future noir

Tag Archive: future noir

Preview–Blade Runner Origins wraps in third volume, arriving Wednesday

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October 1, 2022

In 2020 Titan Comics took fans of the Blade Runner movie franchise back to the future with the comic book series Blade Runner 2019 (reviewed here at borg). Both the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and prequel to Blade Runner 2049, the series expanded the franchise based on characters and settings created by Philip K. Dick. Then the series went back 20 years before the theatrical sequel in Blade Runner 2029, and the anime TV series saw its own sequel this August in the pages of Blade Runner: Black Lotus. But before that, Blade Runner: Origins took fans back even earlier–to Los Angeles 2009— and it’s that exciting sci-fi series that will see its third volume released in a trade paperback/graphic novel edition this coming Wednesday.

Check out a preview below, courtesy of Titan Comics.

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Black Lotus–Blade Runner anime continues in monthly comic series this week

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August 11, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

Last year Netflix delivered what Blade Runner creator Philip K. Dick would have flipped over–the futurism and dark beauty of Adult Swim and Crunchyroll’s Japanese and American half-hour anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus. With a second season of the brilliant Blade Runner anime up in the air, Titan Comics is offering the next best thing. This week the TV series continues in the first issue of Blade Runner: Black Lotus–the monthly comic. This past May we previewed the comic here at borg.

So how does the comic compare to the TV series that made our annual best TV of the year, kick-ass heroines, and the Borg Hall of Fame?

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Cowboy Bebop: Making The Netflix Series chronicles an entirely new sci-fi look for the future

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June 27, 2022

Review by C.J. Bunce

When I previewed Cowboy Bebop: Making the Netflix Series last month I’d hoped writers Jeff Bond and Gene Kozicki (a visual effects artist on the series) would dig deep into the unique style of the very futuristic series. I am happy to say I was not only not disappointed but dazzled by the level of work completed for what could have been the next major science fiction franchise. What does the future look like? Going back to Syd Mead’s future-defining work on films like Blade Runner, you must count as the next futurism visionaries production designers Grant Major and Gary Mackay. Cowboy Bebop: Making the Netflix Series delivers photographs of props and sets that viewers didn’t get to see in the series, providing another level of behind-the-scenes production design not ordinarily seen in this kind of “making of” book.

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Black Lotus–Blade Runner anime continues in monthly comic series

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May 19, 2022

Even creator Philip K. Dick would be impressed with the futurism and dark beauty of Adult Swim and Crunchyroll’s 2021 Japanese and American half-hour anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus. Is the mysterious drifter Elle a young woman with amnesia or a new type of replicant that can fool the Voight-Kampff test? What does it mean to be an android or cyborg with feelings and memories? Those were the questions asked in the series, and this summer the story continues in Titan Comics’ new monthly comic book, Blade Runner: Black Lotus. Get your first look at the covers for the first issue, a look inside, and a peek at Issue #2 below.

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First look–Cowboy Bebop: Making The Netflix Series

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May 10, 2022

Just because Netflix canceled after only one season 2021’s best sci-fi TV series, best western TV series, best space fantasy series, best retro fix, with the best TV soundtrack, best costumes, best actors and guest stars, and best borg on TV, doesn’t mean we can’t keep reliving the fantastic live-action reboot/homage series Cowboy Bebop. One more way we’re going to do that is with Cowboy Bebop: Making the Netflix Series, coming next month from Titan Books. It’s the official companion book to the Netflix TV series featuring concept art, sketches, behind-the-scenes photography and interviews with the cast and production crew. Check out a preview below, courtesy of the publisher.

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Blade Runner: Black Lotus–Animated series gets look and feel of Syd Mead’s original tech noir just right

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December 11, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

I’d wager even story creator Philip K. Dick would be impressed with the futurism and dark beauty of Adult Swim and Crunchyroll’s new Japanese and American half-hour animated series Blade Runner: Black Lotus. Is the mysterious drifter Elle a young woman with amnesia or a new type of replicant that can fool the Voight-Kampff test? What does it mean to be an android or cyborg with feelings and memories? Those are the questions asked in the first five episodes of the excellent new series, now streaming on Adult Swim and the Adult Swim app.

