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| How do you define human? |
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is an American-Japanese CGI Anime TV series in collaboration with Alcon Entertainment, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, and Sola Digital Arts. The is Adult Swim's and Cruncyroll's second anime co-production, first being Fena: Pirate Princess. The series stars an assembled cast: Jessica Henwick, Will Yun Lee, Samira Wiley, Brian Cox, Wes Bentley, and Josh Duhamel.
It is part of Alcon's Blade Runner franchise, taking place between 1983's Blade Runner and 2017's Blade Runner 2049. The franchise itself is also based on Phillip K. Dick's classic novel under the title, "Do androids dream of electric sheep?"
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| "I need to borrow this" - Elle |
I was very skeptical at first because the Americans Californians are involved and in this day in age, you don't know which TV show or movie is woke bait. But don't worry; this show is not - it's normal. Alcon Entertainment (so far) has a pretty decent track record from their film library (I have no idea about the 2 other shows they've produced like The Expanse, that show is a co-production with Legendary). They were also kind enough to re-release the original Blade Runner adventure game for PC on GOG and Steam. The Americans Californians were involved with the script, post-production, casting, music, and sound mixing, while the Japanese were involved with directing, storyboarding, art design, and CGI production including motion capture.
Shinji Aramaki (Ultraman, Appleseed) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ultraman, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) are directing all the episodes at Sola Digital Arts. Both directors previously worked together on Ultraman and Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) is a creative producer on the series.
Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Laura Lancaster, and Al-Francis Cuenca of Alcon Entertainment are executive producers on the project along with Sola Digital Arts' Joseph Chou. Alcon executive Ben Roberts is serving as co-executive producer, and Production I.G's Mitsuhisa Ishikawa is a production adviser.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Alessia Cara is contributing music to the series, including the original opening song "Feel You Now."
To let you know, I have never seen Ridley Scott's 1983 film nor read PKD's 1968 book, I have only seen the 2017 film and it's prequels. If you're planning to watch Black Lotus first and haven't seen the other films, don't worry and it doesn't spoil anything and completely stand on its own, even if your new to the franchise. There has been fan theories (and head canons) over the years that the Blade Runner series takes place in the same universe as the Alien franchise or Total Recall and Minority Report. It wouldn't surprise me, if they all did.
Anyway, let's talk about Black Lotus starting with the story and don't worry it's spoiler free because I want you to figure out the story for yourself.
Story
In the dark future of Los Angeles 2032. A young woman named Elle (pronounced L) wakes up with no memories, and possessing deadly skills. The only clues to her mystery are a locked data device and a tattoo of a black lotus. She is helped by a mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles named Joseph (also named "Jay"). Putting together the pieces, she must hunt down the people responsible for her brutal and bloody past to find the truth of her lost identity.
The show is very sci-fi and niche, meaning it's aimed at sci-fi and anime nerds, normies wouldn't handle this and get impatient or wouldn't understand. It starts out slow in the first 2 episodes (not in a bad way), but it builds its way up, adding the puzzle pieces, one by one at a time. It also gives me Alita: Battle Angel vibes because the main character, Elle, really reminds me of Alita (and angelic imagery), and I think it's oblivious to me that she was the inspiration/influence (from the manga, anime, and the recent Fox adaptation) for Elle's character.
The story is mature and its structure is stable and organized like a chapter of a book, but with twists and turns. The characters are decently developed, each one is likable and unique and has their purpose through the progression of the story.
The central themes revolves around defining humanity, moral conflicts, what is love, consequences of revenge, duality, corruption, corporatism, and playing God.
It's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's why I said it's niche.
People might gripe about the visuals, but I don't see a problem with 'em, they give me this late 90s and early 2000s vibe and I really love it. It's kind of nostalgic exactly. Each character and the environment are uniquely designed and nothing generic.
The voice acting is excellent and nothing cheesy as it fits with the serious tone of the show's story. The impressive cast of American-British actors did an excellent job with the dialogue because this wasn't made in Texas where most of the anime dubbing companies are from, but straight from Hollywood thanks to Alcon. How rare.
Music
Produced by Alcon Sleeping Giant (ASG), the show has a dynamic multi-genre soundtrack "with global appeal" and has a diverse* range of artists with their own unique music ranging from electric pop to hip-hop. The music does however beautifully compliments the show, each song is infectious with heart-felt rhythm, even if you didn't like the show, the music by itself is a great introduction to a variety of artists, and each song is very enjoyable to listen to. These songs only appear at the ending of each episode and don't ruin the tone.
BUT the original score by Michael Hodges & Gerald Trottman is what I like the most and it again gives me late 90s and early 2000s vibes like the visuals do. The score is electronic-based with mostly ambiance and action sequence music. Some say it doesn't have Blade Runner vibes, but to me, it does in its own right. The score sounds better than the soundtrack itself.
I like the music, but both the soundtrack and score aren't as great as Han Zimmer's original score for Blade Runner 2049.
*When I meant by diverse I meant uniquely talented people, not anti-white genocide.
Overall
Overall, the 13-episode first season is pretty good and stands on its own; it really gives you an introduction to the Blade Runner universe and it's unique in its own right. I can confirm that the first season is not woke bait and switch, it felt natural and felt like a normal TV show from the 2000s (that's a compliment). Like I said before it's not everyone's cup of tea, some fans of the books and movies don't like the show while others do, but that is up to you.
7.5 out of 10
Adult Swim and Crunchyroll announced a second season, but I wouldn't hold your breath and give it low expectations for what is to come next. If the second season is crap, then at least the first stands on its own. If you are curious about getting this on physical disc, then it would most likely come from the Warner Archive (disc on demand).
If you're interested in buying the soundtrack, it's available on CD, Vinyl, and digital download from Alcon's dedicated Black Lotus shop website. https://shop.blacklotussoundtrack.com/
UPDATE: Blade Runner: Black Lotus has not been renewed for a second season. This is most likely because Warner Bros. Discovery does want to pay more business taxes and Sony now owns Crunchyroll.
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