I Thought Anime Was Just For Kids. Then I Watched THIS. By Harsh Nath Jha This summer I tried something entirely new to my schedule. I finally started watching anime . For years I had heard about it and met a ton of self proclaimed anime addicts including a few living under my very own roof. The concept was not entirely foreign to me. I had binge watched all 25 seasons of Pokémon growing up along with several other animated shows I never managed to finish as a kid. Hardcore viewers absolutely HATE the word cartoon when it is used to describe anime. I did not understand why there was so much drama about it back then but now I finally get it. Finding the Perfect Beginners Watch List I checked various sites and chatbots to find the absolute best beginner recommendations. After sifting through endless suggestions I finally settled on a curated list ordered by length. I also completely avoided romantic comedies for obvious reasons. I wanted something that wou...
I Thought Anime Was Just For Kids. Then I Watched THIS.
By Harsh Nath Jha
This summer I tried something entirely new to my schedule. I finally started watching anime. For years I had heard about it and met a ton of self proclaimed anime addicts including a few living under my very own roof.
The concept was not entirely foreign to me. I had binge watched all 25 seasons of Pokémon growing up along with several other animated shows I never managed to finish as a kid. Hardcore viewers absolutely HATE the word cartoon when it is used to describe anime. I did not understand why there was so much drama about it back then but now I finally get it.
Finding the Perfect Beginners Watch List
I checked various sites and chatbots to find the absolute best beginner recommendations. After sifting through endless suggestions I finally settled on a curated list ordered by length. I also completely avoided romantic comedies for obvious reasons. I wanted something that would actually keep my attention.
The curated watch list that finally convinced me to give anime a try.
I started with Cyberpunk Edgerunners. The title sounded fancy and honestly a bit childish to me but the high ratings on authoritative databases like MyAnimeList had to mean something so I dove right in.
Skipping the rom coms and diving straight into the heavy hitters.
Welcome to Night City The Cyberpunk Awakening
The show follows a teenage boy named David Martinez in a dystopian universe. As Wikipedia describes it the story takes place from 2075 to 2076 in Night City. It is a self reliant dystopian metropolis in California that suffers from obsessive cybernetic body modification and rampant gang violence. This is all exacerbated by a corrupt municipal government and corporate warfare.
Welcome to Night City where your bank account determines your humanity.
The Pacing Was Shocking
The pacing early on was almost too fast for me. I was used to the slow character bonding process in traditional movies. Here the death of David mom in the very first episode hits hard. Before that a simple moment of a single tear from his mom while talking about her expectations for him set the massive emotional stakes. Fast forward and she is gone. Being poor they could not afford proper medical treatment and she died shortly after an accident.
Capitalism Chrome and Corruption
The narrative then shifts to the classic conflict of capitalism versus the general public. David gets involved in illegal mercenary work alongside a father figure character named Maine. Maine was actually one of his mother illegal colleagues supplying military grade equipment. David attached it himself and the science and mechanics behind their cybernetic body modifications are truly mind bending.
The whole show revolves around who has the best equipment attached to them. More money gets you better gear but installing too much tech chips away at your humanity. This eventually drives people insane and turns them into a cyberpsycho. It relies on the basic cliché of power corrupting men with every guy thinking he is the exception. David thought he was special too.
A tragic tale of ambition love and absolute power.
A Shakespearean Cyber Tragedy
A side plot that eventually takes over as the main storyline involves Lucy. She is a young netrunner with a mysterious past who introduces David to Night City criminal underworld. She harbors a deep hatred for the megacorporation Arasaka and dreams of escaping to the Moon. David falls in love with her and the feeling is mutual. Naturally they become each other greatest weakness in a hackneyed Shakespearean tragedy kind of way.
The famous quote by Lord Acton about how "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is shown brilliantly in the finale. The battles in Night City are fought over corporate greed and survival. David dies saving Lucy while taking on huge corporations like Arasaka and Militech. He is brutally murdered by Adam Smasher who is a legendary and fully cybernetic supersoldier.
The Verdict
The illusion of power he held onto swallowed him whole in the end. The core storyline is a basic story with cute side plots but the graphics and music make the anime hit incredibly hard. I was really impressed by the whole amalgamation. I was worried about David the whole time even though I had predicted the ending in the starting episodes.
Despite the lack of creativity in today stories the visuals kept me going. I can surely say my first anime was a gripping and soothing experience.
Anime indeed is not a cartoon.
See The Madness For Yourself
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cyberpunk Edgerunners a good anime for someone who has never watched anime?
Absolutely. With only 10 episodes and stunning visual animation by Studio Trigger it is the perfect short gateway. You get mature storytelling and action without having to commit to hundreds of episodes.
What exactly is a Cyberpsycho?
In this universe a cyberpsycho is someone who has lost their mind and humanity because they installed too many robotic and cybernetic modifications into their biological body.
Do I need to play the video game first?
No you do not. While the show takes place in the same universe and shares some background lore it is a completely independent story built for new viewers.
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