Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a bit of media you don’t usually see these days. It’s a brand new anime appearing as a spin-off adaption for the CD Project Red online game Cyberpunk 2077 in partnership with Netflix. The sport’s launch was, divisive, to say the least, however the anime is proving to not solely be extra memorable than the sport however outright the most effective anime to come back out this yr.

Perhaps that’s to be anticipated contemplating it was made by Studio Trigger and directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, the madman behind Kill La Kill, Promare, and Gurren Lagan. Edgerunners takes the type, and balls-to-the-walls motion of those previous initiatives and drags it into the darkish sleazy underbelly of the Cyberpunk world. It’s violent, grim, poignant at occasions, and throughout a wild journey.

The diploma of life turns into the measure

The story of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners follows David Martinez, a highschool drop with none route in life. After his mom dies, all the things modifications when he meets a mysterious lady named Lucy, and finally ends up becoming a member of a bunch of criminals often known as cyberpunks. This is the place David’s life as an “Edgerunner” begins.

At solely 10 episodes, the anime is brief however the affect of every actually pierces the soul. The anime strikes at a brisk however regular tempo, doing a great job at introducing the world of Night City and its many inhabitants and future expertise with out feeling overwhelmed or slowed down in pointless lore. Just trying on the detailed backgrounds you may see simply how a lot is happening even when it’s just a few dude going balls deep into the VR.

Being a Trigger Production, Edgerunners is filled with bombastic motion scenes and setpieces however these are additionally set between a variety of introspective slower scenes. The anime does a great job of exhibiting simply how harsh dwelling in Night City could be between the fixed crime, full disregard for the affably low, and oppressive management of mega-corporations. You study to grasp what every character desires out of such a seedy hellhole: their targets, weak point, connections, and the way these all result in their inevitable downfall.

A Great Running On The Edge

Speaking of the characters, they’re the center of anime. David serves as an amazing lead, going from a well-meaning punk to a prime edge runner attempting to guard his associates because the world breaks down in entrance of him. Our lead heroine Lucy is likewise fairly attention-grabbing. She begins as the standard sultry femme fatale nevertheless the anime then goes additional to indicate her insecurities and surprisingly real aim of going to the moon (as a result of Trigger can’t have one collection with out house).

Outside of the 2 leads the remainder of the crew are a variety of enjoyable. Special point out has to go to Maine, the large cumbersome chief of the group and funky mentor to David in addition to the trigger-happy tyke-bomb Rebecca. At this level, you’ve in all probability seen Rebecca pop up round social media and I can guarantee you she’s simply as psychologically lovely as followers make her out to be.

These guys play off one another completely and inside a few episodes, you may fully purchase that they’re an actual crew and revel in being round one another. They go to the bar, pull jobs in synch, and have some extremely witty banter. You wish to see extra of them and when unhealthy issues begin occurring to every of them, you actually really feel it in how the others react.

Replicating Night City

As you’d anticipate from the fellows that did Kill La Kill, the backgrounds are lovely and the motion scenes are top-notch. David has the power to maneuver at excessive speeds for brief bursts of time and makes use of it to nice impact to assault enemies. The sci-fi expertise basically results in extremely artistic weapons, digital camera angles, and combat scenes very harking back to The Matrix or Ghost in The Shell.

This is enhanced by the collection’ nice use of blood. Fatality charges are excessive in Night City with characters dying left and proper, some very abruptly and in explicitly grotesque element. Throughout the anime you see heads come off, steel skulls smashed to bits, and each gory element in between. Like all good makes use of of violence, nevertheless, it by no means feels explorative. The violence exhibits simply how harmful being a cyberpunk is and the way most of those characters will stay quick lives because of this. As you develop extra involved, you genuinely begin worrying about who’s gonna be subsequent and what destiny they may meet.

Conclusion

The smartest thing that I can say about Cyberpunk Edgerunners, is that I fully forgot that this was from a sport. It felt like its personal standalone piece taking you into a captivating world of crimes, hacking, and a really punk angle but in addition one with a variety of coronary heart, of individuals struggling towards the unhealthy hand they’ve been dealt and breaking free in probably the most self-destructive method doable.

Studio Trigger continues to be some of the revolutionary anime studios within the trade, balancing out humanity, motion and spectacular visuals, and world-building. Seriously, even the house stuff felt higher deliberate this time round. If you’re a fan of their earlier exhibits, that is one in every of their finest, and in case you identical to good motion/thriller anime, you’ll end up plugged in.

It additionally made me wish to attempt to sport out. That’s one thing I doubt many individuals needed to do after the sport’s disastrous launch so it succeeded on that entrance as nicely.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners is accessible on Netflix.

The unique online game Cyberpunk 2077 is accessible for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.