Adult Swim announced that it would air the next anime from Shinichirō Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop, way back in 2023, and as of today, we finally have a release date. Lazarus is set to premiere on April 5 at midnight on Adult Swim, and will be available to stream on Max the day after.
Lazarus follows a task force of agents, also called Lazarus, who are hunting a mad scientist that developed a miracle drug called “Hapna.” The drug was created to be a painkiller, but was also secretly designed to kill whoever takes it, three years after it’s first taken. Lazarus are trying to find the creator of Hapna to create a vaccine that prevents the drug’s negative side effects, and save the world in the process.
Based on the trailer, the series’ sci-fi setting, jazzy music (provided by Bonobo, Floating Points and Kamasi Washington) and shaggy-haired protagonist Axel all recall Watanabe’s previous series Cowboy Bebop, but Lazarus looks like it’ll have its own charms, too. The series’ action sequences are choreographed by by John Wick director Chad Stahelski and the story takes inspiration from the opioid crisis and climate change, according to a Polygon interview with Watanabe from October 2024.
Watanabe’s last series Carole & Tuesday premiered on Netflix in the US in 2019 and Netflix’s less-than-stellar live action remake of Cowboy Bebop came and went in 2021. The world is more than ready for some original strength Shinichirō Watanabe anime, and now it won’t have to wait much longer to get it.
