Shinichirō Watanabe’s New Anime Lazarus Has the Juice

We live in an era where we get more anime in a single season than we used to in an entire year, and 2025 is packed with tons of shows competing to be the must-watch show of the year. Among them is Lazarus, and the premiere episode of Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichirō Watanabe‘s hotly anticipated new sci-fi series on Adult Swim effortlessly leaves a lasting impression, marking it as a classic in the making. Set in 2052, Lazarus takes place in a world on the brink of unprecedented peace and stability thanks to a painkiller named Hapna. Developed by neuroscientist Dr. Skinner, Hapna is a cure-all drug spread far and wide with the ability to free the world from pain—a very trendy theme in animation this year. Three years after Skinner, humanity’s savior, goes AWOL, he reemerges as its grim reaper, revealing the drug was designed with a fatal side effect that will kill anyone who ingested it. Unless Skinner is found within 30 days, humanity is set for extinction. A special task force called ... Read full article.