Adult Swim just announced a new anime series from the creator of cowboy bebopShinichiro Watanabe, and creator John WickChad Stahelski, promises some incredible animated action to be brought to the screen by studio MAPPA.
As reported by Vulture, the series titled Lazarus will be animated by studio MAPPA, known for its Attack on Titan and Chainsaw Man work. Set in the future 2052, all is relatively peaceful thanks to the creation of a new medicine, called Hapuna, which has eliminated disease and suffering from the world. The creator of Hapuna suddenly disappeared for three years before reappearing, declaring to the world that Hapuna would kill everyone who took it within just three years. The Lazarus team is assembled to find a way to help humanity survive, and they have a tough deadline to work on.
Cowboy Bebop creator returns to sci-fi with John Wick-style action
Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop, is the main creator of the series, with John Wick’s Stahelski choreographing the fight scenes for the anime. Watanabe has worked with MAPPA before, on his horror series Terror in Resonance, which was well received both in terms of direction and artwork. Lazarus looks set to bring some of that thrilling intensity into the sci-fi scene, marking Watanabe’s return to the genre after his 2014 series Space Dandy, a goofy comedy rather than a rather serious drama Cowboy Bebop. It’s also Stahelski’s first animated project, a fact that gives the potential for some incredible fight scenes.
No release date for the series has been announced, but an early preview will be shown at the Adult Swim Festival on July 22, suggesting that the process is relatively far away. Lazarus will be the latest in a series of anime collaborations Adult Swim’s Toonami block has been involved in, preceded by last year’s Housing Complex C horror series, the revived FLCL and adaptation of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, has yet to launch, among others. Toonami’s original anime has been largely successful so far, and a project featuring the channel’s lovable Cowboy Bebop series creator has a lot of potential.
Fans of Watanabe’s work are sure to want to see Lazarus whenever it comes out, but the addition of Stahelski’s expertly choreographed fights will open the series up to a whole new set of fans who may not have seen the anime before. With such big names attached to it, Lazarus has a chance to be the kind cowboy bebop the successor that Adult Swim had long sought.
Source: Vulture.com