Lazarus, This Anime Has Potential

Article at a glance:
Lazarus is an original anime by Mappa, directed by Cowboy Bebop‘s Shinichiro Watanabe, set for release in April 2025.
The story follows a task force hunting down Dr. Skinner, who warns that his miracle drug, Hapuna, will kill its users in three years.
The teaser showcases strong Cowboy Bebop vibes, and the cyberpunk setting, action, and animation have the potential to make this a major hit.

Okay, Mappa has been on a break of sorts for a while now and this is their first major in months. The memories of 2023 when they worked their employees to the bone are still fresh in our minds. Last year, 8Bit went through a similar struggle. I hope that no studio has to go through all that again this year. But on a more positive note, Lazarus is an upcoming original anime by Mappa and from everything I have seen, I feel like this will be fun. It has some talented people working on it and this has the potential to be huge.

So welcome back to another edition of Put This on Your Radar – the series where I cover upcoming anime that caught my eye and today we are talking about Lazarus! So let’s get started!

What do we know about the Lazarus Anime?

Well, as I mentioned, this is an original anime project by Mappa. It will be directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. If that name sounds familiar, he is the legendary director of Cowboy Bebop. And you’ll start to see some more similarities between the projects as we move on. Lazarus is scheduled to come out sometime next season so sometime in April. There is no locked-in release date yet but we should get one soon. The main cast stars Mamoru Miyano, Manaka Iwami, Akio Ootsuka and more.

Lazarus is set in 2052. Dr. Skinner has discovered a miracle, cure-all drug called Hapuna. Hapuna does away with all the problems and causes no pain or any adverse effects whatsoever. After releasing this drug though, Skinner disappears. He returns 3 years later claiming that everyone who took Hapuna will die in about 3 years so doom is coming and it is coming soon. As such, a task force called Lazarus is put together to find Skinner and save everyone.

You can check out the teaser here!

My Thoughts

Even though the premise is not similar at all, you can see the Cowboy Beebop inspiration in the teaser lol. I don’t know how to put this but the vibe is very similar. And you can tell that’s exactly what Mappa was aiming for. Shinichiro Watanabe being there only adds to the feel. I really look forward to seeing the action scenes. Just going by the teaser, I know that they’ll be really good. So far, it looks like Mappa is cooking and I hope that they don’t mess this up because this anime can be huge.

The plot seems to be quite interesting as well. I was just talking to a friend about how we need more cyberpunk-themed animes and well, here we go. Here’s another one.

That is all for now

So let me know what you guys think in the comments. I look forward to watching Lazarus. I think it will be a lot of fun. With that said, I will take my leave here. I am off to play more Persona 5. See ya!

Also, check out my thoughts on Dragon Ball Daima here!