I’m a huge sucker for anything Studio Trigger (of Gurren Lagann fame) so I obviously had to make this screening of the first two episodes of their anime adaptation of CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077. Taking a slight departure from the game, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners sees new protagonist David as a highschool student dipping his toes into crime, instead of putting us in the shoes of an already seasoned criminal.
The first episode felt mostly like a setup one to introduce newcomers to the world of Cyberpunk and lays the groundwork for David’s eventual descent into crime and hate for mega corporation Araska. It was fine, the dub was surprisingly decent as well, but overall fine is how I’d describe it. It had a lot of odd animation moments where characters would be speaking but your view was either of a wall or the floor with nothing moving. It’s almost like they ran out of budget to animate a simple conversation and it really pulls you out of the moment when they appear.
The second episode is where the show really finds its groove though as David gets new, dangerous cybernetics installed in his body and meets the other main character of the series, Lucy. There’s some really fun action scenes and visuals that you look for from a Studio Trigger project and my impression of the show definitely shot up more after this episode. I’m hoping that first episode was just a minor speedbump and the rest of the season continues the momentum built from the second episode when the rest of the season drops on Netflix on September 13th.
