bully.

He's taunting him for modifying his dated rig.

And David's headset, which he is kind of tweaked because it's a little bit older, ends up frying the entire classes,

I guess, like in-person Zoom call, whatever the fuck they're doing.

Yeah.

And that leads to David being in the principal's office with his mom.

And effectively, he's told he's fucking busted.

Which is every kid's nightmare.

You don't want to be busted.

No, that's like the last thing

you could ever, ever wish for.

You would never want to be busted ever.

No, I would hate.

And just in my mom's there.

I mean, whenever my mom got called,

I was like, this, kill me instead.

Do me a favor.

Do us both a favor and just kill me, dog.

Think about how many dead kids there would be if they'd be like, here's a 45.

I can pick up this phone and call your mom or I can shoot you.

Yeah.

I mean, here's execution style.

These arguments for giving teachers guns are like, listen, they're shooting me first.

Like,

the teachers are, I would have been dead.

I remember one time I got called into the principal's office and the principal was like, we're going to call your mom right now.

But I did something good.

Yeah.

She said, but we're going to call your mom.

We're going to make it seem like it did something bad.

And

like we proceeded with this little prank.

Yeah.

My mom got so fucking mad.

And she was like, and the principal was like,

we're just going to, why, why are you calling me?

I'm at work.

I was like, I just did a good job.

It was sort of just like a little prank.

And then the principal was like, hey, sorry, man.

This is an absolutely true story.

One time I was in Japan and I had my cell phone with me, but I was

following somebody around in the city and having a good time.

And then they locked me on a roof.

of a skyscraper because they were a crazy person.

That's a true story.

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Adults are fucking dumb.

They don't know what the fuck they're doing.

No.

They're in charge of schools and they're just like, I don't know what a fucking thing.

This has helped me a lot recently.

This is their first time living too.

Yeah, sure, right.

Like,

I think about that a lot.

Like, with, like, then, then there's people that don't deserve that grace, right?

Because, like, they make they fuck up and they're dip shits like their entire life.

Like, I won't give that same grace to Ted Cruz or something.

Sure.

But, like, when my mom says something, or like, my stepdad says something, I was like, oh, like,

they don't fucking know.

Yeah.

They have no idea.

So.

Speaking of moms, David is getting scolded by his mom, Gloria, as he's going home for going to a ripper dock behind her back.

David's like, I'm going to to go drop out.

We're fucking broke.

You can't afford this.

You're working your ass off trying to pay for the school.

I know you can't afford it.

And she's like, she's breaking her ass.

She's trying to give him a fighting chance.

And as this is happening, as this heart-to-heart is happening, a van pulls up and just starts blasting into their car.

So fucking violent.

And the van is, it's like an unrelated thing.

This is the thing.

It's just like a kind of a random crime.

This is just how plagued with,

you know, gangland shootings this

urban environment is, where just like they're just caught in the crossfire of this van trying to shoot up this limo.

And David wakes up and their car is flipped.

Gloria is knocked out in the street.

A trauma team shows up and they don't have insurance.

So they're just abandoned there, which again is just like better commentary than anything in the game.

Oh, yeah.

Anyway, then

they're in a shitty ER, like a public ER or like a pay-for-service ER.

I can't really tell exactly what the facility is, but it's just like when you don't have insurance, this is where you end up.

It's fucking disgusting.

It looks like a

Roman lavatory.

And they're in there.

And

they tell David his mom is going to be okay, but they have to keep her overnight.

They give him a box of all of her possessions.

David goes home.

His apartment's locked off because of non-payment of rent.

And it's like digitally, like there's like a

UI element that's blocking his entrance.

So he has to crawl in through a window.

And he's going through all of her possessions and he sees some cyberware.

And he sees this like the spine that was part of the the cyber psycho and that leads him to call the Ripper Doc and ask how much for this he gets a low ball offer and but he's looking at the cyber this fucking cyberwear he's like this is fucking hardcore like you can tell it's this the sendevastan is is pretty uh send devastating uh that it actually has some real value was that in your notes or did you do that on just on the fly just then i just did it on the fly it's excellent work well thank you uh anyway so

David is being bullied outside of his academy.

