While the episode isn’t bad, it’s certainly better than the first three, but not as great as Episode 4. Yes, Lazarus does go on another group mission with them holding a fake press conference to lure out a lead, the results end in surprise.
The group tries to get clues by confronting the CEO Ahmed after Axel charges into his tightly secured condo. Together with him, they hold a fake press conference in hopes of luring out Skinner’s accomplice, but it turns to a fight between hackers. Though, I do wonder if the rival hacker, Popcorn Wizard, was involved with Skinner because from what the dialogue insists, she isn’t related to him. Does that mean their lead is a dud? However, the most interesting aspect about this episode is learning what sort of effects Hapna has in that if someone dies from it, their eyes become star-studded.
Axel fights inside an elevator in this episode. I thought something naughty was going to happen as the scene before transitioning to the fight scene looked as if he was going to make out with that male security guard. I’m also surprised that there’s a female security guard in the mix and that Axel also fights her to show off that his parkour is rated E for everyone. I’ve seen some people complain about the fight scene for being a bit too choppy. I also have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it makes sense to animate it like that because he’s fighting in an enclosed space, yet on the other hand, I do feel as if they should’ve done a bit more? Maybe that’s just me.
There’s actually a second fight scene in this episode that revolves around Eleina and not Axel. She gets to have a hacker duel with Popcorn Wizard and it was pretty cool to see her show off her prowess. I feel like Eleina is just there at times being mission control, so it’s definitely nice to see her get some action in her own way.
The voice cast is still amazing. Daisuke Ono joins the cast as the CEO Ahmed. I think the most surprising casting for this episode was learning that NEEKO, the voice actress of Reborn from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, voice Popcorn Wizard. It’s a casting choice that really caught me by surprise because I did not expect that. I think the last time I heard NEEKO in an anime was in Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions as Mylo’s teddy bear and that was back in Fall 2024.
I do wonder what’s going to happen next as Popcorn Wizard threw her laptop off a cliff and drove off to who knows where. Is she in cahoots with Skinner or is their lead a dud? It’s been five episodes already, I feel like they should’ve gotten a lead by now… What do you think?
With Axel being forced to join Lazarus now, the search of Skinner begins as the group splits into groups of two and head out to locations where Dr. Skinner has been. I do wonder why these specific people have been gathered as we barely know anything about them, even for Axel. I guess this episode is to have the group be used to each other as well as the viewers in order for them to get attached and then later get their stories revealed.
It’s only the second episode, so it makes sense that the lead they had turned out to be a dud. I did like the suspense from both sides as it felt as if both groups were about to be in danger, but it was only Axel’s group that got in major danger and the action scenes. Doug’s group looked as if they were going to be in danger, but it turned out the opposite as they befriended the robbers who invaded Kobayashi’s home.
Skinner really is a big mystery. He was an overall good person from his actions, yet I do wonder why he created Hapna and then doomed the world after resurfacing from a long disappearance. It makes me wonder if the end of the world really is going to happen after 30 days or if Skinner did that for fear factor. I bet it’s going to take at least the end of the story to find him and his intents.
I think Axel being in prison for 888 years is also another big mystery. The episode did state that his sentence went up to 888 years because of his constant prison breaks, but what really caused him to be sentenced to prison? Regardless, his parkour scenes were cool as always.
I feel like this is just an episode where the viewers are getting to know the people of Lazarus and their dynamic with them. It’s nothing too ground-breaking, but it’s fine as a story with a lot of characters needs time to develop them before getting into the nitty-gritty. I do wonder what’s next as Eleina has found weird traces of Skinner everywhere. What could this mean? Let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Lazarus Episode 6 Review - Away From The Outside World
This is a weird episode. It feels like it’s unnecessary yet at the same time, it’s important…supposedly. It’s good Eleina focus, yet at the same time, it’s weirdly written. Also, this is the first episode without the signature Axel parkour.
Why is it weird? Well, the whole episode revolves around a cult where the people are barred from the outside world and worship an AI-controlled tower called The Tower of Truth. Apparently, Skinner has some connection to it as well as Eleina; it turns out that she’s from the cult. Though, this is weird. She seems to be around 15 or 16 years old, yet she’s a renowned hacker. The place she grew up in banned access to the outside world like computers and the Internet, so how can someone so sheltered like her suddenly become a computer genius? It just doesn’t make sense… Though, I do like that the episode does show subtle hints that Eleina craves maternal love in a sense due to how lonely she looks at times. It’s good that Chris is there for her to be the big sister and mother figure that she needs.
The cult has quite the unusual rules. No one acknowledges their blood relations, so Eleina cannot call Carla her mother despite being her biological parent. The food they made are all naturally grown from their hands. It makes me wonder how Eleina was able to escape. The founder of the cult is Billy Perez, yet nothing of note can be found about him. They all cannot think for themselves. Though, Hannah is a stand out as she is someone who is able to think for herself and even found herself jealous and resentful that Eleina ran off by herself.
