Blade Runner: Black Lotus

Blade Runner: Black Lotus
File:Blade Runner Black Lotus.jpg Promotional poster
Created by	Alcon Entertainment
Anime television series
Directed by	Shinji Aramaki Kenji Kamiyama
Produced by	Scott Parish Ben Cook Eugene Son Al Cuenca
Music by	Michael Hodges Gerald Trottman
Studio	Sola Digital Arts
Licensed by	Crunchyroll Warner Bros. TV Studios
English network	CA: Adult Swim US: Adult Swim (Toonami)
Original run	November 14, 2021 – present
Episodes	13

Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a Japanese–American anime television series based on the Blade Runner franchise that premiered on November 14, 2021. It is a co-production between Crunchyroll and Adult Swim, in addition to being created in partnership with Alcon Television Group.

Plot

Black Lotus takes place in Los Angeles in 2032, 10 years into the aftermath of the Black Out, and centers on a female replicant protagonist. It also includes "familiar" characters from the Blade Runner universe.

Characters

Elle

Voiced by: Arisa Shida (Japanese); Jessica Henwick (English)

A female replicant created for a secret and unknown purpose.

Joseph

Voiced by: Shinshu Fuji (Japanese); Will Yun Lee (English)

A mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles.

Alani Davis

Voiced by: Takako Honda (Japanese); Samira Wiley (English)

A fresh LAPD recruit.

Niander Wallace Sr.

Voiced by: Takaya Hashi (Japanese); Brian Cox (English)

Founder and CEO of the Wallace Corporation.

Niander Wallace Jr.

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese); Wes Bentley (English)

Brilliant scientist working for his father.

Marlowe

Voiced by: Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese); Josh Duhamel (English)

A deadly Blade Runner.

Josephine Grant

Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara (Japanese); Peyton List (English)

The wife of the police chief.

Earl Grant

Voiced by: Hōchū Ōtsuka (Japanese); Stephen Root (English)

Police Chief of the LAPD.

Doc Badger

Voiced by: Takayuki Kinba (Japanese); Barkhad Abdi (English)

A black market dealer. Barkhad Abdi reprises the same role he played in Blade Runner 2049.

Senator Bannister

Voiced by: Masane Tsukayama (Japanese); Gregg Henry (English)

A politician with strong feelings on replicant production.

Doctor M

Voiced by: Akio Nojima (Japanese); Henry Czerny (English)

A brilliant doctor and professor of medicine.

Hooper

Voiced by: Kazuki Yao (Japanese); Jason Spisak (English)

A journalist in the pocket of the Wallace Corporation.

Production and release

The anime was announced back in November 2018. The series is animated by Sola Digital Arts with Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama serving as co-directors. Shinichirō Watanabe, director of Blade Runner Black Out 2022, serves as a creative producer. The series premiered on November 14, 2021, with the English dub airing on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block in the United States, and would also stream in Japanese with English subtitles on Crunchyroll.

Canada's Corus Entertainment announced at their June 2021 upfronts that the series would air in the Fall on Adult Swim Canada. It would later be confirmed that the series would air in simulcast with the U.S.

In July 2021, both Japanese and English casts were revealed along with the announcement of a planned panel for the virtual 2021 San Diego Comic-Con. The opening theme is "Feel You Now" by Alessia Cara.