He's being roasted by his classmates.

The asshole blue-haired kid, what the fuck's his name?

Katsuo, is like fucking going after him.

They're asking how his mommy pays his way,

implying she's a sex worker, which sex work is work, but they're not progressive enough to understand that.

Go off, king.

Yeah, they are trying to say it's

some sort of insult, some sort of ignoble posi uh uh profession, although that is not exact, in fact, what what she's doing, as we learn.

They're taunting him.

David tries to fight back, but the rich kid has too much cyberware and kicks his ass.

And this feels like a very, you know, again, just a very pointed sort of

there's kind of a there's kind of a real-world equivalent of

this, right?

Like the kid in the yacht club who's beating up the poor kid.

But here it's, it can be actualized in the sense of like, you just have a better like physique.

I guess the idea is that there it would be like, oh, someone is like better nourished and like, you know, like physically larger and more muscular because they have like just access to better resources uh so they can beat this beat someone up but here it's just actually like i have just have better like implants in my body so i can beat the shit out of you uh want to try me again i suggest you pack some serious chrome and uh david is getting his ass kicked getting the shit beaten out of him and as this happens when it rains it pours he gets a call from the ER they tell him he gets to the ER they tell him the discount package he had couldn't with that much you know that level of insurance they couldn't save her his His mom's dead.

They hand him a tablet with a generic mortuary service video that he watches.

Just so grim.

Just like, hello, grieving customer.

We understand you've experienced a loss.

Just like a generic template that he is watching.

I know that a lot of this is all like ground that has been tread in dystopian stuff before, but

the way it folds in on itself in this show is

so satisfying.

Yeah, it's very effective.

Like, like him, him getting that tablet and then the hard cut to what is essentially a

crematorium vending machine.

Yes, yeah.

Where he gets a capsule with his mother in it is, it's so fucking great and awful.

And then he's walking home, and as this is happening, there's an audio montage of calls he's getting about being expelled.

He's, you know, threatened, being threatened with eviction.

There's a, there's a great song playing here that I don't have pulled up.

And, you know, he's carrying his mom in a, in like a really, really

generic base level urn.

It looks like a protein powder

container.

Right.

Yes.

So he's carrying his mom in that.

And he gets, by the way, it's just another thing where I remember the initial watch.

I was like, I can't.

I knew the mom was probably going to die because I just figured that's what's going to happen.

But just like they just do it in episode one, they do it so brutally.

Yeah.

And likehandedly.

Immediately.

Immediately.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This show doesn't waste any time.

Anyway, as this is happening, David calls the Ripper Doc.

He's like, hey, can I sell this implant?

Now that he's offering even less.

Katsuo is calling him and bullying him about his mom dying, which is just like fucking, what a piece, what a fucking piece of shit.

And

then he and he and David's like trying to decide what to do.

He shows up.

The Ripper Doc is watching an XBD.

He's watching

another scenario where he's like...

Some hardcore sex thing.

And he walks in and David's like, I want this thing installed.

Then he's got the Sandevestan and he has the line, High Time I chrome the fuck up.

And there we go.

And then we get into the end credits.

And the first time we hit the end credits, we get the end credits song, which is This Fire by Franz by Franz Ferdinand, which is the opening.

Which becomes the opening credits song in subsequent episodes.

And great song.

Great song.

I love hearing it every time.

Most closely associated with burnout, the video game, to me.

So seeing it in another

video game anime property was, I was like, oh man, I love it.

Somebody, one

I was out with some friends drinking and dancing.

You know,

this song came out.

I was the only one that was fucking going nuts.

I was like, I love this.

It's rules.

Everybody was like, why are they playing this?

Play Katy Perry or something.

Oh, boy.

It's a good song.

It's not, it's also not the only time that Fran Ferdinand has done the opening theme to an anime.

They also did one to a show called Paradise Kiss, I think,

a long time ago.

