The cosmic jazz of Space Dandy may be a distant memory, but the dynamic duo of Adult Swim and the legendary Shinichiro Watanabe are reuniting for another anime adventure! However, this time around, the creative brief seems to have taken a decidedly different turn.
According to reports, Adult Swim approached the visionary director with a specific request: ditch the boogie and aim for something a little more... serious. This shift in tone is where the initial sparks for Lazarus began to flicker.
But as any fan of Watanabe's previous works knows (Cowboy Bebop, Kids on the Slope, Terror in Resonance, Carole & Tuesday), "serious" in his hands is rarely straightforward.
It's at this pivotal point, where the constraints of a more grounded narrative were seemingly introduced, that Watanabe's creative genius truly ignited. What began as a request for gravitas likely morphed into something far more complex and captivating under his masterful touch.
Speaking to the NY Times, Watanabe shared the specific ideas that went into shaping Lazarus.
Said Watanabe, "In the past, I would look at other works of fiction and get inspired by them. But this time, just watching the news and taking a look at the world, things happening right now seem more dramatic and kind of crazier than fiction."
"Because I was inspired by events going on in the real world, putting it too far into the future would lose that touch of reality."
He was then asked about what it's like working with Chad Stahelski, of John Wick fame and his 87eleven stunt team.
"First off, they are big anime fans and they researched anime choreography on top of making live-action movies," said Shinichiro.
"They had very deep pockets in terms of ideas that they can come up with. At one point, Chad and his team said they could use one pencil to kill people. But upon asking them about it, they could come up with another 20 to 30 ideas off the top of their heads. So we were able to use their ideas as references to make the animation. We had to figure out which aspects of their footage we could stylize for animation."
Lazarus, from Adult Swim, MAPPA, and Sola Entertainment premiered on the former on April 6, 2025. The series is confirmed for a 13 episode first season.
Created and directed by Watanabe, he also wrote several episodes while others were penned by Dai Satō, Takahiro Ozawa, and Tsukasa Kondo. The music for the show is scored by jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington and DJs Bonobo and Floating Points.
About Lazarus:
The year is 2052 - an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity prevails across the globe. The reason for this: mankind has been freed from sickness and pain. Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist Dr. Skinner has developed a miracle cure-all drug with no apparent drawbacks called Hapuna.
Three years later, the world has moved on. But Dr. Skinner has returned - this time, as a harbinger of doom. Skinner announces that Hapuna has a short half-life. Everyone who has taken it will die approximately three years later. Death is coming for this sinful world - and coming soon.
As a response to this threat, a special task force of 5 agents is gathered from across the world to save humanity from Skinner's plan. This group is called "Lazarus." Can they find Skinner and develop a vaccine before time runs out?