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Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was a 2022 Netflix anime made by Studio Trigger, set in Night City, the same fictional setting used in CD Projekt Red's video game Cyberpunk 2077. It followed a street kid who becomes an "edgerunner" – a mercenary who takes dangerous jobs while relying on body-altering cyberware – and was widely praised for its animation and emotional storytelling. The show also became known for boosting sales and interest in the game after a rocky launch.

The sequel does not continue the first show's story directly. Instead it follows a new cast in the same dystopian city, exploring themes familiar to the Cyberpunk world, such as cyberpsychosis, a condition where heavy use of cybernetic implants causes people to become violent or unstable, and the criminal underworld of "netrunners", hackers who operate in cyberspace. Key creative figures from the original, including director Kai Ikarashi, showrunner Bartosz Sztybor and writer Masahiko Otsuka, are returning for the new series.

The project matters both to anime audiences, given the acclaim the first series received, and to fans of the wider Cyberpunk franchise, since it expands the same fictional universe across games and television. Its reception is likely to be watched closely as an indicator of whether the follow-up can match the original's impact with an entirely new set of characters.