Lazarus

The animation is beautiful from the studio mappa. The story revolves around a future drug which can cure any diseases from this world. But after couple of years later the creator of drug comes out and tells the world they have less then 30 days to live but if they find a cure in that time they will be saved. So a group of organisers from government has well has criminal gangs try to find the doctor responsible for creating this drug in first place but he himself is hidden somewhere unknown dead or alive. Only first episode is released. But a group called Lazarus is trying to find him and recruit a criminal to find him. Love the direction from John wick director.

An interesting series from which I expect a lot in terms of animation and entertainment.

Firstly, because the technical team is of high quality and it's a MAPPA production.

Although the first 2 episodes are easy to watch, the series doesn't escape the flaws of current productions:

• A basic scenario if you're a fan of Japanese animation that's afraid of going too far.

• a main character who's impossible to stop (prison, technology, policeman...) but a girl comes along! We know where this illogic comes from...
• a bunch of kids more intelligent than the population as a whole...

Given the media hype, I hope the anime will have the guts to take off beyond the usual mediocrity of series with an American touch.

To be continued...

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.

Lazarus doesn't really do anything unique or mind-blowing. Like his previous works, the protagonist on a wild goose chase in search of something. In this case, he's in search of a doctor who holds the only cure for a medicine that will eventually kill everyone who took it ever. The premise is actually pretty tame, realistic, and contained compared to other Watanabe's works. The characters aren't really standouts, even the protagonist. I would say it's worth the watch if you like his other works Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy, Samurai Champloo but Lazarus honestly falls short of all of these titles by far. The dubbing also isn't good and breaks the gloomy vibe. I'd suggest the sub if you really want to not break immersion because sometimes the English VA is just...bad. The soundtrack, as per usual from Watanabe, delivers. The score during most scenes helps enhance the gloomy aesthetic that it's going for. Not a bad work by any means but it's not a must watch either.

To be honest, this has to be one of the most visually stunning anime episodes i've ever seen. Shinichiro Watanabe is one of the best anime directors and we could see why he has that reputation.

The story is intriguing, the characters are all well designed and interesting, and the animation is greatly executed with the nonstop action sequences, and of course the ost, and music, has to be one of the main protagonist of a Watanabe creation, so overall, just one episode, but is promising as hell, and one serious candidate to anime of the year. And yes, i'm not overrating.

Watanabe and Stahelski make a fantastic work together, making this one of the most beautifully action animes we could ever imagined. I'm really waiting for more of this story, which i didn't even get into this review, but it's fantastic as well. Long live to this productions.