The Spring 2025 Anime Preview Guide

Lazarus

The year is 2052 - an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity prevails across the globe. The reason for this: mankind has been freed from sickness and pain. Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist Dr. Skinner has developed a miracle cure-all drug with no apparent drawbacks called Hapuna. Hapuna soon becomes ubiquitous… and essential. However, soon after Hapuna is officially introduced, Dr. Skinner vanishes. Three years later, the world has moved on. But Dr. Skinner has returned - this time, as a harbinger of doom. Skinner announces that Hapuna has a short half-life. Everyone who has taken it will die approximately three years later. Death is coming for this sinful world - and coming soon. As a response to this threat, a special task force of five agents is gathered from across the world to save humanity from Skinner's plan. This group is called "Lazarus."

Lazarus is an original anime project by Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe. The anime series is airing on Adult Swim and streaming on Max and Hulu on Sundays.

To be frank, I don't usually mesh well with Shinichirō Watanabe anime. While I wouldn't hesitate to call it a good show, I don't exactly worship at the feet of Cowboy Bebop and I found Space Dandy more annoying than enjoyable. Among all his anime, Carole & Tuesday is by far the one I enjoyed the most. Maybe my lack of reverence for the man is why I'm a bit harder on this first episode of Lazarus than most.

Lazarus is an anime that just oozes style. It's got creative directing, dynamic choreography, snappy one-liners, smooth jazz music, and a cast designed to look cool no matter what they're doing. The problem with this first episode is that it's nothing but style—there's no real substance behind it.

I know nothing about any of these characters—even Axel, who serves as our protagonist for this episode. Sure, we learn that he is a prisoner who is serving several life sentences (and who likes to break out of prison), but we don't even know his original crime.

On top of this, the plot is as shallow as the characters. A doctor made a drug that became wildly popular and has now revealed that everyone who took it will die—unless they manage to find him and get the antidote within the next 30 days. While a good motivator for our heroes, it also makes little sense the more you think about it.

On average, it takes around 10 years for a drug to be approved by the FDA in America, so this three-year death sentence thing would have been discovered before the drug hit the market. Moreover, even the most popular painkillers in the world aren't taken by everyone. While sure, a lot of people are probably set to die, it's not going to be the end of the world or even civilization, especially as there is time for society to prepare, as each individual has a three-year time limit (not to mention a cure is in the works).

There's the issue that, in all the reactions we see to the news, no one bothers to ask if what the doctor is saying is true—which makes me worry that the big twist of the show to be revealed in the eleventh hour is that the drug is actually safe and the doctor was just trying to make some big philosophical point about human nature by tricking the majority of Earth's population into thinking they were going to die.

However, in the end, I admit this was a fun episode—not enough for me to overlook everything I wrote about, but enough for me to want to watch more. After all, maybe now that the show's spent its first episode showing just how cool it can be, it can spend the next fleshing out its plot, world, and characters.

Lazarus sure has had a lot of fanfare ahead of its release! It's been getting promotional convention panels for over a year. Shinichirō Watanabe has given interviews declaring it his magnum opus, a tribute to his late collaborator Keiko Nobumoto, a spiritual sequel to Cowboy Bebop. He's described how people who were inspired by his pioneering space western came to him wanting to contribute, to pay him back for what his work has done for him. With a pedigree like that, how could this series fail?

Well, I wouldn't say Lazarus failed, exactly, but it's missing something.

It has plenty in its favor, of course. It starts with a compelling, high-stakes plot: three years ago, a man named Dr. Skinner invented a perfect panacea that cures all illness and relieves all pain. Naturally, humankind welcomed it with open arms. But now, he's announced that anyone who has ever taken the drug will die in a month, and he's the only one who knows how to stop it. The idea is ripe for social commentary, though how I feel that will depend on whether or not the story agrees with Skinner's statement that pain is necessary for humans to know they're alive. Other than a young man standing up and walking out of school, however, most of the information about how the population at large reacts is restricted to talking head TV anchors reporting on riots and violent protests. Otherwise, everyone seems to mostly be going about their daily business.

The episode consists entirely of setup and high-octane action sequences; there's virtually no space left for character work. Okay, we know that Axel is serving a long prison sentence and he's great at running away. And… what else? Nothing, really. The chase sequences are undeniably slick as Axel dodges guards and drones, leaping off buildings and through windows. Parkour stopped being trendy years ago, but I have to say—well-executed parkour animation is pretty dang cool. The sequences are brilliantly storyboarded and animated, balancing kineticism and striking long shots and shifting quickly between angles but never becoming hard to follow—all while being backed up by a jazzy soundtrack that hearkens back to… well, you know. But without the context of who this guy is and why the members of Lazarus are after him, it all just felt empty.

It's all hampered by Adult Swim's release. Not having Max meant I had to watch it on my crummy little laptop screen instead of my big, beautiful TV, dampening the power of the visual splendor. The Japanese version, which includes the likes of Mamoru Miyano and Megumi Hayashibara, won't be available in the US for another month; the English dub that we have in its place is… well, I'll be kind and call it “uneven,” because I can't think of a more positive descriptor. Despite my criticism, I had fun with Lazarus and would like to continue with it, but I think I'm going to wait until I can get my hands on subtitled episodes before I watch any more.

