Edgerunners, the anime of 2022: what reference you missed because of Netflix

One Edgerunners reference went unnoticed, according to showrunner Rafal Jaki.

There’s a good chance that Netflix’s aggressive auto-play feature, which will queue up something new to watch while blurred vision regains attention from all the crying, might have caused you to miss a very cool reference hidden in the anime’s end credits.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is developed by CD Projekt Red and anime studio Trigger, which premiered on September 13. I don’t want to go into too much detail in case you didn’t get to see it.

Rafal Jaki, executive producer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners posted a tweet congratulating a redditor on the r/Edgerunner subreddit for finding an “easter egg” related to the mysterious cybergirl Lucy and her fascination with the moon. While Trigger and “spacewalking” are no strangers to each other, this time, her affinity for the cosmos runs deeper than aesthetics.

According to Reddit user YorBoyChris, the brief clips of Lucy juxtaposed with shots of the moon during the anime’s closing song, “Let You Down,” is a reference to The Moon tarot card as it appears in Cyberpunk 2077, where it is one of many tarot cards that can be found in Night City as part of the side quest Fool on the Hill.

Special significance

For those unfamiliar with the meaning of this tarot card, it basically boils down to the fact that things are not always what they seem and let your instincts guide you through this world. A message that is the entire thesis of Lucy’s character in the Cyberpunk mythos, given her desire to escape Night City, a city she sees as a “cage of light”.

Also, as a side note, if you lay the tarot card upright, it symbolizes “delusion, fear and anxiety”, according to Biddy Tarot. Drawing upside down, however, signifies “the release of fear, repressed emotion and inner confusion”. I don’t know about you, but that adds a whole new layer to the euphemistic phrase, “the moon looks beautiful tonight”.

When asked if viewers should expect to find more Easter eggs hidden in the anime, Jaki told Kotaku that the show is still full of plenty of references, but won’t scatter too many.

“I’d like to keep that to myself because I enjoy it immensely once someone connects that point,” Jaki said, ending the email with a smiley face.

Currently, Edgerunners is ranked number two in the Rotten Tomatoes video game anime series, between Arcane and Castlevania.