Blade Runner: Black Lotus Doesn’t Feel Like Part Of The Blade Runner Universe

gamerant.com:

There is no Blade Runner cinematic universe; however, as one of the most significant works in sci-fi film history, its two movie entries share a specific neo-noir DNA that’s fairly easy to spot. That is not the case for Blade Runner: Black Lotus, a Crunchyroll and Adult Swim anime production that, much like Deckard and K, has more than a few identity problems.

Black Lotus does indeed reference previous Blade Runner characters and events, meaning its problems lie not at the hearts of the show’s premise, but at the precision of its execution. That is because, although this new adventure in Philip K. Dick’s world should meet expectations, perhaps due to fans being spoiled by marvelous filmmaking seen in the past, it finds itself awkwardly standing in between the two films as an anime oddity.

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Both Blade Runner movies start off with cinematic shots that take audiences by the hand as they slowly walk in the dystopian landscape that dominates these worlds — but not Black Lotus. The CGI anime instead introduces Elle, its unambiguously replicant protagonist who, despite suffering from amnesia, does not keep the viewer guessing as to her exact nature, unlike her predecessors.

This marks Black Lotus’ biggest commitment: the desire to pursue character development much more than it does its world-building, a decision that is probably better suited to the anime due to limitations that the CGI style brings upon it. While Black Out 2022 proved Blade Runner could make the jump to animation, it did so with traditional anime aesthetics rather than the antiquated graphics Black Lotus adopts.

Regardless of the vast budget differences between hand-drawn 2D anime and this type of 3D