Kevin C. Wong

Netflix Series - Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) [+]

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a 10-episode half-hour animated series set in the Cyberpunk 2077 setting (which is based on the computer game which is based on the Cyberpunk RPG).

It's the story of David Martinez (Zach Aguilar), a smart teen and a bit of a hoodlum whose mom dies in an accident. With no income he is desperate and after finding an illegal military-grade cyberwear he first tries to sell it but eventually has it installed so he can do bigger crimes. He meets netrunner Lucy (Emi Lo) who introduces her boss Maine (William C Stephens). David hooks up with the crew and the do missions (I'm not familiar with the character types but the crew has like three cyberwear guys, a gunbunny, a solo and a couple of netrunners plus later a driver).

The crew gets caught up in the warfare between two big corporations. Eventually they get party wiped and David takes the remnants and continues on as head of his crew. But the two big corps both kind of target David and Lucy for different reasons and they'll have to fight to survive in Night City...

It's very thematic and very gory and has bits of nudity. It does read like an RPG campaign with better plot points. This is a sort of everybody dies universe and by the end very few characters survive (which they could do since this is intended as a standalone series).

Overall I found it fairly entertaining. Not sure I'd stand watching multiple season of this but 3-1/2 hours of content is just fine.