While it’s not required that you play Cyberpunk 2077 before watching Edgerunners, it really heightens the experience. All the details like caller ID, sound effects, and returning voice talent from the game do such a good job of bringing the expansive world of the video game to TV. You don’t need to play the game to know what ‘choom’ and ‘ripperdoc’ means; the show does an excellent job of letting the audience become aware of the nuances through context clues.

But then again, this is Studio Trigger we’re talking about, so it’s fair to expect some epic flourishes that bring you to the edge of the suspension of disbelief. And on top of that, they reel you back in for the slower, more intimate moments. Despite having been exposed to a decent amount of cyberpunk media, this show has helped me understand a lot more about the nature of the genre. One example is the loneliness of a world where humanity is casually discarded in favour of “upgrades”. Cyberpunk has always talked about what it means to be human, and this is no different. We see that the more cyberware David adds to his body, the less human he becomes, both physically and mentally. It distances him from his relationships with Lucy and the gang, to the point where his plight for greatness ends up costing him in the long run.

The animation is top-notch, as expected. The CGI blends in with the regular so well, that I can’t actually tell whether it was used sparingly or not. They also did a great job portraying the sinful side of Night City; the violence was visceral and shocking, but not overly gross, and the nudity never felt out of place. While some anime have one or two standout scenes that really wowed the audience, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has at least one of ‘those’ scenes every episode. I can’t stress enough just how awesome the animation looks.

The pacing is pretty good, minus a couple of episodes in the middle, and I liked almost all of the characters. And the music fits the genre and aesthetic like a glove; the insert songs in particular are standouts in my mind, giving the whole thing an almost cinematic feeling. I enjoyed the OP and ED, and I was pleasantly surprised that both were sung in English. Then I was even more pleasantly surprised at the number of Polish names in the credits; it looks like there was a lot of collaboration between Cyberpunk 2077 publisher CD Projekt RED and Trigger, and I’m guessing that’s why it feels so similar to the game. Even though it’s not strictly an adaptation of said game, this could probably be counted among the best video game adaptations ever. I’m not holding out hope, but if they wanted to make more anime content in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, I would absolutely take it, and I would be thrilled if Trigger wanted to flex their muscles once more. I guess I can only dream.