No.	Title	Storyboarded by	Written by	Animation supervised by	Original air date
SP	"Benefit or Hazard"	N/A	N/A	N/A	November 7, 2021 (2021-11-07)
A special behind-the-scenes look into the making of Blade Runner: Black Lotus in this 7-minute short film documentary.
1	"City of Angels"	Shinji Aramaki	Eugene Son	Sameer Hirlekar	November 14, 2021 (2021-11-14)
In October 2032, Elle wakes up in the back of a transport vehicle, with a black lotus tattoo on her back shoulder and unable to recall her memories. She carries with her an encrypted data device as she reaches Los Angeles. Wondering around the city, she is attacked by a gang, during which she experiences flashbacks and remembers her name. As she remembers where she lives, Elle is directed to an now-unfamiliar building where she encounters Doc Badger, who welcomes her into his shop. Elle hides as her attackers barge in, asking Doc if he had seen Elle or the data device, to which he denies. After they leave, Elle asks Doc if he can unlock the device as she believes it will help her recover her memories. He agrees to help her if she prevents the gang from giving him trouble again. Elle confronts the gang and incapacitates them, killing their leader and demanding the rest leave Doc alone. This prompts another flashback of her killing the man who she recalled as attacking her in the desert. Elle returns to Doc's shop, and he informs her that he is unable to decode the device. However, he tells her an upstairs neighbor may be able to help them. He takes her to the top floor of the apartment complex, where they find Joseph drunk and passed out on his couch.
2	"All We Are Not"	Shinji Aramaki	Alex de Campi	Sameer Hirlekar	November 14, 2021 (2021-11-14)
Elle and Doc wake Joseph and show him the encrypted data device. He reluctantly agrees to help decrypt it. As Joseph performs the decryption, Elle looks at the television, where a meeting between Senator Bannister and Niander Wallace, Sr. is shown. She recognizes Bannister as someone who hunted her in the desert. She abruptly leaves the apartment with the data device. Elle tracks down Bannister and steals a taxi to pursue him after he boards a spinner. Following him to a boxing arena, she manages to disable his security and confront him inside a private balcony. Bannister informs Elle that she is a replicant and a fight ensues. Proclaiming she is human and further recalling being hunted by Bannister, Elle manages to overpower him and drops him off the balcony, killing him. At Wallace company headquarters, Wallace Sr. discusses Niander Wallace Jr.'s lack of progress in the memory development field. Wallace Sr. receives a call informing him of Bannister's death. Meanwhile, Officer Alani Davis arrives at the crime scene of Bannister's murder. She tries to stop Elle and notices her tattoo, but gives up to investigate the scene. Later, another police officer chases Elle down an alley and she manages to escape. In the alley, she experiences an upsetting and vivid flashback of being hunted in the desert alongside other replicants. She then notices Joseph approaching her. He raises a gun and shoots her, incapacitating her.
3	"The Human Condition"	Masayuki Miyaji	Brandon Auman	Raul Carvajal Soriano	November 21, 2021 (2021-11-21)
Elle awakes in Joseph's apartment, who explains that he found her by using a police radio and has gone back to decoding her data device. Elsewhere after a brief scuffle, Officer Davis gets Drove to speak to her regarding his gang's encounter with Elle. Back at the apartment, Elle asks Joseph what a replicant is, believing she might be one. Joseph checks her eye for a serial number, a hallmark of Nexus-8 replicants. Since Elle is still unsure, Joseph brings out a machine to perform a Voight-Kampff test on her. When asked if she recalls being in love, Elle recalls someone who gave her the black lotus tattoo, saying it a symbol of purity. Joseph ends the test, assuring her that she is not a replicant. At Wallace headquarters, Wallace Jr. stressed that Senator Bannister's death would make it less likely for replicant production to be legalized, though Wallace Sr. is not so worried. After a rest in the apartment, Elle awakes and discovers the data device is finally decrypted, uncovering footage of a replicant hunting trip by Bannister and Hooper. Someone in the recording notes that the replicants they hunt were created to be fully submissive to humans.
4	"The Doll Hunt"	Shinji Aramaki	Kenji Kamiyama, Eugene Son	Raul Carvajal Soriano	November 28, 2021 (2021-11-28)
