Lazarus Review: A Hollow Echo of a Master’s Past Work

My Take:

With a high-stakes premise of “30 days to save the world” and the legendary Shinichiro Watanabe at the helm, Lazarus should have been a masterpiece. As a long-time admirer of his work, I walked into this series expecting the soulful characters and masterful storytelling that defined classics like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. What I found instead was a fundamentally broken show—a repetitive, shallow, and ultimately unforgettable stain on an otherwise legendary record. It’s a series more concerned with flashy fights than compelling characters, taking from its history but failing to remember why any of it worked in the first place.

The Glimmer of Hope: A Hint of What Could Have Been

The most tragic part of watching Lazarus is that for one brief, beautiful moment, it actually works. After six episodes of a painfully repetitive formula—get a lead, have a cool fight, discover the lead is a dud, repeat—Episode 7 opens with the characters simply having a barbecue. In that single minute and a half of banter, there was more characterization than in the entire show up to that point. The episode follows this with a stunning, dialogue-free sequence of the team exploring remote islands, finally allowing the audience to connect with them as people. It was a glimpse of that familiar Watanabe tenderness, a moment that proved a brilliant show was hiding somewhere inside Lazarus.

The Failure: A Plot That Goes Nowhere

Unfortunately, that glimmer of hope is quickly extinguished. The series immediately reverts to its core problem: the plot goes absolutely nowhere. The narrative is stuck in a frustrating loop that even the characters seem aware of, with one agent literally stating, “Sadly, we’re back to square one” more than halfway through the season. The story is so obsessed with chasing the next objective that it leaves no time for character development. I finished the series still not knowing who these people really are, which makes it impossible to care about their mission.

The final episodes devolve into a chaotic mess of new villains and side plots that spread the already razor-thin story even thinner. The ultimate reveal of the crew’s origin and the final confrontation with the mastermind, Skinner, are shoehorned in at the last minute and feel completely anticlimactic and emotionally hollow.

Final Verdict:

Lazarus does not end on a bang, nor does parting with it feel satisfying. It’s a show that tragically prioritizes style over substance, leaving behind an experience that is as meaningless as the questions its characters fail to answer. There is a version of this show out there with a soul, a version that dares to say something meaningful. This, unfortunately, is not that version.

This is a profound disappointment for fans of Watanabe’s work. While die-hard action fans might find some enjoyment in the fight scenes, those looking for a compelling story or memorable characters should look elsewhere.