Lamenting Over Lazarus

I don’t think Toonami is a failed experiment. I just think this experiment hasn’t been giving us good results for a while.

Toonami is in a very weird state, and I’m not entirely sure what the future is. I might just be speaking for myself but it definitely feels like faith in the block is kind of plummeting. Nothing is immune from criticism so when I see the writing on the wall, it’s entirely understandable.

A big thing is just how much faith was lost over a long amount of time with Toonami originals, which is a shame because when the block was able to get to a point to be able to finance them I was excited. I haven’t seen many of the FLCL sequels since their original run, some I skipped altogether. Due to me losing cable I haven’t seen Ninja Kamui or Uzumaki, but I was still very locked in to how the broader anime community saw them and it wasn’t pretty. There’s a sense of wanting to “root for the home team” with Toonami originals, but once these shows exist and are put out in the world they’re going to be seen by people outside that context, people who might still think Toonami never came back after dying in 2008, and people who are outside America altogether. The fate of a lot of these projects has made me very nervous about Lazarus.

Lazarus from inception makes a lot of sense. It’s another Shinichiro Watanabe project that’s coming on Adult Swim. The fact that Toonami isn’t coasting on Bebop reruns now is a sign of the streaming wars taking a toll, because it would’ve been happening on a slightly better timeline and I don’t think it would’ve been that bad due to Bebop being THAT good of a show and Adult Swim having unwritten ownership on that show’s legacy. For years I assumed that show was an [as] original, or that they had some rights in perpetuity, I never thought the show would just NOT exist anymore on legacy TV, but that’s the Netflix effect. Though I think the fact that I spent the paragraph not actually talking about Lazarus itself shows its biggest issue, being in the shadow of Bebop.

A futuristic, grounded, sci-fi anime with a diverse cast and a jazz soundtrack is a way you could describe both shows, but that in of itself doesn’t mean Lazarus will be a carbon copy. I just get worried due to the fact that this exists as its own property, but the discussion continues to revolve around Bebop, and it'll affect how Lazarus is seen way more than its independent qualities.

The last Watanabe project that resonated with me (due to not having Netflix) was Space Dandy, and I think it fit this new Toonami like a glove. A weird, funny, experiment that had a lot of action and a lot of heart that never always did what you wanted but always gave you something memorable. Pioneering the idea of simuldubs was huge for the anime landscape as a whole and I think we take that for granted nowadays. Space Dandy wasn’t Bebop, but inevitably they still mentioned the Bebop connection in promos due to it being such a well known show. Some of his earlier work was before my time, but it doesn’t surprise me with the fact that Wolf’s Rain was being gassed up as “by the creators from Cowboy Bebop” in its initial promotion.

I think the project has a lot to look forward to, like an anime with Kamasi Washington will at least get a glance from me. Though when it comes to Toonami originals I think the lenience many people have for them is running out fast. And as a result of Uzumaki’s messy production, people can’t even say that a longer time in the oven will make a better project once we receive it. The block is looking very dire, with Toonami Rewind holdovers being stapled on and FLCL revivals being placed at the start of the block. I don’t have a problem with Common Side Effects on principal but I agree with others with how Scavengers Reign could have been there instead (or even possibly back to back? Netflix might play a factor into that not panning out, I do not know).

It’s one thing to be able to make a legendary piece of work, but as I get older I think I get frustrated with the idea that everyone has to recapture that exact same lightning in a bottle once it’s seen as something that can be marketed ad nauseam. Plus, artists should be able to make new experiences. All I’m saying is that I feel vindicated in Watanabe valuing his work on Space Dandy over Bebop, because that’s the work of his that resonated with me the most. I’ll support Lazarus however I can and I’ll be hoping for the best for this project and Toonami as a whole, but I can’t be a blind supporter either. For better or for worse, Lazarus should be able to stand on its own, and this includes cameos. It might be multiverse fatigue but it’s why I’d rather there be no immediate connection to Bebop in this project regardless of the size (woolongs being the currency I can take or leave). Though I’ll be watching no matter what.

I guess you could say whatever happens, happens.