Review of Lazarus

complete and utter wash. no clue what even happened here. wait. yes i do. shinichiro watanabe is mainly known as the cool badass genius that made classics like cowboy bebop and samurai champloo, as well as underrated gem space dandy and forgotten nightmare terror in resonance. considering everybody forgot said forgotten nightmare, surely his newest production, from the same team that worked on attack on titan and the same guy that is basically about 50% of the reason why john wick is such a huge hit, will be just as legendary as his original iconic works. surely! except, this is what happens when you try tophysically manufacture a classic. it comes off as inauthentic -- strictly artificial.

watanabe has gone on record stating that, when adult swim initially contacted him to work on a new anime, his first desire was to make something more akin to space dandy: something light, and fun, and maybe a bit horny. but the big wigs over at willaims street said "eeehhh listen ichi. can we call you ichi? space dandy kinda came and went like a pleasant smelling fart. we want something thatll put adult swim back on the map. we want something thatll withstand the test of time. we want something LEGENDARY." to which watanabe said, "you want cowboy bebop?" and to which the execs nodded back, "yes." thus, watanabe was given a task, a team, and a seemingly endless well of money to do what he does best. but, much like AS similar attempt to exhume a historic gravesite with their many, many failed attempts to make flcl happen again, lazarus simply...does not work very well.

like i said, it reads as total plastic. axel is as bland of a "cool guy" mc that one can imagine. the rest of the lazarus team is...fine, i guess, by virtue of them being well designed and given just enough depth to balance out axels lack of any original qualities. of course the artwork and animation by studio mappa is quite heavenly as well, with the choreography by chad stahelski going quite well with the fast paced and flowy style theyre inconsistently known for. the best aspect of lazarus, however, has got to by the plot: the doomsday countdown. the mystery. where is dr. skinner? will the team find him in time, or are we doomed for another absolutely diabolical "platinum ending"? thank whatever gods you believe in that its nowhere near as catastrophic as that insult of an unflushed toilet was, but the monkey paw that manifested this anime curled with a sickening crunch, and instead of a show by an immensely talented and hugely successful anime director that follows a team racing against the clock to find one man before the end of the world, we get a show by an immensely talented and hugely successful anime director that follows a team...lazily completing repetitive fetch quests, as the doomsday clock continues ticking by uninterrupted, and seemingly unnoticed.

its like a video game with optional side quests which your friend is obsessively completing before proceeding with the main storyline. its infuriating. what are we doing. why are we leisurely taking little breaks when the literal fate of the world is at stake? what is the point of any of what is happening? and why is popcorn wizard so annoying? blessedly about half of these questions get answered about halfway through when the show itself questions the lazarus team by having an inquisition upon their actions like "um, are yall still looking for skinner? yes? then what was all of this other bullshit yall have been up to for the past 6 episodes? was this trip to vivis bubble tea a part of the plan?" which was fun, and actually captured my attention again briefly. but then immediately after that we fall back into more pointless b-plots that amount to nothing, lead nowhere, and end unceremoniously as we get another onscreen reminder that there are only so many days remaining until basically the entire planet gets genocided. like i hope the boba was worth it because now theres a week left and we still dont know if bro is even still alive at this point

without spoilers there is a finale, and the mystery does get solved one way or the other, but, much like everything else in lazarus, its underwhelming as hell and feels entirely half baked. the mystery and countdown is what kept me coming back for more, and watanabes style is what got me here in the first place. but if it wasnt for the team behind it, and the fact that it was inoffensive, AND the fact that i already dropped mha vigilantes prior and i had nothing else to do, im not sure idve made it to the very end of this one, yall. not bad really, just uninteresting, uninspired, and painfully forced. would never part my lips to suggest watanabe lost his touch, but i will say that that space dandy style anime that he wanted to make prior to getting basically forced to make this...probably wouldve been substantially better. ik the dandy nonbelievers hate to hear it, but that show ruled, and this one kinda drooled, so live in denial all yall want. all i know is that gachiakuta, dress up darling, panty and stocking, call of the night, dr. stone AND dandadan are all dropping in the coming weeks so i have literally zero time to waste trying to catch up on mediocre bullcrap right now so if yall aint got no sauce then im leaving the drive thru expeditiously. @ adult swim, next time, let my man cook!!!!!!