When it comes to anime characters, few are more iconic than Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto, and it’s easy to see why. Not only does Sasuke have an incredibly iconic design and power set, but between his great rivalry with Naruto and how much work the series puts into developing his character across so many years, he’s easily one of the best-written characters in Naruto and anime as a whole, and a decade after Naruto’s finale, that hasn’t changed in the slightest.
There will never be another Sasuke Uchiha, not even in Boruto, but that doesn’t mean anime won’t stop trying to make it happen, even if it never goes any further than just making someone an angsty rival to the protagonist. There are times when an anime does put some more thought into it, though, whether by coincidence or by design, and a prime example of such can be seen in Netflix’s upcoming cyberpunk masterpiece that absolutely needs to be seen to be believed.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 Reveals The New Sasuke Uchiha
Studio Trigger’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, premieres this fall on Netflix, and after a year of relative silence, the main characters have finally been revealed. Unlike in the original series, the main characters appear fairly divorced from one another, and among them, one of the most notable is D, a man described as a Snake Nation netrunner who’s seeking revenge against the person who wiped out his entire clan.
As a dark-haired man seeking to avenge the destruction of his clan, D has obvious overlap with Sasuke, and his hair is even styled similarly to Sasuke’s. Not only that, but while the Snake Nation was always part of Cyberpunk lore, specifically making D a member of the Snake Nation feels like an intentional reference to Sasuke’s heavy association with snakes following his training with Orochimaru, and at that point, it stops feeling like it’s just a coincidence.
Naruto Officially Confirms Sasuke’s Replacement For New Anime
The Naruto franchise loves to explore how new characters can be placed in the roles of past generations. Now, it’s Sasuke’s turn to pass the torch.
None of this is new for Studio Trigger, of course; Studio Trigger anime always fit in random pop culture references, whether it’s a quick joke or just putting a character from another story into their own, and this was true all the way back in their days with Gainax, as well. With that in mind, it would be weirder if D wasn’t meant to be their version of Sasuke, and considering how much work has gone into the Cyberpunk anime, that’s plenty worth getting excited about.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Sasuke Will Make The New Anime A Masterpiece
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is all set to be a hit, and much of its success will likely be thanks to D and his obvious Sasuke inspiration. Sasuke was an amazing character in Naruto, not just for the depth of his writing, but for how much he advanced the story by pushing the cast and the wider narrative forward in response to him and his actions. If D will be written similarly, then Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 will also have an astounding level of depth to its writing, and for fans old and new, that’s something to be excited about.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners ranks as one of the best anime on Netflix not just for its gorgeous animation and direction, but for its emotional, bittersweet storytelling, so the idea of that being even better is great to think about, and as crazy as it might be for it to be tied to a ripoff of Sasuke Uchiha, it’s perfectly on brand for a studio like Studio Trigger. If nothing else, there’s more reason than ever to be excited about Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, all thanks to D’s resemblance to Sasuke, and its debut on Netflix this fall cannot come soon enough.
- Showrunner
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Bartosz Sztybor
- Directors
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Kai Ikarashi
- Writers
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Bartosz Sztybor, Kanno Ichigo, Masahiko Otsuka
