watch this anime I often try to start my videos with some sort of introduction but this time I think it's important we skip that and let me tell you why cyberpunk Edge Runners is the real deal upon binging the anime in less than 24 hours triggers new tie-in animated cyberpunk 2077 the much maligned video game that became the internet's favorite punching bag that scored a huge huge W with their latest updates patches and announcement of their new expansion Phantom Liberty but while we must commend The Debs for their hard work for salvaging the wreckage from those damn corpos the real Victory goes to cyberpunk Edge Runners which after its release saw a huge spike in the infamous steam concurrent player charts and you may be asking why are you talking so much about cyberpunk 2077 a video game you haven't been a gaming channel since 2017 C tactics well dear viewer the reason is because cyberpunk Edge Runners is pardon my French also hold this so I can pick this up cyberpunk Edge Runners is so [ __ ] great that it has single [ __ ] handily revives cyberpunk 2077 the [ __ ] punch bag of the [ __ ] internet [ __ ] [ __ ] all right if you want to you can throw me a couple dollars on patreon because this video has definitely just gotten demonetized and heck it's gonna anyways so let's crumb the [ __ ] up and get into this [ __ ] taking place sometime before the events of cyberpunk 2077 the story follows David David lives in the Seedy underbelly of night City you're either somebody or you fizzle out into nothing night City don't let you choose this theme of night City swallowing those who wish to step foot in a hole is prevalent throughout the entire anime and video game as well and David is one of those swallowed as one faithful day after being caught for an illegitimate firmware update that he bought so he could save his mother money because they're struggling to make ends meet they are caught in the crossfire of an ongoing car chase that ends in the eventual death of his mother from there David's life becomes harder and harder until one day he's brought to a Breaking Point and decides to install the tech his mother had stored away to become an edge Rudder of night City in so many words this is David's origin story and for what it's worth it's a fantastic way to introduce David but also the setting and themes of night City from the very start the viewer is immersed into tonight's City with its vibrant colors cyberpunk art Direction and dingy Aesthetics that wow the eye but also make for surreal and dark tones that is quite unlike some anime out there even today if I were going to make a comparison it would be closest to a cross between the original cyberpunk board game 1995's Ghost the shell in 1988's Akira this of course is something that's not uncommon as this is actually in trigger's wheelhouse as the studio has not been shy in the past to show their Inspirations from other series with one of their last series darling in the frogs taking a lot of inspiration from hideaki ano's magnum opus Neon Genesis Evangelion to say trigger was a perfect partnership for CD projekt Red on this anime would be somewhat of an understatement to say the least we see this in the first episode as trigger's distinct 90s inspired production excites the eyes and this keeps up through throughout the series one of the more distinct moments in the opening scene which sets up David's Tech that he would eventually inherit as a thug is taken out that it almost immediately afterward were treated to an absolute assault on the eyes with a huge feast of violence action nudity sex and honestly there is a lot of sex and nudity in this anime this anime immediately makes it very aware it is not for children and takes many of the sexual content and themes from cyberpunk 2077 and successfully integrates it they really take the time to immerse you into night City using trigger's animation in combination with music that sounds like it was directly lifted from The Game's World itself this is another big up on the anime as the music in its entirety is one of the best scores trigger has ever produced or have been a part of Bar None to put this as clearly as possible this anime like I said makes you feel like you are a night City it's just one of the biggest factors of this anime and it plays a huge role in a lot of the characters David and this is a really good main character that throughout the series he loses his Humanity ever so slowly signaling that the biggest villain is not Faraday or Adam Smasher it's the city and setting itself this place changes anyone who lives in it to become less than human this is what happens to David the city takes advantage of him and his mom and suddenly he's an edge runner in love with a girl who lives off crime you really get the sense that throughout David should have turned his back to it all and ran away with Lucy the moment they fell in love but that just never happens Lucy for those who want to know about her turns out to be the main love interest of David and she's a net Runner someone who basically hacks and she's a very unique character in herself she doesn't really ever reveal much about herself personally speaking only really what she needs to in any given moment though her actions often speak to her truer desires an example of this is that clearly Lucy is way more in love with David at first and it takes actually some time for David to warm up to her than the other way around though she never does quite say it outright in the series until later on I really enjoyed this little aspect about her character as in a way this absolutely fits with David's innocent and honest personality in other words it kind of took an honest man to make Lucy an honest woman and open and to get out of her shell and in that sense they were really meant for each other but the relationship is also one of tragedy and goes back to the dreams of just getting the hell out of night City to save yourself from its grasp there are a couple of moments in particular where Lucy tells David they just need to get out but that never ends up happening and in turn causes their downfall though this really makes me want to mention another sort of well love interest for David I guess Rebecca by far one of if not the best character in Edge Runners which is surprising to say she really has stolen the heart of anyone who watches this anime and for good reason she's loud abrasive foul-mouthed and is the most entertaining character with some of the best lines you'll ever hear in an anime this is a character meant for cyberpunk as a whole and I kind of kind of actually in the game as some form as well I just I find her soft spot for David So infectious as she can't help but to like him in this really well cute and innocent way you think a girl like Rebecca wouldn't be into that sort of mushy stuff but she is and it's that subtle thing combined with her abrasive and Loud personality that makes her so memorable and in that sense it's a shame when she actually does die at the end of the series but to be fair she died in the best way possible to Adam Smasher I mean that's not going out in some weak manner that in of itself though is a great tie-in from the game Adam Smasher so dear viewer let me play you my favorite Adam slasher line from cyberpunk 2077 because yeah roll the clip [Music] she I felt her fear who says that I mean really that's one rude and two well actually it's just rude now isn't it though I also want to give a brief mention to another one of my favorite characters in this anime I want to