OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Blade Runner: Black Out 2022

Acting as the first chonologically and canonical continuation to the original 1982 live-action movie, Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 is one of three shorts meant to lead into Blade Runner 2049 film. Ofter referred to as a "prequel", it was in fact released a month before the theatrical full-length sequel movie. Director Denis Villeneuve had each of the shorts done by directors he personally respected, so for the single animated one he tapped Shinchiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame, as is apparent with both future sci-fi stories taking place in versions of Earth where the planet has suffered from a near extinction event. Being twice as long as the other two prelude shorts, this one tells more of a full story where as the others were like deleted scenes from a full-length movie.

Taking place three years after the original movie, the film starts out with two remaining Replicants runaways planning a major assault on what is left of the Tyrell Corp., along with a human technician willingly helping them from the inside. Their operation is to cause a nuclear missle to take out all of Los Angeles' electricity grid, while the Replicants Iggy and Trixie destroy the entire Tyrell database regarding their series of androids, so that Blade Runners won't be able to use existing records to hunt down other Replicants.

The Black Out event is mentioned briefly in Blade Runner 2049, but is meant to act as a major reference point for the upcoming Blade Runner: Black Lotus anime TV series happening a decade later with Watanabe returning as creative consultant. Black Out 2022 itself is a brief chapter in the franchise's lore, but also is a defining piece of striking animation even for non-cyberpunk fans. The short is mainly available on official video services like YouTube, but not currently on home video.