Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a great addition to the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. CD Projekt Red's game has gotten better since it launched in 2020, but one of the things most players always enjoyed was the story and cultural language that came with it. The Cyberpunk series has had a language all its own, be it talking about earning Eddies to dissing the Corpo life.
That language is in full bloom in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It’s a good anime on its own that has some amazing quotes ranging from heartfelt messages to badass lines that will get viewers pumped. Which are the best Cyberpunk: Edgerunners quotes worth remembering for the foreseeable future?
There will be spoilers ahead.
8 “You’re Breaking My Heart, Miho.”
This is one of the most gut-wrenching quotes in the entire anime, and it happens in the first episode. Gloria, David’s mom, says this right before they get into a car accident followed by her death.
All Gloria wanted was for David to live up to be somebody at the Arasaka corporation. That’s why she worked herself to the bone, so he could go to a good school. It’s hard to say whether David did the right thing in the end. He did rise but fell all too short like Gloria. It’s a tragic anime that begins with heartache and is bookended by it.
7 “Bout Time I Chrome The F Up.”
This line ends the first episode of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as David goes into the Ripperdoc’s clinic. It’s the last straw after losing his mom, getting kicked out of his apartment, and being beaten up at school. He decides it’s high time he stood up for himself and didn’t fully rely on his organic body anymore.
David doesn’t know where this military cybernetic implant came from, but he doesn’t care. He’s willing to risk it all to become something more than a gutter rat.
6 “You Afraid of Getting Caught Cuz I Know I Sure As Sh*t Ain’t.”
Most good anime seem to have some school shenanigans, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners does not disappoint. Katsuo, the main bully at David’s academy, picks on the protagonist. After getting his implant sewn in, David says this line as he challenges Katsuo to a rematch as the latter had previously fought the former in a place no one could see them.
That’s often how bullies get their work done as they want to hide their crimes in the shadows. When the rematch challenge happened, David had lost so much by that point in the story that he didn't care where he fights anymore. He had nothing to lose and may have even gone so far as killing Katsuo if something inside him hadn’t stopped this beating.
5 “Sorry David, Looks Like We Gotta Change Our Plans, You’re Back To 20.”
This line was said by Lucy, a character who started at 11 but slowly wound back her wild demeanor as the anime carried on. She said this quote right before she rescued David from the medical officer who just found out he had an expensive military implant on him.
After beating the officer down, Lucy takes David on a joyride through a packed highway on just his gurney. It’s one of the most chaotic action scenes in the anime, and that’s saying something since there is a lot of action after this in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
4 “Time To Learn.”
In episode three, David becomes fully integrated into Maine’s group of mercenaries. On his test mission, David has to improvise and drive his way out of a gunfight. He had never driven before, but Maine encourages him by saying this line.
Thankfully, the vehicles in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe manage to drive themselves for the most part. Still, David did show some slick skills behind the wheel. His implant came in handy even when he wasn’t running on foot.
3 “Ew…”
David managed to elude the gangsters that were chasing Lucy and him in episode three. Unfortunately, once they got to the warehouse, they were ambushed by one final battle. Lucy and David held their own for a while until things looked like they were going to turn sour.
Thankfully, Maine arrived just in time to blow this thug away with one blast from his cannon arm. Maine literally blows this guy away, turning him from a human to a blood stain on the ground. It is brutal, to say the least. Lucy's “Ew” as she tries to remove this gangster’s ooze from her body is gross and funny at the same time. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners does a good job at balancing the action, drama, and humor in an anime.
2 “This Mess My Fault?”
One of the underlying fears in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' world is that too many implants may make a person go wild. That’s how the anime starts and that’s pretty much how it ends. As brutal as some scenes are, things initially look like they are going great for David and his new merc friends.
That is until episode six when Maine loses his marbles, causing his girlfriend Dorio to die in the process. That’s when he snaps, asking himself if the bloody chaos before him was all his fault or not. In an anime filled with tragedy, this scene is right up there with Gloria dying and the final scene of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
1 “Looks Like A Prison From Here, A Cage Of Light.”
Lucy says this line to David, as they are watching Night City from a distance in episode seven. This was after the time jump wherein David took Maine’s place as the head of the mercenary gang. As pretty as the city is, there is a dark side to it.
Night City offers just as many opportunities to succeed as it does to fail which is a message both the game and anime try to explore. Ultimately, the anime does a better job as the story is tighter in its ten-episode runtime.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners can be streamed on Netflix.