Ladies and gentlemen, Blade Runner 2049 is in its final stretch. Starting next week, major theaters will take us back to an epic universe, but the filmmakers have been fueling the hype with a series of special shorts whose quality is far better than we imagined. After 2036: Nexus Dawn and 2048: Nowhere to Run, comes Black Out 2022, an anime written and directed by the great Shinichiro Watanabe, the mind behind Cowboy Bebop.
Blade Runner 2049 will begin its run in Spanish theaters on October 6, with a day or two difference in either direction depending on the region. The film already has all its trailers online… but there’s something more. I’m referring to the three shorts that director Denis Villeneuve announced at the end of August, aiming to explore critical events that occurred between the first and second films. The first of those shorts was 2036: Nexus Dawn, with a simply brilliant Jared Leto. Two weeks later, 2048: Nowhere to Run appeared, in which we get to know Sapper Morton, Dave Bautista’s character (if you haven’t seen it, it’s the second video in this article). And today the trilogy is completed with Black Out 2022. Let’s take a look:
As its title suggests, the story takes us to the year 2022, just three years after the events seen in Blade Runner. With the entire Nexus 6 series reaching its “expiration date,” the Tyrell Corporation released an update, Nexus 8 (Nexus 8S according to other sources), without the longevity restrictions of the previous series. But 2022 was also the year of the “blackout,” a massive electromagnetic pulse that darkened the world. Black Out shows us exactly what happened: how humans reacted after the release of the Nexus 8, how the authorities responded, and most importantly, who caused the blackout.
If the animation style feels familiar, it’s because Black Out 2022 was handled by Shinichiro Watanabe, director of projects like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and the unforgettable Macross Plus alongside Shoji Kawamori. Unfortunately, the copy published by Warner Bros. doesn’t have subtitles, but I think there will be no problem understanding the plot. If Blade Runner 2049 succeeds and someone decides to make an anime series of such quality continuing the story, I’ll be firmly in front of the screen.