I just realized that's the only Archduke I can name.

Can you think of another Archduke?

No.

They're not

enough named after, or you know, not enough bands named after him.

You give me a mid-2000s band, you better be named after an Archduke, or I'm not listening.

Archduke Modest Mouse.

Archduke Pearl J.

Any other thoughts on episode one?

No, it just fucking slaps.

It's just fucking great.

And I like just the, this is a very, this is not the normal end credits here, but just the end credit scroll is just, it just still has the aesthetic as part of it.

It still has the same font.

And yeah, I just, just, I, I, I love that they extended that to the, the end of the show.

Um, episode two is like a boy.

Picks up right where it left off, left off, including the line, high time I chrome the fuck up.

Uh, the Ripper Doc says he shouldn't install it.

Uh, he goes back to getting sucked off by his motorized fleshlight.

But the Ripper Doc ultimately, and I don't quite understand what the flip is.

I think he maybe just thinks about it for a second or maybe fucking busts.

And then he agrees that he's going to do it.

He swaps out his arms, which I love that shit.

Give me all that you got.

Give me an arm swap.

He swaps out his own arms so we can start cutting into David.

And then we get the OP.

The opening to the show is, you know, again, we've got the This Fire song, which is playing, but the opening is so stylish.

And we talked about what a dominant element yellow is, but it's just it's so cool looking.

It's excellent, and it's also

David slowly falling apart.

Yes, yeah, which is great.

Yeah, it's really cool.

Uh, after this, we're at the Arasaka Academy.

David shows up in street clothes, and he walks up, and he just starts fighting Katsuo.

And

the Sand, because he's got the Sandevastan installed now.

So it lets him, by the way, a very bloody install.

It seems like there's no sort of painkillers or anything.

He's just going in raw.

And so he's got this thing in him.

And now he can matrix around Katsuo and beat the shit out of him.

As he leaves Katsuo in like a drooling, bloody heap, he's saying like, my dad is an Arasaka executive.

You'll pay for this.

Throwing that after him, which we'll tie in later.

Now David's walking outside in his bloodstained jacket.

And back at the apartment, he looks at his mom's urn.

So that leads to

the aforementioned Arasaka executive who's watching the footage of his son getting his ass kicked.

And I like that he just has a moment where he talks to the off-screen president.

It's like, why are you showing me this?

But the underling, who is off-screen, tells him that clearly this kid is using the stolen Sandeva stand, the stolen military hardware we heard about in the news report in the previous episode, and doesn't seem to be experiencing any side effects.

So he may be a good candidate for

testing this thing out.

As this is happening, David gets a call from the academy.

He hangs it up.

He's ignoring it.

And this is the moment where we should talk about how, in a lot of ways,

the show is upsetting for many reasons, but one of them is that David is 17.

I think about how young he is based on, like,

in concert with how bad his life is.

Yeah, his life is.

His life is horrible.

His life sucks.

Just absolutely miserable.

So he's walking around outside after this,

after his shower.

And again, more guys puking and cyberjacking off.

Um, the skytrain, I'm such a train guy.

Uh, the these skytrains are so cool in this show.

It's also uh a feature of the anime that was not in the game.

Yes, like it was supposed to be in the game and wasn't, and it's like such a highlight of the anime that it's like, uh,

some of this was storyboarded before they couldn't execute.

Yeah, I wish I could take this hanging train.

It's fucking awesome.

Uh, he seems to have another vision of the woman from before, from the previous episode, and now he actually sees her and sees she is picksocketing in the show's parlance.

She is going around to the implants, the USB port that everyone has underneath their ear, which is, I know this is not, this is the opposite message of the show, but I'm just, I'm like, give me one of them.

Yeah.

That USB port.

I, I do,

having played some of the game again recently.

I need that.

Yeah.

Like, I need

this this, you know, back when the vaccine was new and they thought that we were getting microchipped, I was like, yeah, great.

Give me all you got.

I'll take a microchip in my fucking temple.

I don't give a shit.

Yeah.

