The other way they wanted to differentiate themselves from earlier material is with their protagonist Elle. Voiced by Arisa Shida in Japanese and Matrix Resurrections star Jessica Henwick in the dub, Elle is described by Aramaki as a “unique” type of Replicant for her focus on revenge as opposed to simply survival. But Aramaki also emphasized the idea of self discovery: not just Elle finding out what she’s capable of, but of the larger mysteries surrounding the world that’ll come to be solved during the first season.
Later in the video, executive producer Joseph Chou talks about the process of bringing the show to life with its CG art style. Important as it was that the show feel like Blade Runner, Chou also knew the show needed to stand on its own, particularly in terms of visuals. “We needed to define what Blade Runner anime should look like,” he said. With CG and motion capture, he felt like the portrayal of the action and direction of the camera is what gave it an advantage over hand drawn animation. He wanted the show to stand on its own instead of fitting the show into an anime style that’s already been seen before. “We need to arrive at a place where people say, ‘oh yeah, you guys did justice to the Blade Runner universe…we want to make sure we get it right.’”
Blade Runner: Black Lotus will hit Adult Swim and Crunchyroll on November 13.
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