Netflix introduces us Cyberpunk: Edge Runners six title characters – David, Maine, Dorio, Kiwi, Pilar and Rebecca – in a chaotic new trailer. The anime, which is not expected until September, expands on the cyberpunk universe in a new standalone story set in Night City.
While I don’t set my expectations particularly high for anime with Netflix, edge runners is different. It comes from Studio Trigger, the studio behind Killed La Killedand whose co-founder has made Gurren Lagann. These are two of some of the most popular and well-known anime series (and two of my personal favorites).
In the traileryou can clearly see Studio Trigger’s bold and vibrant art style, and I hope it can put a more creative spin on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 universe, which my colleague Adi Robertson describes as “too big to get really weird.” (Finally, this is the same studio that invented talking, superpower-inducing clothes.)
Netflix offers a brief summary of: edge runnersand describes it as a show that follows “a street kid trying to survive in Night City” who “stays alive by becoming an edgerunner — a mercenary aka a cyberpunk.”
But one Look behind the scenes at the show from the minds of Studio Trigger sheds some more light on the storyline of the series. Studio Trigger CEO and co-founder Masahiko Otsuka describes a dystopian world where gangs compete against ‘corpos’, with strong themes of social inequality and violence. It begins with David, a teenager of low socioeconomic status, who attends a school intended for upper-class citizens, but not much else is revealed.
The series will consist of 10 episodes of 30 minutes each – a little disappointing when the series is as binge-worthy as it seems. A cyberpunk anime builds on Netflix’s growing library of animated series adapted from games, such as Castlevania, Dota: Dragon’s Bloodthe League of Legends-inspired Arcane, The Cuphead Showand the coming Tekken: Bloodline.