What's both frustrating and also extremely

on point for the topic is that there's only one company that seems to be like pursuing this technology and it's Elon Musk's parallel,

which

of course, like, of course,

the people who would be doing this to our brains are the people we don't want doing it to our brains.

Yeah,

I'll in on the next one.

Once somebody else figures it out or, you know, sees what they did and like, oh, we can do that too.

Once Apple's doing it, I'm in.

I think the day that I come in wearing the Apple Vision Pro, though, you guys are not, you're not going to stop making fun of me.

It's just like when I walked around with a Google Glass.

You don't understand how afraid of you we are.

I can't wait to get in an Uber with that shit on my face.

Yeah.

For them to be like, ah, and I'd be like, drive.

Yeah.

I mentioned before, maybe on this show, but maybe on Played, but my buddy Van,

who I think we all know,

he was a Google Glass, like one of those, what were they called?

The

Google Pioneers.

Yeah, they were Google, Google pilots.

He was like, he was one of those people who was too.

He was walking around with Google Glass, and he said one of his experiences with Google Glass, he walked into a bar and a waitress turned to him and just immediately flipped him off.

Anyway, so

he like he sees what she's doing.

And she like, he like grabs her and he's like, I see what you're doing.

You're trying to steal from people.

And she turns things around on him, gets the nanowire weapon, which is like a cyber garret on him.

Is that he says Garrett?

Garrot?

How do you say that?

I don't fucking know.

Whatever that is.

It's like the wire.

What is that word?

It's the wire that you use to strangle people.

But this is like the cyberpunk version of it.

You don't know the name of the thing used to strangle people?

The skinny rope.

I don't know.

Anyway, so he's got one of those.

She's got one of those on him.

It is Garrote wire.

Garrote.

Is that how you say it?

I don't know.

It's how it's spelled.

Garot, Garrett, whatever, whatever it is.

She notices his chrome.

And is like, okay, we should team up.

And she's like, I only target Arasakwa and they Arasaka and they negotiate an arrangement.

And she introduces herself as Lucy, one of the main characters of this show.

So later on the train, they're working their game.

David is using the Sandeva stand to rob sockets from an array of customers and passing them off to Lucy.

They're kind of working in tandem.

And then this is successful.

And later off the platform, they're discussing money.

And as this is happening, David gets a nosebleed and passes the fuck out.

And he just passes the fuck out.

He is just like.

He passes out face forward on a flight of stairs.

He's just out of it.

Slides face forward on the stairs.

Yes.

Just absolutely wrecked.

So they're in an ambulance with a doc.

A doc is like, I like, wait, you haven't been taking any precautions.

You don't have insurance.

You're not taking any immunosuppressants.

You're just using this thing, you know, like raw, like as it is.

And

this person who is in their ambulance, and I can't tell if she has a previous relationship with Lucy or not.

It kind of seems like she does, but she sees what's happening.

She's going to rob them and steal David's implant because it's too valuable in the black market.

Lucy kicks the shit out of her, and then they skate backward on the gurney out of the ambulance.

And this is one of those things where it's like, I don't think Lucy's character is ever quite at this

intensity again.

Like, maybe, maybe I'm wrong, and maybe we'll revisit something where, you know, we'll see her.

But I feel like here she's kind of like a little bit more, you know, manic and intense than she is, where she seems like kind of an even presence through most of the series, at least in my memory, and at least in these first couple episodes.

You think she's putting on a show.

Yeah.

Got it.

Well, that would tie in with what happens in the middle.

Because I do think that when you get that shot

when they're on the

gurney

flying down the highway.

Yes.

Yeah.

Skating backwards.

She's backlit with all the neon, and you see David like falling for her.

I think that that's all a fucking act.

Got it.

For his benefit.

That tracks.

And then David is, you know, he's covered in his own puke inside of his oxygen mask.

It's fucking nasty.

He has to go to the Ripper Dock, where he takes her, where she takes him rather.

