Black Lotus is an upcoming 13-part animated series set in the same universe as the Blade Runner movies. You'll be able to watch it on Adult Swim and Crunchyroll when it's released on November 14. I'm not against the idea of bringing Blade Runner to another medium, but based on the trailers, I'm struggling to make any connection between this new series and the films I know and love. I don't want to be too harsh, because short trailers are never going to be fully representative of 13 episodes of TV. But if a trailer's job is to establish a mood and give you a sense of the aesthetic and tone of whatever it's teasing, all I'm getting from these glimpses of Black Lotus is that it does not look, sound, or feel like Blade Runner at all.

The show tells the story of Elle, an amnesiac replicant trying to piece her past back together—a quest that leads her to the series' familiar dystopian vision of a futuristic Los Angeles. It's set in the aftermath of the Blackout, an event referenced in Blade Runner 2049 that wiped millions of electronic records and briefly spun the city into chaos. This all sounds interesting enough, but it's the slick, overly polished action that's really putting me off. In the trailers we see Elle leaping around with a samurai sword, intense gunfights with rifle-packing goons, and acrobatic martial arts straight out of a kung-fu movie. I mean, it's an anime, so perhaps that's what people expect from a series like this—but it ain't Blade Runner.

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The Blade Runner films are slow, character-driven detective stories. They're sombre and melancholy, with a thoughtful approach to the big existential themes they tackle. There is action, but it's always brutal, realistic, and ugly. Think of Deckard and Batty's final stand-off in the first movie, or K fighting Sapper Morton at the beginning of Blade Runner 2049. It's a distant cyberpunk future, sure, but a grounded one. It's grimy and textured. You feel like you can reach out and touch it, and when someone gets punched or thrown through a wall, you feel it. That's why the weightless, videogamey, hyper-choreographed action in Black Lotus feels so out of place in this universe.

It's also disappointing visually. Blade Runner is a series known for its striking, evocative imagery. The first film basically invented the current popular idea of a dark future metropolis, and still looks amazing today. Denis Villeneuve's sequel made its own visual mark on this universe, with those incredible orange-tinged desert scenes and a stark, minimalist reimagining of the city. Black Lotus, meanwhile, looks utterly pedestrian: a cyberpunk dystopia by numbers, with none of the visual poetry or aesthetic inventiveness of either film. It doesn't have the cluttered, lived-in feel that defines them. Again, it just doesn't feel like Blade Runner.

Maybe Black Lotus doesn't want to be anything like Blade Runner. Fair enough. But then why use the name at all? Why not just make an original series set in another rainy cyberpunk city? It's safe to assume it's aimed at people who like the films, which makes me wonder why it's so detached from them tonally and stylistically. But hey, it might be a decent show. I'm going to watch it when it's released and give it a fair shake. But as an attempt to extend the Blade Runner universe, to recreate its contemplative, downbeat mood and rich aesthetic, I think the creators of Black Lotus may have seriously missed the mark. I'd like to be proven wrong.

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