In the early 2000s, when I was just a teenager, my girlfriend Melody was obsessed with this niche rising trend called anime. Whereas I was more obsessed with Marvel movies: your first Spider-Man, Blade, and X-Men films – she was fixated on shows that were taking over the late-night block on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. None more so than ever, than the once-at-midnight showcasing of Cowboy Bebop.
I brushed it off at first. This anime that wasn’t something called Dragon Ball Z or Pokemon, chalking it up to just another passing fad. But when curiosity got the better of me years later, I finally decided to watch—and from that very first episode… I was hooked.
What I discovered was a masterpiece—a show that oozed style, mystery, and coolness in a way I’d never seen before. Cowboy Bebop wasn’t just another cartoon. It was a gateway into something entirely new. A fusion of smoke-in-your-eyes-styled jazz, cyberpunk grit, action-movie meta-humor, and interstellar space adventures. Cowboy Bebop wasn’t just cool. It radiated with an effortless swagger that redefined what a story could feel like, put its Quentin Tarantino-esque creator, Shinichirō Watanabe, on the map just as anime hit a new wave of popularity in the 2000s.
You can imagine my excitement when, at NYCC 2024 as not only was I gifted a screener of the pilot episode of Lazarus, but I got to sit down with Watanabe himself.
Which you can follow along below.
But first, what is Lazarus even about?
The year is 2052.
The world looked to be on the verge of an unprecedented era of peace and stability, and the painkiller drug “Hapna” developed by a lauded neuroscientist Dr. Skinner had a lot to do with it.
Hapna spread throughout the world as a “miracle drug” with no side effects, freeing humanity from pain.
Until, that is, Skinner suddenly disappears off the face of the earth.
When he reemerges after three years, it is as a devil who brings countless deaths and the end of civilization. Hapna turns out to be a drug that has a fatal, retroactive effect, one that appears three years after first taking it; it was a death-trap for anyone who took it, even once. Humanity will start dying off in 30 days. The only way to save the world is to get at the cure that only Skinner holds. For that we must first find him.
“Lazarus” is a team of five agents gathered from various corners of the world to do just that.
Can they save humanity? And what is Skinner’s true purpose?
Now, the show’s initial scenes were a classic example of doomed psychology. What happens when the world, or in this case a large chunk of humanity, when it knows that its likely going to end?
My first thought was of famed psychological behaviorist B.F. Skinner and his entire career based around reinforcement and operant conditioning and I wondered if the story’s themes were somehow related. I also pondered if this HAPNA wonder drug was, by any means, a metaphor for the practice of utilizing vaccinations – such as the COVID-19 vaccines that served as humanity’s own miracle drug in helping to end the pandemic.
“Actually, I started the project even before the Covid pandemic,” clarified Shinichirō Watanabe regarding the significant influences he pulled upon in creating this doomed Sci-Fi reality of tomorrow. “But what brought much influence to the story was in actuality, the opioid crises in the US. And also, the climate crises as well. How our world was confronting potentially meeting its end.”
Indeed, much of Lazarus’ story momentum is a look into such powerful themes, anchored by a single, chilling sci-fi twist that drives the narrative: a ticking-clock urgency in the desperate search for a cure.
Comparing Lazarus to Cowboy Bebop
My second question was whether Lazarus was created as a spiritual successor to Cowboy Bebop (the anime not the TV series seen above), given it’s been nearly 30 years since Bebop’s release and 20 years since Watanabe’s touched science fiction. After seeing the pilot—I’ll admit that there’s quite a spark of familiarity in style between the two that fans will immediately recognize.
“It’s been perceived that way in some quarters but that’s actually something that maybe a producer may say. It wasn’t intended that way…,” admits Watanabe, whose translator allows for beats of pause as the legendary creator thinks about his process before replying. “Having said that, it is true that this project Lazarus started with myself and Keiko Nobumoto, who wrote the original scripts for Cowboy Bebop. Since she was initially involved, and we both were involved in the writing, that may account for the similarities or the similar vibes. However, I’m telling you now, that it wasn’t by design or intention. It came out naturally because of how we worked on it.”
Shinichirō Watanabe’s work with Keiko Nobumoto has been a major influence not just on anime, but at the turn of the milennia anime. A dynamic duo, Nobumoto was actually the screenwriter involved with the writing on some of Watanabe’s biggest hits such as Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy. Sadly, she died in 2021 from Esophaegal cancer at the young age of 57, leaving Watanabe to finish the work himself. This project marking one of their final works together.
Still, it’s hard not to see the similarities between Bebop and Lazarus. The fighting sequences do look similar at times to Spike’s Jeet Kune Do and the music pieces do have a surprising bit of jazz (done by Kamasi Washington in lieu of Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts). There were also scenic panoramic shots mixed with DJ-like sounds from Floating Points and Bonobo. Suffice to say, all of this music and animation blend created an ambiance that was something of Lazarus’ own style that you can sample above.
And through the lens of finding its own distinction, I asked him if there were such iconic favorite episodes of his in Lazarus, such as a “Ballad of Fallen Angels” from Cowboy Bebop moment as an example. What Shinichirō Watanabe emphasized was his desire to create the distinction between the two anime:
“So with Bebop, since each episode is more or less self-contained, it made it easier to choose between episodes which of these were someone’s favorite. But with Lazarus, I created an arc for the series throughout the entirety of the 13 episodes. Doing so makes the series work as sort of a union. A thread that pulls from beginning to the end. We hope people watch and see it to the end and not abandon it with a few episodes.”
On Lazarus’ Action Sequences and Parkour Techniques
Now a lot of big names worked on the series including huge Cowboy Bebop fan and director of the John Wick franchise, Chad Stahelski. Contributing to more than four episodes in terms of action direction, Stahelski was a former Keanu Reeves stuntman on the The Matrix. Emphasizing a quality that feels more authentic in fight style than anything Watanabe’s made before. It also helps that both men worked on The Matrix – as people forget Watanabe was one of the key directors of The Animatrix.
Yet it’s really the the fighting techniques that stands out especially for series protagonist Axel Gilberto. It’s very Spike Spiegal though with a lot of Parkour added influences, which add for very interesting backdrops as Axel scales walls and skyscrapers.
“So I always thought in looking at the people and someone who knows Parkour, I wanted to incorporate it into animation. In actually incorporating those scenes in animation, first I thought of doing it mostly on my own… but I met a very great animator called Gosei Oda who was really into Parkour and had studied all its moves and could make really good animation out of it. So I really let him do his thing,” said Watanabe regarding bringing on the up and coming creator. “Gosei Oda also used to work for Studio Ghibli. This animator took on the animation of the parkour scenes all by himself and did a great job with it. I think after this show comes out, it will make him famous, I think.”
On Shinichirō Watanabe’s Illustrious Career
Perhaps out of curiosity, or my own creative self-interest, I asked Shinichirō Watanabe about his longstanding career and how, after all he’s accomplished regarding his works in anime that revolutionized the industry in bringing its popularity to the West, what was that one thing that stood out? Was it the work on IP such as The Animatrix or Blade Runner Black Out 2022? Was it his early work on Bebop or Champloo?
What was Watanabe’s proudest moment of his career?
I did not expect this answer.
“I don’t know if it could be considered my proudest moment, but I can talk about something I really enjoyed creating though. In terms of just joy, making something for the happiness that it brought me, I really loved creating SPACE DANDY the most,” shared Watanabe to my complete and utter surprise. ”I was able to work on it in a very stress-free way, and compared to my other works and projects, this was much more relaxing. Everything else involved a lot of work and a ton of stress. But SPACE DANDY? That one I enjoyed.”
