Cyberpunk: Edgerunners – Neon dreams and tragic realities.
It was hard for CD Projekt Red to fix its image after the rough start of Cyberpunk 2077 at the end of 2020. Even though there were problems at first, the studio put a lot of work into supporting the game with patches, updates, and additions. Now, they’re trying something completely different: an animated series.
The result is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which was made with help from Trigger, a Japanese animation studio known for its overly stylized visuals, intense action scenes, and unwavering embrace of visual chaos. Trigger is known for a line of hits like Kill la Kill, Promare, and Darling in the Franxx, which are known for their fast-paced animation and memorable imagery.
It’s not unusual for big companies to make media related to their most popular franchises, but Cyberpunk is a great place for this to happen. CD Projekt Red created history, cityscapes, and dystopian stories that can be used to expand on existing stories. Unlike some adaptations, you don’t need to know anything about the game or even Mike Pondsmith’s original board RPG to enjoy Edgerunners. Night City feels alive, dangerous, and exciting in every frame. It’s easy for newcomers to understand and is full of Easter eggs for longtime fans.
The show is about two main characters: David Martinez, a street kid raised in the slums by a single mother who works hard, and Lucy, a mysterious and skilled cyber-runner. David is naturally a loser. He is a smart student who was thrown into Arasaka Academy, where his rich classmates see him as different.
Lucy, on the other hand, is a hacker with a mysterious past. Her path to independence comes into contact with David’s in strange ways. From the moment they meet, the show tells a story of survival, desire, and the never-ending search for identity in a city that profits from exploiting others.
You can’t take your eyes off it from the first episode.
At its heart, Edgerunners is a story about desire, friendship, and what it means to pursue your goals in a world designed to crush and spit you out. One of the most famous underdog stories is David’s journey from being poor to becoming an assassin (or “edgerunner”) in Night City.
He meets a lot of different people along the way, and each one has their own goals, flaws, and oddities. Maine, David’s guide, and Rebecca, his brash but loyal partner, are two of the most memorable characters in his ragtag group of friends. Lucy, David’s love interest, whose past causes a lot of the story’s problems, adds both plot tension and emotional depth.
The show does a great job of showing Night City. This city is full of contrasts, with streets lit by neon, shady businesses, and unfair social conditions. Both the pictures and the story of Edgerunners show these differences.
David’s journey is filled with gigs, heists, and growing danger, and the show doesn’t shy away from showing how cruel life can be in a city where staying alive takes more than skill—it takes cunning, cruelty, and sometimes moral compromise.
The story is interesting, but the pace is all over the place. The first half of the series does a good job of setting up the world, the characters’ goals, and their relationships. But the second half speeds up so much that some emotional beats feel rushed.
Decisions that seem more forced than natural affect important parts of the story, especially near the end. Some tragic events happen because of misunderstandings or a lack of explanations, which can annoy viewers who care about the characters’ paths. Still, the main storyline—David’s transformation from a street kid to a tough cyberpunk—is interesting, and the show mostly does a good job of making us care about its characters.
Even the animation feels different from the rest of the show; it has a stronger style.
What really makes Edgerunners stand out is its moving pictures. It’s clear that Studio Trigger is at the top of its game because the whole thing is a visual feast. Every corner and street in the city feels alive. The fight scenes are fast-paced, chaotic, and artistically creative. David’s Sandevistan augmentation, a device that slows time, is a great example of smart animation. It makes action easy to read and exciting, and it adds to the story’s sense of power and danger.
The look that Trigger is known for—bright colors, over-the-top facial emotions, and changing camera angles—is all over the place in this cyberpunk world. Some scenes are way too dramatic and even funny, but that fits with Night City’s over-the-top nightmare. Many fans say episode six is the best because it pushes the animation further than the others, combining moving storylines with jaw-dropping visuals. These kinds of scenes make the show more than just a copy, so it can be enjoyed as a work of art on its own.
