Review of Lazarus

I watched Lazarus, another work from the great Shinichiro Watanabe, and honestly, it was not what I expected. It was not as good as I hoped. Let me explain. From the very first episode, you can tell this is a Watanabe project. The atmosphere, music, action, and chase sequences all have his signature touch. However, the story itself was nothing special and did not develop much, and the same goes for the characters. The overall plot is the familiar “if we do nothing now, we lose everything” type of story, with themes about environmental issues, AI, digitalization, and greedy governments. There is not much character development oremotional depth here; the characters are mostly just there to move the story along.

Of course, since it is a Shinichiro Watanabe anime, the music is obviously great. The opening and ending themes, insert songs, and background tracks are all solid. The visual aspect of the show is also impressive, especially the action choreography and chase sequences.

But I cannot shake the feeling that he made this anime just to preach a bit and direct some cool action scenes, and that is about it. It is clear he is not fond of AI, and he takes a few chances to poke fun at it throughout the show.

The conclusion of the story felt pretty “meh” to me, and a few moments left me wondering why certain things even happened. There were also episodes where I genuinely asked myself, “What is the point of this episode? Why am I watching this?”

That said, I did enjoy how the show made me feel at certain times, like in the first episode when Axel is running away and the music perfectly matches the mood. Moments like that reminded me why I like Watanabe’s style.

Overall, Lazarus is a visually and musically strong anime, but its story and characters fall short. Maybe I am being too harsh because I expected so much more from Shinichiro Watanabe.

Rest in peace, Keiko Nobumoto.
And… 0 days left for us.