When the first anime series in the ¡°Blade Runner¡± franchise premieres on cable TV¡¯s Cartoon Network and online streamer Crunchyroll Nov. 13, it will close the circle on nearly 40 years of cultural cross-pollination.
British director Ridley Scott¡¯s 1982 original, a Hollywood live-action movie set in a futuristic Los Angeles, features several neo-noirish nods to a dystopian urban Japan. Signs in Japanese flash above neon-lit alleyways lined with cramped standing food stalls. Snatches of Japanese dialogue are heard on the streets and from the radio in Los Angeles police officer Gaff¡¯s hovercraft (the brilliantly designed ¡°spinner¡±), and in the voiceover accompanying an indelible image of a geisha, popping a pill on a gigantic skyscraper video projection.
Even today, seeing Japanese culture embedded so deeply in the mise-en-scene of a mainstream Hollywood film is startling. In 1982, it must¡¯ve been revolutionary.
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