Shinichirō Watanabe Wants You to Stop Comparing Lazarus and Cowboy Bebop

Half an hour before my interview with famed anime creator Shinichirō Watanabe, a handler from Adult Swim emailed me to ask if we would have our videos on. The question seemed odd until I read the rest of the message: “If so, Watanabe wants to wear his sunglasses for the interview!” The idea that the 59-year-old animator and director wanted to look cool while wearing sunglasses at 9 a.m. my time and 11 p.m. his local time—with my permission—was too good an opportunity to pass up. Who was I to turn him down? The moment his camera turned on, Watanabe left me stunned. Watanabe, wearing sunglasses, sat with his arms crossed—as if emulating the Gunbuster pose—in front of his colossal collection of vinyl records, jam-packed in a bookshelf and with visibly worn spines peeking out of their plastic wrapping, ready to discuss his new anime. As the kids say, the dude was aura farming like crazy. The tone was set, and I was ready to pick his brain about how such a chill guy was so confident in dec ... Read full article.