{"id":1005757,"date":"2026-01-10T12:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=467590"},"modified":"2026-01-10T12:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:36:28","slug":"anime-legend-shinichiro-watanabe-is-back-with-lazarus-and-haunted-by-cowboy-bebop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/anime-legend-shinichiro-watanabe-is-back-with-lazarus-and-haunted-by-cowboy-bebop\/","title":{"rendered":"Anime legend Shinichir\u014d Watanabe is back with Lazarus, and haunted by Cowboy Bebop"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Everyone has had the same question for Shinichir\u014d Watanabe<\/a> since the late 1990s: When can we get more <\/em>Cowboy Bebop<\/a>?<\/em> Or at least more sci-fi action anime resembling his work on Cowboy Bebop<\/em>, a show that helped the entire anime industry cross over as a global industry? But after meeting up with the anime titan in the lead-up to the 2024 New York Comic Con, it seems there\u2019s no quicker way to drive Watanabe away from a project than to tell him it\u2019s what he should<\/em> do. Which may be why it took over 25 years for him to return to the genre in earnest, with next year\u2019s Lazarus<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 13-episode series, which premieres on Adult Swim in 2025, is Watanabe\u2019s grimmest look at the future. In Lazarus<\/em>, it\u2019s the year 2052, and the world is in an unfathomable era of peace thanks in major part to Hapna, a popular painkiller created by neuroscientist Dr. Skinner. When Skinner goes missing, no one really bats an eye \u2014 that\u2019s the beauty of Hapna! \u2014 but three years into the drug\u2019s rise, the scientist returns with an announcement: Hapna\u2019s hidden side effect is that, three years after consumption, it\u2019s fatal. The only cure is with Skinner at his unknown location. If humanity is truly worth saving, the maniacal scientist says, then someone will have to find him in the 30 days until Hapna\u2019s lethal component takes effect. <\/p>\n

Watanabe bristles anytime Cowboy Bebop<\/em> comes up \u2014 at the end of the day, he \u201cdoesn\u2019t appreciate\u201d the comparisons he anticipates hearing \u2014 but the show\u2019s DNA is all over Lazarus<\/em>. At the center of the drama is Axel, an acrobatic master criminal recruited by a shadow organization to hunt down Skinner. In the premiere, Axel spends most of his time outrunning (and out-parkouring) his eventual employers, all to a jazzy soundtrack courtesy of Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, and Floating Points. But Watanabe says reviving what many might see as the Cowboy Bebop<\/em> spirit had little to do with his impulse to return to sci-fi action. Instead, his work on Blade Runner: Black Out 2022<\/em> in 2017 compelled him to find an idea that will keep him in the grounded-but-futuristic territory \u2014 where he could also have some fun.<\/p>\n

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