Review of Lazarus

Let me start off by saying, this show isn't bad. It's actually pretty good, and had a lot of things going for it. Animation, voice acting, soundtrack; all things top notch. Most will compare this directly to Cowboy Bebop, and that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do. If you are expecting Cowboy Bebop, you'll be disappointed, and there's a distinct reason why. The one thing I noticed, and it's something else people have also mentioned, is the story and characters just aren't developed enough. One reason for this is the show's runtime being 13 episodes long, instead of Bebop's 26. Bebop had significantly more breathingroom, which allowed for slower moments for you to take in the environments, characters, and plot lines in a much more intimate manner. Lazarus's main conflict is that "blows the load" right off the bat, and sets a time limit immediately. That isn't something bad in itself, but it puts the writers in a bind as far as the stakes and pacing is concerned. Doubly so when the stakes is the end of the world, it's hard to up that as the show goes on.

With the time frame being so tight, that means there really isn't any time for those small intimate moments between characters. Those moments are present, but not nearly enough to develop the characters in any meaningful way. Another side effect of that pacing problem, is the characters don't feel super involved with one another. There should be moments where each character interacts with one another, trust is broken, relationships are mended, that sort of thing. I feel like there really wasn't enough of that. That said, I'm beating a dead horse at this point.

Another thing that I truly had a problem with, was everything the show threw at me as far as plot twists are concerned, is that I saw them all coming. In fact, SOME WERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE, and not in a discreet way, a very obvious way. Imagine starting a scavenger hunt and from the get go you know exactly where the item is, but you still have to go through the clues to get to it.

Lastly, as far as some of the characters are concerned, there were a few characters with either certain pieces of backstory or pieces of their personality that felt shoehorned in. Thrown at you for the sake of it being there, as opposed to genuine things that people would be or react to. Just something I was peeved by.

TLDR, good show, but not great.