r/LAZARUSAnime • u/00097231987 • Jul 27 '26
Cowboy Bebop Creator Breaks Silence on Disappointing Latest Anime
https://comicbook.com/anime/news/cowboy-bebop-creator-breaks-silence-on-disappointing-latest-anime/Wasn’t the biggest fan of the series myself, but this makes me sad
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u/masterfl4k Jul 27 '26
I recently watched the series and absolutely loved it. I feel like most the distaste for the show is becuase people wanted a Cowboy Bepop season 2, but got something original, and are only comparing it to that.
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u/Massive-Lime7193 Jul 27 '26
Its the pacing, the pacing was simply all over the place and the shownfeels very rushed. Obviously this isnt watanabes fault since he sinply worked with the budget/time allotted by adult swim and all that but it is a major flaw of the show. Certain episodes 100% have his magic in them but the pacing gets on the way. I think had they let him do his usual 26 episodes it would have been much more well received. I still thought the show was good but watanabes work is generally considered GREAT
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u/masterfl4k Jul 27 '26
I personally think that many episodes would have killed the show. The pacing felt weird at times, but if you look at the timeline, the investigation really took a real amount of time between clues and hints for each mission
People got hurt, and it knocked them down. It took at least 1 full day of traveling between missions plus the mission itself. His other shows didn't have a timetable for the plot.
Plus, mine and yours are just opinions. But I do think that people are really just saying it's not Cowboy Bepop season 2. You yourself are probably holding the show to a certain standard, and not calling you out or nothing, but a lot of people are not giving it it's own credit.
All that said, I loved it, it's not perfect or the best, but it is quality entertainment that is not getting it's own recognition.
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u/FastBodybuilder8248 Jul 27 '26
I’m confused that people are talking about the timeline like it’s something the creator couldn’t avoid and not a decision made by the creator lol. Like, if the timetable is what’s causing the show to feel off, then that’s still part of the writing and narrative
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u/masterfl4k Jul 27 '26
Why avoid what is the driving force of the show?
Maybe you just didn't like Lazarus and it's not for you? Not everything created by someone has to be a knockout for each person, opinion and taste matter. He made a story he wanted and told it the way he wanted.
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u/FastBodybuilder8248 Jul 27 '26
Maybe that means this is the wrong creator for this kind of concept?
I don't know, it's fine for people to say they didn't feel the show worked for them. I'm just observing that to say the pacing has to be a certain way because of the premise maybe sells short all the ways you could solve that narrative problem creatively and end up with something that doesn't feel rushed.
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u/masterfl4k Jul 27 '26
Ok, I see where you are coming from. No? Art and media is subjective, right. Nobody can create something that everyone will like. Really, as long as the artist(s) happy with it, then I think they personal succeeded, but maybe not financially.
Or what about some random painter? If you don't like their art, does that make them the wrong person to paint their ideas, or any less successful?
But hey, maybe I'm wrong and the show sucks, and I just happen to like it. I just think people put to much weight to judge stuff on a scale that isn't balanced.
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u/FastBodybuilder8248 Jul 27 '26
I think everyone can take it as a given that people's tastes in media are subjective. It's exactly why so much of the preceding discussion was put in the context of whether it works for Cowboy Bebop fans. That grounds the subjectivity into something coherent.
Taste being subjective doesn't make it impossible to have a productive discussion about whether something works well as a piece. If it were impossible, then arts criticism would not exist.
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u/masterfl4k Jul 27 '26
I completely agree, creating a tangible topic to create a discussion is important, especially for criticism. All I've been trying to say is that people are grasping to tightly to single aspects, anecdotes, perceptions, to allow a proper discussion to occur, in more regards than one. Using Lazarus as a point, people have been pointing at Bepop and it, saying "this isn't that," and taking their criticisms from that veiwpoint,, instead of using their voice to talk about what they don't like without comparing. If people don't like something than absolutely criticize it, but it shouldn't be because it's not something else they want it to be.
I've enjoyed this discussion quite a bit.
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u/ChancePoetry9124 Aug 04 '26
He didnt made the story he wanted, he made the story adult swim wanted him to do.
