About a month ago I was scrolling through Netflix trying to find a new show to binge-watch, and I stumbled upon a new Netflix original Anime called ‘Cyber-Punk EdgeRunners’. It's an animated series based on the game ‘Cyber-Punk 2077’, which was released a couple of years ago. I was a little weary before starting it as the game had a lot of hype going up to its release but was a total flop. However, the game had very good lore and a super interesting world that I thought could make for an interesting story. It’s a world based in the future where Japan took over the world, It’s very futuristic and people can upgrade themselves with cybernetic implants. After watching the short 10-episode series, I found it was one of the best short series I had ever watched and have rewatched it a couple of times already. When I watched it the most recent time, it was a little after finishing reading Giovanni’s Room and I thought there were some very interesting connections.
Similar to Giovanni’s room, Cyberpunk follows the main protagonist of the story, Davide, a young boy living with his mom who is struggling with his identity. He is not struggling with sexuality but struggles similarly, he is from a poor community in the city he lives in but goes to the top school in the country. He can’t afford the new updates and technology that all his classmates have and is ridiculed and beaten because of it. Much like David in Giovanni’s room when he leaves America to go to Paris to get away and find himself, Davide drops out of school after his mom died and after he had enough of all the bullying at school. The death of Davide’s mom was the real trigger for Davide to drop out, after this he finds a top-grade military implant that his mom was planning on selling to keep Davide in school and implants it into himself, it allows him to move at supersonic speed, and grants him super strength.
When Davide was taking the subway, he falls victim to a girl name Lucy trying to pickpocket him but with his new implant he catches her. Davide starts to work with her and finds himself enjoying this new life of crime, he finds this is what he likes to do and is what he was meant to do, much like David accepting his homosexuality. In the course of this Davide joins a gang and also falls in love with Lucy.
Although he finds this is what he is meant to be doing, he still struggles with how he looks and how different he is from the others in the gang as he just does not have as much cyberware. He falls into the rabbit hole and gets as many implants as he could physically handle, but it takes a huge physical toll on his mental health and he is slowly becoming crazy or a ‘cyber-psycho’. His relationship with Lucy starts to dwindle as Davide’s mental deteriorates, but Lucy is still in love with him and tries to get him to tone the cyberware down but he doesn’t listen. At the end of the series, Lucy is kidnapped and Davide is fully Cyber-psycho. He goes on a rampage to get Lucy back and ends up destroying everything in his path. Davide eventually gets to Lucy and she was the only one who was able to take him out of his state of craziness, unlike in Giovanni’s room where Giovanni is the one who ends up dying, Davide is eventually killed and taken from Lucy who is heartbroken after realizing what she has lost.
Overall I found that the series was one of the best love stories I have ever seen with a crazy ending, a great soundtrack and it leaves you wanting more of it, It has similar ties and themes to Giovanni’s room and I found it interesting that they are such different concepts and setting but still tie in the same themes and messages about love and finding yourself.
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