Implementing the great drawing and animation style of Studio Trigger, which has resulted in titles like “Kill La Kill, “Promare” and “BNA”, featuring an opening by Franz Ferdinand, and based on a story by Polish writers Bartosz Sztybor, Jan Bartkowicz and Łukasz Ludkowski, that has, thankfully, left all notions of political correctness out of the title, “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” is definitely one of the best anime titles of the year.
The story takes place in Night City, a self-reliant metropolis located in the Free State of California that suffers from extensive corporate corruption, cybernetic addiction, and gang violence. The city is split into six districts, each of which has its own precise living requirements, and is controlled by a number of different megacorporations, including Arasaka and its rival Militech. In Santo Domingo, the oldest, poorest, and most industrial district of Night City is where we meet the main protagonist, an impulsive but talented street kid named David, whose mother's intense efforts have gained him a place in one of the top schools in the city. Both of them suffer financially however, while David is frequently the victim of racist attitudes due to his background.
The accidental discovery of Sandevistan, a military grade implant, an accident involving his mother, and the meeting with Lucy, a mysterious, very beautiful girl, change his life completely, as he finds himself running with a group of edgerunners headed by Maine. The group takes a number of dangerous missions usually given by Faraday, a fixer who works for Militech. Gradually, David gets a sense of belonging, while his relationship with Lucy becomes more intimate. The drama in his life, however, has not yet ended, while the consequences of the intense use of implants soon play a significant role in the lives of all people involved in the group.
In probably one of the best video game adaptations of all time, Hiroyuki Imaishi presents an impressive combination of cyberpunk, action, sex, violence, romance and drama, all the while making a number of comments regarding corporatism and the way it has corrupted almost everyone down to their core. This amalgam benefits the most by the excellent character design of Yo Yoshinari, which result in a truly unique gamut of characters, which implement elements of coolness, sensualism, brutality and an overall quite entertaining sense of hyperbole. Truth be told, some of the faces could have benefitted from a bit more detail but the rest of the design is truly a wonder to watch.
The same applies to once more great animation work of Trigger Studio, with the frequently frantic pace, particularly during the action scenes, resulting in a series of truly memorable scenes, which, in combination with the rather fitting music and the intense coloring, frequently function as intense music videos. At the same time, the slower moments allow a number of characters to be analyzed thoroughly, as much as the viewer to admire their design, while adding depth to the narrative and intensifying the drama. The fact that a number of them end up dead, even from the beginning of the series, also moves towards the same direction, in an overall great story.
Probably the only major fault in terms of the combination of visual and story is the excessive use of messages on screen in social media fashion, which are both hard to read and distract from what is happening in the story.
This however is just a minor issue in front of the visual and contextual extravaganza that “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” is, in another title from Trigger, that thankfully, seems to address mostly adults.