Elle lays next to a pool, receiving a tattoo from her boyfriend. She awakes confused in the same location, now completely dilapidated. Once outside, she finds group of replicants who also have no recollection of how they got there. A group of hunters – Bannister, Hooper, Earl Grant, and Josephine Grant – open fire on the group and they panic and disperse. Elle hides with a girl named Miu, and they find their opportunity to take one of the hunter's buggy and flee with two additional replicants. As the hunters give chase, the replicants find a rifle in the back, but are unable to shoot their pursuers. Elle loses control of the vehicle and it crashes. Elle and Miu survive the wreck and Hooper is left alone by the hunters to conduct an experiment. He kills Miu to see if Elle attacks in retaliation. After kicking her multiple times, Hooper is shocked when Elle begins retaliation and stabs him to death with his knife. Elle takes his camera and hops on a transport vehicle. As her memory fully returns in the present, Elle vows to find and kill all the hunters as revenge. At LAPD headquarters, Officer Davis confronts Chief Grant about her belief that a replicant killed Bannister. Grant shrugs her statements off and asks her to leave the evidence she gathered. He examines Davis' sketch of Elle's tattoo, cursing as he tosses it back down.
5	"Pressure"	Shingo Natsume	Eugene Son	Raul Carvajal Soriano	December 5, 2021 (2021-12-05)
Blade Runner Marlowe stops a bus, where a replicant resides inside. Marlowe pulls out a shotgun and fires at the replicant before getting out of the bus and shooting again, killing him. Meanwhile, Chief Earl Grant reports to Niander Wallace, Sr. that Elle had survived the hunt and promises to eliminate her. Back at the apartment complex, Elle again asks Joseph for his help in tracking down the hunters and he agrees, but advises that she drop the pursuit. Later, as Elle sharpens the katana from Doc's shop, Joseph uses an Esper to help identify the remaining members of the hunting party. Elle goes to Doc Badger to receive print outs of the hunters. Grant commands any available officers to hunt down and eliminate Elle, referred to by the department as Black Lotus. Officer Davis suggests he warn them that Black Lotus is potentially a replicant, but he firmly insists that she is human. As police officers flood the streets searching for Elle, Grant learns from Davis' evidence that Elle may have connections to Doc Badger. Grant orders a SWAT team on his shop. The SWAT breaks into the shop, but find only Joseph inside, while Doc Badger prints the photos for Elle up in Joseph's apartment. Grant receives a call from his wife, who is concerned about the rogue replicant and requests more protection. Meanwhile, Elle makes her way toward the Grants' apartment complex, where Chief Grant's wife, Josephine, resides.
6	"The Persistence of Memory"	Tensai Okamura	Margaret Dunlap	Raul Carvajal Soriano	December 12, 2021 (2021-12-12)
Josephine expresses insecurity with her husband on their apartment's current security detail. Officer Alani Davis sees Chief Grant leave headquarters and tails him. Meanwhile, Marlowe tells the officers to release Joseph, as they will not find anything on him. Marlowe receives a call from Chief Grant, ordering him to go to his apartment. Josephine spots Elle inside her apartment and runs to an office, grabbing a handgun and firing, but missing. Elle manages to subdue her and tie Josephine to a chair, who insists she was only a spectator in the hunt and that they were invited by her husband's friend, Doctor M, and does not know who planned it. Chief Grant arrives at the apartment and tracks them into the office. He puts his gun away in attempt to make Elle put her guard down, and suddenly attacks her. After a brief struggle, Elle manages to stab Grant with her blade. As he dies, he fires his gun, which misses Elle and hits his wife in the chest. As Josephine dies, she tells Elle that her emotions are not real. Alani Davis arrives into the office with Elle having already killed her hunters. Marlowe arrives and crashes through the window while the two have a conversation. He pursues and fights Elle through the apartment, which ends up in the kitchen. His shotgun is fired into the wall, breaking open a gas line above the stove. Elle uses the opportunity to spark a flame, causing an explosion that blasts her out of the complex. On the streets, Elle ponders Josephine's last words, thinking that if her emotions were not real, revenge should hurt less.
7	"Reality"	TBA	Unknown	TBA	December 19, 2021 (2021-12-19)
8	TBA	TBA	Unknown	TBA	January 2, 2022 (2022-01-02)

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approvAl rating of 67% based on 6 reviews.

External links

• Official Adult Swim website
• Blade Runner: Black Lotus (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Blade Runner: Black Lotus at IMDb