Someone in the production studio either hates Leland or likes him so much that they have a kink for him getting into crazy situations. Poor kid cannot catch a break. I like that he’s self aware of it too. This episode has him and Eleina tied to a pole and almost got incinerated for a ritual. Damn, I’d be traumatized if that were me.
Though, the casting is still top notch with Satoshi Hino as Billy Perez, Kazuhiko Inoue as Naga, and Shion Wakayama as Hannah. Carla is voiced by Atsuko Yuya whom I’m not too familiar with, but I do know that she voiced Oleana from Pokemon Journeys. Sometimes, I feel like hearing the voice actors is more enjoyable than the actual content of these episodes at times…
I wonder what this episode’s purpose is. It’s such an odd take from the usual formula. And how long will the story keep dragging out? How long will it take for them to finally find Skinner? Let me know your thoughts!
Lazarus Episode 11 Review - Dancing With The Ghost Assassin
The anime went all out with the action scene. I wonder if it’s because it’ll be the last one or if there will be a final showdown between Axel and Soryu. Anyways, it was nice to see such a wide area be used as the battleground for their encounter. I do feel a bit bad for the collateral damage in the form of the damaged vehicles and the people inside. Yeesh, it’s either be dead by two men duking it out or dead by Hapna. There’s no way out.
Still, it was nice to see Axel give Soryu a run for his money. I think he might be the only person who can fight on par with Soryu and even outwit him. It was a nice twist to see some emotions in Soryu who reacted poorly to Axel’s necklace. Regardless, I felt a little…disappointed that Soryu, who was famed to be this unbeatable killing machine, has a hard time getting rid of Axel until the very end of the episode. Either Axel is also a trained assassin or his parkour skills are so OP that a Chinese assassin is outclassed by him. It is unusual how Axel just “knows” that Soryu is out to kill him as that’s why he’s ready to fight immediately. I think what sort of killed the pacing of this episode is the fact that it has to cut away to the other Lazarus characters who are doing their own thing. I guess that’s the reason why the Axel vs Soryu fight felt a little rushed? I loved how everything was animated, nonetheless. Also, Axel’s definitely not dead. His special blood is going to save it—I guarantee it.
On Hersch’s side, she visits Schneider who has sent men after Eleina and Douglas and he was the one who hired Soryu. I’m a bit confused why he’s trying to stop Lazarus. If everyone dies because of Hapna, that means the military dies too. What’s the reason why they’re trying to get Axel killed? Because he has an immunity or the cure to Hapna? Why would they not want to be known? Everyone dying would mean he has no men to control or to have wars with…
On Eleina and Doug’s side, Eleina is getting a fever, but she’s lying to Doug because she doesn’t want to be a hindrance as she’s the only one who can find Popcorn Wizard and have a direct clue to Skinner. I’m glad that she’s able to find her on time before she falls unconscious. I wonder what’s going to happen with Skinner… Also, the only confusing thing about the Eleina segment is that she’s running in really thick platform shoes. Girl, how are you able to run in those?
Lastly, there’s the Leland and Christine segment where Christine goes off to find Axel while Abel who came to the headquarters decides to find Hersch who has been detained by Schneider. It sucks that Leland’s not going to do much other than wait at base. I guess that’s contributing something in a way…
There are two more episodes left and I am curious to see how everything will wrap up. Will there be a final battle with Soryu? Will Eleina find Skinner? How is Axel going to be resurrected? Let me know your thoughts on this episode!
It feels as if the plot, searching for Skinner, isn’t as urgent as the anime lets it out to be. This episode doesn’t concern itself too much with Skinner as it mainly focused on rescuing Chris, but the Skinner part was important due to Hersch’s connection with him, but not as much. Still, it was an alright episode overall.
Lazarus had to rescue Chris because of their bracelet exploding if one of them is to be missing, so the stakes are pretty dire. Despite my thoughts about this being an ‘alright’ episode, I still liked the fact that everyone participated in rescuing Chris. Axel returns with his signature parkour scenes. Doug goes around sniping people to prevent Axel from having any obstacles. Leland controls a seagull drone to help locate Chris and also help Axel if needed. Eleina actually goes out of base and decides to hack into an oil rig’s security system with workers looking at her with awe—honestly, the best part about this episode. While Chris is tied up, she still gets her fair share of action scenes while restrained.
Back in Episode 3, Chris did tell Leland she was a ‘secret agent’ of sorts, and it was true. She used to work as a Russian spy in a secret organization before losing her life in a bombing incident at an airport and was able to survive miraculously. However, her organization doesn’t do well with betrayal, hence why she had to defect and change her name from Alexandra to Christine Blake. Despite this episode being about her past, it’s not elaborated too much, as the message of this episode is mainly that Chris’s past doesn’t matter as the group cares about who she is in the present.
