TL;DR: it’s decent, just watch the Japanese sub
Synopsis: Dr. Skinner develops a drug that takes away all pain that becomes widely used by all of humanity. After disappearing for three years, he returns to tell everybody that the drug will kill them after 30 days, and that they must find him if they want to receive the cure. To hunt Skinner, a woman named Hersch assembles a task force of 5 people, consisting of a young Brazilian man (Axel) who breaks out of prisons 4fun, a Russian woman (Christina) who likes shooting guns, a Canadian boy (Leland) who flies drones, a Hong Konger girl (Eleina) who hacks, and finally a Nigerian man (Doug) who’s kind of full of himself.
Watanabe, the man behind Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop, just dropped his latest TV series, Lazarus. Being a fan of Watanabe, I had to see it.
The first scene of the anime is the Brazilian bodybuilder Axel breaking out of prison.
Looks cool. I did think to myself that if a kid managed to break out of prison so many times, that the guards and administrators would have been a little more careful, but it’s not like prisons aren’t incompetently managed in real life. See the Epstein case: guy tells people he wants to kill himself, receives no attention, and gets away with suicide because the people working at the prison cba’d to replace a broken camera. So I guess the escape was realistic in a dark way.
The 2nd episode involved the crew looking for leads. After doing some research, they found that Skinner was concerned about global warming and was convinced the ice caps would melt in three years. Despite stating this in a famous public speech, no one connected this to the fact that he developed a drug that kills people in three years.
The visuals, music, directing, action scenes and production were on point, as expected from MAPPA and Watanabe. The idea behind the anime is also pretty cool.
My biggest complaint about Lazarus is that everything is ADHD-brained. Its pacing is fast. Scenes are stitched together like TikTok videos. How exactly the prior members of Lazarus got together and in what order is not stated, and neither was Eleina’s lead on Skinner. I largely blame this on the fact that they only plan to release 13 episodes; that’s not enough for most stories to naturally play out — 25-50 is ideal. It’s to be expected for a modern anime, but that will not stop me from hating it.
My read on Lazarus as a project is that Watanabe is no longer holding himself back from using Cowboy Bebop’s style. In an interview, when asked about the comparisons between the two series, Watanabe responded by saying that he’s not trying to imitate it:
“It is the same director making those two series, there’s gonna be some similarities, so I would like people to cut me some slack on that aspect,” Watanabe said, via an interpreter. “But in no way am I doing the same thing on purpose, making a cameo, or paying homage to my previous works. Everything is for a reason, and I want you to watch it with fresh eyes,” Watanabe said. “Don’t look for similarities, just enjoy it for what it is.”
I find this hard to believe. Come on. Look at the promotional art.
The opening.
And the characters.
Axel and Spike are 20-something mystery meat fit guys with a criminal past.
Christina and Faye are the white femme fatales.
Doug and Jet are the normal guys who have monotone voices.
The similarities between this anime and Cowboy Bebop are glaring. He might not be imitating Cowboy Bebop, but he’s definitely drawing from the same style and sources of inspiration. This isn’t true for most of his prior works, for example, I wouldn’t have guessed Terror in Resonance was made by Watanabe.
In terms of the ending, my prediction is that they are going to find Dr Skinner before 30 days pass no matter what; them not finding him would be a garbage ending. The question is whether they will find him before or after people think that a cure will not come, and start going insane. My guess is before, as a social collapse would reduce the stakes of the events that happen after Skinner’s discovery.
As for what happens after Skinner gets discovered, somebody is probably going to turn on the rest of the team — Doug or Christina, but I wouldn’t put it past Leland either. Or maybe they have an argument over how the drug should be used, causing people to start taking sides, and cause a split in the group.
And. I’ve got to say. The dub and the dialogue is as bad as everybody says they are. Turns out they hired small time voice actors for the Brazilian and the Nigerian, the worst performers on the cast. I watched the 1st episode in the English dub and the 2nd episode in Japanese audio; the latter was definitely better.
Episode 3
Mid. An MtF, a Black guy who punched somebody who said that there will never be a Black Einstein no matter how much effort is put in, and a fraudster are somehow the good guys. I usually don’t mind political stuff in series, but this seems like a bit of an overreach. The dialogue took a turn for the worst around the time they visited the grandmother.