Cyberpunk Edgerunners is based off Cyberpunk 2077 which is based off the original Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop RPG. While the game turned out to be a huge mess, the anime is a breath of fresh air and something that's positive about Pondsmith's universe.
Edgerunners captures the feeling of the game pretty well, at least the atmosphere the game was trying to go for. A beautiful looking shell that is rotten and horrible in the inside. David's story is a tragedy that was formed by the world around him, and the actions he's took. They have a lot of details and references to the game and universe, showing familiar locations, weapons, cyberware, and even some characters from the game/tabletop (some gangs, Rogue, Adam Smasher). The animation is incredible and the english dub is by far the best and the canonical voices of each character. I'll start of with the game's positives:
- Incredible artstyle, and really great animation. Studio trigger really outdid themselves with how fast-paced and euphoric inducing this series was. They had so many great little details that I'm still discovering it. The character designs are awesome and each character looks unique and something that could actually exist in the cyberpunk universe.
- David's character growth and his eventual demise is really awesome to see. His inability to learn from the mistakes of others makes him another fool in the universe that doesn't get a happy ending. I guess its more of a bittersweet one but he still doesn't get out clean. The show connected to a lot of literary theories, from the marxist theory (how eddies practically ruled people and their status), to the existentialism theory (David's morals compromising itself, cyberpsychosis taking place). His character is the best part of the show and he lived a very shitty life.
- Now what I did not like about the show was its short duration. 10 episodes for this level of character writing is impressive, but I'm always pondering on how it could've been better if it was given more runtime. There was a timeskip during the 6-7th episode which shows David completely chromed out like Maine, but that skip is essential to character development. His maturity to a full fledged merc would've been great to watch.
- Another thing that I think could have been done better was David and Lucy's relationship. It's already a little eye raising due to their age difference (David was 17 and Lucy was 22), but their romance just seemed really forced in without any time to develop. The 10 episode limit I assume is the reason why there's a lot of montages, which took away from what it could have been.
If edgerunners were given the max of 24 episodes, the show could've been so much more. That being said, its a worthy addition to the cyberpunk universe and better than the game in terms of the story. Overall a decent show that is dragged down by its pacing.
