English Dub Review: Blade Runner: Black Lotus “Reality”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Elle pursues another victimizer from the replicant “Doll Hunt” and comes face-to-face with a truth about her memory and what it means for her reality.

Our Take

2021 is rapidly coming to a close, and as another week passes by, another odd block of programming for Toonami. The episode “Reality” of Blade Runner: Black Lotus finds itself the lead-in of the anthology film The Animatrix. On any other night, it’d be a cool, fun break from their traditional fare. Now, it’s another week for Toonami to stretch  until they can get some new shows in 2022, while getting in a bit of promotion for the next big WB movie. But enough has been said about the state of Toonami, especially considering Black Lotus may have finally found its legs.

“Reality” picks up from Elle’s confrontation with the Blade Runner Marlowe with her limping along the neon-illuminated city. Having gotten revenge on several participants of the “Doll Hunt”, she makes it back to Joseph’s apartment to be patched up. For viewers unfamiliar with the movies, Elle continues to be the audience’s surrogate, asking Joseph what a Blade Runner is. Turns out, Joseph is quite familiar with the concept as he’s revealed to have been a notable Blade Runner (though I’m certain anyone familiar with the property had guessed that already).

While the show has been fairly slow in some regards, the atmosphere paired with the electronic score remains one of the series’ highlights. And as the plot has begun to take shape, it makes those elements stand out as Elle searches for the next name on her list, the mysterious Doctor M. Elle expertly navigates through the city to find Doctor M’s lab, unaware she’s about to confront a very heavy truth.

Having subdued her, Doctor M loads Elle into an MRI-like device to scan her mind to root out the cause of the aberrations in her programming. Doctor M is performed excellently by Henry Czerny. In fact, everyone from Elle to Niander Wallace Sr gives what they can to their performances, which is going to be necessary now that the plot is kicking into high gear. M’s investigation finds that almost every one of Elle’s memories are constructs, put there to assist in keeping them subservient to humans. But one peculiar memory is not constructed, alarming M and his underling.

After escaping and killing M in revenge, she begs his assistant to know the truth and if anything from her memory was real. Though he implores that the implanted memories are real in the sense that they felt real, one memory is not artificial. The recurring images of Elle with a shadowy figure in a pool did actually happen, giving Elle a reason to go on, as well as put her on a path that will lead her to Wallace Corporation CEO Niander Wallace Sr.

Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a series that has been derided for its graphics and slow storytelling. And while I won’t disagree that the animation holds the show back (particularly when it comes to action and the facial expressions of characters), the plot is finally moving along. The backgrounds and music are still pleasant experiences to watch and listen to and with the pieces falling into place, the show just may be on it’s way to eking out a positive course correction. If the show can just pick up the pace a bit more and get some polish on its fight sequences, Toonami may be in an alright shape in the coming year.