A new Shinichirō Watanabe anime is always a cause for celebration, and he's really swinging for the fences with Lazarus. Right off the bat, as one of the few people who seems to have really jived with what he was doing with Terror in Resonance back in the day, I can already predict what won't work for a lot of people when it comes to this show. Watanabe's got Big Ideas, everyone, and he's much more concerned that you feel those ideas more than he wants you to think about them too hard. From jump, you just have to accept that an all-powerful genius doctor was able to invent a painkiller drug that literally everyone in the world takes regularly, for some reason, and that he has now unveiled that this same drug is going to activate as physiological time bomb and kill the whole world in 30 days…unless any one person on the planet can find where he is. This insane, planet-wide Jigsaw trap is something that all of society immediately takes at face value, by the way, which of course plunges the economy and the collective psyche of mankind into immediate chaos.

For the sake of whatever commentary Watanabe wants to make about humanity's greatest foibles and untapped potentials, your two choices are to either go with this shaggy dog of a premise so that the rollercoaster of a plot can get started, or you get off the ride before the cart leaves the loading bay. I can understand why some might choose to take their tickets elsewhere, given that it's very possible Lazarus' story well self-implode into a mess of mixed metaphors and ill-devised allegories before all is said and done. On the other hand, the show is just positively overflowing with kickass confidence and slick-as-hell swagger, and the act of watching it in the moment is just so innately satisfying that I am personally willing to go wherever this madman is trying to lead us, just like the heroes of Lazarus have to run with whatever Dr. Skinner is scheming. At least, that's how I feel for now. The worst case scenario, I figure, is that we get a lesser entry in Watanabe canon, which is still bound to be a standout project that runs circles around the competition so far as production values are concerned.

Because, folks, let me tell you: Lazarus is cool as hell. It's got immaculate art and animation, from top to bottom, with expertly drawn two-dimensional assets that often blend seamlessly into the layered and detailed three-dimensional backgrounds and set pieces. This production earned itself a lot of hype from yours truly by featuring John Wick mastermind Chad Stahelski as it's action choreography supervisor, and that's another investment that has paid off big time. Our protagonist, Axel Gilberto, doesn't have a whole lot by way of character development just yet - all we know about him is that he's good at parkour and breaking out of prisons, and that the group known as Lazarus wants to exploit his skillset to hunt down Dr. Skinner. That said, we learn pretty much everything we need to know about the guy based on the way he moves, leaps, and casually kicks the crap out of anyone standing in his way. The incredibly high-quality cinematography on display shows off all of these moves with aplomb, and it gives the entire production a cinematic feel that elevates the whole show to another level of quality.

Given that “Axel breaks out of jail and is chased by Lazarus” is the beginning and the end of the actual plot we get in this premiere, there are still plenty of questions to be interrogated and puzzles to be solved in future episodes. Whether those components Lazarus' story turn out to be satisfying and sensible remains to be seen, but I'm pretty darned confident in saying that we're in for a hell of a good time on the way to those answers.

It is entirely possible that this show is laying out its endgame in the first episode. The name “Lazarus” is synonymous with resurrection, while the game of dreidel is symbolic of giving to rebuild the synagogue destroyed by the antagonists in the story of Chanuka. Dr. Skinner, the mysterious figure who created a purportedly flawless painkiller, has revealed that all those who took it will die three years after their first dose, setting up a race to find him and the antidote. But isn't it possible that the resurrection and the game are both merely symbolic markers of what Dr. Skinner wants for humanity: for them to work together? That would also track with our main character Axel, a man who, from this episode, seems to largely be out for himself and no one else, refusing Hirsch's offer to free him from prison in order to help find Dr. Skinner. He must be reborn as someone who cares in order to fulfill his journey.

All of that out of the way – and I do think that's how things may play out – this is quite the opening to a series. It's no Cowboy Bebop, nor should you go into it expecting that; there are some similar dystopian trappings and a few other links, like the makeup of the core group (I'm willing to cast Leland as Ein for the purposes of this comparison), but this is a very different story with familiar trappings. It also comes out of the gate swinging – even without the dystopian elements, this episode has style and swagger for days. Axel Gilberto's escape from prison and subsequent flight across the city is cinematic and exhilarating, with the added bonus that my cat Sammy couldn't take his eyes off the screen while Axel was parkouring around. (Anime: cats love it.) The whole sequence is done with just background music and Axel's occasional effort noises and breathing as he figures out how best not to plummet to his death, and while it can be overwhelming to watch at times, it absolutely delivers a spectacle. Even more mundane scenes like Doug opening a car door have panache.

There's a lot of mixed religious symbols and messages, and I feel like that might be the point – that there's a little truth in everything in service of a greater good. I'm not sure Axel's all that keen on it, but maybe that's why, from what I could tell, the dreidel in the beginning landed with “hey” facing up. It means “half” in the game, with the player who rolls it getting to take half of what's in the pot. Is half better than none? We'll have to see what Dr. Skinner thinks as the story unfolds.