First Impressions of Shinichirō Watanabe’s ‘Lazarus’

LAZARUS isn’t just the most hotly anticipated anime series of the Spring 2025 season–it’s something of a reunion between a celebrated creator and a celebrated anime block. From director Shinichirō Watanabe, the creative force behind Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, Carole & Tuesday and, of course, Cowboy Bebop, Lazarus is the brainchild of one of the medium’s most popular showrunners.

When the original Bebop broadcasted on [adult swim]’s Toonami block almost 25 years ago, its sleek feel and inimitable soundtrack became a defining influence of the young Toonami’s vibe. And then it went on to define much of the vibe of [adult swim] as a whole. And finally, it went on to ubiquity in the broader consciousness of American pop culture itself. The comparison of Lazarus to Bebop is an inevitability, albeit one that a lot of people are looking forward to. And though the production shows the signs of a very modern vintage, the sight, sound and spectacle that have defined Watanabe’s oeuvre are as striking as ever.

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Action at the End of the World

Lazarus is an action series, straddling a line between the action of classic Toonami shonen with a more stylish seinen edge. Set in the 2050s, the series revolves around the quest to stop a miracle drug unexpectedly revealed to be lethal. Hapna, which starts out as a medicinal drug that has grown into worldwide recreational ubiquity for years, is revealed to have been secretly lethal the entire time, with waves of deaths only a month away.

The genius doctor who created the drug—and reveals its lethality—has vanished with no traces save for a cryptic promise that anyone who can find him can also get the drug’s cure. With the entire world thrown into a civilization-ending catastrophe, a master escape artist and criminal, Axel, is recruited into an elite secret clan, Lazarus, who may have the skills needed to undo the dark secret of the world’s greatest drug.

Dust, Cyberpunk, Pills

In the world of anime Watanabe is a rare talent of the best kind: a creator who knows exactly how to package and sell the atmospheric vibes of his different series, and whose strength in doing so has allowed him to get daring original projects made against the adaptation-prone anime industry. Lazarus is no exception; the world of the anime feels broad and speculative while tapping into the current moment. Cyberpunk-infused sci-fi is omnipresent in anime right now, although Lazarus eschews the heavy-handed aesthetics of urban, neon dystopia in favor of a more muted environment.

The blaring, rainy neon invoked in most cyberpunk media is swapped out for grainy dust, blue-light techno is fittingly confined to the team’s hacker rather than the entire world’s aesthetic, and most of the scenes are set during the day…which can sometimes feel like it doesn’t exist in futuristic settings. And whether or not they’re just developmental happenstance, the thematic parallels to the series’ American [adult swim] counterpart, Common Side Effects, should be lost on no one.

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Animation and Style

Big-Pharma-themes and Biblical-naming aside, Lazarus is at its heart a gun-toting race against the clock that, not unlike its protagonist, lives or dies with pulling off its action skills. With main animation coming from MAPPA and action sequences being overseen by John Wick series director Chad Stahelski, the series has a great visual fluidity. With the level of detail and action being maintained across several episodes, it’s safe to say that with Lazarus [adult swim] has successfully averted the hype-turned-infamy of their previous swing, Uzumaki.

The most noticeable drawbacks include that the series does utilize a few scenes of CGI that, particularly for vehicles and locations, highlighting that the show is a product of the 2020s rather than the 90s. It’s hardly the worst CGI that’s ever been used in an anime, but it feels noticeable. And for a series that gets such strong positives on its international coproduction like Stahelski’s action, the dub can often feel like the noticeable product of post-hoc ADR. Japanese is very obviously the initial language—as it should be for an anime—but subtitled editions of Lazarus’s Japanese cast are hardly the first priority for an all-dubs American programming block.

Lastly, the music of Lazarus is as great as you’d expect from Watanabe’s passion project. Never afraid to carry the jazz DNA of Bebop during fitting action sequences, it still shines with more alternative, contemporary sound in other tracks like its OP and eponymous credits themes. When the first notes of a jazz chord set up an action sequence, it really does capture the soul of Watanabe’s work.

On the topic of music, the analogy that best describes Lazarus is like a skilled musician playing for the first time in a new club. For all its influence, it’s worth remembering that Cowboy Bebop was not an [adult swim] original production like Lazarus is. Like the same artist handling the acoustics of a new space, so is Watanabe’s shift from Ted Turner-era import to David Zaslav-era co-production. Nonetheless, Lazarus has so far proven to stand out from typical seasonal anime. If Watanabe is the musician, the acoustics of the club don’t change the fact that he’s ultimately playing as good as ever.

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Lazarus

Release Date

April 5, 2025

Network

Adult Swim

Directors

Shinichirô Watanabe

Writers

Shinichirô Watanabe