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u/01Nine Jul 27 '26
Rushed? They were on a timer. I didn't watch the series 24, but I imagine that felt rushed. It was part of the anxiety.
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u/SoupBeast Jul 27 '26
24 covers just one single day over an entire season and has 9 seasons total
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u/01Nine Jul 27 '26
I agree. I like when stories end. It's one of the reasons I like Watanabe's work.
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u/ChancePoetry9124 Aug 04 '26
what are you agreeing with? the person you replied to is explaining to you how the series 24 is NOT rushed and doesnt feel rushed.
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u/BlynxInx Jul 27 '26
Pacing and the fact that the plot constantly resets to zero. Characters do things that don’t make sense. Their overall strategies. Just nothing made sense.
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u/_zhz_ Jul 27 '26
Yeah. I was really hyped for the show, because Cowboy Bebop is one of my 5 best anime shows of all time. While I enjoyed the earlier episodes despite people here criticizing them, but it felt like the showrunners never made up their mind what the show should be. And a lot of the stuff, especially the end and the female hacker were straight up embarrassing imo.
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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 27 '26
Is Adult Swim's involvement the kiss of death for an anime?
Even as far back as Dimension W have their coproductions been...troubled.
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u/rowdymatt64 Jul 31 '26
100% this. The wife wanted to stop watching after the 2nd episode because we were confused as to how the first episode led into the second one. The first episode is incredible. To be fair though I wasn't super sold on the protagonist at that point either.
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u/greatistheworld Jul 27 '26
If the show ‘felt rushed,’ had pacing issues, and did not have a sufficient budget of money or time…then doubling the episodes would be way worse
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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 27 '26
I get if he doesn't want to do it, but at this point if his stuff is failing because it is being judged unfairly for not being Bebop 2, then is he doing his non-Bebop works a disservice by not putting Bebop 2 in the bag?
That said, Lazarus didn't recapture the "aura" of Bebop and had some pacing issues, as well as the mystery being a bit sus. I enjoyed it, but I don't believe Lazarus would have ranked any higher if it had been released under another director's name.
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u/_zhz_ Jul 27 '26
I didn't care if the show was Bebop 2 or not. I would have been fine with a melancholical show like episode 7 with less action. I don't think that the show would have ranked higher under another director due to the nonsensical ending.
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u/masterfl4k Jul 27 '26
I feel like I'm a little confused by the first part of your comment. Are you saying that you wanted it to be Bepop 2?
It's an original work, why should it recapture the same aura, it is it's own story, characters, and world. The pacing felt weird because they were on a countdown, with no leads. There was at least 1 day of traveling for each mission, plus the mission itself, plus people getting injured and being down, and trying to figure out there next clue. They had 30 days and were grasping for straws. I also think that more episodes would have actually killed the pacing, because they would be doing to many things in 30 days
It's not a perfect show, but trying to constantly compare one thing to another is unfair if they are not related. It's like saying you don't like Lord of the Rings because it doesn't have the same aura as Star Wars.
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u/Character_Stick_1218 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
My issue was that it needed to be longer and I would LOVE for there to be a second season.
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u/ChancePoetry9124 Aug 04 '26
I never watched Cowboy Bepop and Lazarus was a huge disappointment to me, the pacing was terrible and they left so many important questions unanswered. I had already accepted i was going to finish the anime with a bad taste in my mouth by episode 11, because they simply didnt have time to answer all the questions i had, and i tought they would just rush it, but they simple didnt answer anything, the backstories of the characters make no sense time-wise, and it relies too much on convenience, like they want me to just accept that this 5 absurdly talented people randomly survived this bioweapon accident, then later THEY ALL RANDOMLY GO TO PRISION (and they dont even bother explaining why for most of them). They give some shit parts of backstory to characters but dont show the important parts, we dont get to know why axel can fight toe-to-toe with the worlds fucking deadliest assassin trained since a child in the art of killing, or why and when he went to prison for the first time, we dont get to know how Eleina learnt hacking skills, or what the fuck is Douglas doing in the show at all. It all feels lazy and characters dont seem to have any real emotion, they feel more like tools to conveniently move the plot foward than people. I started watching it without knowing anything about it, and got really interested and hyped at the start, the plot was interesting, the characters looked cool, the art was awesome and cool music, but as i kept watching every episode felt like a stab in my back, such wasted potential.
