Lazarus (2025)
“Three years after ingestion, Hapna will mutate - killing all those who have taken it.”
Lazarus is a 2025 original anime that was animated by Mappa studio, the choreography was designed by Chad Stahelski, who had previously directed the John Wick films, and was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe - who had previously had a stellar run from Cowboy Bebop, to Samurai Champloo, to Kids on the Slope, to even Space Dandy.
Unfortunately, with all of this talent behind the production - Lazarus did not meet any of its expectations. It was a hamfisted series stuffed to the brim with stale character acting and even worse dialogue. There were very little redeeming factors in this anime - even the well choreographed action sequences felt as though they were forced into a script they didn’t belong to just to appeal to the portion of the audience that expect those action sequences from a Watanabe anime.
The concept as a whole leaves a lot to be desired - it might have been interesting if this was premiering along side Death Note and the core audience were 13 years old in the year 2006, but in this day and age the entire production felt like Watanabe trying to capture the same magic he hit with Cowboy Bebop, except he’d grown disenfranchised with the world and tried to come up with an edgier concept to reflect that, which just came across as someone out of touch with the boots on the ground feeling that was so natural in his earlier works. On top of the contrived concept itself, you have a whole cast of characters that are not utilized in the slightest and instead feel solely like a vehicle for the plot to further and sometimes open up for parkour sequences.
The mystery itself, which is the core vehicle behind the plot, was telegraphed since episode 3 - and each episode after that was a poor attempt at continuing the chase while doing nothing to elevate any of the character dynamics, interactions, or even tension. It was just hollow episode after hollow episode until the mystery was finally “solved”, which at the same time offered a terribly conceived last second revelation of how the characters in the titular Lazarus group were chosen.
Even that contrived core concept was wasted after 13 episodes of nobody even debating the philosophy behind it. If your mystery is going to be telegraphed by episode 3, then at least give the show some breathing room to talk about the ideas behind the show, rather than creating all of this false tension and explaining behind the scene plot points through phone calls telling the audience those points.
Above all else, the anime failed to live up to expectations set by the exceedingly talented production team, let alone any generally decent anime standards.
My Current MAL Rating: 4/10
Top 100 Contender: No
