MAPPA’s Lazarus Leaps to An Excellent Start In A Captivating First Episode

The following contains spoilers for Lazarus Episode 1, “Goodbye, Cruel World”, available on Adult Swim.

The hype leading up to the release of Lazarus, Shinichirō Watanabe’s original anime collaboration with Studio MAPPA has been palpable since it was first announced by Adult Swim in July 2023, and now that the first episode has finally been released, it appears that the excitement was warranted. The premise, characters and action (courtesy of John Wick stunt director Chad Stahelski) are all on display in the series’ strong first episode of Lazarus, in which there are no wasted moves as Watanabe’s directorial brilliance and MAPPA’s touch come together to create something that has the potential to be a standout title in Spring 2025.

With loads of chasing, parkour and silky jazz music in between it all, the first episode is good enough to vanquish any doubt about the series, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet – unlike the characters, we have loads of time.

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The Panacea Turned Poison

A Miracle Drug Transforms Into a Death Sentence

The first episode of Lazarus begins with a voice-over of Douglas Hadeen as he recalls being a child and wondering how and when exactly the world would end. As he speaks, surreal visuals flood the screen to accompany Doug’s explanation of the situation the world finds itself in, as a cheap, cure-all miracle drug that was created about four years prior to the events of the series, pioneered by one Dr. Skinner, turns out to be a death sentence. A year after creating Hapna, the brilliant scientist disappears, and for the next three years, the world rapidly enters a time of prosperity, not knowing that the drug was a trap all along.

At the Northport Correctional Facility, an inmate stretches while Dave, now visible, waits in his car outside while his superior, a woman named Hersch, enters the prison to visit Axel Gilberto. He doesn’t recognize her because they’re strangers, but she knows everything about him, starting with the fact that he’s serving a total of 888 years. Hersch shows him a video Dr. Skinner released to the public, announcing that the drug mutates three years after ingestion, meaning that the first Hapna-related deaths are set to be recorded soon.

To make things worse, he poses a challenge: should someone find him in the next 30 days, he will give them the cure. The world is understandably thrown into chaos, as the drug that had once facilitated an era of world peace turns out to be the conduit of a genius scientist’s misanthropy. Hersch wants to recruit Axel to become part of a task force to find Skinner, with his freedom on the cards if he agrees, but Axel reckons he’ll just have the freedom. Cue one of the first instances of Chad Stahelski’s expertise being used in Lazarus as Axel, a chronic jailbreaker, manages to flip a scenario in which he’s surrounded by several cops in his favour through various flips, tricks and feats of athleticism, beating the first officer with nothing but his legs before securing his service pistol and aiming it at his visitor.

What’s really cool about this scene is how the animation sells a relatively “grounded” yet highly dynamic feel to the movement that only improves (and gets even more outrageous) as the episode progresses. We have Axel scaling walls, jumping across chasms and pirouetting over police officers; basically pulling a Prince of Persia to brilliantly escape prison. So, we have plot, a solid introduction to the MC, and engrossing action in the first five minutes – a great start.

Tasting Freedom As the World Burns

Beginning of the End

Axel escapes from prison, with Hersch and Dave in hot pursuit, revealing more members of their group. During Dr. Skinner’s announcement, a teenage boy asks to be excused from class, meeting up with a young woman. Both of them have been enlisted by Hersch and are pulled into the pursuit of Axel, while Elena, the operative who is the resident techie of the group, uses GPS to track his location. Meanwhile, the world has plunged into chaos as people panic over the Hapna news, with pharmacies being hit hard by angry rioters, the stock markets collapsing and the White House scrambling for answers.

The drug is quickly discontinued and pulled from the market. The news reports give a good deal of context regarding the consequences of the Hapna announcement on the world, which in turn also gives us a chance to get a good look at this futuristic world Watanabe has imagined.

The futuristic feel in Lazarus is unique in how it blends aspects of the present with sci-fi elements in a way that doesn’t make the envisioned future feel like some kind of alternate reality, and one of the elements that connects it to the present is the fashion and backgrounds. The architecture undoubtedly has some futuristic elements, but there is so much texture in Lazarus‘ backgrounds, with graffiti and grungy architecture contrasting the kind of sleek, cold logical design choices that one would expect. It’s gorgeously realistic, and yet still so clearly not. As Axel walks around town in his orange jumpsuit, he barely incurs a worried glance, which is strange, but perhaps that’s to be expected in a world that has, for all intents and purposes, been like, super chill. There’s a hilarious moment when Axel bumps into a police officer, who warns him not to dress in all-orange because people might mistake him for an escaped convict, but he manages to play it off as a weird fashion choice. Moments later, the police officer catches the transmission calling for units to look out for an escapee from Northport, but by then, Axel has already stolen the clothes off a mannequin in a nearby apparel store and disappeared.

The Chase Scene

Something Cinematic This Way Comes

The episode doesn’t get “insane” until the second half, kicking off with an establishing shot of Babylonia, an aptly named city that has a strange tower in the middle. Babylonia City throws out the earlier statement regarding the “gently futuristic” setting of Lazarus – this place is a 100% sci-fi metropolis with high-tech surveillance, high-tech trains, a high-tech airport; you get the idea. Here, Axel tries to catch flights, not feelings, but is easily identified by the surveillance system and forced to make a run for it, tailed by security drones and Hersch’s operatives.

Axel jumps from rooftop to rooftop, through the tiniest gaps, leaping from skyscrapers to scaffolding without a shred of fear. The entire sequence is directed so well and has the unmistakable “action” movie feel as we follow Axel as he turns dead-ends into opportunities and lays waste to surveillance drones with his set of special skills.

He very nearly dies at one point but manages to cling to life on the arm of a crane (the construction machine thing), and barrel rolls to safety on the rooftop lawn of a certain building in a more futuristic-looking part of town. There, the young woman in Hersch’s team herds Axel to force him into taking a path onto the rooftop of an old building, where Dave catches up to him. It seems like Axel is done for since all that’s in front of him is the ground that is leagues below, but he caps off an episode of unbelievable antics with a smug leap off the building, safely latching onto a drone that had just been launched by Dave’s teenage colleague moments prior. He rides the drone until he finds a safe point to land on a passing truck, once again escaping his pursuers. He thinks he’s lost them, but he’s set up by Christine, who pretends to be a passerby who saw him do some of that parkour stuff. She gets close enough to knock him out with a stun gun hidden in her wristwatch, and with that, Axel Gilberto is finally secured.

The Potential Is There, For Sure

The First Episode of Lazarus Is a Very Strong Start

It was a sequence full of awesome, dynamic shots in an episode that was engrossing from start to finish, with the kind of pleasing animation that we can hopefully get more of in future episodes. When he comes to, Axel wakes up in a barber’s chair, with Elena watching him from a safe distance. Christine and Leland enter with Dave, and the mirror in front of Axel illuminates, revealing Hersch’s face. She welcomes him, revealing the name of their little organization to be “Lazarus”, after the figure in the New Testament of the Christian Bible who was resurrected four days after his death. The first episode of Lazarus is exciting, captivating, with a solid introduction to the main characters while also being really easy on the eye. The soundtrack was also really easy to like. It’s too early to say for sure, but this one has an air of greatness about it.

Lazarus

Release Date

April 5, 2025

Network

Adult Swim

Directors

Shinichirô Watanabe

Writers

Shinichirô Watanabe