"LAZARUS," an original anime directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, known for the anime "Cowboy Bebop," will be broadcast on TV Tokyo every Sunday at 11:45 pm starting from April 6th. The story follows Lazarus, a team of five agents gathered from around the world, who pursue Dr. Skinner, a neuroscientist who developed Hapuna, a painkiller that causes death three years after taking it, in order to save humanity. The series will be produced by MAPPA, which also produced "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Chainsaw Man." Creators from Japan and abroad are involved in the project, which is said to depict powerful action and intricate drama, but how on earth did this work come about? We spoke to Director Watanabe.
Inspired by the opioid crisis
Director Watanabe's works, such as "Macross Plus," "Cowboy Bebop," "Samurai Champloo," "Space Dandy," and "Carole & Tuesday," are popular not only in Japan but also overseas. The planning for "Lazarus" was apparently initiated by a proposal from overseas.
"This is an original anime with no original source material, so myself and the other staff are making it from scratch. First, we received an offer from Cartoon Network, a company that broadcasts anime in the US, who said, 'We'll fund it all, so we want you to make an original anime.' The company's president, Jason DeMarco, is a big fan of 'Cowboy Bebop' and also seems to be a huge music buff. He offered us, 'I know what you're talking about. This director's use of music is unusual. We'd love to see you do a work like that,' and 'We'd like you to make a sci-fi action movie.' When I asked if something like 'Space Dandy' would be okay, he said, 'No, something more serious.'"
The only thing that mattered was that the order was "serious," so we were given freedom in our production.
"Basically, they trusted the director and didn't give me any detailed instructions about the content. When working with the US, there is often a lot of interference, but this time I was able to make the film quite freely."
The story takes place in the year 2052, when the world is in an unprecedented era of peace. Hapuna, a painkiller developed by neuroscientist Dr. Skinner, has spread around the world as a "miracle drug" with no side effects, freeing humanity from pain. Skinner, the developer, suddenly disappears and no one knows where he is. It turns out that Hapuna is a drug that causes death three years after taking it, and it was a trap set. Skinner leaves behind the words, "30 days left. If you can find my location by then, humanity can survive." The only way to save the world is to use a single vaccine, so a team of five agents from around the world, "Lazarus," is tasked with pursuing Skinner.
"It's probably not very familiar in Japan, but in the US and other countries, the opioid crisis has been brought into the spotlight as a major issue, and that's what inspired me. It's a legitimate painkiller prescribed by a doctor, but many people are dying from it. For example, it's said that Michael Jackson died from opioids, and they've taken the lives of many other musicians. Even for me, a music lover, it's a major issue. It's not an illegal drug, so isn't it strange? Why was this drug approved? Or, if such a drug was intentionally made and distributed, wouldn't it kill a lot of people? That's what inspired me to start this project."
As the truth about the "miracle drug" comes to light, the dark side of society will be exposed. It could actually happen in real life. It makes me think of something similar that has happened in recent years.
"No, the story itself was created before the pandemic. Sometimes in anime, something similar to an idea you have in mind ends up happening in reality, but this time reality caught up with me before I could make it."
◇Realistic, action that looks great on the screen
Chad Stahelski, director of the "John Wick" series and known as a stuntman, is taking part in the action supervision. The first episode is also attracting attention for its acrobatic and flashy action...
"If I was going to do an action film after a long time, I wanted to make it something new and updated. But actually, Chad and his team only joined us from the second episode. We had started working on the first episode before their participation was decided, so the action in the first episode was the work of talented animators Hiromitsu Seki and Takeo Oda. Among the animators, there are those who are very particular about action, like them, and they are in charge of it like an action director or action coordinator in live-action movies. I think they created a fantastic scene that is in no way inferior to the scene that Chad and his team had created.
Chad began to participate fully from episode 2 onwards. What exactly did he supervise?
"Just like when they make live-action action scenes, they use stuntmen to film and edit the action scenes to make a movie. In the case of live-action scenes, they then film the actual takes using real actors, but in our case, the animators use the movie as a reference and draw by hand. So it's not really at the level of supervision. They are taking part in as many episodes as they can in between their busy schedules, but they are not doing all the episodes, so they are only considered supervisors. Also, at the beginning, Chad spoke in detail to us, the animation team, about his thoughts on action scenes. It was like an action master teaching his students. So I think that even in the episodes that Chad and the others are not involved in, the spirit of Master Chad is in them."
Chad's participation was essential to realizing this "new action."
"They've been doing action for decades, so they have a wealth of ideas. For example, imagine two people sitting across from each other at a desk. If there's a pencil on the desk, they said they could "immediately come up with about 20 different ways" to use it to kill someone. That's how committed they are to action. The action they create has a logic to it, and it has a sense of realism, like if you want to take down an enemy for sure, you'd aim for the head. But to avoid it becoming a completely realistic and dull action, they can also exaggerate it at times to make it look good on screen, so I think they're a great team."
In interview (2), we ask about the relationship between anime and music.
