Back in October 2024, MAPPA officially announced they were working on a new original anime called LAZARUS, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, the same guy behind Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy.
Now, it’s been confirmed that LAZARUS will start airing in April 2025. A new visual just dropped on the official Twitter account, and we have got more details on the cast, staff, and story.
The anime takes place in 2052, where a so-called miracle drug called Hapuna has changed the world. No pain, no side effects, just total relief. But there is a deadly catch three years after taking it people start dying.
The man behind Hapuna, Dr. Skinner, disappeared after its release. Now he’s back, warning everyone that time is running out.
In response, a five-person agent team called Lazarus is put together to track him down and find a cure before it is too late. They only have 30 days to stop this disaster.
Cast and Staff
Shinichiro Watanabe is both directing and writing the upcoming anime series consisting of 13 episodes. Character designs are done by Akemi Hayashi, best known for his work on BANANA Fish. I have attached the complete staff list below:
- Director & Writer: Shinichirō Watanabe
- Screenplay: Dai Sato, Takahiro Ozawa, Tsukasa Kondo
- Action Supervision: Chad Stahelski
- Character Design: Akemi Hayashi
- Concept Design: Brunet Stanislas
- Music: Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, Floating Points
- Studio: MAPPA
- Planning & Production: SOLA Entertainment
Below is the full list of the cast of LAZARUS
- Mamoru Miyano as Axel
- Makoto Furukawa as Doug
- Maaya Uchida as Christine
- Yūma Uchida as Leland
- Manaka Iwami as Eleina
- Megumi Hayashibara as Hersch
- Akio Ōtsuka as Abel
- Kōichi Yamadera as Skinner
／#渡辺信一郎 監督最新作『#LAZARUS ラザロ』
— アニメ『LAZARUS ラザロ』Official (@lazarus_jp) October 19, 2024
豪華キャストが一挙解禁！コメントも到着💬
＼
アクセル:#宮野真守
ダグ:#古川慎 クリスティン:#内田真礼
リーランド:#内田雄馬 エレイナ:#石見舞菜香
ハーシュ:#林原めぐみ アベル:#大塚明夫
スキナー:#山寺宏一
🔽コメントhttps://t.co/eWcSfGLihb pic.twitter.com/gLPVYJReJl
Final Words
LAZARUS is set to air on TV Tokyo in April 2025. There is no info yet on where it will stream internationally. Since MAPPA is handling it, the anime should be pretty good.
Right now, MAPPA has another original anime airing on Crunchyroll about an animator’s life. It has been getting 7+ ratings on IMDB for every episode so far.
But since it was an original, no one really knew what to expect. The synopsis made it seem like it’d just be about an animator’s struggles, but Zenshu ended up being an ISEKAI, which is why it did not get a great score.
Hopefully, MAPPA won’t make the same mistake with LAZARUS.
Source: Comic Natalie
