Way too hyped for what it is (like the game before the updates) - cyberpunk anime based on the Cyberpunk universe created by Mike Pondsmith, the anime serves as a prequel to the game and takes place about a year before the events of Cyberpunk 2077. It got the seal of approval by the Polish Developer CD Projekt.
It is set on a future city on California (Night City) in a world where gangs and cybernetic implants are usual. The main "hero" (or "anti-hero" since it runs a gang in the future on the series) is a cocky latin-american cocky kid with a hard working mother and that gets involved on gangs war, getting implants and changing character through the series.
Despite the animation being totally Japanese in the form of anime, the main error probably is the main story that the screenplay is based (written by a Polish team)... it is bad written, dumb and previsible and I had zero empathy with the protagonist. The quality of animation is good, but not phenomenal.
Action is frenetic but unreal to the point of being silly and the characters have no realistic traces at all. Maybe because of this I took 1 and a half year to be able to see it all.
The same can be said of the opening music "This Fffire" by Franz Ferdinand probably one of the worst music chosen for the anime by a band already dead in 2023 (it was a more proheminant band from 20y ago).
It was nominated to a ton of anime awards, but got only the best best anime of the year ("only" because it had more than 10 nominations).
For me it is a 6.0 score out of 10.0 / B. Go play this game game that is a 100% better or go known the Syndicate games and remake on Xbox to see some good cyberpunk and similar stuff, or go see Appleseed or Ghost in Shell series to a good quality cyberpunk anime.
