“Lazarus is no longer Cowboy Bebop,” says anime legend Shinichiro Watanabe

Everyone has had the same question for Shinichirō Watanabe since the late 1990s: When can we get more? Cowboy Bebop? Or at least more sci-fi action anime similar to his work Cowboy Bebopa show that helped the entire anime industry grow into a global industry? But after meeting with the anime titan ahead of New York Comic Con 2024, it seems there’s no quicker way to stop Watanabe from a project than telling him it’s what he wants should Do. Maybe that’s why it took over 25 years before he returned to the genre in earnest the next year Lazarus.

The 13-episode series, premiering on Adult Swim in 2025, is Watanabe’s darkest look into the future. In LazarusThe year is 2052 and the world is in an unimaginable era of peace, thanks largely to Hapna, a popular painkiller developed by ndollarscientist Dr. Skinner was developed. When Skinner disappears, no one bats an eyelid – that’s the beauty of Hapna! – But three years after the drug’s triumph, the scientist is back with an announcement: The hidden side effect of Hapna is that it is fatal three years after consumption. The only cure is for Skinner to remain at his unknown location. If humanity is truly worth saving, says the mad scientist, then someone has to find him in the 30 days until Hapna’s deadly component takes effect.

Watanabe resists at any time Cowboy Bebop comes up – at the end of the day, he “doesn’t appreciate the comparisons he expects to hear” – but the show’s DNA is everywhere Lazarus. The drama centers on Axel, an acrobatic master criminal who was recruited by a shadowy organization to hunt Skinner. In the premiere, Axel spends most of his time trying to outrun (and outrun) his eventual employers, all to a jazzy soundtrack by Kamasi Washington, Bonobo and Floating Points. But Watanabe says the revival of what many might see as the Cowboy Bebop Spirit had little to do with his impulse to return to science fiction action. Instead, he continues working Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 in 2017 forced him to find an idea that would keep him in a down-to-earth but futuristic space – where he could also have fun.

“I would have done that [more Bebop] when it felt right,” Watanabe said through an interpreter. “But I didn’t feel it that way. I’m convinced that someone telling you to do sci-fi action or something else doesn’t make you great. I have to feel like I want to do it. There are no shows in my filmography that I didn’t want to do.”

Watanabe attributes some of this Cowboy Bebop-ness of Lazarus to Keiko Nobumoto, the late author of Bebop

who worked with the director to develop the story and scripts for his new series. But when Nobumoto died in 2021, Watanabe had to finish the work himself – and allay his fears in the process. The director says the idea of ​​the deadly hapna drug was directly inspired by the opioid crisis, while the existential threat of climate change plays an important role in the plot of the story (but he didn’t want to give anything away).

Even though the director is no stranger to science fiction, his vision for Lazarus is based on reality. Although in retrospect he describes the series as a return to science fiction action Space Dandy And Carole & TuesdayWatanabe repeatedly emphasizes that this story must reflect real life in 2052. To ensure the plot was given seriousness, the director hired John Wick mastermind Chad Stahelski as a consultant for the combat-heavy sequences. Watanabe was demanding when it came to Axel’s parkour, vowing that even if the rapscallion was jumping off walls or climbing skyscraper-sized cranes, it was all doable for an extremely nimble person. The production also turned to Formosa Group, the sound effects company behind it dune

, Top Gun: MaverickAnd game of Thronesfor a Hollywood-level design that would add a bit more harshness to the soundscape. Watanabe’s whole goal was to push a little further into “reality” than most action anime.

“When a character gets injured in an animated scene, sometimes they get better very quickly, things like that – they don’t stay sick,” Watanabe said. “So [in Lazarus] If a character gets hurt in one episode, he or she will be in bed the whole time in the next episode.”

Lazarus takes its name from the English Britpop band The Boo Radleys’ single of the same name from 1992which serves as the show’s credits theme. It’s a trippy distorted classic “Shoegaze” Genre, with lyrics that glide through the experience of expanding consciousness. It was a song that Watanabe had had in mind long before he hired his trio of musicians, although he still relied heavily on Floating Points’ ultrakinetic beats to choreograph Axel’s daring escapes. The free-flowing mix of tone and ideas is actually what sets it apart Lazarus Feel like pure Watanabe. If you see it that way Cowboy Bebop-ish, good.

“I wouldn’t mind if people got on the show because of my work, as I’m someone who has done that Cowboy Bebop” he says, “but I believe after I saw it Lazaruspeople will lose the feeling that it’s entirely their own business.”

Lazarus There is no official release date, but Watanabe confirms that all 13 episodes are finished and will premiere sometime in 2025.