While the show does have a lot of human augmentation and corporations with too much power, there aren't any glowing neon lights here. So from a visual standpoint this is more of a "low cyberpunk" since it doesn't have many of the visuals you expect when you hear the phrase "cyberpunk anime". Aside from the human augmentation, the world just looks like the industrial part of a modern city. This isn't a bad thing, I'm just saying it leans more on the cyberpunk themes than cyberpunk visuals.
My only real complaint about the show is that the character is a stoic, gruff, serious person yet there will be these occasional moments where something completely surprises him and it'll jump to this weird chibi-style animation for a reaction shot:
They only do it once or twice per episode and it really is just a half-second reaction shot, but it's pretty jarring since the rest of the show is so serious.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQyWoG43kRI
It's streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll
Personally I think of cyberpunk as both a genre and an aesthetic. It has both aspects and its worthwhile to differentiate between the two when describing something that features one element or the other, but not necessarily both so that people follow what you're describing.
Thanks for sharing the anime rec! Seems like an interesting show :)
That's a good distinction I think. Like the Nimona movie tried for a fantasy-cyberpunk aesthetic that looked nice, but there really weren't any cyberpunk themes in it. They could have dropped just about any other aesthetic onto the thing and had a similar film.
But even as an aesthetic, I find it works best as dealing with the texture of technology.
Technology gets sold as this shiny, smooth thing when it never was and never will be.