Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2 Review

 

Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2 Review

Writer: Nancy A Collins

Artist: Mariano Taibo

Colorist: Marco Lesko

Letterer: Andworld Design

Editor: David Leach

Cover Artists: Jose Beroy, Guillermo Sana & Piotr Kowalski

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $4.99 US/$6.99 US Cardstock

Release Date: June 3, 2026

 

When Sayo hired Mead and Stix to find her sister Miyuki, she drew the private detectives into a war between Humans and Replicants. As Stix supported the underground Replicant community, he discovered Yakuza abducting his kind. And as Mead followed a trail of clues, a Blade Runner named Rumiko arrived in Tokyo, determined to close the Cheshire Lab churning out illegal copies of Tyrell Corp's manufactured people. But even aided by Rumiko, ex-soldier Mead couldn't prevent an illegal clone of Stix from murdering Sayo and Miyuki.

 

Now, Mead and Stix work for Alura, the Yakuza boss who murdered Sayo and Miyuki’s brother Takumi and has taken over their territory. Alura also safeguards the ex-Tyrell scientists who broke their Do Not Compete clause. What happens when they realize that Stix is one of their top combat models? And can Alura's scientists determine how to lengthen Stix's limited lifespan? Let’s leap into Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2 and see!

 

Story

In Takumi, Sayo, and Miyuki's absence, the rulership of the Nomura-gumi reverts to Madame Nomura. She doesn't believe her late son's assertion that he killed his sisters. Mead investigated Miyuki's death and held Sayo in her dying arms. So, Madame Nomura wants her to discover who killed her daughters.

 

One of the problems Replicants face is a limited lifespan. After Alura shot Takumi, Mead and Stix agreed to protect the Cheshire scientists, provided they no longer abduct replicants and experiment on them. In Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2, Stix learns the state of their research. For Stix and his people, it represents an important step toward eventual equality with Humans.

 

Nancy A Collins’ story also follows Rumiko’s pursuit of the truth. Just like Takumi tried to buy an army of Replicant assassins, Tyrell Corp ordered the Blade Runner to kill the Cheshire scientists to preserve their monopoly on Replicant production. Yet Rumiko was no one's hired killer. And as she investigated the former Tyrell scientists, she probed Mead's memories from Kalantha. In Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2, Rumiko's hunt for the Aurora program leads her beyond the control of the corporations that rebuilt Japan, and also supplied the machines of war on Kalantha.

 

Art

As Madame Nomura sits in Mead's kitchen, attended by two bodyguards, memories appear beside the private investigator. When the Yazuka matriarch shares her thoughts, Mariano Taibo tilts her face and memories 45 degrees. After an overhead shot reveals the activity in Cheshire labs, Stix lowers the hood of his cleanroom uniform. While the researchers speak with him, the Replicant imagines their experiments. And as Stix talks with the researchers, he remembers his interactions with Rumiko. The Blade Runner's exploits trace a path between images of Stix and the scientists like on a game board.

 

As Marco Lesko adorns Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2 with a varied palette of colors and tones, Mead wears green, while green fills the Cheshire labs. Mead, Madame Nomura, and Stix conjure red memories, while Stix’s yellow cleanroom suit links him with Rumiko's yellow-brown coat. The Blade Runner seeks clues to Aurora’s whereabouts, surrounded by yellow lights inside red lanterns, while glimpses of the program's beginnings appear amid green, yellow, and red.

 

Jim Campbell uses yellow letters to locate readers in time and space. The black uppercase letters fill white balloons and colored narrative boxes. The letters grow bold for intonation and shrink for lowered voices. Sound effects amplify how Aurora enhanced soldiers’ lives on the battlefield while threatening them in the future. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

As with many innovations, soldiers tested the Aurora program on the battlefield. Yet the program had unintended consequences for the Replicants and their Human operators. As Madame Nomura makes a bid to regain control of her Yakuza clan, readers learn more about the interloper who usurped control of her centuries-old crime family in Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2.

 

Rating 9/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #2.

 

For what happened last time, see my review of Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: To Lose is to Win #1.

 

For how this series began, see my review of Blade Runner Tokyo Nexus: Die In Peace.