The forms of the characters also support the story’s main ideas. David’s simple, rough appearance stands in contrast to the rich, highly enhanced world of Night City’s elites. Lucy’s airy style reflects her vague, dreamlike goals, while Maine and the rest of the crew are both scary and charming. Every moment on screen is interesting and lively because even minor characters are shown.
Just the way it looks makes this show worth watching for animation fans.
The show’s use of sound and music is just as amazing. The soundtrack has pulsing electronic songs and background noise that go well with the cyberpunk style. Each episode sounds like it was scored to bring out more tension, feeling, or adrenaline. The opening theme is one of the best parts of the show. It’s a banger that sets the mood right away and lets viewers know they’re in for an exciting ride. Sound design also affects the city itself. Sirens, machines, and the buzz of expanded life make Night City feel like a real place that is alive and well.
The audio cues for fight scenes, especially when David uses his enhancements, make the experience even more real. Sounds like explosions, gunshots, and the hum of cybernetic enhancements all add to the feeling that this world is dangerous and hard to predict. Edgerunners may be at its best when it combines sound and images to make scenes that are as emotionally powerful as they are technically amazing.
Night City is always there to escape, but this neon dystopia is like a chain.
Even though the graphics and sound are almost perfect, the writing isn’t always consistent. People can relate to and care about David, but his growth can feel hurried, and his choices sometimes follow genre rules more than they do real character growth.
Lucy’s story arc also feels weak at first; it doesn’t really hit home until the second half of the series. Supporting characters can be physically and energetically appealing, but they can also be stuck in archetypal parts that make them less emotional.
Still, the ideas are strong. The show looks at the conflict between being human and being enhanced, how corporate power can be bad, and how people look for love and purpose in a city that encourages selfishness and abuse.
Night City turns into a character: it’s cold, uninterested, and impossible to get close to. The story makes a point of showing that the system is against regular people, no matter how smart or driven they are. The series’s dark view of the world is reinforced by the fact that moments of victory are short and are often followed by bad things.
Even with these problems, the story still manages to make you care about the people. There is a sense of family and community because of Maine’s guidance, Rebecca’s dedication, and Lucy’s mysterious presence. This makes the tragedies of the later episodes more powerful. The stakes are high, and even though some story points are made up, the emotional thread of what it takes to survive and achieve your goals stays strong.
Studio Trigger is a strange but good fit for this world.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has a tight schedule: each show lasts about 20 to 25 minutes. Because it’s so short, the pace has to be fast, which works well for action-packed scenes but hurts slower, character-driven ones. The first half of the series builds the world and the characters in a balanced way. The second half, on the other hand, rushes to finish story arcs and settle conflicts, sometimes at the expense of complexity. Some important relationships, like the romance between David and Lucy, never fully grow, which can make viewers want more.
In any case, the show does a great job of showing how Night City can change people. The story of David’s rise as a mercenary takes place in a society that lives on taking advantage of others and being unfair. Every job and argument he has makes him more like the cyberpunk stereotype, showing how people lose their innocence and moral certainty over time. One of the best themes that the series explores is the conflict between personal desire and moral compromise.
When it’s at its best, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a stunning, sad, and honest look at a dystopian future. The animation and direction by Studio Trigger are amazing, the music adds to the action and emotion, and the story of David’s rise and fall is very interesting. It has problems, like slow pacing, uneven character development, and a climax that feels rushed at times, but these don’t take away from the experience as a whole.
Fans of Cyberpunk 2077 or the original tabletop RPG will love this series because it has a lot of references and world-building that make the world more interesting. For first-timers, it has an interesting plot, easy-to-understand ideas, and lively graphics. The spectacle, music, and mood keep people interested even when the story falls flat.
In the end, Edgerunners is more than just a tie-in; it shows how well animated versions of computer games can work. Even though it might not be perfect, it is definitely ambitious and often memorable. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is one of the few anime adaptations of games that really gets to know its audience and captures the spirit of the game. It’s a series that knows its strengths and revels in them, and even with its flaws, it delivers a visceral, emotionally charged experience that stays with you long after the credits roll.
