Review of Lazarus

I think it's fair to say that Adult Swim anime has a very spotty reputation, especially recently with the travesties that were the 2nd gen FLCL sequels and Uzumaki. So going into this, I wasn't sure what quality of anime we were going to get here. The previews being very Cowboy Bebopish didn't help dispel the feeling that this was going to be another Nostalgia Tread by Adult Swim where the value would mostly be in shitty callbacks a la nu-FLCL. Personally, I think it came out pretty decent. I suppose this is the part where I admit I haven't seen Cowboy Bebop yet and in factthe only show from the director I'd seen was Samurai Champloo (which is better than Lazarus although imo not by much), so how Bebop-like it ended up being is not my forte.

I don't think it used the cyberpunk world to the fullest of ways but it does do some cool stuff with it, so as a cyberpunk fan, I was pleased. It's basically Where's Waldo but for 13 episodes while they have to develop characters along the way.

I think the characters are not the most well fleshed out, it feels like they were all given an obligatory one episode arc which is a bit of a shame.

For example, Leland is kind of the butt monkey of the group and his backstory is just kinda "prodigal son rich kid", which... sure, fine, wasn't really all that inspiring, only really cared because his older sister was hot.

The other characters get similarly shallow explorations, I think having almost double the amount of main characters as SamCham in half the runtime was a very... interesting decision. I did think to myself "yeah, I'd watch a S2 of this" after it was over but, like, I don't think it endeared me as much as it should have.

That's how the main 5 get development, the rest get jack diddly. Like, do you really care about Soryu or DJ whatever his name was (I think it was DJ Visionary?)? I'd say the only one who got more development was Skinner which makes sense since he's the main "antagonist"/villain of the show. I liked his character. We don't really get a proper villain since it's more episodic outside of the overarching plot of the show and, like, I guess that's fine. I never really missed the lack of a proper antagonist per se.

The music was great. They made a sticking point of pride of who made the music and yup, there are a lot of good tracks that do more than fit the tone of the scene, it's just a baller OST. I enjoyed it. They were catchy and/or emotional tunes.

They got the guy from John Wick to come and do the fight scenes and yup, they look very good. I can see criticisms that the fights are too floaty but I was sufficiently entertained and it didn't destroy my immersion or take me out of the show like other shows I've seen.

I think the more political(?) themes about climate change and stuff felt a little heavy-handed at times but I didn't mind it. In a way, he's like a less sadistic Jigsaw because he's, like, forcing us into contemplating our mortality and I hope the world of Lazarus ends up taking something from it (although one of the scenes in the credits shows that might not particularly be the case, as I doubt it'd be in real life, sadly...).

Do I think this is some life-changing magnum opus? No. I think the best way to describe it is like a longer-form American action movie. In the same way John Wick will probably never change my life, Lazarus didn't do much to impress me beyond flashy fight scenes and cool moments, but was I satisfied with the time and money I put into watching the show? Yeah. It was a decent show and if you are intrigued by the show enough to read a review, you should check it out, especially since it's just one cour.