Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a hit anime based on the not so hit game, Cyberpunk 2077. The anime was created under the talented anime studio, Studio Trigger under the supervision of the Polish game development studio known as CD Projekt red, and it premiered on Netflix. The series was announced during the “Night City Wire” livestream. It was meant to be a CD Projekt and Trigger collab and Hiroyuki Imaishi directed the series with Masahiko Suka and Yoshiki Usa writing the scripts. The character designs and animation director was Yoh Yoshinari, with many others directing and assisting in the show’s creation. The series spans 10 episodes; however, each episode screams quality over quantity, making you wish for many more episodes or at least another season.
World-Building:
The world of Cyberpunk Edgerunners takes place during the year 2076 in an alternative universe in a war-torn world. Taking in the autonomous city Free City of Night City, between North and South California. A city overrun by mega corporations, corruption, organized crime and gang violence. Its history spans many years, from the 1990s planning and early years, planned to be a salvation in a time of chaos, became a city known with its own bubble of chaos, with Mob wars, corporate wars, and its unification wars.
Story’s Theme:
The story of Edgerunners is a tragic yet classical tale of what happens if you fly too close to the sun, in our case, David running too close to the edge. The story has many references and plots referring to various elements of its world setting and lore that many fans could quickly catch, however even if you’re new to the world of Cyberpunk, you can still enjoy its rich and yet very disturbing and cruel setting. Our protagonist David is just another young guy who lives his day-to-day life in Night city. As viewers, we get to see the chaotic and brutal state of Night city, criminals running destructive attacks on the daily, hookers and overdosing all over the streets, and cyberpsychos occasionally killing a block of individuals. However, to its residents, it’s the norm, and to a few individuals, it’s thrilling to see some chaos or some form of drama in this city. Unwillingly, these individuals at times forget chasing such thrill and chaos is what causes their city to be so dangerous for everyone. Edgerunners is a story about people like David and the rest of the cast, chasing down some kind of goal or will, being unaware of sometimes it’s best to stop and to just hold back, to possibly look back and wonder if the decisions they’re making won’t send them off the edge into the abyss of psychotic insanity.
Art Style:
The art style of Edgerunner is no different from what Studio Trigger usually creates, it’s very expressive and detailed, at times even colourful and beautiful, of course that’s as believable as the corporate advertisements. The art style reflects Night city, beautiful and almost mesmerizing from a distance, but when you delve deep into it, it’s nothing but a chaotic mess of almost horror when fecal matter hits the fan, it doesn’t hesitate to show how gritty and almost inhuman it can get, and nobody has plot armour, if they can breathe, they will die.
Rating:
With how Edgerunner has been, every time I think of the show or look any art or meme about it. I almost want to just stop doing whatever I’m doing and just have a Ryan Gosling Blade Runner moment. I.E I’m having a sad moment. It was such a great show for me, not only offering me a genre I can consistently enjoy and even someday want to make art or content around it, but also just offering me a significant moment of my life I may never forget. If there was one issue about the show is that it did feel a little too short, however, with what its message was, I believe it focusing heavily on quality over quantity was a good move especially when the game it’s based on, Cyberpunk 2077, didn’t really hit so well compared to it. Though it did help boost its sales so that’s a sweet plus. Overall, I give Cyberpunk Edgerunners 5 out of 5 Kristars.
From others: “This adaptation is amazing truly a work of masterpiece! And true to the original game Cyberpunk 2077. A well receive reimagining of night city and its chooms! It deserves the intention that we need to get back and play the latest patch and made me want to replay the game again!”
Written by Yassin Hindawe, Lethbridge College
