I went into this show expecting good animation and entertaining fights and what I got was exactly that but also a decent story and characters I could actually sympathize with.
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I want to start off by saying that this show was clearly made for people who played Cyberpunk 2077. I'm sure you could still enjoy it without having played it, but they really don't bother introducing all the tech stuff, slang etc. at all, so just keep that in mind. Don't wanna write a whole plot-summary here but I'll just get it out of the way; Edgerunners is about a student named David who just lost his mother in a car crash, quit school and is trying to make money. Because it's Night City, the easiest way to do that is mercenary work and from here the story escalates into lots of fights, characters dying and David becoming increasingly more OP using the Sandevistan he picked up from a Cyberpsycho... That's about what you're getting into. The story in Edgerunners definitely shares some similarities with the game and here and there you'll even hear them talk about- or see some of the characters from the game, but there are enough differences so it doesn't feel like a remake or anything.
The main reason I started watching this show was, as I said, the fights and animation which I had high expectations for because it's made by Trigger and they really didn't disappoint. There's some kind of fight or shootout in basically every episode, but they're always unique enough to not get boring and they definitely didn't shy away from showing blood or gore which I really like.
I think most people can agree that if Cyberpunk 2077 got one thing right it's the characters and atmosphere of the city and Edgerunners does these two things just as well, if not better. The city looks great and they stayed so faithful to the game that no matter where they are, you'll most likely be able to recognize the place if you've played the game. The characters, even though the show is only 10 episodes long, really started to grow on me towards the end. Most action focused anime either fail completely to make me care about the characters, or it takes way too long and by the time I do, the show is almost over already, so this was a nice surprise, especially considering how I only started watching this for the action.
Lastly, the sound design in this show is absolutely phenomenal. Again, if you've played the game you will hear a lot of familiar sounds in this show and they also use some of the radio music from the game which really benefits the atmosphere and vibe. All in all, I would recommend this to anyone who even remotely enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 or is interested in the genre, but also to anyone looking for a refreshing action anime that focuses heavily on the action.
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#9/10 - would recommend