Everyone has asked Shinichirō Watanabe the same question since the late 1990s: When can we get more? bebop cowboy? Or at least more sci-fi action anime that resembles his work in bebop cowboya show that helped the entire anime industry become a global industry? But after meeting with the anime titan in the run-up to the 2024 New York Comic Con, it seems there's no quicker way to get Watanabe away from a project than telling him it's what he wants. ought do. Maybe that's why it took him more than 25 years to return to the genre seriously, with the next year Lazarus.
The 13-episode series, set to premiere on Adult Swim in 2025, is Watanabe's bleakest look at the future. In LazarusThe year is 2052 and the world is in an unfathomable era of peace thanks in large part to Hapna, a popular pain reliever created by neuroscientist Dr. Skinner. When Skinner disappears, no one bats an eye – that's the beauty of Hapna! — but three years after the drug's rise, the scientist returns with an announcement: Hapna's hidden side effect is that, three years after consumption, it is fatal. The only cure is to have Skinner at his unknown location. If humanity is really worth saving, says the maniacal scientist, then someone will have to find him in the 30 days until Hapna's lethal component takes effect.
Watanabe bristles at any moment bebop cowboy emerges (at the end of the day, you “don't appreciate” the comparisons you anticipate hearing), but the show's DNA is over. Lazarus. At the center of the drama is Axel, an acrobatic master criminal recruited by a shadowy organization to hunt down Skinner. In the premiere, Axel spends most of his time outrunning (and parkouring) his eventual employers, all to a jazzy soundtrack courtesy of Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, and Floating Points. But Watanabe says reviving what many might see as the bebop cowboy The spirit had little to do with his drive to return to sci-fi action. Instead, his work in Blade Runner: Blackout 2022 in 2017 forced him to find an idea that will keep him in realistic but futuristic territory, where he could also have fun.
“I would have done [more Bebop] if it feels good,” Watanabe told Polygon through an interpreter. “But I didn't feel that way. I think having someone tell you to do sci-fi action or anything else is not the way to make it great. I have to feel like I want to do it. There are no shows in my filmography that I wouldn't want to do.”
Watanabe attributes some of the bebop cowboy-ness of Lazarus to Keiko Nobumoto, the late writer of Bebop who worked with the director to develop the story and scripts for his new series. But when Nobumoto died in 2021, Watanabe had to finish the work himself and resolve his anxieties in the process. The director says the idea for the lethal drug Hapna was directly inspired by the opioid crisis, while the existential threat of climate change plays a big role in the direction of the story (but he wasn't willing to give anything away).
Although the director is no stranger to science fiction, his vision of Lazarus It is focused on reality. When he calls the series a return to sci-fi action, even after space dandy and Carole and TuesdayWatanabe repeatedly emphasizes his need for this story to reflect real life as it would be in 2052. To ensure the action had gravitas, the director hired John Wick mastermind Chad Stahelski to consult on the fight sequences. intense. Watanabe was demanding when it came to Axel's parkour, swearing that even when the scoundrel jumps off walls or scales skyscraper-sized cranes, all of that would be doable for an extremely agile person. The production also turned to Formosa Group, the sound effects company behind Dune, Top Gun: Maverickand game of Thronesfor a Hollywood level design that would add some value to the soundscape. Watanabe's goal was to delve a little deeper into the “real” than most action anime.
Image: Adult Swimming
“If a character is injured in an animated scene, sometimes they recover very quickly, things like that, they don't stay bad,” Watanabe said. “So [in Lazarus] When a character is injured in one episode, in the next episode they will be in bed the whole time.”
Lazarus It is named after the 1992 single of the same name by the English Britpop band The Boo Radleys, which appears as the show's credits theme. It's a trippy, distorted classic of the shoegaze genre, with lyrics that glide through the experience of expanding consciousness. It was a song Watanabe had in his head long before he hired his trio of musicians, although he still relied heavily on the ultra-kinetic rhythms of Floating Points to choreograph Axel's daring escapes. The fluid mix of tone and ideas is actually what makes Lazarus Feel like pure Watanabe. If you think about it like bebop cowboy-OK that's fine.
“I wouldn't mind if people came into the program because of my work, as someone who did bebop cowboy“, he says, “but I think that after seeing Lazaruspeople will end up feeling that it is something entirely theirs.”
Lazarus It doesn't have an official release date, but Watanabe confirms that all 13 episodes are complete and will premiere sometime in 2025.