TV Review: Cyberpunk Edgerunners
CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNER is a cyberpunk anime so I am already in. I'm a huge fan of Armitage III, Bubblegum Crisis, Cyber City Oedo 080, Ghost in the Shell, and other more obscure works are all things I watched during the Eighties as well as Nineties through the miracle of a thing called VHS tapes.
I'm also a fan of the Cyberpunk setting by Mike Pondsmith and have played both the original tabletop game as well as the recently-released sequel, Cyberpunk Red. I even write cyberpunk fiction with my Agent G and the Cyber Dragons Trilogy books. So, this is very much my jam but I was filled with a sense of trepidation about the project.
Why? Because tie-in media rarely ends up being particularly good. Very often it's nothing more than a cheap cash grab. I've enjoyed a few over the years, most of them being the Assassins Creed novels, but I was skeptical of an anime based on Cyberpunk 2077 would be actually really good.
Was it? Well the answer is yes and no. This is a series that I can safely describe as "not for everyone" but something that is absolutely the kind of thing that certain fans will love. It is hyper-stylized, hyper-violent, extremely cynical, and surprisingly well-written. But if you're looking for a happy ending, "wrong city, wrong people."
The premise is David Martinez is a Street Kid that has managed to get himself into a posh Arasaka private school despite the fact his family clearly can't afford it. His single mother works as an EMT to get him a better life than herself but he doesn't really want to be part of a world that despises him. Unfortunately, David's life goes from unpleasant to horrific in a single day with the loss of his mother, all of his family's savings, and his expulsion from his private school.
A man without hope is a man without fear, though, and David decides to become a cyberpunk AKA Edgerunner despite the fact their life expectancy is extremely low. Part of this is motivated by teenage hormones as he has a crush on one of the local gang's agents in a girl named Lucy. David is only seventeen and it's questionable how old Lucy is, though I think it's only a couple of years older. But David is also an addict, not to drugs, but to chrome. The chance to become a more and more terrifying cyborg is a way to regain control of his life.
Or so he thinks.
The show is ten episodes long and tells a pretty interesting story throughout. It's focused less on the philosophical issues of most cyberpunk anime and more on the gritty survival that is also part of the genre. Instead of asking, say, "do robots have souls?" It asks, "Why are education and medical costs so high?" Daily survival makes David instantly relatable as does his anger at the world that, nevertheless, ends up screwing him over.
In conclusion, I suggest people try and episode and judge for themselves. If it's your thing, watch the whole series. I also hope it helps get Cyberpunk 2077 some more positive attention as an IP. Mike Pondsmith's world deserves it.
