Review of Lazarus

Watching Lazarus gives off the sense that it could’ve worked better as a tightly packed two-hour movie or, on the flip side, been expanded into a full 24-episode series to properly explore its world and characters. As it stands, its 13 episodes feel half-baked, leaving it stuck in a middle ground where it doesn’t really excel at anything. The show had plenty of strong elements to work with: Shinichiro Watanabe’s name carries weight in the anime world, the collaboration with Chad Stahelski sounded promising, and the voice cast was stacked with top talent, almost as if Watanabe could handpick anyone he wanted for the roles.Yet, despite all this, the final product felt underwhelming.

The first five episodes start with personal monologues from the main characters, diving into their philosophies and introducing the concept of Hapna, but after that, this angle is completely dropped. The plot of each episode feels oddly random, and while Watanabe’s past works are known for episodic structures, Lazarus tries to force everything into an overarching “world-ending” threat tied to a ticking clock. The middle episodes just meander, with characters chasing vague leads, making it feel more like watching a disorganized bureaucracy inventing pointless errands to kill time.

Character backstories and motivations also feel underdeveloped. The characters barely connect to one another, and most of them really needed at least two episodes each to be properly fleshed out, yet instead, their backgrounds are rushed through in a few minutes before the show throws them straight into action scenes. The philosophical themes also fall flat. It’s as if they needed a “big idea” just to justify the team’s existence, so they hastily introduced Hapna and Skinner. Skinner, in particular, feels very half-baked. He’s framed as a genius, but only because the plot demands it, not because he actually shows it. He comes off like a teenager pretending to be deep after reading about nihilism for the first time, with nothing substantial to back it up.

Several side characters, like the hacker, the assassin, and the military subplot, are introduced and resolved far too quickly, leaving no real impact. That’s one of the core issues with Lazarus: despite the supposed high stakes, it feels like everything could’ve been solved in a much shorter time, but instead, we’re asked to believe in a looming global disaster while the characters—and the world around them—act like nothing serious is happening.

The world itself feels lifeless, existing only as a backdrop for the Lazarus team’s investigation. There’s no sense of how Hapna’s drug has affected society or how this futuristic setting operates. Even the collaboration with Chad Stahelski feels underutilized. The fight choreography looks great, but it’s all style with no depth. Given the hype surrounding the project, the end result is disappointing. It’s a passable 7/10 seasonal anime, but far below the high expectations many had.

That said, despite all its flaws, I still think it’s a decent watch. I’d recommend it if you approach it as a flashy summer action show and ignore its pretentious attempts at philosophical depth, then it can work fine as simple entertainment.