Lazarus’ Shinichirō Watanabe Wants You To Forget About Cowboy Bebop For a Bit

Shinichirō Watanabe is a true anime auteur who is responsible for some of the most celebrated titles to come out of the late ‘90s and 2000s, such as Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, and Carole & Tuesday. Watanabe’s series cover incredibly diverse material, but all his anime successfully connect with audiences because of the meticulous work that Watanabe channels into their characters, universe, and the music that brings them all together. Any new Watanabe project is cause for celebration, but his upcoming Adult Swim project – Lazarus – is particularly exciting. 

Lazarus tells an action-packed sci-fi parable in which an elite team of agents are assembled to locate a reclusive scientist, Dr. Skinner, who is responsible for the creation of Hapna, a miracle cure-all drug that was initially viewed as the world’s miracle, but is now killing all of its users three years later. The Lazarus team’s mission to locate Dr. Skinner and create a Hapna vaccine is Earth’s best chance against mass extinction. Lazarus is rich in contemplative questions, compelling characters, and subversive storytelling. It’s also a masterpiece when it comes to its action sequences and choreography, which benefit from having John Wick’s Chad Stahelski on staff as action supervisor. The show has the potential to be one of the biggest anime of 2025, but also one of the most popular animated series to ever air on Adult Swim and Max.

In honor of Lazarus’ premiere, Shinichirō Watanabe goes deep on world-building, the importance of music as a storytelling tool, if Lazarus is set in the same universe as Cowboy Bebop, and whether audiences will ever see more Space Dandy.

DEN OF GEEK: There’s such a distinct look to this futuristic world, its architecture, technology, and vehicles. Can you talk a little on developing the design of this futuristic society and if there were any influences there?

SHINICHIRŌ WATANABE: The big decision in terms of design was who are we gonna ask to design this for us? We asked the French designer, Stanislas Brunet, to join us for this. He’s part of a team called Studio No Border. French artists have a very different, distinct style from Japanese designers. That’s also why we asked him to join us for our previous project, Carole & Tuesday.

They begin their design by thinking about how the buildings should be constructed. Should they be 3D-printed or not, for example? I’m a big fan of their aesthetics, which is why I relied on them again. They use a 3D program called SketchUp Terra and a big benefit of this is that they make very detailed 3D models of the buildings. We’re able to take those and then use them for our actual art designs.

Another rule or policy for design in Lazarus is that while we are in a futuristic city, I wanted to add some contrast and disparity between the richer and the poorer areas. So, it’s very futuristic and clean in the areas that have a lot of money. However, the poor areas are like slums and very dirty. Another reason why I went this way is that it adds more reality. If everything is very futuristic and very clean then it doesn’t seem as grounded in reality.

That’s super interesting. I also love how the action and chase sequences have such kinetic movement. The fight choreography is so impressive, too. I know that Chad Stahelski is the series’ Action Supervisor. Can you talk about his role in Lazarus and what that relationship was like?

When we first reached out to Chad’s team, they were still recording John Wick 4. So, it was a bit difficult at the time. It seemed like they weren’t going to be able to fully participate, so we were completely fine with just getting some advice from them. However, upon speaking to them, they were very much on board for joining the project and doing as much as possible. They used their stunt team to record some live-action previews, which they sent to us and then we used as the inspiration for the animation. Their participation, since they’re very busy, became dependent on the episode. Chad worked on some episodes and then the animation staff from our end worked on some episodes. 

It may be a fun challenge for the viewer to figure out which is which. Try to figure out which episodes are Chad’s and which is our animation staff. Then, you can check your answers by watching the end credits, since Chad’s name will be there for the episodes that he participated in. 

Your series do such a great job when it comes to using music as a universal language and a tool to develop themes and characters. How did you figure out Lazarus’ sound? And can you just expand a little more on what’s going on with the series’ music and sound?

This time, unlike previous projects, there’s a more electronic, dance music, and EDM-driven sound. There’s also a very jazz musician style, too. There’s another artist, Kamasi Washington, his music is more jazz. So he fills that role for us. The use of jazz music has led to a lot of other people bringing up that this might be similar to a previous project that I’ve worked on [Cowboy Bebop]. But let’s forget about that series for a little bit and just focus on enjoying this one. 

I understand those comparisons, but it’s a totally different sound. You’re doing such different stuff. What you did with the music in Terror in Resonance — the whole Norwegian sound — is one of my favorite things that you’ve done. You always put so much thought into what the soundtrack should represent. You can really feel that in Lazarus. It’s super cool.

Thank you!

You create a lived-in universe with Lazarus. Do you see other stories being told in this universe? Once the Dr. Skinner adventure is over, could there be future stories, or even a movie that’s with these characters or in this world?

Of course, that’s a possibility if this is a big hit. We won’t know until Lazarus is released. Until then, we just have to keep our fingers crossed.

It seems like a lot of your series kind of exist in the same universe. There are subtle references between them, even if it’s just like the Woolong currency. Are there any Easter eggs like this in Lazarus that fans should maybe look out for? Or something they should pay attention towards?

Not so much this time, no. But they do take place in the same universe. So they are connected somewhere.

I really loved your work on the Blade Runner Black Out 2022 anime and The Animatrix. Are there any other American properties that you would like to transform into an anime and explore their worlds through that context? You can choose anything here! No restrictions!

I’m trying to think, but Blade Runner would really be my favorite thing to dream about working on. I’ve already been there and done that. I think I’m satisfied there.

Finally, I’m such a huge Space Dandy fan. It’s maybe my favorite anime of all time. I’m always hoping that a movie might happen one day. Is there one Space Dandy story or detail that nobody knows about that you could share?

You’ve got some good taste if you like Space Dandy! The secret is, I’m always ready to make more seasons of Space Dandy. The same goes for the staff that worked on it as well. However, it wasn’t a huge success, so it’s hard to find financing for it. So maybe some rich oil money will fall our way and it can finally happen. 

Lazarus premieres April 5 at midnight on Adult Swim, with next-day-streaming on Max.

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