My opinion of Lazarus after two episodes is largely unchanged. It’s certainly competent, but I don’t get a sense of commitment to anything. At best it’s misogynistic maybe, but the whole thing has a very by the numbers quality to it. I’m not sure this production model is the best bet for producing something genuine to begin with, but Watanabe Shinichirou himself may be the larger problem. Maybe there’s still stuff he really wants to do in anime – stories he’s dying to tell. But you don’t get the sense that Lazarus is one of them.
Indeed, there’s so little emotional heft to the plot and cast that I’m largely left with speculating on what – if any – political message Watanabe is trying to send here. Some have tried to claim it as an anti-vaxxer advocacy piece but I really don’t get that at all. In a larger sense there seems to be a sort of “pox on all your houses” mindset here – a condemnation of humanity in general as weak and adrift. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call it anarchist but Lazarus sure doesn’t think much of authority.
Beyond that I just don’t see that much there. Does the series want us to find Skinner? Does it even think Skinner is in the wrong? I’m not sure, but the hunt for him is sort of a lark. There’s a kind of road trip montage, and a set piece set in an abandoned nuclear shelter supposedly purchased by Skinner but inhabited by a guy fleeing debt collectors. All this is set to a vaguely cool jazz soundtrack (it should be noted that Lazarus has no less than three official soundtracks out). And mostly played for comedy, which is certainly a choice given the premise.
That’s about all I really get at this point, to be brutally honest. I don’t see any evidence that Watanabe is really trying hard here – not the way he did in something like Sakamichi no Apollon or Space Dandy (even if that was largely delegated, the care he took in assembling talent reflects a great deal of passion for the project). Watanabe is good enough at this that he can produce something watchable and even entertaining without really committing but if he doesn’t care that much, I don’t see why any of us should either.
catterbu
April 16, 2025 at 12:41 amThis might be me, but I sort look at Watanabe in similar way to Shinkai now: both sort of have golden handcuffs. They each hit incredibly big and they still want to make more anime, but they only get the funding they want if they do something similar to their past success in these risk averse market conditions. With Watanabe it is a bit more frustrating because he did get to make whatever he wanted for a little while, but nothing could ever match Bebop, so this sort of feels like him resigning to that.
I can only hope that eventually he gets to a point where he is willing to make a show with less money and do something that actually interests him…or maybe he is just out of new ideas, but needs to make a living so he keeps doing these sorts of things with only a few new nihilistic thoughts on society each time. Hopefully the former.
Guardian Enzo
April 16, 2025 at 12:45 amFrom my first impressions post:
At times, he seems intent on delivering a Watanabe Shinichirou anime in the same way Shinkai Makoto does a Shinkai movie. There’s an idea of what that is, and matching up with that idea trumps the substance.
Simone
April 20, 2025 at 4:05 pmI dunno, I think it might be the other way around, and Watanabe may just be one of those auteurs that simply end up losing the magic when given too much free rein due to their fame. Like George Lucas, Tim Burton, or M. Night Shyamalan. I’m not watching Lazarus but I can’t for the love of all that is good figure out how’d he put out something like Carole and Tuesday. It’s not even like it’s an attempt at cloning Cowboy Bebop because it’s nothing like its grungy and cool aesthetic, not even a mockery of it. Its vibe isn’t “seedy jazz club”, it’s “Instagram influencer”. Commercially it probably wasn’t even such a terrible move but it’s weird because it’s not an artist being forced to redo the same safe shtick and it becomes soulless in the process, it’s an artist purposefully picking a new *even more soulless* shtick for no good reason.
Litho
April 16, 2025 at 3:38 amI checked out all 3 OSTs. The Bonobo version is fairly decent (imho) but Floating Points and Kamasi Washington offerings are pretty middling. All 3 are capable of far better. The rest of the anime does nothing for me, frankly. Thematically inferior to Bebop and stylistically inferior to Champloo.
Ren
April 19, 2025 at 7:31 pmIt feels to me he’s chewing the cud -it’s closer to Terror in Resonance in spirit but with Cowboy Bebop’s alternate crew for the pizazz… I’ll keep an eye on it but it doesn’t look like it’s gonnq be memorable
Yann
April 16, 2025 at 8:55 amIf only there was an anti-vaxxer or anarchist message in this show! To me, it just looks like more of the same… Paint by numbers. Sterile and unoriginal plot, characters that look like caricatures of themselves, a “cool” that feels forced… I used to regard him as my favorite director, so that’s a bummer for me. Two episodes in and I think I’m done…
Scampi
April 17, 2025 at 4:47 amI can’t get over how the main cast is acting like the whole ordeal is somebody’s business. It’s surreal. They could turn it into a villain of the week format, take the doctor out next week, and move onto another world ending crisis and nothing will be missed. What’s even the point?