4 Years Later, Netflix's 10-Episode Dystopian Hit Remains The Decade's Best Sci-Fi

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Published Sep 17, 2026, 5:01 PM EDT

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Netflix has delivered plenty of big sci-fi shows over the past decade, throwing everything from Alice in Borderland to 3 Body Problem at audiences. But four years later, its 10-episode masterpiece still feels like the platform's strongest sci-fi hit of the decade. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners isn't a massive live-action production with a huge cast or a ridiculous Hollywood budget. It's an anime based on a video game, made by Studio Trigger and CD Projekt Red. But Netflix somehow turned Cyberpunk 2077's spin-off into one of the best video game adaptations ever made.

Dismissing the series strictly because of its animated format means missing out on one of the most engaging and emotionally crushing sci-fi stories of the modern era. The series takes the already messed-up world of Night City and makes it even more brutal, throwing David Martinez into a city where corporations own almost everything and cybernetic upgrades can turn a desperate kid into a walking weapon.

The more David tries to climb his way up, the more of himself he has to give away. That's what makes the show hit so hard. Beneath all the neon, insane gunfights, and ridiculously good animation is a story about people trying to find something worth holding onto in a city that couldn't care less if they survive.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Turns A Tragic Fight For Survival Into A High-Speed Dystopian Thriller

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners gets interesting from the very first episode and somehow keeps that pace all the way to its brutal finale. Set in the dystopian streets of Night City, the TV-MA-rated series follows David Martinez, a genius teenager who doesn't really fit into his life as a student at Arasaka Academy and is desperate to find his own place in the city.

Everything changes when his overworked mother is killed in the crossfire of a random gang shootout, after a corporate Trauma Team refuses to treat her because she isn't insured. David is suddenly left with almost nothing, and that's when he decides to take a stolen military-grade Sandevistan and throw himself straight into Night City's criminal underworld.

That's when the show really starts having fun. David gets pulled into Maine's mercenary crew, meets the mysterious netrunner Lucy, and quickly finds out that being a cyberpunk isn't nearly as cool as he thought it would be. Night City has no plot armor. Characters can get killed off without warning, cybernetic upgrades come with the very real risk of cyberpsychosis, and every new piece of chrome pushes David a little closer to the edge.

And once Faraday and the legendary Arasaka cyborg enforcer Adam Smasher enter the picture, things get even uglier. These aren't villains David can simply punch his way through. They're the kind of enemies that make every job feel like it could be the crew's last.

David And Lucy Give Cyberpunk: Edgerunners The Tragic Heart It Needs To Survive Night City

Beneath all the guns, chrome, and Studio Trigger insanity, David and Lucy's relationship gives Edgerunners its heart. That's a big reason the anime works so well as a Cyberpunk 2077 adaptation. It doesn't just borrow Night City from the game and slap a new story on top of it. It actually makes the city feel like a place worth getting lost in, while still telling a story that works perfectly on its own.

With Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 arriving on October 20, there couldn't be a better time to finally give the original series a shot. In just 10 episodes, Edgerunners somehow packs in wild action, a surprisingly great romance, plenty of Night City madness, and some genuinely brutal moments that stick around long after the credits roll.

In a streaming space where video game adaptations are almost always a massive gamble, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners emerged as a once-in-a-decade masterpiece. After all, in Night City, a cyberpunk doesn't make a name by how they live. They make a name by how they die.