Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1 Review

 

Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1 Review

Writer: Nancy A Collins

Artist: Mariano Taibo

Colorist: Marco Lesko

Letterer: Jim Campbell

Editor: David Leach

Cover Artists: Junggeun Yoon; Dani & Brad Simpson; Piotr Kowalski

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $4.99

Release Date: May 6, 2026

 

After Mead and Stix fought side by side on Kalanthia, the ex-Marine and combat Replicant set up as private investigators in Japan. But while the two former soldiers remade their lives, other military Replicants broke the Tyrell Corporation’s cardinal rule. They illegally immigrated to Earth and established an underground community in Tokyo. After years of trusting each other, Stix doesn’t tell Mead about helping the Replicant community.

 

When a Blade Runner from Los Angeles visits Tokyo and confronts Mead with evidence of a super Replicant assassin who employs Stix’s methods, Mead struggles to stand by her friend. Can Mead and Stix's partnership withstand their recent alliance with the Yakuza? And can Replicants rise from the underground to live peacefully among their Human neighbors? Let’s leap into Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1 and see!

 

Story

Mead and Stix forged their friendship on Kalantha, but that doesn't mean that others shared their views on Humans befriending Replicants. And while they knew the trust they shared was real, what the war on Kalantha was about was less clear. But when enemy helicopters attack just as they reach a hotly contested command bunker, it seems more than a coincidence.

 

Caught in an ambush, Mead and Stix activate the Aurora program in Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1. Then Stix sets out with the other combat Replicants to protect Mead and Sergeant Major Lancaster. But while Mead watches and advises, the stressful encounter and Stix's actions on the battlefield are destined to haunt her long after the friends leave Kalantha.

 

In 2015, after forging their deal with the Yakuza, Mead awakens from sleep. Her wartime memories have become nightmares. She's in a bad mood and can't stay in their Tokyo home. As Mead stumbles outside to focus on what she can do, Nancy A Collins switches the story to Stix. Replicants have a limited life span, and combat models like Stix burn out more quickly than most. But Alura's Yakuza organization protects the ex-Tyrell scientists who founded Cheshire. She has promised to help him survive his expiration date. And while Stix would do anything for Mead, she also wishes to see her partner live a long and fruitful life.

 

As Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1 forces Mead and Stix into another uncomfortable situation, Rumiko likewise faces a difficult task. Ostensibly, the Blade Runner still works for Tyrell. But instead of killing the ex-Tyrell scientists working for Cheshire, she’s hunting for Aurora. Tyrell constructed more Replicants in the Stix series. But Aurora can imbue combat Replicants with the carefully honed skills that made Mead's friend into such an effective killing machine. And like Mead and Stix, Rumiko doesn't want any more people, Replicant or Human, to end up in the garbage bin.

 

Art

As Mead and Stix push through the dense foliage, single-person choppers roar overhead. Sergeant Major Lancaster and his team provide cover fire as the Aurora team rushes inside the bunker. But when cracks race across the ceiling, the team hustles downstairs and exits a tunnel beneath the tree line. Yellow light pierces the leafy canopy like falling stars, as yellow light shines on the silhouette faces of the combat Replicants.

 

As Mariano Taibo gets Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1 off to a running start, Marco Lesko adorns the art on Kalantha with a limited palette. Yellow and orange blossom amid the verdant greenery, while red soon follows as Mead watches through Stix's eyes. In her Tokyo apartment, plants surround Mead. As a memory of a wall of green and white evokes natural disasters that struck Japan, a yellow, orange, and red poster recalls the conflict in Kalantha. And a green poster that Mead passes highlights that the same corporations that profited from the war on Kalantha are also helping Japan rebuild.

 

Jim Campbell uses narrative boxes to locate readers in time and space, while also sharing Rumiko and Mead’s reminiscences. While black uppercase dialogue fills white balloons, Stix and Mead’s thoughts fill colored balloons sans arrows when connected via Aurora. Sound effects transmit all the danger and death on Kalantha, and an unwelcome surprise in Tokyo, while an homage to a Blade Runner author greets Mead upon her return. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

As Japan recovers from natural disasters, it struggles to accept all members of society as equal contributors. Nor are Mead and Stix as close as they once were. Mead may regret taking Sayo’s case, even though Stix suspected Yakuza involvement. Still, the Private Investigators must pay the price for becoming embroiled in the struggle for Replicant equality in Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1.

 

Rating 9/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1.

 

For what happened last time, see my review of Blade Runner Tokyo Nextus: Die In Peace.