FIF#171-Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

In the dystopian world of Night City, advanced cybernetics can make you become whoever you’ve longed to be or make any twisted fantasy come to life.  For David Martinez, it’s a life beyond the cushy confines of his pricey prep school.  When tragedy strikes, David finds himself broke and without a family.  All he has is an experimental piece of tech that few can identify.  Striking out on his own, David crosses paths with a beautiful theif, Lucy, who introduces him to the underground world of violence, desire and chaos, a place where David can find his own dream and make it reality.  It’s here David can join the ranks of his idols, the Edgerunners, better known as Cyberpunks.

 
No matter it’s current game state, Cyberpunk 2077 will forever be mostly associated with its disastrous launch back in 2020.  After years of hype and build up, the dystopian scifi shooter arrived to a massive amount of technical performance issues, game breaking and meme spawning bugs and a general feeling of being unfinished…which it was for past gen consoles (apparently it’s much better on current gen though).  It’s not the first time a game’s been released like this but it’s one of the more high profile cases.  As such, I haven’t even bothered to touch it, even if it’s a game right up my alley.  Just as well, when I heard there was a Cyberpunk Anime coming, I wasn’t interested.  But then I saw some of the initial ads and noticed the animation.  This didn’t look like just another half assed Netflix CG Anime project.  No, the studio working with Netflix on this one is none other than Studio Trigger.  THAT alone got me interested, enough to do a first impression.  And you know what?  It’s not half bad, maybe Cyberpunk 2077 would work better as an Anime than a game after all.
 
Trigger is a perfect fit for a world as crazy and over the top as Cyberpunk 2077 because they’ve made their mark on the Anime world by being just that.  Kill La Kill, Promare, and yes (for better or worse) Darling in the Franxx, Trigger is all about vibrant spectacle and mind bending action sequences.  The first few minutes of Edgerunners exemplifies this with David watching a murderous cyborgs one man army slaughter of a police squad (kind of reminds me of the tech from the 90s Cyberpunk film Strange Days, good movie btw).  Slow motion, blades and guns, blood and dismemberments, Trigger’s going for broke on this one and I dare say Cyberpunk: Edgerunners might be their most violent and mature offering to date. All of the stuff you’ve heard about Cyberpunk’s world is on display from the various cybernetic appendages to the weaponry, the sexy girls and the graphic sex scenes…yeah Little Witch Academia this Anime is not.
 
The sad story of David reminds me a bit of Terry McGinnes from Batman Beyond, the two even sharing their own futuristic story setting.  He doesn’t fit in and isn’t sure what he wants to be but he doesn’t want to be a corporate big wig.  Both characters also share the tragic loss of their parents and I’m curious when exactly David will devote his time to tracking down whoever senselessly slaughtered his mother and unleash his new found super speed, super strength enhancing might on them.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a Trigger Anime without a resident Hot Girl to join in the fun and that hot girl is Lucy.  Stylish, sexy and crazy as heck, Lucy is a thrill seeker with big dreams who could either be the best thing to happen to David or the bombshell that leads to a short life as an Edgerunner.  Either way, Lucy is gorgeous and grabs your attention from her very first appearance…while admittedly, David’s design is kind of a Trigger default, looking like another cousin of Promare’s Galo or Gurren Laggan’s Kamina.
 
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to give this Anime a shot but I might have to keep watching.  The first two episodes are well paced, expertly animated and make me genuinely interested in a world I’d written off due to the video games bad reputation, and having Trigger be part of that equation helps a lot too.  So yeah, I’m gonna do something I never thought I’d do…I’m gonna actually continue on with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.  It’s only 10 episodes so it should go by pretty quickly and who knows, one way or another this might find its way into my review queue in the future (maybe even later in the year but that’s always TBD).  Does this make me want to give the game a try?  No, even if I eventually get a next gen console there’s tons of other games I want to play first.  But if more Cyberpunk Anime looks as cool as the first couple episodes of Edgerunners, I’ll look forward to an extended stay in Night City.