This Sunday, April 6, 2025, is a big day for fans of Japanese animation. Indeed, the anime Lazarus, produced by the MAPPA studio, has just been released on the Max platform. Unfortunately, the launch was missed by the Warner group's SVOD.
Lazarus: Max's Big Mistake
The month of April is off to a flying start for fans of Japanese animation. While the One Piece anime makes its big comeback on Saturday, April 5, 2025, allowing fans to discover the continuation of the Egghead Island arc, this Sunday marks the return of the brilliant Shin'ichir Watanabe. With series like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Terror in Resonance, the 59-year-old director has established himself as one of the biggest names in Japanese animation. Six years after Carole & Tuesday on Netflix, Shin'ichir Watanabe Watanabe is back with a new series called Lazarus and broadcast on Max.
For his new series, which tells the story of a group of highly trained agents hunting a mad scientist who has condemned all of humanity to disappear in 30 days, Shin'ichirō Watanabe has partnered with the legendary studio MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man) and Adult Swim. The choreography of the action scenes was entrusted to director and stuntman Chad Stahelski, known in particular for having directed the John Wick saga. Given this impressive gathering of talents, Lazarus is certainly one of the most exciting anime of the year!
And the first episode, released today on Max, lives up to our expectations. In addition to effectively defining the stakes of the series, which will have 13 episodes, it is packed of breathtaking action scenes that are wonderfully well animated. And we're not even talking about the soundtrack, composed by American jazzman Kamasi Washington and British DJs Bonobo and Floating Points, which perfectly accompanies the action and reminds us of the essential place that Shin'ichirō Watanabe has for music in his TV series.
However, after watching the episode, it's hard to shake off a little disappointment, the responsibility of which is attributable to Max. Indeed, the platform did not include the original Japanese version and it is impossible to watch the anime other than in its English and French versions. It's unclear whether this was a mistake or a deliberate choice; however, it's a huge miss on the platform's part given the affection Japanese animation fans have for the original versions. (It is also important to point out that the original version is indeed the Japanese version, as indicated in the end credits. The original cast is also made up of big names.)
If the possibility of an involuntary error on the part of Max is still possible - we remember that Ninja Kamui, directed by Sunghoo Park (Jujutsu Kaisen) and co-produced by Adult Swim and Sola Entertainment, had been available in Japanese and English from launch - this launch raises the question of the small number of languages Max offers for its exclusives upon release. Unlike Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video, which offer a wide selection of audio tracks and subtitles, Max only offers a handful, and sometimes only the English and French versions.
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