What is Netflix anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners about?

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a highly-anticipated anime series being released on Netflix this week. A tie-in to the CD Projekt Red game Cyberpunk 2077, the anime follows a teen street kid who suffers a personal tragedy and finds himself fighting for survival by becoming an outlaw mercenary known as an edgerunner.

For those who have played the video game, you’ll find several cameos and shoutouts to Cyberpunk 2077 throughout the ten-episode series. Created by Studio Trigger, producer Bartosz Sztybor says the series is “100% canon” to the games. The anime will still be accessible for newcomers who haven’t played the RPG yet.

While Cyberpunk: Edgerunners does introduce us to new, original characters, you can expect to see some of the video game’s characters return in the show, too. Beyond that, it’s the same Night City, the same weaponry, and the same technology with braindances, Ripper-Docs, and plenty of body modifications present throughout the ten installments.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners plot synopsis

David Martinez and his mom Gloria are struggling to make ends meet, hardly able to scrape up enough eddies for David to continue attending school. After a tragedy threatens to upend David’s life completely, he turns to a Ripper-Doc to install a potentially deadly piece of cyberware inside him that could help David survive—or destroy everything he has left.

Here’s the official synopsis, courtesy of Netflix:

"The series tells a standalone, 10-episode story about a street kid trying to survive in Night City — a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he stays alive by becoming an edgerunner — a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk."

Is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners connected to Cyberpunk 2077?

Yes, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is canon to the game, and there is some crossover between the two.

However, you don’t need to have played the game to understand the anime because the show is a standalone story. You will probably get more out of the show if you play the game first, but it also works the other way if you watch the anime and then decide to play Cyberpunk 2077 afterward.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners releases tomorrow, September 13, on Netflix.