Anime recommendation: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022- )
Photo Courtesy of Studio Trigger- Wikimedia Commons
The world of Cyberpunk is a grim foretelling of the future where the world is run by corporations and the people’s only virtue is depravity. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022- ) is the animated prequel of the video game Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) which was released two years prior. Although this is an anime recommendation, Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) is a fantastic video game that will suck you in with one of the best settings in fiction: Night City. If you do not play video games, however, that does not mean Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022- ) is any less worth watching since it shares the same brutal yet beautiful city. From mechanical body implants that cause the user to go insane if they have too many installed to corporations with the power to trap your soul in a computer for eternity, the world of Cyberpunk is equal parts horrifying and profound.
Both the anime and the game share striking similarities with Aesop’s fable of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse; which is preferable, an opulent yet dangerous life or an impoverished yet simple life? Around the beginning of Act 1 of Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), Dexter DeShawn famously says, “Would you rather live in peace as Mr. Nobody, die ripe, old and smelling slightly of urine? Or go down for all times in a blaze of glory, smelling near like posies, ’thout seein’ your thirtieth?” This is the question David Martinez in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022- ) and the player as V in Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) have to ponder. What is the cost of ambition and how much are you willing to sacrifice to become a legend?
Night City, the setting, is like a siren. It promises legacy and glory to those strong enough to seize them, but when they enter its trap, it shackles them to the dirty and dangerous neon-lit streets forever. When looking at Night City, there is something undeniably beautiful about the sea of lights, flying cars, and crowded streets. Yet, once you get a more intimate understanding of it, the rose-tinted glasses become vermillion and the true face of Night City, the ugliness, swallows you whole. Criminal or corporate, in order to survive you must stand on the bodies of others. Night City is a truly terrifying place, but there is something about the thrill of the chase that lures people in and keeps them from escaping. People who experience misfortune might curse God, yet those in Night City curse Night City. This is not because they are not prone to such things. It is because there is no God in Night City.
David Martinez was a boy who grew up in Night City and is well aware of how sick it is. Soon after experiencing tremendous loss, he stumbles upon a Sandevistan, a mechanical spine that supercharges one’s nervous system and causes the world to slow down around them, granting superhuman speed and reflex. He then joins a group of mercenary outlaws and slowly becomes a household name in the underworld. He fights against Night City to make his way to the top, but in an eat-or-be-eaten world, there is always a bigger predator.
Even if you are not an avid anime watcher, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022- ) is really something anyone can enjoy. It is grim and gritty yet over-the-top and awesome. You will feel the thrills and suffering that comes with Night City along with the cast. A second season of Cyberpunk Edgerunners (2022- ) is slated to release this year on Oct. 20, as confirmed by Netflix’s official website. Now is a perfect time to watch it so that you can experience the pain of the second season along with the rest of the fans.