After many years and multiple delays, the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 is just around the corner. The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red’s ambitious new RPG hopes to hit the ground running and define the genre on the next generation of consoles, taking on the world of the pen-and-paper RPGs, its cybernetic sci-fi look, and colorful characters.
One of the most interesting characters in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe established in the RPGs is Michiko Arasaka. Her famous last name may give away her family to fans of the franchise, but unlike her relatives, Michiko’s path has been very different. Here is the story of Michiko Arasaka, and the likelihood of the character making an appearance in Cyberpunk 2077 when it releases later this month.
The Early Life of Michiko Arasaka
The Arasaka Corporation is infamous in the timeline of Cyberpunk, and not only for its own decisive ruthlessness. The Arasaka Tower in Night City was the center of an event which came to be known as the Night City Holocaust in 2023 when a device known as a pocket nuke was detonated during a raid gone wrong. It ended up killing half a million people around the area of the explosion.
Arasaka isn’t just known for being the center of the disaster, however. The Japanese arms manufacturer was one of the two main companies which fought in the Fourth Corporate War, the other being American arms manufacturer Militech International Armaments. The war made the megacorporation, and the Arasaka family, infamous.
Michiko Arasaka was born in the United States of America, the daughter of Japanese businessman Kei Arasaka, and the granddaughter of Saburo Arasaka, the company’s founder who – at the grand old age of 158 – is still the CEO of Arasaka during the events of Cyberpunk 2077. Under her leadership, the Hato faction of Arasaka would ally with the New United States of America following the end of the war in 2023.
Unlike many other members of her family, Michiko Arasaka’s reputation is perhaps one of the least damaged by the family’s reputation. Michiko was still young when the war was taking place, and was generally considered an innocent compared to her father and grandfather. Known for her over-the-top cuteness, Michiko helped sustain that reputation throughout her young life. At the age of just 17, she traveled to meet the NUSA President, Elizabeth Kress, to apologize on behalf of her family and to ask to maintain her status as US citizen. Her pitch was a success, and Michiko was allowed to remain in the country and attend Stanford University.
Michiko Arasaka turned 18 some time around the year 2020. She left the Arasaka compound on her birthday and went on a wild bar crawl with her Solo bodyguard Kenichi Zaburo, who famous American solo Morgan Blackhand considered his nemesis. She ended the night with a “wild fling” with up-and-coming Arasaka Solo and cyborg Adam Smasher. Smasher would later kill Johnny Silverhand, and presumably Blackhand as well when his interference caused the Night City Holocaust.
When Michiko graduated from Stanford in three years, she immediately founded her own company in Night City. The firm was named Danger Girl, a private investigation company which took on celebrity cases for the rich and powerful of NUSA’s West Coast. Her feigned naivete led the competition to underestimate her, and it wasn’t long before Danger Girl was one of the top private investigation firms in the region. However, the company had an alternate purpose.
When Michiko Arasaka met with President Elizabeth Kress, Kress made the young woman an offer. In return for being allowed to stay in the nation of her birth, Michiko would have to help locate and destroy any remaining Arasaka operations in the country after the end of the war. Danger Girl, despite its success, was also partially a front for this obligation, with its crack criminologists helping foil Arasaka schemes from the inside out. In her 30s she would go on to marry another detective, Marc Sanderson, taking on his last name but maintaining her front-and-center presence as the face of Danger Girl. Kenichi Zaburo remains at her side despite her betrayal of Arasaka. Adam Smasher is still alive, though their fling appears to have ended the same night it began.
Michiko and Danger Girl in 2077
It is very likely that Michiko will be a present NPC in Cyberpunk 2077 for a few reasons. First, her grandfather’s survival demonstrates just how long the wealthy and privileged are able to live in the greatly unequal world of Cyberpunk. With the right cybernetic enhancements, Michiko, who would be pushing 80 by the time the game starts, would likely not look her age.
If nothing else, players will very likely be able to find Danger Girl somewhere on Night City's map. Players who want to help take down the Arasaka corporation may, ironically, find the company founded by the CEO’s granddaughter to be a great first place to start. Players who aren’t interested in corporate espionage but are interested in becoming noir detective types in Cyberpunk may also give Danger Girl’s offices a visit, where its PI’s tackle high-profile cases for even higher-profile clients every day.
It will have been years since Michiko turned against her family. It remains unclear whether her tyrannical grandfather is aware of her betrayal, though, rather creepily, his third and final wife shares his famous granddaughter’s name. If included, Michiko and Danger Girl could be among the most interesting and morally ambiguous presences in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 when it releases later this month.
Cyberpunk 2077 releases December 10 on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.