The sci-fi anime Cyberpunkt Edgerunners conquers Netflix’s top 10. But is the series worth it after the video game disaster Cyberpunk 2077 with Keanu Reeves?
When it came out, the video game Cyberpunk 2077 with Keanu Reeves was quite a disaster full of bugs and other problems. Now Netflix has an anime series based on this game, among other things. All 10 episodes of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners have been streaming since 13 September, but is the sci-fi series worth it and do you need to know the game for it?
What’s the sci-fi series on Netflix about and what does it have to do with the Keanu Reeves game?
Cyberpunk: @edgerunners is finally out! ⚡
Watch the @CDPROJEKTRED x @trigger_inc anime set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe and find out what happened to David Martinez – now on @Netflix! https://t.co/pEpPTSL1is pic.twitter.com/aJTNWV3CkU
– Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) September 13, 2022
In the futuristic megacity Night City, the people’s greatest interest is technology. Through cybernetic modifications, they have their bodies improved and with it their quality of life. Night City is a lawless city controlled by powerful corporations. Here a teenager David Martinez has to fight for survival day by day.
After the death of his mother, David is on his own and heavily in debt. In order not to lose everything in his life, the young man decides one day to have an illegal military implant placed in his back, which gives him strength. He drifts into crime and decides to become an edgerunner and take on the role of an outlaw mercenary, a cyberpunk.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is thus set in the same world as the game and role-playing game Cyberpunk, which has been around since 1988: However, it has a new main character compared to 2077 and also tells a largely independent story in other respects. So you don’t have to have played the game to find your way into the series. In that it resembles Arcane. And that also applies to the quality.
Is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners worth it?
The reviews of the science fiction series are extremely effusive. At Forbes, Cyberpunk Edgerunners is described as “absolutely incredible”. The “undisputed success” and the “phenomenal” series convinces as a “bloody, sexy, strangely sad and captivating action series”.
It begins! CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS anime series by TRIGGER is now streaming on Netflix.
All 10 episodes are now available. pic.twitter.com/sdYpX4xPaV
– Anime Trending (@AniTrendz) September 13, 2022
For IGN the series is always at its best when it explores the relationships in the hyper-capitalist world of Night City, from street gangs to mercenaries to the rulers of the city, the megacorps.
David’s rise in this food pyramid provides a “fascinating perspective to explore this setting”. The look is also convincing. The series by Studio Trigger (Kill La Kill) offers expressionistic anime excess: “A cyberpunk anime has never looked more alive […]”.
Kotaku concludes, “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners tells the story I wish Cyberpunk 2977 had.”
So the new series on Netflix has the makings of the best anime of the year on the streaming service, and could become the Arcane of 2022.