At the Ripper Dock, the the ripper dock's like i can't believe you fired this up eight times in one day like you can't you're not supposed to do this more than twice in a day uh if maybe three times or else you're gonna go cyber psycho they tell him he needs fancy immunosuppressants um lucy takes all the chips they stole and they is able to buy him two days worth of meds uh with all the work that they did uh and uh

So he's at least has something to fight against to counter the devastation he's wreaking on his body through use of using this device over and over again.

Outside, Lucy calls it today and says, like, again, only use that thing when you've got no other choice and we're going to keep working together tomorrow.

And she invites him back to her place.

And he's like, wait, I thought we were going.

I thought that was for work.

And she's like, it's not for work.

And he's like, uh-oh, here we go.

So they're there.

They have beers and she smokes.

It seems to be his first time drinking, or at least like he says it's not, but it kind of seems like it is.

He didn't like it.

He doesn't like it.

He doesn't like carbonation, which is a running thing.

I think that's kind of fun, actually.

He doesn't like carbonation.

He doesn't like carbonation.

He doesn't like a little bubble.

I don't know.

You think that's fun?

It's cute.

I don't mind it.

It's cute.

I didn't think about it for a single second for some reason.

I was just sort of like, just drink the beer, dude.

She puts on his jacket and like kind of like digitally projects the Edge Runner's logo onto it, explains what Edge Runners are.

They're just another word for, you know, cyberpunk and what they're doing.

Jacket, which is a med team jacket that he stole.

Yes, right.

Yeah.

No,

a good thing to point out.

And he notices Lucy's got this poster about the moon, and he's like, ah, the fucking moon.

Who gives a shit about this fucking thing?

Can I say something about the jacket also?

Please.

I saw Johan,

the Bollywood film.

Yeah.

And the opening sequence is about sort of like a, well, the second sequence.

The cold open is not related.

But the second sequence of the film, I think,

I think is an Edge Runner's reference.

That's fucking awesome.

Because all of the hackers are wearing bright yellow, high-colored jackets with reflective stripes on them.

That makes me want to see it more.

So, okay, so he's saying, like, basically, he's skeptical of the moon, the fucking moon.

She's like, I love the moon.

He talks about his mom worked hard to let him go to the Arasaka Academy, but he never really belonged.

And she's like, well, that's not your dream.

That's your mom's dream.

Like, you got to have your own dream.

And Lucy's like, my dream is to get as far away from Night City as possible.

I want to get away from this fucking puke-covered autojacker town.

And she takes him into a VR moon experience, which looks fucking great.

That's another thing in this.

It was just like, let me get that to have that VR moon experience.

I would like to cue the song that I sent to the group.

Please.

Because

this is, I think, the iconic song of Edge Runners.

Yes.

This was the song that went viral on TikTok

and was being used over and over and over again in so many different

clips last year.

And hearing it again, it made me really emotional.

Yeah, it hits really hard.

They're just bopping around in low-G's in this VR moon.

She's taking his hand.

They're hopping in a moon rover, and this is playing.

This is a song that plays on the car radio in the game

and is

completely ignorable.

Yes.

And now when

it gives you all the feels.

Yeah, recontextualize and you kind of realize what a good song it is.

It's very churches.

Oh, yeah.

This is one where, if you look at the YouTube for this song,

all the comments are like,

Great, now my day is ruined.

Or like, oh, thanks for making me feel this again.

I was just over the show.

My childhood.

Yeah, a lot of my childhoods from this song from last year.

And anyway, so she takes them onto a crater.

They're dangling their legs over a crater, looking back at the earth.

Lucy's like, this is the first time I've shown anyone this.

This is the first time I've opened up to anyone like this.

And she's got the the feeling they're going to make a pretty good team.

And that cuts to mask being ripped off.

You fell over the edge, punk.

And there's a gang lording over him saying, that chrome's mine.

And we see Lucy in profile next to him, just smoking casually, looking cool as shit.

And she fucking fucking totally scammed him.

She iced him.

She iced him out.

She iced him big time.

And there we go.

And that's that episode.

Fuck.

God, I love this show.

It's great.

Great art.

I'm so happy we're covering it.

