Monday, November 28, 2022

Blade Runner: Black Lotus Part 4 Episodes 10-13

While her quest for revenge is complete, there is still one mystery Elle still must solve: the man from her memory, the one who gave her the Black Lotus tattoo.  The one person Elle has come to trust most, J, a former Blade Runner, knows the truth and knows that if Elle goes after it, it could mean her end.  Seeking answers and atonement, Elle and J head off to their final battles.  The stage is set for the beginning of a bold new future and Elle is about to prove that she is indeed more Human than Human.

Considering everything that went down in last weeks set of episodes, I was wondering what more Blade Runner: Black Lotus had to tell.  Turns out, it had a little more to share after all.  As a finale, Black Lotus had some good resolution and one stand out moment that made me cheer.  But is it a GOOD ending?  Much like the rest of the series…it’s just ok.  That kind of sucks as this is the one piece of Blade Runner mythos I cant rate super high as I have past titles.  I was entertained overall but yeah, there was something lacking…ok a few things.  Let’s break it all down.
 
Honestly, it wasn’t a real mystery that Wallace Jr. (I’m just gonna call him Wallace since it’s just him now) was the one behind Elle’s tattoo memory.  There was no one else with the skill or high enough clearance to slip something that vital into her psyche and not have it traced back.  I’m surprised Wallace had such a large role to play other than lingering in the shadows while misfortune befell his Dad and the Doll Hunt participants.  But since Black Lotus has also been his origin story, in more ways than one, it made sense for Wallace to step onto the stage he orchestrated and see Elle’s final moments, the ones he wanted anyway.  Ugh, Wallace is a good, good villain but man do I hate him.  I didn’t think it was possible to dislike him more in Black Lotus but his younger version is even more full of himself than his 2049 version. “In the future, the present species of humans will perish. But in the world that follows, my creations will reproduce, expand and spread my glory across the Earth.  And then the stars.”  His God Complex was taken to the nth degree with every line of dialogue like that and more…so HECK YES I gasped and cheered when Elle found a loop hole in Wallace’s defense against him.  She couldn’t kill him but she could blind him.  I didn’t think such a pivotal moment for Wallace would happen here but ha.  I also loved Elle’s cold, “My face is the last thing you’ll see line.”  Sure Wallace is far from deterred but it was gratifying to see something go wrong with his plans, no matter how minor in the grand scheme of things.
 
J’s story also got heavily expanded upon before closing up.  Yep, he was a Blade Runner and his flashback episode, honestly, it could have been a short story from a Blade Runner anthology.  It’s short but an important piece, showing that Deckard and K aren’t the only Blade Runners who had love on the brain when it came to artificial life forms.  Selene, voiced by singer Alessia Cara, who also sings the shows OP, was absolutely gorgeous and easy to fall for.  Her musical pieces were beautiful as well and with such talent and beauty, clearly Selene was headed for a bad end, one that would haunt J for years to come.  It would have been tragic for J to have actually killed her in their final embrace but maybe he did plan on sparring her too, since Marlowe is revealed as the one who killed her in the end.  This led to a pretty epic duel between Blade Runners in the present.  It felt like a more gun laden, hard hitting duel between Deckard and Batty from the original movie, running and gunning through the apartment complex and even ending up on a roof.  It was a brutal duel but I’ve gotta ask: was Marlowe also a Replicant?  Dude took three shotgun blasts from his own gun before J blew him off the building to his death.  It wouldn’t shock me if this was the case, again looking at Deckard and K (yes I do believe Deckard is a Replicant, the evidence is there, agree to disagree if you want). 
 
As for J’s end, it was clear J wasn’t going to make it and I think he knew that.  Throughout the series, he’s seen Elle as his chance at redemption, to make up for the woman he couldn’t protect.  That said…maybe it’s just me but I never saw a romance between Elle and J.  Sure they had a strong bond built over the series but romantic…ehhhh.  There were attempts with some intimate gestures and J’s dream of living with Elle under a clear blue sky (which felt like a call back to the non cannon Happy Ending from the Blade Runner Theatrical Cut).  Sorry, maybe if theyd kissed or shown more attraction beforehand, I might buy it.  But Elle was so obsessed with the man who gave her the tattoo on her shoulder, I don’t think she ever gave a second to thinking of anything romantic with J until right at the very end.  Still, while he didn’t get the girl, J still redeemed himself, good on him.
 
Where the finale really trips up is the introduction of one more major opponent for Elle to face.  At first I thought Water Lily was a prototype of Love from Blade Runner 2049, but nope.  She’s supposed to be a superior model to Elle but Water Lily fails in so many ways.  Her design is easily the weakest of any character in the series.  She looks so expressionless and at times, kind of unfinished, like her rendering hadn’t been completed in several shots.  There’s also no real emotional connection between Elle and Water Lily, she’s just one more goon to have Elle fight in the last episode.  The duel itself is fine, its about time Elle got a proper sword duel.  But honestly, the fight probably couldve gone to Wallace, if he didn’t have his “don’t kill me” code implanted into Elle.  The jerk even killed poor Water Lily in the end for losing cause he wont settle for anything less than perfection…before Elle defied her creator and blinded him (again, hell yes).  But yeah, the final fight would’ve been stronger with a greater emotional tether for Elle, which she had more with Wallace or even Marlowe than her last minute rival.
 
The series also doesn’t do a good job of wrapping up Davis’ storyline at all.  For a moment, I wondered if Davis and Elle were going to team up to go after Wallace together, be the additional ally Elle and J probably needed in the final fight.  But no, Elle and Davis have one brief stand off before Water Lily stabs Davis and leaves her for dead.  Davis survives, somehow…and that’s that.  Davis is last seen going back to work at the LAPD, albeit in a wheelchair a month after the final fight.  She gets zero adequate closure.  Davis has been a key player throughout the entire series and yet her final scenes feel like a last minute tagline because they didn’t want her to just vanish after being stabbed and not seen again.  Even in its weakest moments, Black Lotus still seemed to tie up everyone elses storylines nicely…that said who is riding off to join Elle as she rides into the desert anyway, now THAT could have been Davis going along with her, makes more sense than for her to return to the force that did her dirty.
 
Well enough of all that, time for Final Thoughts.  How was Blade Runner: Black Lotus.  I found myself hooked more than I thought but it wasn’t a perfect Anime.  Elle’s story had the benefit of a strong performance from Jessica Henwick, even if the story itself felt mostly unoriginal.  The supporting cast was fine but some took a while to find their moments to shine than others.  The production value was pretty good, particularly when it came to the action.  This is by far the most action heavy Blade Runner story.   And yet, there was still that amazing atmosphere, it felt like I was back in the world of Blade Runner.  Even if some of the references felt a little out of place, I was happy to point them out and smirk at being able to see things like the Tyrell Owl or the Voight Kampff test in an Anime.  Character models seemed a bit stiff when the action wasn’t happening (Water Lily definitely got the short end of that).  And the ending is both satisfying overall but still a little underwhelming.  Overall, this is easily the weakest Blade Runner entry I’ve seen but I still did enjoy it for the most part.  It also wraps itself on a mostly stand alone note. Would I like to see more adventures with Elle, aka the cutest and best dressed Replicant in the franchise?  Sure, so long as it’s a bit more original and not just a Battle Angel Alita CG Test run.  time.  Certainly not a negative but not quite a full positive either.
 
Still, I give Blade Runner: Black Lotus a 7.5/10.
 
Next Week, Tenchi Masaki returns for the final chapter of our Tenchi Toonami Saga as he heads to the big city for his biggest adventure yet.  Tenchi in Tokyo kicks off December, Next Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.

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