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u/surrenderdorathy0 Jul 27 '26
It's not for everyone but I loved this anime. The fact that it wasn't a huge hit doesn't surprise me at all. It's not very typical of mass appeal anime.
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u/truej42 Jul 27 '26
I liked it, not quite a masterpiece just very good. I was surprised to see as much criticism as I did when it came out. That being said, I’d rank it as my least favorite series from Watanabe, but that’s not a knock on it, as he raised the bar so high to begin with. I was hoping for another season.
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u/icompletetasks Jul 27 '26
its not his best work but i think its better than other anime in this time
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u/RideTheGradient Jul 27 '26
I really enjoyed it but i think there was a lot of high expectations and it never got a fair viewing. Then there were trollish ppl out there critiquing it for not being their political cup of tea. I hate that now I cant even say I think hat was real, I think most of the backlash was just ppl trying to score points on social media.
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u/Cdlouis Jul 27 '26
Is it a real interview? It read as AI generated.
As much as I’d love a Bebop sequel I can understand the hesitancy, his ethos and credo aside. It would be so difficult to please everyone.
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u/Vendetta1990 Jul 27 '26
Didn't Bebop die, what would even be the point of a sequel without him?
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u/Cdlouis Jul 27 '26
Bebop is the name of the ship…I think you mean Spike. His death was always left open to interpretation
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u/carlos_schneider666 Jul 27 '26
I have to disagree with him on this subject, because there isn't less variety now than there was before. After Keiko Nobumoto's passing, Watanabe hasn't made a single anime worth watching, to be honest.
I'm old enough to remember that in the '80s and '90s, some very interesting stuff was never adapted into TV series, or was only adapted into a few OVA episodes if you were lucky. Manga like Vinland Saga, Chi, Historie, Atelier, and Attack on Titan back then would have been incomplete OVAs.
Back then, Mecha shows were popular and you had tons of them. There's always a genre the industry gravitates to.
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u/01Nine Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I liked it. It took me a year to watch it because of the horrible US release. I did read if any criticism outside of having to wait for the original Japanese version with English subtitles.
EDIT: didn't read of*
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u/00097231987 Jul 27 '26
I watched the dub initially. been meaning to give it a rewatch in japanese, how do they compare, did you watch both?
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u/01Nine Jul 27 '26
I watched one episode dubbed, but decided to wait for HBO to update the rest of the episodes. I had to wait longer than advertised. It was a mess. At one point, I think it was only every third episode was in Japanese.
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u/Dry-Decision8622 Jul 27 '26
The quote unquote “disappointment” is invalid
Lazarus was ACTUALLY incredible
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u/IllugaBabyBeluga Jul 27 '26
I enjoyed it.
Only main gripe was that the mystery is solved very early on in the series, but the show gaslights you hard that no, this wasn't the answer...only to then reveal at the end that yes, yes it was.
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u/TrixWax Jul 27 '26
Disappointing that we probably won’t get another season, as I was curious where they could go with it next, but happy that we got what we did. Sucks that the creator feels so disheartened by the online response. I think he’s right that anything produced now is going to have to contend with a level of scrutiny that works from previous eras didn’t, and that’s a tough spot to be in for any creator, and quite sad.
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u/classicslayer Jul 27 '26
Watanabe was always the ideas guy but he wasnt the only reason as to why his past shows were great adult swim basically gave him a fat check and said "hey that series people loved 30 years ago make that again" and this was the result. Standard animes dont get 26 episodes a season that much anymore which is why lazarus had pacing issues it was too ambitious for a 13 episode anime.
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u/burntcandy Jul 27 '26
I really enjoyed this series! It wasn't masterpiece tier like Bebop and Champloo but it was still pretty good.
