This anime follows a young man named David Martinez living in the lesser privileged part of a city called night city. As the story begins he falls prey to the unforeseen quarrel between two random gangs, which leads to the loss of his mother, this is one of the very few anime in which the death of someone that close to the protagonist creates a huge impact on the viewers which pretty much depicts the amazing thought process that has gone behind this show.
This is a must watch for anyone who likes action and it has a perfect mix of adaptation of the game and the qualities of an anime. The story is perfectly driven and makes viewers dive deep in the lives of cyberpunks, to add to this the concept of cyber-psychosis brings a set of twists in the anime which just makes the anime that much more interesting.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
I was hooked from the first episode, from seeing him make up his mind to upgrade himself to running his own gang of cyberpunks it is just one hell of a roller coaster. Being able to barely survive in the city with very less income, to add to this, his mother trying to get him through the most elite academic institution, the struggle just adds on with the death of his mother and him getting bullied in school. This pretty much shows that there is only soo much of something one can endure and after a time he/she weathers and loses it. He upgrades himself with a military grade implant called the Sandevistan and upon realizing its power it becomes a way to just hide all of his pain away.
There are multiple components in the anime which are very commendable including the animation which has brought the "night city" to life. One of the things that the anime wants to convey is about the concept of cyber-psychosis which is a state where upon multiple upgradation being installed in the body, the body becomes resistant to these updates and makes the user become a psychopath, loosing their mind, killing everyone and everything.
As the story progresses he meets the one true love of his life, Lucy a net-runner, they get to know each other in a rather barbaric way. Him having no dream of his own , shares the dream with her and promises her to aid her achieve her dream of going to the moon one day. This part also made me realize the importance of having a dream in life, when you have a dream in life it automatically sets your life in a linear pathway. And this dream of David is what made him and Lucy get closer to each other.
After joining Lucy and her gang of cyberpunks as a trainee, he eventually becomes one of them, led by Maine, this character is the father figure for David teaching him all the ways of cyberpunk through some classic montage with a some very amped up music. David ends up having a good time indulging in all kinds of vice and making a name for himself.
At this point, his implant becomes the talk of the town and gets the attention of the two of the biggest corporation Arasaka and Militech that run night city in the shadows. David would have already invested in a lot implants to keep up with the military grade implant Sandevistan. To get you guys upto speed the two companies would be against each other for the spot of No.1, David gets stuck in the crossfire and gets tricked into wearing an exo-skeleton which is known to be indestructible, but the heavy stress it puts on the user makes him/her turn into a cyber-psycho. Arasaka holds Lucy as hostage and releases the most cruel killer Adam smasher to confront David who has lost his mind upon excessive usage of the suit. David ends up going toe to toe against Adam, even though he had lost all sense of where he was or what he was doing, he was persistent in saving Lucy and making sure she achieves her dream. He sacrifices his own life for her and lets her escape from the clutches of Arasaka and dies smiling.
The same can be spoken of his gang mates as well , all of them end up facing the grim death except Lucy, all of his mates die in a very gruesome way in front of his eyes, the friendship he had going with them was depicted in such an amazing way that, the viewers tend to feel that his friends didn't deserve it. It was unspeakably hard for him, because he had finally met people where he could truly be himself through and through.
This anime also depicts the state of peoples mind in that era where the word "life" has lost all its meaning with people indulging in drugs and all kinds of unhindered virtual reality experiences especially the people living the substandard life. People weren't even hesitant to spill some blood and kill people even for a little bit of money or drugs.
The anime ends in Lucy finally reaching the moon carrying David in her heart, wishing he had been there with her at that time , and ends with the most satisfying smile on her face standing on the moon knowing that's what David would have wanted.
PS : Really recommend watching this music video, the artist Rosa Walton has done a great job putting the relationship between Lucy and David into a song.