“I woke up a few hours late”: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Writer was Ready for the Series to Fail so Badly that He Overslept on its Premiere
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was certainly one of the best animes to come out back in 2022. The anime received tons of awards, with the most notable ones being Crunchyroll’s Anime of the Year and IGN Awards’ Best Anime Series.
However, despite all the success that the series had, the writer for the show, Bartosz Sztybor, claimed that the success of the show was a shock to him. During an interview with Anime Corner, Sztybor explained what he was doing when the show was making its premiere.
How Night City’s Low Expectations had Cyberpunk: Edgerunners‘ writer stunned with positivity
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is certainly one of the best video game anime adaptations to have ever been released. Having brought the Night City to life in a way that most fans didn’t expect, it was no surprise for the anime to become an instant hit among the anime community. However, there was one person who didn’t expect the gritty cybernetic anime to be a hit. And that was none other than the writer for the series itself, Bartosz Sztybor.
During an interview with Anime Corner, Sztybor revealed exactly what he was doing when the series was released and fans were absolutely losing their minds over it. When asked if he expected the anime community to welcome the anime so warmly, he said;
“Not at all, it was a huge surprise! To be honest, I thought there will be a couple of people writing nice things, my mom will call with congrats and some of my friends will send me a “good job” text, and that’s all. When Edgerunners dropped I was in a different country, jetlagged, so I overslept the exact moment of release. I woke up a few hours later, had many missed calls, and my DMs were jam-packed.”
“I was shocked and still am. People are still sending messages, still creating amazing fan arts, and also all these awards — it’s like a beautiful dream that doesn’t end. I’m really moved and so grateful for such a warm response. And all the fans are so amazing!”
The anime was filled with moments that made fans fall in love with the story and visuals of the show. But there were a couple of episodes that had fans feeling speechless simply because of how good it was. The writer of the highly popular show revealed his favorite episodes in the same interview.
Bartosz Sztybor reveals his favorite episodes in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is certainly one of those animes that make you sit down and think about what you’ve watched once you’re done with the show. Despite having some of your favorite characters die or slowly fall into despair, the series somehow leaves you wanting more.
This is solely because of the brilliance of how the show and story were structured by all teams involved in making the series. During the same interview with Anime Corner, Bartosz Sztybor revealed his favorite episodes in the show. When asked about his favorite episode in the anime, he stated;
““Girl on Fire” (episode 6) and “My Moon My Man” (episode 10) are fan favorites — the first one for being action-packed, visually stunning, and for the vivid portrayal of cyberpsychosis, and the second one for being so damn sad! I really like those two, but I love “Lucky You” (episode 4) for the sudden change of mood not only in the episode but in the whole anime.
I also love it for telling us the truth about the Cyberpunk 2077 world and for being the shocking beginning of the downward spiral. For me, it’s the most shocking death of them all.”
Studio Trigger and CD PROJEKT RED seemed to have gone all out with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and they definitely made a masterpiece in the process. Unfortunately, for fans of the anime, Edgerunners will not receive a sequel despite its success, given it was originally planned to be a standalone work.
You can stream Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix.
