Review of Lazarus

Lazarus is overhated and it shouldn't be overlooked. Shinichiro Watanabe brings an interesting concept for this show: a widespread drug turns out to be lethal, and to find the cure they must find its creator, Skinner. Amid this, Lazarus was created as a team whose sole purpose of its existance is to find Skinner. With this promise, the story unfolds. Initially we may think that the focus of the anime will be on the adventures of *finding* Skinner, but eventually it becomes obvious that the focus is *understanding* the philosofy behind Skinner. Every time a Lazarus member meets someone who knows the man, we become more surethat he ironically really was a good person. It creates a contrast between his current actions and his persona as a whole.

So the purpose of the show is to make this genocide look less bad than it really is? Of course not. Differently from what a lot of people say, Shinichiro Watanabe never wanted to make Skinner's actions look acceptable, but he really used these actions in a manner to call attention to problems that humanity is creating in our world. The destruction of the environment is a big topic in this show, specially in the episode the characters go to a place where previously inhabited islands sank and then they see the beauty of nature despite of humanity's traces in the place, and not thanks to it. An episode that started with the vague search for Skinner, but that ended with a political message, really shows Watanabe's intentions to bring overlooked topics to light.

All of this combined with a creative direction, strong soundtracks and good animation moments, makes Lazarus a show that I'd definitely recommend to anyone. Of course it is not perfect, sometimes you may feel it lacks something, speacially in the end, but none of this makes this a “terrible show” as many have said.