Review of Lazarus

Compared to other anime, Lazarus is pretty darn good, but seeing as this is the newest work by the legendary Shinichiro Watanabe, this ends up being really disappoinitng. All the pieces are here for this to be a legendary masterpiece: a semi-scifi world that takes place in the near future with beautiful art direction, dynamic cinematofraphy with amazing shot composition, an OST that slaps and that fits the vibe of the show perfectly, some of the best action animation and choreography I've seen since JJK season 2, every episode has a unique and breathtaking action sequence that puts most shonen to shame (solo levelling who?) andthe show never faulters here. Where it comes to production, Lazarus is an absolute 11/10 and credit should be given to it for that.

The problem comes with the story and the plot. The show tries very hard to have an episodic structure similar to cowboy bebop, but it just doesn't work for a show with this premise. The world is on a 30 day countdown, at the end of the month every character is dead and yet it feels like there is no urgency, no tension and no stakes. This episodic structure hurts the show to the point that, by the end, it feels like the whole journey was almost pointless, it feels like the writers realized Skinner had to be found by the end so they find a contrived way for the characters do it instatnly at the end. It doesn't help that the final reveal of the show (what made Skinner do all of this) is incredibly disappointing, and so is the ending itself: its incredibly abrupt, it feels like the main plot is just an excuse for the action, when the action should be driving the plot forward, it's still very fun in that regard, it's just meaningless most of the time.

The characters are another big problem, this show goes for the whole found family Suicide Squad" thing, but then it barely explores any of the characters we follow, only in the second half of the show do we even begin to see some backstory and some characterization moments from the members of the group, but that doesnt the excuse the first half.
Bebop had great character moments from episode 1, the character interaction was enough for you to learn about them, not the case with Lazarus, here, we barely know anything about any of the characters and, while some of their interaction is fun, its barely even there because the show is more concerned about getting us to its next action scene