The wonder of science fiction perhaps is the potential of finding more stories beyond that which is in the narrative of a sci-fi novel. Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” certainly inspired the screenwriters who loosely adapted it into 1982’s “Blade Runner” starring Harrison Ford. And that movie definitely piqued the imaginations of the production team which delved into its setting to expand it with “Blade Runner 2049” in 2017. Much the same can be said in the co-production between Crunchyroll and Adult Swim, creating an anime-style “Blade Runner” spinoff series premiering later this year, with its opening recently showcased.

Anime News Network tells us that “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” just got its intro sequence sampled this past Thursday, August 5 on YouTube. The 3D-animated series was first announced back in November 2018 with US-based anime distributor and production company Crunchyroll working with Japan’s Sola Digital Arts to make the series for the Adult Swim late-night adult programming block of Cartoon Network. A teaser for the series was released last month featuring the theme song by Alessia Cara, but its divisive reception among “Blade Runner” fans might explain why the opening video has two versions.

Visually the two “Black Lotus” intros are the same, featuring visuals familiar to “Blade Runner” aficionados such as a police spinner flying over an industrial cityscape. It even has Cara’s song “Feel You Now,” only in the version shown in Adult Swim’s YouTube channel the theme is instrumental, while the ones shown in say, IGN’s channel, features the vocal lyrics. More “purist” quarters of the “Blade Runner” fandom have a low opinion of the theme, preferring something more like the synth-driven instrumentals used by original 1982 film’s soundtrack composer, Vangelis.

As already revealed in past teasers, “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” takes place in the year 2032: 13 years after the first “Blade Runner,” 17 years before “Blade Runner 2049” and a decade after that movie’s short film prequel “Blade Runner Black Out 2022.” A female replicant (bio-engineered humanoid) named Elle finds herself in Los Angeles with no memories beyond needing to do something. She encounters people and underground figures, while evading the Police and their replicant-hunting Blade Runners, as well as the Wallace Corporation that now owns the replicant-manufacturing infrastructure of the Tyrell Corporation. The series will run 13 episodes and premieres this coming November on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.

Image courtesy of GamerBraves

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