I'll admit,

you were like, we should cover Cyberpunk.

And I was like,

I kind of want to watch a new thing, but I am so happy to be back in this world.

I'm glad you're having a good experience because I am too.

I really, really enjoyed revising.

And knowing that our boy, our boy hasn't seen the end.

I haven't seen the end.

I already know.

I mean,

I already just,

I can, I don't know.

I'm nervous about finishing it this time because, you know,

it doesn't seem like

it's going to end well for our boy, David, but we'll get there when we get there.

Satisfying as fuck.

Yeah.

That's all I'll say.

Hey, those were our.

Any other thoughts on this one?

No, I'm just happy we're watching it, and

I'm glad we're in the autumn of cyberpunk.

Yeah.

The autumn of cyberpunk.

Well, those were our thoughts on episodes one and two of Cyberpunk Edge Runners.

Let you down.

Let's hear what these like a boy.

Let's hear what these chooms have to say about it next week.

Let's hear what you chooms have to say.

It's time for.

Well, right now we're going to talk about FLCL, though.

Oh, that's right.

That's right.

I'm just queuing them up to give us their thoughts about cyberpunk edge rights next week.

They have nothing to react to yet because right now it's still time for us to wrap up our foodie thoughts, your foody kuri thoughts, in Yuri Kuri, The Chain Reactions of Harui Suzumiya, Blue Talk.

Blue Talk.

Blue Talk.

Blue Talk.

So the episodes we covered were Brittle Bullet, Episode 5, and FLCL IMAX,

which was the finale.

That's right.

And here are your thoughts on those episodes.

This first one is from Nolan M.

Wall.

Hi, Nolan.

What's up, Nolan?

Hello, Nolan.

Such a satisfying rewatch.

A show that is both indefensible and undeniable.

Two great words.

Yeah.

Really good.

Great review there.

That's, I am, I mean, and obviously Heather's re-watching this, but I just, I'm, I'm interested in the rewatchers, how this, because I, especially people who are revisiting this after 20 years, it's, it's really interesting to hear that most, for the most part, I think it's been pretty positive.

You know, there was talk on the, on the Discord about like why we watched all the shows that we watched.

And one of one of the pieces of feedback was, and they watched FLCL because, you know, it's so important to Heather.

And I just want to say, this show is not important to me.

I mean,

I'm happy.

I'm happy that we re-watched it and I did enjoy it when it came out and I watched it a bunch.

Yes.

But it's not important to me.

Like if I never saw FLCL again, I'd be like, oh, okay.

Didn't we watch it because of a poll?

Yeah, we

asked people what to watch and a lot of people said we should watch this one.

Yes.

So we did.

So I just want to, you know, on the record, like not, this isn't what.

Like if we were going to watch Naruto, that would be my fault.

But if we were, if we're watching FLCL, not my my fault.

No, yeah, not your fault at all.

High school DXD, Weiger's fault.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Prison school, Weiger's fault.

Any series where the first part of the title is Pokemon?

Matt's fault.

Here we go.

This next one is from Callum.

Hi, Callum.

Hi, Callum.

Callum writes, Rivers Cuomo really missed an opportunity to call his Japanese language band Weeber.

That's a great pitch.

That's really good.

Excellent words.

Really, really good.

Thank you, Callum.

Thank you for that.

That changed my life.

Retweet.

I'll retweet that.

Yeah, if you tweet that,

consider that an instant repost on X.

This next one's.

What is it called now?

Reposts?

Yeah.

They're taking out all the branding.

It's just a good idea.

This next one's from John Stevenson.

What's up, John?

What's up, John?

Hi, John.

I wrote a new synopsis for FLCL for Foolie Cooley.

Feel free to send it on to Funimation/slash/crunchyroll.

And here it is:

an uncomfortably horny sci-fi anime where a narcissist's father, a psychopath alien on a scooter, and a 17-year-old with a borderline personality disorder battle to see who can fuck up a 12-year-old boy the most.

That rocks.

Very good.

This next one

is from Richard Glass.

