Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Episode 1 ((LINK))
As David walks to school, the episode deadpans through the slums of Night City. We see the homeless sleeping right outside their doorstep, rubbish piled two people high, a mugging in broad daylight, folks with their virtual goggles and fleshlight groin peripherals on enjoying Braindance porn.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Episode 1
The opening scene is a grindhouse splatterfest of a cyborg mass murdering a crowd of cops with a hail of bullets and cybernetic enhancements. Gore splatters police cars as the cyborg assailant rips and tears in a cybernetic enhancement induced psychotic episode.
Violence is ubiquitous in the first episode, both peripherally and focally as David encounters violence everywhere he goes: at school, on his commute and, ultimately, in his last moments with his mother.
The places and events are scheduled chronologically per episode and if a location is repeated several times in multiple episodes, I may only mention it the first time it has appeared or the first time it was clearly recognizable as a location from Night City in the game.
I believe this location in the game is as good as it gets, though a few of the details are slightly off like the lack of a bench right next to them. There are benches on the sidewalk, but not where we see one in the episode.
Blatant Lies: Katsuo says that he's actually a charitable sort and doesn't mind the poor attending Arasaka Academy. They just have to be able to afford it.
The Bully: Katsuo is a particularly nasty sort, picking a fight with David on the day of his mother's death.
Cop Killer: The cyberpsycho particularly targets police officers and kills a dozen before he's put down by Max-Tac.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The episode opens with an example of cyberpsychosis that has driven a man modified with military-grade hardware insane and sent him on a killing spree against the city's police force. It requires Max-Tac, the city's own cybernetic kill squad, to put him down.
Disaster Dominoes: David's life rapidly unravels with his near-expulsion, his mother's injury, the massive medical bills, and then his mother's death.
Establishing Series Moment: The opening scene is one for Night City itself as we witness a cyberpsycho proceed to kill a dozen cops in a seemingly senseless massacre before Max-Tac proceeds to blow it up. This immediately establishes the location as a place of sudden and horrific violence where no one is safe.
Gang of Bullies: Katsuo leads a pack of rich male students that stand by and watch him beat up David.
Godzilla Threshold: The Maximum Force Tactical Division, or MaxTac for short, is Cyberpunk 2077's SWAT Team, called in for the most dangerous of criminals when regular police squads aren't enough (particularly those driven insane via cyberpsychosis).
Good Parents: Gloria is shown to be an overworked but loving woman who deeply cares about her son's future.
Hope Spot: When David sees his unconscious mother outside her flipped car, Trauma Team arrives. Unfortunately for him, neither he nor Gloria are clients, and so Trauma Team abandons them both in favor of them getting picked up by Night City's ambulances.
David ends up getting another afterwards: the discount surgeon who operated on her said that her operation was a success. A day later, however, David is informed that her condition suddenly deteriorated and that he should look into burial options.
No Sympathy: Katsuo has no empathy for the fact that David's mother recently died and proceeds to taunt him into a fight so he can justify beating him up. Katsuo later taunts him further, saying he should drop out of school.
Police Are Useless: The regular police are helpless against the cyberpsycho and it's only when Max-Tac arrives that it is put down.
Rage-Breaking Point: Everything having gone downhill for David in the final minutes of the episode as a result of the death of his mother puts him into an increasingly bad mood, up until Katsuo decides to Kick the Dog and drive the knife in deeper by badmouthing his mother's death, which is the last straw and leads David running up and demanding Doc to put the Sandevistan in him.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Katsuo points out that his father is on the board and that knows David will soon be kicked out.
Snuff Film: David is introduced watching a Braindance from a cyberpsycho who massacred a bunch of police before getting killed by Max-Tac.
Struggling Single Mother: Gloria Martinez is an EMT and there's no father in the picture so she works super-hard to try and get her son into a better life.
In many ways, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a love letter to Cyberpunk 2077. Not only does David have strong narrative parallels to Cyberpunk 2077's protagonist, V, but even the episodes are structured in such a way to resemble the game's missions. In the same way that V's missions in the game feel like self-contained stories that are part of a larger narrative, each of Edgerunners' 10 episodes is a self-contained story that builds toward an overarching storyline. Given this narrative structure, it feels as though the anime would've benefited strongly from a more user-interactive approach, similar to another Netflix movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
For viewers unfamiliar with the British television show, Black Mirror is an anthology series set in an alternate future where technology is highly advanced but also works to the detriment of humanity. Though set in the same universe, each episode is a self-contained story that focuses on a different cast of characters and satirizes the technological aspects of everyday life in the worst way possible.
Songs from the TV Serie Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Soundtrack 2022 Season 1 Netflix. Complete List of Songs, by episodes, with Music Samples, opening and closing credits and Trailer Songs. Listen to the Soundtrack. 041b061a72