Scraping by a living in the rough technologically augmented society of Night City, David’s mother managed to send him to a prestigious school in hopes he could become a Corpo and climb the ladder of the business world. However, after his mother dies suddenly in a car accident and due to lack of appropriate care, David embraces a cybernetic implant for power and that decision intersects him with a crew of Edgerunners, a group of mercenaries filled with cybernetic implants that do any job and every job to make a living.
While Cyberpunk the game was a fine game that suffered from too much hype, this anime is, well, definitely living up to any hype. Trigger nailed it. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Cyberpunk Edgerunners, head on down below.
Anime Like Cyberpunk Edgerunners
For Fans of Cyberpunk Settings
Akudama Drive
The region of Kansai is overrun by powerful criminals known as Akudama. One night, after picking up 500 yen dropped by an Akudama, an Ordinary Girl finds herself wrapped up in a huge plot to foil a public execution. Now with a bomb collar around her neck, she and other Akudama must complete tasks given by a mysterious Black Cat.
Anime isn’t exactly awash in good cyberpunk settings, though Edgerunners may change that with its success. Akudama Drive is another recent cyberpunk anime in a rather gritty city where criminals run rampant despite a militaristic law enforcement force. Like Edgerunners, Akudama Drive is also a story following the struggle of some of those criminals.
Psycho-Pass
In the 22nd century, the justice system has changed. The Sibyl System now determines the threat level of each citizen by examining their mental state for criminal intent. This has become known as their Psycho-Pass. Once criminal intent has been identified, Inspectors like Akane Tsunemori are in charge of subjugating them. However, this tough job is not without dangers. This is why Inspectors are paired with Enforcers, like Shinya Kougami, latent criminals with just the right amount of psychopathy to keep other criminals in their place.
While Edgerunners follows criminals in a city where crime is common, Psycho-Pass follows law enforcement in a city where you can be arrested before you even commit a crime. While Edgerunners leans more towards you having played the game to get world building that way, Psycho-Pass puts the detail into showing you the society and showing you why it is indeed a terrible cyberpunk setting to exist in.
Ghost in The Shell – Stand Alone Complex
In the not so distant future, mankind has advanced to a state where the transplant of the complete body from flesh to machine is possible. This has blurred the lines between physical and technological worlds. Unfortunately, criminals can also make use of this technology, which led to the rise of Sector 9, a government agency that operates independently and deals with this new kind of cybercrime. Section 9, led by Daisuke Aramaki and Motoko Kusanagi, deals with these crimes typically with success, until they find themselves faced with the rise of a new hacker who goes by the nickname The Laughing Man.
You can’t have a sci-fi/cyberpunk setting with body augmentation without mentioning Ghost in the Shell. Before Edgerunners, it was one of the best anime series depicting all the ways a person can change themselves with technology in a cyberpunk setting. However, Ghost in the Shell, unlike Edgerunners, does follow police officers rather than criminals.
Dimension W
In the future, humans have discovered the fourth dimension, or Dimension W, which is supposedly a source of infinite energy. Harnessing this energy in coils, the New Telsa Energy corporation has now set up a monopoly on its sale. Ex-soldier Kyouma Mabuchi is skeptical of this energy and still drives a gas-powered car for his job to hunt down illegal coils.
While Edgerunners is all about that shiny new chrome, it is a society like Dimension W where old tech is often treated a bit like a novelty. Edgerunners is about a main character embracing augmentation while Dimension W sits firmly in its older main character being strongly resistant to it.
For Fans of Mercenaries
Black Lagoon
Average business man Rokurou Okajima found his life turned upside down when he was captured and held hostage by a mercenary group in Thailand called Black Lagoon. After learning how disposable his life was to his company, he decides to quit the salaryman life and join the very group of mercenaries that held him hostage. While he finds himself unexpectedly good at their various work, his ideals about the world vastly clash with those of his companions.
What are the Edgerunners if not the crew in Black Lagoon. Both series follow people that work together as mercenaries for money. The main character is a good guy that grows more morally gray the more jobs he does with the crew. The only things missing in Black Lagoon is the augmentation and cyberpunk setting. Regardless, it takes place in a setting just as gritty and rife with criminals and shitty corporations.