Do you think it's Mr.

Glass?

I was going to ask if it was Mr.

Glass.

I hope not.

I hope it's not.

I don't want...

Here's the thing.

I don't want any super villains listening to the show.

I think Glass is a common enough surname where we can assume it's not Mr.

Glass.

Yeah.

But if you are,

you better watch it because guess what?

I know your weakness, bitch.

Yeah, Unbreakable is going to get your ass.

Yeah.

Richard Glass writes:

I've re-watched Foolie Cooley multiple times over the years and always come away with a different take.

My perspective on the themes, characters, motivations, and the whole steez of it have changed every time.

The only constant stance I have, the soundtrack is an all-timer.

I found it on yellow and blue vinyl, and my life feels a little more complete.

Wow.

Wow.

The soundtrack is very good.

Yeah, it is really good.

It's excellent.

It's an excellent soundtrack.

Oh, I made the sound of the pillows.

Yeah.

I think the pillows,

as far as pillows in my life, I'm going to go ahead and say number two.

What's your number one?

Pillow I sleep on.

Would you call that my pillow?

I'd say my pillow.

And it's not lumpy.

This next one is from

Mortal Comment, MK.

Wow.

What's up, MK?

For all its aliens, robots, and general batshit nonsense, the show still feels incredibly human to me.

It's funny and sad, chaotic and serene.

It's gross and it's beautiful.

I love this show.

Wow.

Nice.

It really does hit those moments of humanity really effectively.

I think we talked about that, you know,

and

it is just like a credit to just storytelling.

Yeah.

That just so much of it is just nonsense, but it still has some emotional resonance.

We're hearing from a lot of friends today.

Here's one's from Dean Loud and Clear.

What's up, Dean Loud and Clear?

Hi, Dean.

Glad this was only six episodes.

I think I'd rather suffer through the Endless Eight again than watch any more of this nonsense.

Wow.

I love this.

I love this kind of coming in Loud and Clear with a hot take.

That's a hot take.

Take.

I love it.

Hot takedown.

That was excellent.

Imagine?

I mean, I don't have to imagine.

Dean does think this.

Yeah.

Endless Eight

over and over again instead of six of FLCL?

I think I like this more than the Endless Eight.

I mean, I did like this more than The Endless Eight, although I did not like this overall series as much as Harui Suzumiya.

But it is always,

I think, partly is just like a fan of animation and an admirer of the craft.

I think this always gives you something interesting to look at, even if sometimes what you're looking at is grotesque.

But that's interesting.

I'm sure this show has a lot of detractors.

And finally,

this one's from Bradley R.

Jackson.

Hi, Bradley.

Hello, Bradley.

Hello, Bradley.

May I call you Brad?

Give that a try.

Brad writes.

At my school in second grade, we were taught how to use chopsticks, picking up kernels of popped popcorn.

That's cool.

Wow.

Because, yeah, there was a,

in the episode where they're learning how to use chopsticks, we were sort of like, what?

Like, they teach you how to do that.

But I guess in some schools, they do.

Yeah, I wonder which country this was, and I wonder if this was a public or private school.

Popcorn,

one of the great snacks.

I know that you're a popcorn skeptic.

A bit of a popcorn skeptic, but I have

no quarrels with those who are popcorn fans.

Sounds like you're furious.

At my school in second grade, we were taught that Christ hung on the cross for six hours.

It's a long time.

A little too long.

They could have got him off.

Yeah, that's enough.

All right, we made our point.

Let's get back to work.

And that's it for the chain reactions thank you guys so much for writing in and i can't wait to hear what y'all have to say about cyberpunk edge runners yeah send those in next time and we will talk about the first two episodes your reaction to the first two episodes as we discuss the third and the fourth episodes of cyberpunk edge runners uh if you're watching along with us the series is on netflix um well guys

Good episode.

Great episode.

And I think

I don't think anybody got played today.

I think

God, I think we got

nobody got played.

I'll tell you that.

Nobody got animated either.

I think we got chromed.

Nice.

Wow.