The Forgotten ‘Blade Runner’ Anime Every Fan Should Watch At Least Once
In the wide world of sci-fi movies, few carry a legacy as important as Blade Runner(1982). It was a foundational step in bringing cyberpunk to the mainstream, and even decades after its release, a new entry in the series carries a lot of weight. When Blade Runner 2049(2017) was released, it garnered a lot of praise and attention, and now the same treatment is being given to Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099(2026).
However, one entry in the series is often forgotten. It wasn’t a major film, nor was it a TV show. It was actually an anime short film, not even 15 minutes long, but this short has a storied legacy to it and helps make sense of the events between Blade Runnerand Blade Runner 2049. If you’ve never heard of Blade Runner: Black Out 2022(2017), here’s why you should take some time out of your day to watch it on Crunchyroll.
What Is ‘Blade Runner: Black Out 2022’?
Given the length between installments, director Dennis Villeneuve opted to create a trilogy of shorts to bridge the gap between Blade Runnerand Blade Runner 2049, given the three-decade difference between entries. Instead of helming all three, Villeneuve let a different director handle each entry, which led him to select Shinichiro Watanabe to direct the sole anime short in the set.
Now, if you know anything about anime as a genre, the name Shinichiro Watanabe should immediately cause any otaku’s ears to perk up, and maybe even those who aren’t well-versed in anime may turn their heads knowing he’s involved. Watanabe has been a major figure in the anime industry since the ‘90s, creating and directing critically acclaimed <a href="https://comicvibe.com/5-tv-shows-to-watch-if-you-like-nocturne/” title=”5 TV Shows To Watch If You Like Nocturne”>shows like Samurai Champloo(2004), Lazarus(2025), and most notably, the legendary Cowboy Bebop(1998). So seeing his name attached to any project, Blade Runneror otherwise, is a big deal.
While the short was highly praised at the time, it was sadly overlooked in the lead-up to Blade Runner 2049.It was released only one week before the movie, and while there was a gap between the then summer and fall seasons of anime, anime shorts don’t tend to typically do well on their own unless they have a monumental amount of attention put on them, which wasn’t the case here. Not only that, but this was BladeRunner’s first foray into anime, which few people anticipated or expected, leading to even fewer eyes placed on it. What made it all the worse was BladeRunner2049 underperforming at the box office, despite the critical praise and awards-season buzz it generated, all but ensuring that general audiences probably wouldn’t give Black Outthe time of day.
Why Is ‘Black Out’ Essential For Blade Runner Fans?
Just because Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 was ignored upon release doesn’t make it any less compelling. In fact, it actually explains one of the biggest unanswered questions that Blade Runner 2049doesn’t really delve into.
Throughout the original film, while a lot of the story tends to focus on Decker’s humanity and his encounters with Roy Batty, an element that people tend to overlook is just how evil the Tyrell Corporation is. They’re on the same level of villainy as Weyland-Yutani from Alien(1979) or Omni Consumer Products in RoboCop(1987). Their treatment of replicants is abhorrent, seeing them as only products and not caring about the sentience they clearly have. Only the profits that they can generate from them.
Black Out 2022focuses primarily on two replicants and their attempts to bring down the Tyrell Corporation by detonating an EMP over Los Angeles, the city the Tyrell Corporation runs out of. As only a 15-minute short film, Black Outis very quick to get to the juicy action bits, but the short explains how the Tyrell Corporation went out of business and how the Wallace Corporation, led by Jared Leto’s Niander Wallace, came to fill the void. For such a major bit of lore, it’s crazy to think that an integral part of the Blade Runnercanon is trapped in a smaller project like this. But if you ever wanted to see the franchise through the lens of one of the greatest anime directors of all time—and with a hint of Ghost in the Shell(1995) thrown in for good measure—Blade Runner: Black Out 2022is practically essential viewing.
