The writers of the latest Blade Runner comic break down the creation of their retro-futurist Japan

The rain-lashed world of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner has expanded again – and this time humans and replicants must work together if they want to survive a deadly mystery. 

Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus is a new 12-issue limited series by writers Kianna Shore and Mellow Brown, artist Mariano Taibo, colorist Marco Lesko, and letterer Jim Campbell. We spoke with Shore and Brown to find out a little bit more about the creative process which brought the first issue of the new comic to life and, in particular, how they imagined the retro-futuristic look and feel of Japan in a very different 2015 to the one that we all experienced.

First up, however, is a selection of covers for the new issue by (from left to right) Christian Ward, Andy Belanger, Dagnino, Paul Pope, and Taibo.

In the first issue of Tokyo Nexus we meet Mead and Stix, two survivors of a doomed off-world military mission on Kalanthia. Mead is a human, while Stix is a replicant. Now back on Earth in 2015 (making this in some ways a prequel to the first movie, which is set in an alternative 2019) they are searching for the person who sold their team mates out, while also working as detectives on a missing persons case in the capital of Japan – slightly surprisingly the first time the nation has appeared in the Blade Runner franchise.

“It was important to me to read and watch a lot of Japanese media with the sci-fi and cyberpunk themes,” said Shore, of how she researched the project. “Of course I visited the classics such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Akira, but I also wanted to explore Japanese media in a post-2011 Tōhoku disaster world. I rewatched Shinkai Makoto’s Your Name and Weathering with You along with media such as Bubble and Japan Sinks. This is the first time that the Blade Runner franchise is in East Asia, so I wanted to create a story that could only be set in Japan. When Mellow and I first started talking, we had a similar taste in Japanese media so I knew that we could envision something never seen before.”

“I am a huge fan of these particular pages,” said Mellow Brown of the preview pages above. “They definitely capture the ‘promise of the premise’ in a way that is distinct to Blade Runner. While many other cyberpunk universes would take the Japan setting and fill it with samurai and cyber ninjas, it instead chooses to comment on the state of a place that has issues that are ironically parallel to what’s happening in (the in-universe) Los Angeles.” 

Brown went on to explain how the location reflects things about the series’ protagonists. “It locks in on what it feels like to live in a false utopia and questions how much our lead, Mead, is willing to compromise themselves for peace they feel they’ve earned. It’s in juxtaposition to the dark, rainy, neon-soaked environments we’ve grown accustomed to. But, it shows that level of peace comes at a price, creating new challenges unique to this environment. It reminds the reader that they are in a noir and poses a philosophical challenge that makes us ask the same thing. Who are we willing to sacrifice for peace?”

Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus #1 is out now from Titan Comics.

Check out where Blade Runner lands on the list of the 30 best sci-fi movies of all time.