Summary

Shinichirō Watanabe, the director of Cowboy Bebop, is teaming up with Adult Swim again for a new anime series called Lazarus. Lazarus takes place in the near future and follows a task force assembled to find a missing scientist and develop a vaccine for a dangerous drug. The series will feature stunning animation from Studio MAPPA and an impressive soundtrack with musical guests like Kamasi Washington and Bonobo. Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick films, will choreograph the action scenes.

Shinichirō Watanabe, the main director behind Cowboy Bebop, is directing a brand-new series for the late-night television network Adult Swim. The two have been a match made in heaven for years now, as the network was a frequent distributor of Watanabe’s various projects.

Cowboy Bebop would be the first anime series aired on Adult Swim, for example, and many have credited this partnership for introducing the medium to a new generation of Western fans. Adult Swim’s Toonami block would even broadcast Watanabe’s Space Dandy exclusively in the United States before airing in Japan the following day, a rare deviation from how international anime broadcasts are typically handled.

Now, Adult Swim is hosting Lazarus, Watanabe’s latest science-fiction anime series. The series has been officially shown off at San Diego Comic-Con, coinciding with a press release that highlighted other big names attached to the project. Based on everything we know so far, Lazarus looks to be an especially exciting project for Cowboy Bebop fans, even if it’s not directly connected to the Cowboy Bebop universe.

Everything We Know About Lazarus
Sola Entertainment

While the recently-released trailer for Lazarus is just a taste of what’s to come, there’s plenty we can glean about the series from both the trailer and the original press release distributed a few days prior.

Starting out, we have the plot synopsis. It’s the near future, 2052, to be exact. We’re living in a utopia, for the most part, as a miraculous cure-all drug named Hapuna has eliminated a majority of humanity’s suffering. Dr. Skinner, the mind behind this miracle cure, has suddenly vanished after the drug is introduced to the populace.

Three years later, Dr. Skinner returns with some perturbing news: anyone who has taken this cure-all drug will soon die. Desperate for a cure, five international agents are assembled into the eponymous “Lazarus” task force in order to locate Skinner, hopefully, develop a vaccine, and save humanity before it’s too late.

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Watanabe’s projects are synonymous with style, and luckily, Lazarus doesn’t disappoint in either the sound or animation department. Studio MAPPA is handling the animation for Lazarus, a name that may excite longtime anime fans.

Previously responsible for visually-stunning anime like Dorohedoro and Kakegurui, we can expect MAPPA to deliver the same kind of slick action they’ve excelled at for years. They would even be responsible for two of Watanabe’s non-fantasy projects, Terror in Resonance and Kids on the Slope. Those who loved the serene soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop will also appreciate the plethora of musical guests on offer, with Kamasi Washington, Floating Points, and Bonobo all having a hand in composing the score.

Sola Entertainment will also be producing, with their previous body of work also being pretty outstanding. Aside from producing multiple projects attached to video games, like Shenmue: The Animation and Halo: Legends, they also have a hand in multiple Adult Swim projects. Their upcoming Rick and Morty anime and Ninja Kamui project likely paved the way for Lazarus to come to the late-night network.

If you enjoyed the various action sequences in Cowboy Bebop, you’ll also be happy to know that some extra talent is on board in the form of Chad Stahelski. That’s right, the director of every film in the John Wick franchise is attached to Lazarus. He’ll be choreographing action scenes for this series, promising a level of intensity not-yet-seen when compared to Watanabe’s previous works.

What Will Lazarus Be Like?
Sola Entertainment

We’re certainly far removed from the over-the-top zaniness of Space Dandy, but fans of Cowboy Bebop will appreciate a return to something with a bit more seriousness to it.

The trailer alone promises a return to a muted color palette, with character designs that feel less flashy and more practical. Fistfights, acrobatics, and futuristic handguns combined with towering electronic displays and multilayered urban sprawls paint an optimistic, if not troubled view of the future. We even get a brief glimpse of heavily-armored drones not too dissimilar from what’s currently flying around today.

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While our five agents aren’t given any names, we do get a few brief glimpses of what they may look like throughout. Drawing more comparisons to Cowboy Bebop, they appear to be made up of an elderly gentleman, a young woman surrounded by computer displays, a revolver-toting agent, and a man with short blonde hair.

But, one character is given ample attention in particular. A man with scraggly black hair can be seen escaping what appears to be a prison setting before demonstrating his athleticism further by leaping across buildings, construction equipment, and more. The trailer even concludes with an artistic shot of him leaping off a rooftop, surrounded by a flock of pristine pigeons.

Overall, Lazarus looks to be yet another exciting project from the director behind Cowboy Bebop. Those who enjoyed the space-faring adventure series will likely find plenty of familiar territory within Lazarus, which may see a future release in 2024. It’ll be joining other exciting anime projects coming to Adult Swim, including the aforementioned Rick and Morty anime, along with the long-awaited Uzumaki adaptation.