The new anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus cleverly flips the central replicant question of the original Blade Runner with regard to their respective main characters, Elle and Deckard. The anime will be 13 episodes long with both Japanese and English voice casts. It is currently airing dubbed in English on Adult Swim in the U.S. and Canada and streaming in Japanese with English subtitles on Crunchyroll.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is set in Los Angeles in the year 2032. In season 1, episode 1 “City of Angels,” Elle wakes up with no memory and finds she’s being hunted. In season 1, episode 2 “All We Are Not” Elle is informed that she is a replicant. While she insists it isn’t true, she then remembers being hunted in the desert with other replicants. Elle’s true nature and reason for being are the central questions of the anime. Like all the other entries in the Blade Runner franchise, one can expect an examination of what it means to be human or inhuman.
When it comes to plot and character, Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a perfect reversal of the original Blade Runner. In the original, Deckard was a supposed human hunting known replicants. In Black Lotus, Elle is (apparently) a replicant who is being hunted. Deckard had doubts about whether he was human or a replicant with implanted memories. Elle is told that she’s a replicant, but she also has doubts about whether or not that’s true. The two characters and their plots are mirrors of each other; Elle is the exact opposite of Deckard’s motives and beliefs.
As a franchise, Blade Runner has always been concerned with the nature of personhood and humanity. Blade Runner 2049 had a replicant hunting other replicants while trying to find out if he might be different. Elle is unique in that she begins her story without any memory. Memories are a huge part of what shapes a person and influences the way they act and think. That’s why memory implantation is so significant in Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049. As Elle learns more about herself, more may also come out about the development of memory implantation technology, and why it came into use for replicants.
Flipping a familiar plot and concept is a smart way to draw audiences into Blade Runner: Black Lotus. It shows the perspective of the person being hunted, rather than doing the hunting. Elle not knowing who she is at all makes her unique among Blade Runner protagonists because she doesn’t have a concrete self-identity as a replicant or a human. Despite her uniqueness, her plot highlights the same core themes as Blade Runner and its other sequels, making her easy to understand and identify with. Blade Runner: Black Lotus has created an interesting twist on familiar tropes and set up the potential for some stunning reveals down the road.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus releases new episodes Sundays on Adult Swim.
