Lazarus

I watched anime when I was in middle school and I put this on every Saturday night, and.... it's terrible. It feels like a poor man's attempt at writing a Call of Duty campaign (replace Makarov with Skinner) but it's so weeb-ish.

Every episode is essentially -mission briefing -villain of the week that's somehow connected to the big bad (just like Call of Duty) -2d flat character making 2d flat jokes -the choppiest fight scenes ever -villain of the week losing for being a misogynist and giving info that leads to the next mission.

It's like when you go to anime move in theater and all the nerds laugh at unfunny jokes, this is what watching this feels like.

I was more of an Outlaw Star than Cowboy Bebop fan anyway.

I would give it a 5, but I like Eleina.

Edit I'm watching the cult episode. Holy Jesus.... It's like the writers watched "Top 10 scary cults" vid on YouTube and wrote characters based on it.

It's like someone gave the writers the cult episode from the simpsons family guy South Park and king of the hill and told them to give their own modern take on it.

Except there's no modern take and they somehow made the the take more flat and outdated then something from the 90s and a cartoon.

It was a good show that explored similar themes of loneliness, much like Cowboy Bebop. The animation was solid-Mappa, as always, delivered incredible work. However, I felt the story lacked depth. While the characters' backstories were touched on, there were still many unanswered questions, and I didn't really connect with any of the characters, not even Axel. Given that Cowboy Bebop had twice the number of episodes, that's understandable. I wouldn't call this a bad anime, but I wouldn't say it's a great one either. If you're after action, good animation, a strong soundtrack, and themes similar to Cowboy Bebop, you might enjoy it. I hope that if there's a season 2, we'll see stronger character development.

An original anime directed by legendary Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy, Terror of Resonance), LAZARUS is a visually compelling anime that has good animation and character design by MAPPA, however is pulled down by weak story and over-the-top plot.

LAZARUS is a story about finding a scientist who disappeared after creating a medicine, which evidently will start killing it's consumers in 30 days time. While the premise sounded strong and the trailer looked good, the execution on the screen fell short. The storytelling is generic, uninspired, and often clumsy. There's no real tension, mystery, or emotional payoff. Everything feels like a rehash of sci-fi ideas that have been done dozens of times before, and done better. Although the anime started well, the second half got confusing with multiple subplot introductions and an inconsistent pace, resulting in an unpleasant outcome.

The best part of the anime is supposedly the music. Jazz, electronic, and ambient styles all come together to elevate scenes that otherwise wouldn't have much emotional impact.

Overall, LAZARUS is a classic case of wasted potential. It boasts top-tier animation, an impressive soundtrack, and a big-name creative team - but fails to back it up with anything meaningful narratively. Lazarus looks like prestige anime, but underneath the polish is a forgettable, soulless experience. A beautiful disappointment.

My Rating : 2.5/5.

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.

I finally finished Lazarus today after watching Episodes 12 and 13, pleased to say it ended beautifully. One of the coolest, satisfying anime endings you'll see in recent days.

While the premise of tasking a young but able crew to find a an ingenious scientist that holds the cure to his own fatal creation which has doomed humanity in 30 days seems an intriguing premise, the lack of style one would expect from a Shinichiro Watanabe anime (as he has somewhat proven with his previous anime animated at MAPPA "terror in resonance" in 2013), makes for a dull lackluster first half of the show, since he chose the story over visual uniqueness.

The melee combat action was good but at times felt like an add-on to the focus of the show. The choice of music in most scenes was really good, especially to note is the synthesizer music used at end of Episode 7 "Almost Blue" which was soo foreboding and heartrending.... Also noteworthy is the international locations the cast visits especially Islamabad!

The girls Christine, Eleina were very pretty, cute and hot but the main character, Axel, drives the badass action of the show and his faceoffs in the last episodes with a rival were enjoyable.

Its not the most mind-blowing TV show around but it was worth watching and you definitely will want to stay to see this "find me before time runs out" story play out. 11:45am 1.7.2025

*SPOILER FOR EPISODE 13* I feel sad for Dr. Skinner he really was a kind old homeless man till the end... And everything made sense when they revealed what happened to him at the airport. Mrs. Hersch crying for him was so pretty, she really did love him. And the music waning down and Axel laying on the couch in the barber shop with the cat... That was one of the most poignant, hearttouching, coolest anime endings I've ever seen 😭 11:02am 1.7.2025.