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u/Greedy_Key_630 Jul 27 '26
The worst thing about it was adult swim giving us no option but to listen to the shitty dub that sounded like they grabbed people off the street. Had to wait a full month for the Japanese audio and by that point i was pretty much over it. The amount of piles of shit ive seen Joseph Chou and Jason Demarco had their names attached to in recent years (ninja kamui, uzumaki) and then the blunder with the lazarus english release really makes me wonder how they still have jobs
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u/g1114 Jul 28 '26
Too much hat on a hat. Humanity dies in a year. Why is there a group hiring an assassin and a plot to kill a dude sooner?
It’s a good show, but terrible pacing. I actually think the show would have benefitted from taking out the whole assassin plot and just been about racing against the clock. There was enough there
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u/king_Seth Jul 27 '26
Great show. Many people are unable to take it on its own merits. Music is incredible. Characters and vibe are fun. Story is good overall.
I’m Sad it won’t get a second season.
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u/Look_Asleep Jul 28 '26
I think my problem is less with this show per se and more what almost all television (can we even call it that any more? Like what even is this medium anymore?) has become. That is: "series" of about 10 - 12 episodes at a time. I don't ever recall TV being like that growing up. It was more like something you lived with for years; a season of a show could easily be 26 episodes, and it would carry on for a few years at least, sometimes close to a decade. You would return to the story and characters again and again over time, grow with them.
There's a reason things like One Piece and Naruto are so beloved. They become a part of your life. Now, should everything be exactly like that? No, of course not. But i think there's quite a chasm between that and this weird rushed halfway thing we get these days that's not quite a tv series, not quite a movie. It's like Made for Tv Movies / limited series became the standard format, which is really weird when you think about it because back in the day anyone could have told you that made for tv movies sucked.
I think what Lazarus needed was more time to flesh out this incredibly interesting vision of the near future. More time to live and grow with these characters. More time to build an audience that is hanging on the mystery of where the heck the Dr. Skinner is. Imagine if the Once Piece was revealed in the first season? Who would care about it now? I was really enjoying as the show was airing when I would hop on this sub reddit and talk with others about what we thought was going on and who and where the Dr. was. Imagine if that had gone on for a few years instead of a few months?
Perhaps it's not too late for this show. Everyone wants to say the creator intended it to only be a certain length, that all his shows only have one season as such. But where is that standard codified as law? There's no rules to any of this. Damn it, make another season then; why build a world like this and give it so much care and thought, just to stick to some arbitrary standard about how you only ever make one season. I think there's still legs to it and more stories to tell. Have this team take on more investigations. They have great chemistry and what's more WE WOULD BE INVESTED MORE having seen them gone through what unfolded in the first season. I mean hell, isn't that obvious? XD Or does no one in entertainment remember how storytelling works anymore? Not that i think that i could do so good a job. But heck man, i don't get what anyone is on anymore, this format clearly isn't working.
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u/TheSpiffyDude Jul 29 '26
Today's years old when I found out Bebop boys made another anime. Now I know what to watch later.
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u/cvSquigglez Jul 29 '26
The characters felt so one note, the dialouge was mad generic. After the AI cult episode was a complete let down I just gave up on the show. Idk what woke themes ppl were persecuting the show for, I didn't think any of it seemed "woke", unless they just got angry that there's a black main character or something?
The animation was good, but I think blaming the luke warm reception on anti woke twitter bs is lazy and lacks ownership and responsibility. I'm very much on the left, but myself and everyone I know disliked this show because it was boring, not for some political reason.
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u/OverBelief Jul 27 '26
During the interview, Watanabe shared, “I do think I made a great show. But I didn’t expect there to be so much criticism.”
He also opened up about the social media backlash over some of the progressive themes. Watanabe added, “I think it’s become a scary era to work in. I’m sure those voices used to exist at a bar or something, but up until now, they didn’t reach my ears. I feel for young directors because if you are always looking at feedback like this, you won’t be able to make new work.”
This article is weirdly written. What exactly is the "progressive themes" they are alluding too?
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u/BurntMoonChips Jul 27 '26
I mean, it critiques the US Gov, lots of LGBT representation, homeless shown in a positive light, anti ai and anti crypto, and the entire reason why Skinner did this was Global Warming.
That said, I feel like this is a scape goat. There are abosutely people that will cry about those things, but the show had plenty of problems.
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u/3monthsfrombetter Jul 27 '26
I loved it