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Tags: Adult Swim, Alita: Battle Angel, Andres Guinaldo, Anna Silk, Arisa Shida, Best of 2021, Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2019, Blade Runner 2032, Blade Runner animated series, Blade Runner anime, Blade Runner Black Lotus, Blade Runner Black Lotus series review, Blade Runner Black Lotus trailer, Brian Cox, Cartoon Network, Comic-Con @Home 2021, Cowboy Bebop, Crunchyroll, cyberpunk, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, future noir, Henry Czerny, Jessica Henwick, Josh Duhamel, Kenji Kamiyama, Michael Green, Mike Johnson, Misty Knight, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Ridley Scott, Rip Van Winkle, Samira Wiley, SDCC 2021, Shinichiro Watanabe, Shinji Aramaki, Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) and Kenji KamiyamaStand Alone Complex, Sleeping Beauty, Syd Mead, Takako Honda, tech-noir, The Matrix, The Most Dangerous Game, Titan Comics, Total Recall, Washington Irving

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Cowboy Bebop–Sci-fi, future noir, space western is the best streaming series yet

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December 6, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

The new Netflix series Cowboy Bebop, an adaptation of the 1999-2001 anime series, is so good, so well-written, so jazz-filled, stylish, cool, and sexy that you won’t deny it’s the best streaming series yet. It’s not only the best science fiction series in years, but also solid noir, solid space Western, peppered with martial arts action. If you loved the space life of Firefly, the dark future Earth noir of Altered Carbon and Blade Runner, and the lived-in future realism of Alien and Outland, you’re in for some great television. Funny dialogue, actors inhabiting their characters, cool noir vibe, the drudgery of life as a space pilot and exploits of a space bounty hunter. It’s as good as TV gets. It’s as good as sci-fi and space westerns get.

But what’s the best part? The music? The style? The characters? The lived-in sci-fi world? The dog? Or the year’s coolest borg character?

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Cowboy Bebop–Another big trailer arrives for Netflix’s live-action adaptation of anime’s greatest space adventure

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November 3, 2021

Tick tick tick… It’s almost here: the premiere of season one of the live-action version of the anime series Cowboy Bebop. And now we have a full-length trailer that leans harder into the sci-fi elements of the series. It stars John Cho (Star Trek) as a Bruce Lee-inspired bounty hunter named Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage) as the show’s larger than life cyborg and former investigator Jet Black, Geoff Stults (Stargirl) as Jet’s former partner Chalmers, and Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Dominion) as bounty hunter Faye Valentine. And a corgi (his name is Ein). Imagine what Firefly would look like if directed by Quentin Tarantino, and you have Netflix’s 10-episode live-action series Cowboy Bebop.

Check out another great trailer:

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Netflix previews its live-action adaptation of space adventure anime Cowboy Bebop with a wild, cool, retro teaser trailer

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October 20, 2021

Running for 26 episodes between 1999 and 2001, the future noir anime series Cowboy Bebop arrived as an instant classic for the medium that many have called the greatest anime of all time, a Japanese sci-fi Western three years before Firefly. Imagine what Firefly would look like if directed by Quentin Tarantino, and you have the new teaser-trailer for Netflix’s 10-episode live-action series Cowboy Bebop, coming in 30 days.

It has the style and the throwback vibe of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as well as a cool soundtrack, and comic book-style scene-change pan slides with the characters participating in the movement. The series stars John Cho (Star Trek) as a Bruce Lee-inspired bounty hunter named Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage) as the show’s larger than life cyborg and former investigator Jet Black, Geoff Stults (Stargirl) as Jet’s former partner Chalmers, and Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Dominion) as bounty hunter Faye Valentine. And a corgi (his name is Ein).

You don’t want to miss the teaser and opening credits–take a look at both below.

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Live-action adaptation of space adventure anime Cowboy Bebop coming to Netflix–and comics–this year

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September 16, 2021

Running for 26 episodes between 1999 and 2001, the future noir anime series Cowboy Bebop arrived as an instant classic for the medium, a Japanese sci-fi Western three years before Firefly. A new Netflix series is on its way this year, starring John Cho (Star Trek) as bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage) as the show’s cyborg, former investigator Jet Black, Geoff Stults (Stargirl) as Jet’s former partner Chalmers, and Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Dominion) as bounty hunter Faye Valentine. The television series is also coming to comics–writer Dan Watters and artist Lamar Mathurin are creating a monthly comic–and we have a preview of the Issue #1 cover artwork below.