Cyberpunk 2077 is having a bit of a renaissance as of late, thanks in no small part to the release of Netflix and Studio Trigger's Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime, and it seems that Hideo Kojima himself is a big fan of the show. Edgerunners was released alongside a major new content update for 2077, which meant that the game and the anime both received a boost in attention from the community.
As a result, virtually everyone jumped in to watch Cyberpunk Edgerunners to learn more about the universe of Cyberpunk 2077, only to discover that it's a very compelling show on its own. Kojima describes it as "a miracle" and claims that he finished it in one sitting, which is extremely high praise from the mind behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding​​​​​​.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners massively improved 2077's Night City by showing it in a new light, one that's arguably truer to the source material than the game itself. Kojima seems to have recognized Edgerunners' depth, specifically. Reflecting on the anime, Kojima commented on the current state of domestic Japanese animation studios, saying that Edgerunners proves that not all of them had been "consumed by the overseas market." He also went on to compare Edgerunners to a niche cyberpunk anime Cyber City OEDO 808, penned by Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
Following a rather disappointing and buggy launch, Cyberpunk 2077 is reaching huge milestones on PC once again, against all odds. The release of Cyberpunk Edgerunners proved to be the perfect catalyst for the game's apparent renewal, and CD Projekt Red was clever to launch a substantial content update alongside it, too. The end result was a situation where the game was more appealing to old players, but also more inviting than ever before to entirely new audiences.
The announcement of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC helped a fair bit as well. It remains to be seen whether Phantom Liberty is up to par, of course, and whether it's going to introduce the feature-level improvements and additions that the base game still needs. But for the time being, all the pieces have fallen into place, and Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a second chance by the looks of it.
Kojima's own thoughts on the anime itself are mirrored by much of the community, it seems, with fans even modding Edgerunners weapons into Cyberpunk 2077. Only time will tell whether CDPR's second shot at pulling off CP2077 will truly come to fruition, but even if that doesn't end up happening, Edgerunners seems able to stand on its own two feet.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is now streaming on Netflix.