Conner’s Critique: Cyberpunk – Edgerunners

With their new DLC of the same name launching on the console, a separate Cyberpunk Edgerunners animated series is launched on Netflix that tells the story of David, a child with a lot of potential in a world of Cyberpunk!

Before we dwell to deep into the review, Lets take some time to talk about the video game. The video game has unfortunately been marred due to it’s delayed release and the glitches at said release. What was thought to be one of the most ambitious games of 2020, ended up becoming one of the biggest flops of the year. Many people received refunds due to what was viewed as an unplayable video game. Well we are now well over a year later and the game has received several updates and honestly is a fully functional game.

The sins of the father, video game, shouldn’t be attributed to the series though. We are more than willing to give this anime a fair shake. As always our reviews break down the series by it’s story, acting, and overall. So let’s jump in!

Story 8/10

David lives a pretty rough life. From trying to make sure that his mother pays the bills, to being bullied at school for being less fortunate than his classmates, David is just trying to make it through the day.

After series of unfortunate events though, David find himself struggling to find a place in the world and after series of unfortunate events, David turns to a group of Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

A specific piece of cyberware makes him unique enough, and helpful enough, to not only run with the group, but also to make a pretty penny to help give his life more control.

The series borrows a little from the intro of the actual video game, as it jumps through a fast-forward style storytelling and showing of several capers. In fact a couple of locations in the series are literally lifted from the game.

“…the series does a great job showing off the rough world of being a cyberpunk.”

Compairing the game to the show is a little bit difficult, while some people can become more engaged with a video game, the show does a great job of showing and telling a unique and interesting story that someone just playing a video game might not pick up. Additionally, the series does a great job showing off the rough world of being a cyberpunk.

Acting 9/10

While no one is physically acting on screen, the voice actors in the series do an amazing job breathing life into the characters of the series. Characters like Maine, played by William Christopher Stephens, the edgerunner leader, and David, played by Zach Aguilar, the main character of the series specifically stand out at being able to express great levels of emotion that come through not only due to the work of the animation but also the skill of the voice actors.

David however specifically does a great job expressing tragedy, excitement, desire and many more emotions as he travels along his journey to become an edgerunner. Along the way learning the drawbacks and the tragedy of that same childhood dream.

Overall 8.5/10

At the end of the day it definitely helps to have played cyberpunk, or have a general understanding of the game, when watching the series. That being said, it’s not required reading to enjoy the series. Is it likely that after watching the series you’ll be interested in playing the game? Definitely.

Conner’s Final Thoughts

The one thing that stands out to me as odd and awkward in the series has to do with the fact that it’s use of blank cells during certain scenes.

Specifically when trying to install tension the series will pause on a specific panel. While it only happens a couple times, the problem with this is that it feels as if the series froze, and you need to reset Netflix. Not a great move when the source material of the series is a game known to have a lot of glitches.

However, I will specifically say I understand why they did it. There is one scene in which he is waiting staring at a door and they choose to freeze frame on an up-close look at his face. There is dialog and you can hear footsteps, but it holds on his face until another character pulls into the small space in the distance of the panel. There are drips of sweet on his close up though that don’t move, and it makes the scene stand out awkwardly.

Still it’s a series worth watching.