For a sci-fi franchise as beloved and influential as Blade Runner, it's notable just how commercially unsuccessful it has been. Ridley Scott's groundbreaking 1982 adaptation of the Phillip K. Dick novel was a notorious box office failure at the time, and only found success years later when the Director's Cut was finally released. It took 35 years for an official movie sequel--2017's Blade Runner 2049--and that too was a commercial disappointment. And yet, the world of Blade Runner maintains an irresistible and intoxicating pull on writers, artists, and filmmakers. Following the release of 2049 prequel short, Blade Runner Black Out 2022, another animated Blade Runner project is here.

Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a 13-episode anime series from directors Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama, who previously collaborated on Netflix's Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. It's set in 2032--between the two movies--and focuses on a young woman named Elle (voiced by Iron Fist's Jessica Henwick in the US dub), who wakes up in the back of a truck with no memory of who she is and a black lotus tattooed on her shoulder. She escapes with a mysterious piece of technology, and heads into the neon-drenched, rain-swept streets of Los Angeles to discover her true identity.

Black Lotus does an impressive job of immediately immersing the viewer in the urban dystopia and cyberpunk cityscapes that were brought so vividly to life in Scott's original movie. From the dizzying shots of a dark sky filled with neon adverts and flying spinner ships to Michael Hodges and Gerald Trottman's variation on Vangelis's classic synthesiser score, there's no mistaking that this is Blade Runner.