“Blade Runner: Black Lotus” (midnight Eastern Saturdays, Cartoon Network) puts dystopian future L.A. – in 2032, but it looks the same as the original movie, set in the future of 2019 – into a computer, and the playground is set. The first two episodes check the boxes of animated billboards, lightsaber umbrellas and sidewalk noodle shops.
Hitting their targets
Meanwhile, Michael Hodges and Gerald Trottman score original music but they don’t venture far from Vangelis’ classic work. Pepper in throwaway dialog about how “Everyone is lost” and this is Dystopia 101.
These are obvious targets to aim for. So maybe I’m an easy mark. But I enjoyed soaking up this first screen visit to the saga since 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049” – and the first piece of Philip K. Dickiana since then, too.
“Blade Runner: Black Lotus” Season 1 (2021)
Saturdays, Cartoon Network
Creator: Shinichiro Watanabe
Stars: Jessica Henwick, Barkhad Abdi, Will Yun Lee
This longtime dream project of Shinichiro Watanabe (“The Animatrix,” “Blade Runner: Blackout 2022”) is mostly an aural/visual feast through two half-hour episodes. The only things it skimps on are natural hair movements and showing rain against skin or clothes.
Although it’s a Japanese anime, “Black Lotus” was made with both Western and Japanese audiences in mind, so the English language voice work is smooth. You’ll recognize a lot of the voice actors – most obviously Brian Cox as Niander Wallace Sr., the guy who took over the late Tyrell’s position.
Various uses for replicants
“Black Lotus” digs into the various ways humans use and abuse replicants in this future. (I presume they are Nexus 8’s – the type that have full lifespans, because they were in production at this point on the “BR” timeline.)
In a probably accidental nod to PKD’s “We Can Build You,” the blimp advertising off-world passage throws in a perk: You get a free replicant servant. This was a perk of the “move to the Moon” scam in that novel, a first attempt/sort-of prequel to “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”
But that’s not to say the replicants of “Black Lotus” aren’t impeccably made, or that they don’t work as advertised. The only tech glitch affects the inner psyche of the titular Elle (voiced by “Iron Fist’s” Jessica Henwick): She has amnesia.
But that doesn’t matter to the humans who only want to hunt her for sport. As Elle’s memories come back, we see that she was amid a pack of replicants hunted in the fashion of the 1994 Ice-T movie “Surviving the Game.”
Familiar but appealing heroine
Elle’s situation is sympathetic, although as a dystopian SF heroine, she hits standard beats. Cornered by gang members in an alley, she discovers she possesses hand-to-hand fighting skills, like River in “Firefly” and LeeLoo in “The Fifth Element.”
Writer Eugene Son makes Elle’s confusion double as the overall mystery. Not only does she not know who she is, she also thinks the rainy, neon neighborhood looks wrong. Could time travel or dimensional travel factor into a “BR” story?
Later, at a cage match pitting replicant versus replicant (further showing their usage as entertainment products), a corrupt politician (presumably the only kind of politician in 2032) tells Elle she came off the factory line “last week.”
Building the supporting cast
Elle already has a nice little supporting cast. Doc Badger (Barkhad Abdi, reprising the role from “2049”) deals in secondhand tech but he seems like a straight shooter who hopes things turn out OK for Elle. That’s the equivalent of a heart of gold in this future.
Badger’s shop includes the apocryphal 1980s-style TVs we’ve come to expect from the Ridley Scott film, plus an electric cat – a more direct nod to Dick’s book. I thought for a moment Elle might adopt the cat, but no such luck as of yet.
Living above the shop is Jay (Will Yun Lee), a boozy Keanu Reeves lookalike who knows how tech works. In next week’s episode three, he’ll administer a Voight-Kampff test to Elle.
Also, a police officer – who reminds me of Misty Knight in “Luke Cage” — is pursuing Elle while investigating that politician’s demise. She notices the lotus blossom tattoo on our heroine’s back shoulder. But interestingly, no blade runners appear in “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” so far.
Foundation in place
Serious anime fans might find more to quibble with about the show’s style than I do. I’m pretty easily won over by animation; I don’t think I’ve watched an adult-aimed animated series since Disney yanked away “The Clone Wars” back in 2014.
The story is fairly thin so far, but that’s the “Blade Runner” aesthetic. As we’ve also seen with the Titan Comics stories of recent years, this universe unfolds naturally in piecemeal fashion.
As it goes forward, I’ll want to see some new and surprising things. (This future is so messed up that the question of whether Elle is artificial or real is almost rote.) But through two episodes, the narrative foundation – and CGI assets – are firmly in place.