Blade Runner Anime To Be Made By Crunchyroll And Adult Swim

Blade Runner 2049 we loved it, many didn’t and that was reflected on the Box Office return. Like it or not Blade Runner is a cult franchise and now it’s going to have its own Anime series.

Adult Swim will create a 13 part (30 minute episodes to be streamed by Crunchyroll) anime series called Blade Runner: Black Lotus. At this stage, we don’t know much about the plot as things are under lock and key. What we do know is the series will be based in 2032 and will include some established characters from the Blade Runner Franchise.

Sola Digital Arts animation studio will produce the episodes with Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama directing. The pair is currently finishing off the production of the new Ghost In The Shell series. They have also worked on Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. They will be ed by Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe who will serve as creative producer. Watanabe was involved in Blade Runner 2049, writing and directing one of the film’s three prequel shorts Blade Runner Black Out 2022.

Related: Blade Runner Goes Anime For Final Blade Runner 2049 Short

Personally, Anime is a perfect media for Blade Runner spin-off series. Sci-fi and cyberpunk is a match made in heaven so is anime and Cyberpunk. Ghost In The Shell is the perfect example of Cyberpunk anime, visually poetic, neon-drenched. Blade Runner films may only have told only a few of the stories from its universe, there’s so more it can tell in a similar way Disney is with Star Wars. Maybe not expansive, yet a universe that needs expanding.

“The Blade Runner universe is an incredibly deep well for story and character with its world and mythology that audiences have been debating and talking about since inception. We are excited to continue exploring that world via this anime series,” said Alcon’s Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson.

As and when Blade Runner: Black Lotus will be released, we don’t know at this stage. Adult Swim will have the worldwide rights to the series and stateside will be shown on Toonami’s anime block. It is unknown where this series will be shown in the UK and Ireland.

Source: Variety