Anime Fantasy

Adult Swim, Crunchyroll Produce Blade Runner — Black Lotus Anime Series

Crunchyroll and Adult Swim announced on Thursday that they are partnering with Alcon Entertainment to produce an anime series based on Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to the 1982 Blade Runner film. The series, titled Blade Runner — Black Lotus, will have 13 episodes.

Shinji Aramaki (Ultraman, Appleseed) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ultraman, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) are directing all the episodes at Sola Digital Arts. Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) is a creative producer on the series.

The series' story will take place in 2032, between the two films, and will include some familiar characters.

Adult Swim will have worldwide distribution rights to an English-dubbed version outside of Asia, and will air it in the United States on its Toonami block. Crunchyrollwill stream the anime worldwide.

Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Laura Lancaster, Al-Francis Cuenca of Alcon Entertainment are executive producers on the project along with Sola Digital Arts' Joseph Chou. Alcon executive Ben Roberts is serving as co-executive producer, and Production I. G’s Mitsuhisa Ishikawa is a production adviser.

Crunchyroll previously streamed the "Blade Runner: Black Out 2022" anime short(pictured right) in September 2017, shortly before the debut of Blade Runner 2049. Watanabe directed the anime short at Cygames Pictures, Shukou Murase (Halo Legends, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing) served as character designer and animation director, and Flying Lotus composed the music.

The original film from director Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford is based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? novel. The sequel debuted last October.

Update: The press release stated that Kamiyama and Aramaki will work on this project "[following] their current directorial work on the upcoming Ghost in the Shell series reboot."

Sources: Press Release, Adult Swim's Twitter account, Crunchyroll's Twitter account, The Hollywood Reporter (Rick Porter)