talk about Maine as he's an integral character to the development of David he's your typical Edge Runner but what sets him apart is the cybernetics he has installed slowly but surely causes May throughout the series to fall to cyber psychosis which for Maine is in the form of his gear causing himself to essentially lose his mind and go insane these started with Twitches than would eventually end up in hallucinations that would be his downfall though when he would have these hallucinations they would be broken by dorio the woman he is in love with and another member of the group she and herself as a character is fine nothing much to write home about but she's definitely defined by her relationship with Maine at the most this all comes to a head when Maine succumbs to cyber psychosis one final time during a failed attempt to gain infra from Tanaka and the ncpd are called in to rescue what's left of the sad sap this results in a climactic battle in which Maine and dorio hold off the ncpd that is until main starts hallucinating dorio seeing this tries to get him to snap out of it which is when an ncpd officer shoots and kills dorio sending Mane off the deep end this would ultimately result in Maine slaughtering them all and then killing himself in an explosion obviously David goes on to mirror main along with his tragic relationship with Lucy in the series which is where one of the main themes keeps kind of coming back in save yourself before night City takes your Humanity people so the real question because I can't spend this entire video talking about cyberpunk though next week we're gonna have a extended talk about this series so subscribe and ring the bell for that the real question is cyberpunk Edge Runners triggers next Masterpiece that is a that is a sentence right there in other words is it better than kill or kill to put it simply yes I think cyberpunk Edge Runners is on the level of kill lock kill and believe me viewer actually coming to that conclusion was much more difficult than you may think so here is why I think cyberpunk Edge Runners is up there with killer kill and will probably be seen in a few years as one of the best anime they have produced to me a masterpiece first of all is not talking about a Flawless experience let's go ahead and dispel that right now the reason for this is because you will never ever find a series that is made flawlessly if you do you send me the link I'll give you a million dollars this is because humans themselves are flawed and it's the flaws which make it better in most instances so yes Edge Runners does have a few flaws for one the actual plot itself is pretty basic as it's basically just the experience of David and night City it's not really about anything and has no real bearing on the world of cyberpunk itself Beyond giving some character to Atom Smasher but really nothing so to me this anime is more of a sum of its parts and I believe the anime literally could not get any better the absolute immersion this anime gives you is rivaled in my opinion only by the game alone and has the same philosophy of technically wowing the viewer with what they're looking at and what they're hearing it captures a moment in time in night City and I honestly believe that no other Studio could have replicated what trigger was able to pull off here even the music itself is some of the best music and Anime I've heard having a diverse soundtrack from traditional OST EDM electronic and various genres of rock music even has Franz Ferdinand in the opening all of it makes you say to yourself wow I could really hear this if I took a stroll down night City and I don't know why you'd do that in the first place but the technical aspects from visuals to what you hear is detrimental to what makes Edge Runners great in other words it does a lot of the heavy lifting think of it this way actually this is a really good example would you play Halo without music and that is is exactly what I'm trying to say Edge Runners is so good in this regard that without the visual and Technical presentation it's actually quite boring that is to say the other aspects can go unnoticed either characters in this anime from David and Lucy to Faraday are some of the best characters trigger has produced this is because surprise they all have defining character traits that are simple to understand almost immediately we know from the get-go that David is an innocent kid that's being corrected By Night City we know immediately that Lucy has a tough external shell and hides away her true feelings Faraday we know is a pretty bad dude who is using the edge Runners to his gain and it's only a matter of time until they're dispose of and [ __ ] hits the fan in that sense the show is very simplistic with its presentation in regards to characters but that is exactly what makes it great it's simple and effective and done so well that every character I saw in the show I wanted in some way to either see more of them or thought they were perfectly used as I said earlier Rebecca is a monument and a testament to what this anime has achieved but I also think this anime is filled with moments that are just memorable and will become iconic for a new generation of anime fans and they they have won almost every episode whether it's Maine killing himself in a blaze of glory Rebecca being crushed by Adam Smasher Lucy kissing David Lucy and David on the moon the in sequence where Lucy actually goes to the moon the rocket lifting off with the moon in the background as the two kiss the horrifying brain dance sequence with David pillar being killed kiwi betraying The Edge Runners kiwi's death David's death Tanaka dorio Faraday etc etc etc this anime is so great because it gives you something at nearly every turn that leaves an impression on you the way they're able to interweave motifs themes and tones together to create this feeling of night City suffocating you and the only thing you want to do in this anime is to shake the characters desperately yelling at them to get out now but they never listen because the city keeps them firmly within its toxic tendrils not allowing the characters you love so much to not without losing something dearly in that regard cyberpunk Edge Runners is trigger's tragic Masterpiece this anime to me is all of the hype and more for Christ's sakes it revived a dead game from the grave and saved the franchise that many people consider it to be nothing but a punch line that in of itself is such a major accomplishment that urge Edge Runners its flowers alone it restored faith and CD Project Read for Christ's sake how many anime can say that not many and in that regard I wouldn't be surprised to see more anime series based on popular games to start coming out more and more because of how wildly successful this was for CD projekt Red so does cyberpunk Edge Runners stand with kill or kill as triggers best yes and in some instances it is even better though that will be down to preference is cyberpunk Edge Runners a masterpiece honestly just like anything that will be detractors and at the same time sycophants but speaking only for myself yes cyberpunk Edge Runners is a masterpiece so let me know what you think is cyberpunk Edge Runners a masterpiece will you be playing cyberpunk 2077 because of this anime let me know in the comments below and if you're new to the channel I cover seasonal anime like Attack on Titan upcoming chainsaw man bleach and others as well as my patreon exclusive one piece Series where I read through the manga Arc by Arc thanks for watching bye bye