About Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a ten-episode anime series created by Rafał Jaki and made by the Polish video game company CD Projekt Red with the Japanese animation studio Trigger. All ten episodes were released on Netflix on 13 September 2022. It was directed by Trigger co-founder Hiroyuki Imaishi, whose earlier work includes Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill and Promare, with scripts by Masahiko Otsuka and Yoshiki Usa from a story by Bartosz Sztybor, Jan Bartkowicz and Łukasz Ludkowski. Yoh Yoshinari designed the characters and Akira Yamaoka composed the score. The story is set in the Cyberpunk universe that Mike Pondsmith created for his tabletop role-playing game, and it is a standalone tie-in to CD Projekt Red's 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077.
It opens in 2075 in Night City, a self-governing metropolis in California obsessed with cybernetic body modification, torn by gang violence and run in practice by megacorporations, above all Arasaka and its rival Militech. David Martinez is a street kid scraping by as a student at the elite Arasaka Academy, kept there by his mother Gloria, an overworked paramedic. When she is caught in a drive-by shooting, the Trauma Team refuses to help because the family cannot pay for the service, and she dies in hospital. Among her things David finds a military-grade Sandevistan, an implant that gives bursts of super-speed. He has it installed by his local ripperdoc and soon meets Lucy, a netrunner who dreams of escaping to the Moon and who leads him to a crew of edgerunners: cybernetically enhanced mercenary outlaws, also called cyberpunks.
The crew's leader, Maine, gives David a chance, and David finds he can take far more cyberware than most people before it threatens his mind. The series is about what that gift costs. Every implant brings him closer to cyberpsychosis, the mental illness caused by an overload of cyberware, and the second half jumps forward several months into 2076 to follow him as the crew's leader, caught between Arasaka and Militech. Critics praised its writing, characters, action, animation and music. It won Anime of the Year at the 7th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and it helped bring players back to Cyberpunk 2077. A standalone sequel with a new story and cast, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, was released on 20 October 2026.
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What the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Quiz Tests
Our Cyberpunk: Edgerunners quiz covers the ten-episode 2022 anime only. It does not ask about Edgerunners 2, Cyberpunk 2077, the tabletop game or the Madness manga. Easy levels cover the premise and the people who made it: Night City and Arasaka Academy, what an edgerunner is, the Sandevistan, cyberpsychosis, Lucy's dream and Maine's crew. The middle levels follow the story in order, from the Trauma Team turning Gloria away, the fight with Katsuo and the meeting with Lucy on the metro, through the botched data job, Pilar's death, the braindance maker JK and Maine's last stand, to the time skip, along with Doc's immunoblockers and Lucy's childhood at Arasaka. The hard levels spoil the last three episodes, so finish the series first: Kiwi's choice, the Cyberskeleton, the final fight at Arasaka Tower, and the show's music, English dub and awards.
Key Characters
David Martinez starts the series as a reckless teenager with a shaky place at a corporate school and a mother working herself into the ground to keep him there. When she dies, he turns her leftover Sandevistan into a way out, and finds he can handle far more chrome than anyone expects, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. Lucy, the netrunner who first tries to pick his pocket and then recruits him, is quiet and guarded about a past spent as one of Arasaka's child netrunners, and wants nothing more than to leave Night City for the Moon. Maine, the crew's heavily augmented leader, takes David under his wing and becomes the model he copies, for better and worse. Around them are Maine's partner and second-in-command Dorio, the cool netrunner Kiwi who mentored Lucy, the foul-mouthed techie Pilar and his sister Rebecca, a small, loud, fiercely loyal gunfighter who became a fan favourite, and the nomad getaway driver Falco. Pulling the strings are Faraday, a fixer with ties to Militech who wants a place at Arasaka, and Adam Smasher, Arasaka's fully cybernetic head of security.
Available Quizzes
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Trivia
50 hand-crafted questions across 5 categories. 10 levels of increasing difficulty.
Which Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Character Are You?
Answer 10 questions to discover which member of the Edgerunners crew matches your personality!
Random Mix
Questions from all 51 anime including Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. The ultimate challenge.
Characters
David Martinez
Lucy
Rebecca
Maine
Kiwi
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Fun Facts
- Rebecca was not in the first drafts of the story. Her role belonged to a male character named Kyle until CD Projekt Red and Trigger agreed to change the character's gender, and she had her name by the fourth draft. Masahiko Otsuka, who co-wrote the scripts, told Famitsu she was a favourite of his and that much of her dialogue had to be cut.
- "I Really Want to Stay at Your House" was written and recorded by Rosa Walton for one of Cyberpunk 2077's in-game radio stations. After the anime used it prominently in 2022 the song went viral, reached number 68 on the UK Singles Chart and topped Billboard's Top TV Songs chart in the United States.
- CD Projekt Red released Cyberpunk 2077's patch 1.6, nicknamed the Edgerunners Update, in September 2022, adding free content inspired by the anime; Rebecca's shotgun, Guts, became an in-game item. The company credited the update and the show for a jump in the game's sales that year. Edgerunners 2 got the same treatment in October 2026 with update 2.5.
- Mike Pondsmith, who created the original Cyberpunk tabletop game in 1988, wrote of the show: "It's like seeing my brain in a big screen anime." Hideo Kojima praised it too, comparing its look to the 1990 OVA Cyber City Oedo 808. In June 2024 the tabletop game's publisher, R. Talsorian Games, released the Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit for the tabletop game.
- The opening theme, "This Fffire", is the new version of their song "This Fire" that Franz Ferdinand released as a single in 2004. The ending theme is "Let You Down" by Dawid Podsiadło, and its music video was directed by the artist Ilya Kuvshinov. The first episode shares its title with the ending song.
- Lucy has turned up well beyond Night City. She was added to the fighting game Guilty Gear Strive as a playable character in August 2025, and she and Rebecca were playable in a Wuthering Waves collaboration that ran from 8 June to 9 July 2026.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Quiz — Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners are there?
Ten, each about 23 to 28 minutes long, all released on Netflix on 13 September 2022. The standalone sequel, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, has another ten episodes and was released on 20 October 2026. Netflix lists it as a second season on the same page, but it tells a separate story with new characters.
Is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners finished?
Yes. It was made as a self-contained ten-episode story with a definite ending. In October 2022 CD Projekt Red said that if there were ever a second season it would not continue the first but be "something completely different". That is what Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is: a standalone story set in 2078 with a new cast, released on 20 October 2026.
What order should I watch Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in?
Watch the ten episodes of the 2022 series in order. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is a standalone story set a couple of years later in the same city, so it can follow at any point. You do not need to have played Cyberpunk 2077: the anime tells its own story. If you want more of Rebecca and her brother Pilar, the prequel manga Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Madness follows them before they met David.
Where can I watch Cyberpunk: Edgerunners?
It is a Netflix series, and both Edgerunners and Edgerunners 2 stream on Netflix, which lists them together as one show. Aniplex released the 2022 series as a Blu-ray box set in May 2025. Availability differs by country and changes over time, so check your local services.
What is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners about?
It follows David Martinez, a teenager in the dystopian Night City who, after his mother's death, has a powerful military implant installed and joins a crew of edgerunners, mercenary outlaws enhanced with cybernetics. He falls for Lucy, a netrunner who dreams of the Moon, and keeps adding implants to survive and protect the people he cares about, at the risk of cyberpsychosis. It is aimed at adults and is violent, fast and often tragic.
