Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Lazarus
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 6067 Location: Virginia, United States |
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It gave off a Lupin vibe. I wonder if the main character is even human, considering all the inhuman acrobatics he did.
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meiam
Posts: 3504 |
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So an interesting aspect that this show is really running up against is "trusting the author" (I'm sure this is a concept with a real academic name, but I have no idea what it is, also "author" here refer to the full creative team). You have a group pursuing what is essentially the most wanted people in the world. Bizarrely, they seem to mostly consist of petty criminal with seemingly no special skill suited for this task (our lead is apparently someone who's absolutely awful at escaping since he apparently tried and failed 8 time or so). You also have a drug with a backstory that makes no sense. These could be points that will eventually be the first sign of some big twist that will really work... or it could just be that the writer thought it was cool to have all the hero be criminal but they didn't want them to be too "bad", so they all made them petty criminal, and that they just wanted an easy premise, so "drug that will kill everyone, w/e". What will it be? Who knows? (well if you saw terror in resonance, you know its almost guaranteed to be the 2nd option).
If you trust the author, you think it is the first option, and so you keep watching. Maybe your trust is rewarded and it will all gel into something amazing, or you might forget about the issues along the way, and even if it never pay off and stays as big plot holes, you're satisfied with the watching experience. You could also say that it doesn't matter, rule of cool and all, it would be boring if they were all just serious professional, better they all be criminal (for some reason). I'm inclined to agree when a show run entirely on rule of cool, plenty of stuff didn't really work in Bebop, but who cares, the ride was more than fun enough to be worth it. When you have a cool chase scene/parkour like ep1, the rest is just irrelevant details. The problem is that the show regularly dip below "cool" losing the rule of cool magic in the process. Like the long exposition of Skinner being an activist. During those scenes you're, presumably, expected to think for yourself, about the message of the show/soapboxing of the episode. But, do I really want to take what the author is saying seriously when they're possibly unable or don't care to get basic story setup right? Wouldn't someone who actually has something interesting and insightful to say be able to easily come up with a premise that stand on its own? Again, maybe it will all work, trust the author and absorb the message along the way. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2299 |
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The parallels with social distancing are interesting but so far I'm not that into the cast except for the protagonist's sassy attitude which a strong contrast from Watanabe's similar lead Spike.
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Monster Man Enishi
 Posts: 25 |
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Is there any word on if/when we will get the Japanese audio once it's aired in Japan?
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Dnautics
Posts: 101 |
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I liked Carole and Tuesday, but I feel like this title is just another flavor of Cowboy Bebop. I'm not saying its bad, I expected this show to be this way. The animation is nice, so I will keep watching.
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VirgilTB4
 SubscriberPosts: 19 |
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Shinichiro Watanabe suffers from the Orson Welles Curse, that the first thing you created is held up as the greatest of all time and you're constantly under its shadow for the rest of your career. At least Watanabe has done a better job of using his cache from Cowboy Bepop then Welles ever did with Citizen Kane.
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Glordit
 Posts: 761 |
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There's a Japanese dub that airs over in Japan later on a Sunday, but AS & MAX won't stream the JP dub until 30 days after episode 1 aired. |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 500 |
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I want to like this show, half because I just like Watanabe and half because I feel bad for those poor bastards at Adult Swim, they need a win after beefing it on Uzumaki so bad. (okay, it's more like a 70/30 split instead of half-and-half)
BUT I've watched these two episodes and I just feel nothing. I mean, episode 1 was basically one real cool chase scene, which is cool, but if that's all I wanted I can go to Youtube and find a dozen cool anime chase scenes in anime in like a minute. I don't doubt that the action scenes in this will probably be really cool start to finish, but I need something to hold it together and I'm just not seeing it yet. I need more about the other characters besides "that one kid on the team used to get messed up on Hapna". Anyway, regarding the actual plot, my personal prediction is that the whole thing's a giant bluff and Hapna won't actually kill anyone. Skinner is an activist/genius who can't get the world to wake up but I don't think (based on what little we know) that he'd go full supervillain like this. I mean what was his endgame if world leaders did hear him out and start making massive moves to stop climate change during the 3 years Hapna was on the market? Just market the cure as "uhhh, everyone should take this now... for reasons, don't ask questions, thanks"? |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 6067 Location: Virginia, United States |
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It is not a bluff if Hapna will actually kill you as planned. In a real sense people have already started dying from stress related heart attacks/strokes and injuries from panic rages. I don't think it is a hoax. Question is whether or not the 'cure' is a hoax and if the 'cure' is real it is going to take some time to distribute. |
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InfiniteNothingness
 Posts: 270 |
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I find myself pretty broadly agreeing with Beckett here, I'm just not as positive (but do appreciate the reminder to go back and finish Terror in Resonance, loved its first episode). The individual components all work nicely enough together and it moves surprisingly nicely, with real standouts here and there I simply love in a vacuum, yet it's really feeling less than the sum of its parts so far. Which feels kinda bad to say given my interest in Watanabe and agreements with the painfully blunt messaging so far. It's... fine, I guess.
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1342 |
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I gave my thought in the original review of the first 5 episodes and the 2025 Spring anime one, but I still maintain that Lazarus first two episodes are pretty good. But as mentioned, it feels very much like an anime for U.S. audiences, especially those who originally watched Cowboy Bebop on [adult swim], and I'm not saying that as negative, but I feel that Lazarus is being kind of overlooked by plenty of people outside the U.S., though I believe Watanabe does have some surprised, it's not an exact carbon copy of Cowboy Bebop. though many may argue that the Lazarus' crew, with the exception of Leland, is sort of a counterpart of Bebop's crew. Speaking about that, we don't know a lot about the Lazarus team yet, but I do find it weird that they don't seem to be bad people per se, I mean, Axel could be lying. Still, the setup it's cool, a ticking clock gives it an element of urgency, though it doesn't seem like people are that worried about dying so soon, although that's one of the things I really enjoyed about the second episode, there was a good amount of comedy, I kind of actually liked it more than the action which I felt it was kind of uninspired, but to be fair, we're just getting started.
Don't know, that would make Axel more of copy of Spike, because if I'm not mistaken, spoiler[didn't Spike had a bionic eye and was also experimented on by some scientists, which apparantly gave him some superhuman abilities?] |
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tywhoppity
 Posts: 248 |
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This thing's giving me Ninja Kamui vibes; it looks nice, like the beginning of NK, but the characters and the story? Ehhhhhhhh......
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 500 |
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The cyber eye is correct (I feel like "bionic" makes it sound cooler than it is since the only info the audience is ever given is that he lost his real eye in an accident) but no, I don't know how you cooked up superhuman abilities. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1342 |
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Maybe I got confused, but I remember there was a scene in one of the early Bebop episodes where spoiler[it seemed Spike was remembering that some doctors/scientists experimented on him, don't remember if they only replaced his eye for a cybernetic one, but I always thought Spike managed to survive a lot of situations that would have killed a normal person, no matter if he was a well trained in martial arts and that he worked for the mob, they probably did something else with him] |
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RedComet91
 Posts: 26 Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico |
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I agree that Lazarus hasn't excited me too much so far, but it's just been two episodes, so I'm willing to give it time. By Episode 5, we'll have a much better idea of whether this thing is actually going to be good or not.
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