The animated series Lazarus is nearing its conclusion. Its creator, the legendary Shin'ichirō Watanabe, took the opportunity to reveal his project. We'll tell you everything!
For many fans of Japanese animation, Shin'ichirō Watanabe is an essential reference. Since Macross Plus (1994) and even more so with Cowboy Bebop (1998), the Japanese director and screenwriter has risen to become one of the greatest artisans of the medium. The rest of his career has only confirmed his status as a giant of Japanese animation: Samurai Champloo (2004), Kids on the Slope (2012), Space Dandy (2014), Terror in Resonance (2014), Carole & Tuesday(2019) are all successes from a talented and sensitive artist, putting music (jazz, hip-hop and funk) at the heart of his work.
This year 2025 was marked by the great return of Shin'ichirō Watanabe with the anime Lazarus, his third collaboration with the MAPPA studio after Kids on the Slope and Terror in Resonance. Telling the story of a group of highly trained agents hunting a mad scientist who is the source of a deadly drug, Lazarus captivates with its electro-jazzy soundtrack composed by Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, and Floating Points, its breathtaking action scenes choreographed by Chad Stahelski (John Wick), and the fluidity of its animation. Despite a soft underbelly in the middle of the season, the Lazarus series appears to be a magnificent gift for Cowboy Bebop fans, who will find many similarities. We can of course mention the soundtrack, which gives a nice place to jazz, and thus recalls the legendary soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno and her band SEATBELTS, but also the character of Axel Gilberto who recalls many aspects of Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop. Moreover, episode 6 of Lazarus (Heaven is a Place on Earth) is very reminiscent of episode 23 of Cowboy Bebop (Brain Scratch). More generally, the two series tell the story of mercenaries broken by life and forced to coexist, and whose cracks we will discover over the episodes.
While Lazarus will conclude on Sunday, June 29, 2025 with its thirteenth episode, Shin'ichirō Watanabe is already thinking about the future. In an interview with the American media outlet Deadline, the Japanese director revealed his desire to develop a horror or supernatural animated series. "I would like to create a series based on a ghost story in the future. I've been consuming a lot of ghost-related content recently,especially movies where ghosts appear. Oh, and I recently watched The Exorcist."
Although Shin'ichirō Watanabe has never directed a fantasy and/or horror series to date, certain episodes of his previous work demonstrate his appetite for the genre. We're thinking in particular of episodes 11 and 20 of Cowboy Bebop (Toys in the Attick and Pierrot le Fou), unanimously acclaimed by audiences and critics, but also the strange episode 22 of Samurai Champloo (Cosmic Collisions) and episode 4 of Space Dandy (Sometimes You Can't Live with Dying, Baby). In any case, we're very excited to discover this new project from the great Watanabe!
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