Cowboy Bebop
In the distant future, humanity has, for the most part, abandoned Earth and colonized several different planets in the solar system. In order to keep peace in the galaxy, the Inter Solar System police was established, but they often rely on the aid of bounty hunters, referred to as “cowboys,” to bring criminals on the run to justice. This is the story of Spike Spiegel and Jet Black, a pair of cowboys that end up with a rag-tag crew of other misfits as they travel the galaxy trying to keep food on the table and their own dark pasts at bay.
While Cowboy Bebop is a sci-fi series set in planet-hopping space rather than just a cyberpunk city, it features a similar sort of story about a crew of mercenaries that are just looking for a job. However, Cowboy Bebop is more about the characters and their backstories rather than just one main character.
Gangsta
Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo work as handymen, mercenaries that will do anything for the right price. Working for the mob and police alike, they delve into the underbelly of the city, a place that was once haven for Twilights, people who were augmented by a special drug.
Gangsta takes place in a gritty city not flush with cybernetics, but flush with human experiments that cause trouble and are sometimes just trying to live their lives. Like Edgerunners, it follows a group of people that take odd jobs for money and maintain a series of connections in the city’s underground. Unlike Edgerunner, the plot of Gangsta starts to take shape surrounding the backstory of the characters as the past starts to catch up to them.
For Fans of Bodily Augmentation
Gungrave
Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowel grew up on the streets together and both turned to crime in order to get by. However, when their activities are noticed by the eyes of the expansive Millennion mafia syndicate, the pair find themselves brought under their wings and rising through the ranks. Things go well until one fateful day that changes it all. Years later, Brandon Heat is brought back from the dead to fight Millennion and its new leader, Harry MacDowel.
As Gungrave is told in one half flashback and one half present day, it takes a minute to see the augmention to the main character. The main character is essentially made better and stronger because he needs to protect something much like David. Also notable, both series are also based off video games.
No Guns Life
Thanks to the Baruhren Corporation, powerful cyborg soldiers known as Extended now exist. Juuzou Inui is one such Extended with no memories before he was used for war. Now, he helps take care of Extended-caused incidents around the city. Recently, rumors of an Extended kidnapping a child have spread, and when Juuzou returns to his office, he finds the Extended there with the child in tow. With everyone seemingly out for this kid, it leads Juuzou into a mystery that threatens to unravel everything.
Whereas any citizen in Edgerunners can get augmented, in No Guns Life, you mostly see it from a person’s affiliation with a corporation as weapons of war. As No Guns Life starts after said war where augmented soldiers are left with little to do, it is all about combating those problems. If you enjoyed the action of Edgerunners and the unique characters, this series provides, though it is not quite as graphic.
Texhnolyze
As an orphan that made his name as a street fighter, Ichise finds his way of life crushed when an angry promoter takes an arm and a leg. Before he dies, he is rescued by a scientist that uses him as a test subject. With new limbs at his disposal and a new mysterious girl that can tell the future at his side, he realizes the city is on the brink of destruction, and only he can save it.
Both series follow a futuristic, gritty, and rather shit futuristic society where cybernetic augmentation is possible. In both series, the main characters are freshly augmented and deal with the lose of their original flesh in different ways. The big thing to keep in mind here is while Cyberpunk Edgerunners is vicious, colorful, and often exciting, Texhnolyze tells a good story about humanity, but dwells in almost oppressive levels of nihilism. If you liked Edgerunners because it was often exciting, this may not be for you.
Vivy – Flourite Eye’s Song
In a theme park ran by AI, there is a lonely stage where the first-ever autonomous humanoid sings in order to fulfill her mission of making everyone happy with her songs. This AI, named Diva but given the nickname of Vivy by a young fan, has an encounter with an AI named Matsumoto who explains he traveled from 100 years in the future where AI have advanced so far that they rebelled and started exterminating humanity. Together, he guides her to singularity points on a hundred-year journey in order to change the course of history.
Although a goodly portion of the characters in Vivy are full AI and in no way human, their functions and look are similar to the cybernetically enhanced in Edgerunners. They aren’t brutish, but they have hidden ports and various enhancements that let you know they aren’t human. Alongside that, while Edgerunners is about losing your humanity to cyberpsychosis, Vivy is about machines ultimately gaining humanity. They are two beautifully animated and occasionally emotional stories that make you feel hopeful for the future of sci-fi anime.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Cyberpunk Edgerunners? Let fans know in the comments section below.
