Lazaro

Within seconds of watching the first episode, the abysmal voice acting was apparent, and not just from one or two characters but across the board. It's very obvious that they did not give the English voice casting an adequate budget. What's shocking about this is the fact that this series was created by the same guy responsible for Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, two of the best voice acted anime series ever created, but this show has bad voice acting even for an average anime.

Aside from that, Lazarus is extremely derivative and has a boring/generic setting. The whole premise of the show (so far, anyway) seems like it was thought up in a matter of minutes. It honestly feels like Watanabe is just kinda over making anime, and this was something he did simply because a really good offer came along.

Definitely don't go into this series expecting something on par with the likes of Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo. It's nowhere even close to that level of overall quality or artistic vision.

It seems to me that no one except Watanabe fans watched this anime after "Cowboy Bebop". And rightly so. Unfortunately, the work turned out to be too banal, and full of empty characters with meager backstories, to whom the author desperately believes that she can give something more from them in the second season. All that she manages to give is the staging of fight scenes, but even they fade when there is practically no concern for the characters. Trying to outdo her old work was the main desperate mistake of Watanabe, which makes you nothing more than to watch "Cowboy Bebop" again.

"LAZARUS" is set in the future, where the NSA "hired" a group of talented and skilled people, in order to track down Skinner, the creator of a drug that once taken does not let you fall sick. However, this pill contains a toxin that will cause the death of anyone that ingested it. The only person that has the vaccine is the doctor that disappeared. Hence, an international manhunt starts against time, in order to obtain the cure before humanity is completely wiped out. The premises are simple and straight-forward. All the different missions involving the task force are set in different parts of the world. There are episodes set in more exotic locations such as Turkey or Pakistan, but also in cold and inhospitable environments like Antarctica, adding a lot of variation.

The series shines especially on the action sequences, which are dynamic and overall well directed. We can see shootouts and bare hand fights accompanied by energetic electronic or jazz music. Watanabe did a good job with Axel that has the most compelling combats, thanks to his acrobatic abilities and the capacity of always finding a way to escape the most deadly situations. Overall all the characters have their own peculiarities and personalities, and even if they all fall into well defined tropes, they all have something unique that make this group engaging. Every single member of Lazarus served a specific purpose and actively contributed to progress the investigation, complementing each other. My favourite characters were Christine and Doug. The first is the perfect balance of a sensual and skilled agent that manages multiple times to trick others into giving out crucial intel, while the latter is practically the critical brain of the group that handles all the logistics.

On the other hand, I have to say that the plot overall feels lazy and uninspired. Certain dynamics are very predictable. The screenwriter played it safe, but this also means that there is very little on this TV show that stands out. It seems to watch the umpteenth spy story involving yet another global crisis. We have plenty of those and there are productions that made it way better than "LAZARUS". What saved the show were the characters that, as I mentioned before, have some unique peculiarities. Moreover the ending felt rushed and quite disappointing, with everything explained in the very last minutes of the 13th episode. All the efforts to create an international web of conspiracies and subterfuges was ruined by the fact that the story needed to be wrapped as quickly as possible. Clearly the series required a few more episodes to go full circle, maybe even a full second season, especially considering that the episodes do not even last 30 minutes. My final rate is 6.5.

Cool concept, great music, solid animation, but the writing is abominable. Some of the worst dialogue ever recorded for animation. Characters are just inscrutable with near-incoherent motivations. Even when they explain their choices and motives, which is what they spend most their time talking about, the logic is flimsy at best.

I kept watching just to hear more from Kamasi, Bonobo, and Floating Points and to see if the story would ever make sense. There are moments, but way too few. The payoffs have weak setups, sometimes none at all. Sometime a plot line seems to set up something but goes nowhere.

Bottom line: almost all style, minimal substance.

"The Lazarus" (Season 1, 2025, 7.4 out of 10) is a visually striking animated project directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. The series is a cyberpunk action thriller set in a grim yet technologically advanced world of 2052, where scientist develop a drug capable of curing any disease - and, predictably, things go wrong.

The show's biggest strength lies in its visuals. The imagery is stylish and captivating, featuring dynamic action scenes, a bold neon color palette, and sharply choreographed fight sequences. The music, contributed by Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, and Floating Points, blends modern jazz with unsettling electronic tones, heightening the show's atmosphere of paranoia and impending disaster.

The plot, however, is less consistent. While the initial episodes are engaging, the pacing falters mid-season, and some character motivations feel underdeveloped. Although the character designs are memorable, their inner struggles are only superficially explored. This becomes especially noticeable in the dialogue, which at times feels too formulaic for a story with philosophical undertones.

Nevertheless, the series stands out as a visually and musically original entry in the cyberpunk action genre. It carries a strong directorial voice, even if the script doesn't always match that ambition.

Bottom line: "The Lazarus" is a show with a powerful atmosphere and distinctive style that will primarily appeal to fans of visual and musical storytelling. While its narrative may not always deliver, it's a worthy experiment within the genre.