Review of Lazarus

I found Lazarus to be a a good show and most of the episodes were very entertaining in the moment. It did a pretty good job at being an animated action thriller. Lazarus' first episode does make a strong first impression, the opening and end credits animation is great, the background music is really good and the action with Chad Stahelski contributing is well made stuff even though Schinchiro Watanabe shows always did deliver in the action department. I also did enjoy how the cast played off each other and each member of Lazarus had their own reason for being on the team as well havingtheir own backstory before joining. There's a decent number of down time episodes in between the action too which helps flesh the characters out. Just seeing the over the top wacky hinjinks each episode had with the world ending stakes makes each episode a game of the characters finding a clue of where Skinnker could be and if they could pull it off. I also enjoyed that there's new pairings with each of the Lazarus members in every episode so it gives the show new character dynamics to work with.

There is just one big problem is that while Lazarus is fun to watch in the moment, each episode ends with the titular group barely being any closer to finding the "big bad" that is Skinner.

This leads to the ending and the last episode in particular was just awful. It felt like an asspull, a deus ex machina, crazy contrived conincidents and also feels like a case where the writer bailing the characters out of a tough jam. It's one of those endings so bad that it manages to undermine all the episodes leading up to it. When I got to the penultimate episode, a big part of me was like, "there is no way they are going to wrap this up in a neat and tidy package" and unsurprisingly, it didn't.

There is this whole saying that is popular in the anime community years back saying, "ending is paramount". I can sort of see that and how the ending of this series could ruin the story for many. I tend to think of that scene from Adaptation where Robert McKee tells Charlie Kaufman, "you can have issues, you can have flaws but wow them in the end". Lazarus is certainly one of those stories that does not follow this rule.

It's weird, just how important an ending is even if I enjoyed everything leading up to it. I was certainly going to give this series a 7 but thinking about that ending almost wants me to lower it to a 6.

I try not to value endings in fiction since there's a lot of stories out there especially those that aren't movies that don't even have a proper ending but when it's badly executed, it's just hard not to think about.

I'd still probably give the series a 7, I do have some other issues like how the series takes place over the course of 30 days but it just skips by quickly but I just view it as apart of it's whole "no nonsense" pacing and it's a testament to the show how the characters and to a lesser extent the setting feel moderately fleshed out for a run time of 11 episodes basically everything before the last 2 which "wraps up" the plot.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Lazarus especially everything before that final episode. It's nice seeing an action thriller story in the form of an anime especially a mainstream one so it's worth watching just for that. It also has a big name like Chad Stahelski contributing to the action which also helps sells it. It's an enjoyable time for 13 episodes if you ignore the bad ending.