Lazarus Ep 2 Review
Twenty-nine days. That’s all the time that humanity has to find Dr. Skinner and the cure for Hapna. Otherwise, everyone who has ever taken the “miracle” drug is going to start dying. And since almost everyone has taken the drug, the human race faces extinction. Now, it’s up to Lazarus, a ragtag task force of misfits, to get to Skinner and save the world like superheroes.
There’s just one problem: they have no idea how to find Skinner!
Firstly, though, let’s gush over the OP to Lazarus. Whether it was Watanabe himself or the people who worked with him to create the anime, they must have been taking a page from Cowboy Bebop. From the way it makes extensive use of big, stylized text in the background while having the main characters remain shadowed or in black-and-white in the foreground, “VORTEX” takes a lot from Bebop. In addition, the music, while more subdued compared to “TANKI,” still has the notable inclusion of the jazz music that Watanabe is so fond of. It’s clear that Watanabe is aiming to make Lazarus the spiritual successor to Cowboy Bebop, and so far, he’s succeeding!
A Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
Did you use Hapna?#LAZARUS #Toonami pic.twitter.com/wsnylcdTCw
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The first half of the second episode is largely focused on one of two things: introducing us more to the members of Lazarus and exploring Dr. Skinner’s motives. When it comes to the former, the show seems to adopt a “less is more” attitude regarding their backstories, though it does establish that each of them has things in common. They’ve each committed crimes of some sort, ranging from petty theft to hacking on a global scale. Each of them is insanely talented in an area of expertise:
Axel is an all-rounder and a genius escape artist.
Doug is good in combat and can think well under pressure
Christine is skilled with multiple firearms
Leland is an expert on piloting drones
Eleina is a master hacker notorious around the globe
Furthermore, each of them admits to having taken Hapna, meaning they’ve got skin in the game and a reason to locate Dr. Skinner.
As for Dr. Skinner himself, the premiere already established that he made Hapna a deadly trap because he was fed up with humanity. This episode elaborates on that by giving us an exposition dump about his backstory, and it soon becomes obvious why he came to this mindset. He devoted his entire life to helping others, to the point where he gave up the money he could’ve gotten off patents for his drugs. In addition, he was a major voice in the fight against climate change, urging people to do everything they could to undo the damage humans have done to the Earth. As is often the case in real life, his pleas were met by apathy and silence from those in a position to do something about it. Hence why he likely made Hapna a trap; he decided mankind wasn’t worth saving.
And I don’t blame him.
Look, Mankind Needs to Get its Act Together
As much as I want to see mankind’s continued existence, there are times when I cannot help but wonder if it would be better if we weren’t around. That being said, I feel the ultimate solution is for us to spread across the stars so the Earth can have some breathing room. I still have faith in mankind’s ability to grow and change, and it feels like Lazarus is being set up as a symbol of that optimism.
In a layman’s terms, Lazarus might be a story of optimism vs cynicism, but we won’t know until the story is finished.
Oh, and Lazarus has armbands that will melt their hands off if they try to go AWOL. They’re basically the Suicide Squad meets the Avengers.
A Wild Goose Chase
‘LAZARUS’ by Shinichiro Watanabe Episode 2 is now on MAX pic.twitter.com/mYj10qiarB
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The back half of the episode sees the entire group splitting up to track down leads on Dr. Skinner. Unfortunately, the man seems to have covered his tracks very thoroughly to make things as hard as possible. Case in point, Axel and Chris head to a survival shelter they think Skinner purchased, while Leland and Doug head to the office of the company he bought it from. At first, the deserted atmosphere of both makes it seem like there’s a greater conspiracy at work, especially when people show up and start threatening the team. In a humorous twist, though, not only is the person they find not Dr. Skinner, but the people shooting at them weren’t even looking for him. They spent a whole day on a wild goose chase for a man who ran out on his debts.
This is going to be harder than we thought, and there are only 28 days remaining. It can be easy for someone of Skinner’s intellect to disappear, and it could take years to find him. Lazarus has less than a month before humanity faces extinction. In the meantime, though, I’m going to be enjoying this potential second coming Cowboy Bebop.
Join the chase. Catch an all new episode of #Lazarus next Saturday at midnight! Only #Toonami, on adult swim.
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