A show that has recently exploded in popularity, created by Rafal Jaki, Cyberpunk Edgrunners is an animated sequel to the equally as popular video game Cyberpunk 2077. The anime’s events explore the prequel story for the game and the futuristic Night City that both Edgerunners and Cyberpunk 2077 take place within. The anime consists of 10 episodes all with a length of around 24-27 minutes, following the typical anime pattern of minimal 30-minute-long episodes.

“The story of David was great, it introduced the viewers to his awful situation and his rise as an edge runner from his absolute lowest point,” says sophomore Aidan Embree. 

 The show has recently ended its first season, one that is filled with emotional and surprising moments, and has been met with a very positive audience rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, the show’s creator has no intention of making a second season, as told by Satoru Honma, who works for the animation studio CD Projekt Red.  He revealed in an interview with Famitsu, a Japanese video game magazine, “…However, just to be clear, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was planned as a standalone work, so there’s no such thing as ‘we are actually working on Season 2 in the background.”  

“The game Cyberpunk 2077 was great with an amazing story and the anime, Edgerunners added onto the already amazing basis of a cybernetic future with beautiful landscapes and tall buildings,” an anonymous North junior says. 

The story of Edgerunners follows David Martinez, a street kid trying to survive in a world filled with advanced technology and body modifications. David’s legacy begins as we see him fulfill his daily life by attending school and living with his mother in an apartment.  This is until his life changes when his mother passes away while they are caught in a drive-by on a highway. 

After grieving his loss, he gets upgrades to his body that drastically increase his own agility and strength, but this comes at the cost of a bloody nose. David encounters Lucy, a strange woman that wears a black and white skintight outfit, who helps him join her crew of Edgerunners. 

“David’s character arc throughout the show both physically and emotionally is shown as at the beginning of the show he is a scrawny kid trying to survive in a school he doesn’t fit into, compared to the end where he is completely different as he is much bigger physically and emotionally stronger through his experiences,” Aidan Embree explains. 

The show’s color combinations transition from David’s life from living in a depressing atmosphere in his mom’s apartment to the colorful scenery of the Edgerunners’ hideout. This allows the tone to shift from a more cheerful somber tone to a much more serious one as David realizes the severity of the situation he has now been placed in, this tone affects the story as the new serious tone allows for deaths to affect the story and have greater meaning. Studio CD Projekt Red displays the scenery of Night City beautifully with bright colors contrasting to the darker shades of brown and orange present during the day at the hideout and the contrast of lighting during nighttime as the city’s lights all shine brightly.

“The deaths of characters and the many plot twists concerning cyber-psycho and especially the villain of Faraday when he captures David and tricks him into thinking he turned into a cyber-psycho himself,” says an Anonymous student.  

Overall, Cyberpunk Edgerunners was a fantastic show filled with incredible colors and characters that tells a prequel story with amazing scenes filled with colors and emotional moments that give the show the incredible praise that it’s received over the course of both its initial release as well as the praise it still receives months later.