Still, Chris and Inga’s tension felt like they were once lovers and that Inga’s reaction felt like a betrayed lover of sorts. The sapphic undertones were immaculate. It was pure doomed yuri…until Sergei came and shot Inga. That felt super homophobic. Heck, I hated Sergei from the way he was violent towards Chris and now he shot Inga. He’s definitely homophobic and misogynistic. At least let the two kiss or have some face stroking before killing her. Ugh, Sergei is definitely going in my hated characters list for sure.
Now that Chris is rescued and the group is whole again, it does make me wonder what’s next in their search for Skinner. With the reveal that Hersch and Skinner used to be colleagues, it makes the search for him more intense. Now, time will only tell if this anime will be able to go back to making the plot be urgent. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!
Lazarus Episode 13 Review + Final Thoughts - Countdown To Zero
While everything wrapped up nicely, it did feel lackluster in execution. I feel like there could’ve been more to the ending, but they probably ran out of time… It’s a little disappointing to me. Why I say that is because it felt as if the anime tried to do a lot of things, but couldn’t handle it as well as they could’ve.
The fact that Schneider and INSCOM was the whole reason Skinner decided to doom the world did feel like it should’ve been revealed a few episodes ago. If Schneider’s goal was to make bioweapons, where are they? What are they? It felt as if Schneider’s reveal as the big bad was implemented a bit too late as he made a full appearance in Episode 9, which is a little too late for the villain to arrive, if you ask me… Also, the fact that all he gets is an arrest and tried in court does feel unsatisfying. I get that not all ‘final bosses’ need to be eradicated, but at least give him some humiliation?
While Soryu is a good source of conflict, he does feel as if he belongs in a completely different plot point because he has no correlation to Hapna in any shape or form. It was as if this anime was planned to be two cours, but had to be scrapped. Heck, he and Axel don’t even have a direct connection—all Soryu has is an obsession to kill him whether it be for a contract or not. Soryu was part of a secret project where a Chinese man sought to find a killing machine. Soryu was the only survivor as he killed everyone but was sort of brainwashed to forget everything. Also, HQ and Soryu are split personalities as mentioned in the previous episode, yet it’s not that important. Still, I do find Soryu’s death a bit ironic in the sense that he’s this superhuman assassin who can kill anyone as if he was a deadly shadow, yet he meets his demise by being crushed by debris while trying to escape the falling building that HE caused after launching an artillery gun at an INSCOM copter. It’s a very human death, which is befitting for his character who was struggling to determine if he was a monster or not. I just wish he was implemented earlier into the story or had some sort of connection with Axel or the overarching plot instead of being shoehorned in last minute.
The whole confrontation with Skinner was alright. Like, Doug finally figured out that the blind homeless guy he tried to talk to was indeed Skinner. Fortunately, Leland was smart enough to figure out that they can find Skinner via the fantasy tulip. The whole reason Skinner doomed the world was because of the airport incident that all five Lazarus members were in, coincidentally. It was because he developed a cynical view of humanity that he didn’t even think twice about the good people in the world. Still, I don’t really get why no one was reprimanding him for his actions. He was just “here’s the cure since you asked. I guess the world isn’t so bad now” and then he died. I mean, it was obvious he was going to die, but it did feel too simple…
While everyone got a happy ending by rejoining Lazarus and saved humanity, I felt as if the story would’ve benefited if it there had been a second season… Still, for an original story, it did have some substance. I do feel as if Lazarus was going trying to focus more on action and the scenery rather than narrative and character building because the scenery and animation are all top notch, but the story’s lack of urgency to find Skinner and how each character’s backstories are just sprinkled in here and there feels more to be desired—heck, why Axel had a life sentence in prison was never even explained!
While I did like the Japanese voice acting, the English dub was a bit stifling at first, but they all got better as the episodes progressed to the point that I did watch the last few episodes in English dub. I do quite like the progression of Jack Stanbury’s performance as Axel and I also think that Scott Gibbs as Soryu was the best. For the Japanese dub, everyone did great, but I did think Kensho Ono as Schneider was actually a standout because he was completely playing against his typecasting, even if Schneider was underutilized as a villain.
Overall, this wasn’t Watanabe’s best anime, but it’s still a substantial watch. It’s the type of show that you watch once and probably not pick up a second time around, unless you’re trying to study the animation. It’s a solid 6/10. Let me know your thoughts on the anime as a whole!
I can tell that this is a build-up for the final confrontation with Skinner with how they finally get a good lead. Now with Leland’s past revealed, it’s now only Axel who’s backstory hasn’t been in the spotlight, which will probably be explored next episode. Though, if there are six days left, what did they do for the past four days? Sit around and wait for the results?
It was established in the last episode that Leland was a spy and now, in this episode, more of his backstory is revealed. He’s the illegitimate son of the prestigious and aristocratic Aster family. While he’s estranged from them after his father’s passing, he decides to come back home after four years because his family has access to doctors of all kinds and one of them does work in a hospital where Skinner got his artificial heart treatment.
Though, things don’t really add up. If he’s sixteen, that means he left his house when he was twelve. Who was taking care of him at the time? Abel? And if he’s a spy, who is he working for? I don’t think it’s for his family as his sister Isabella was scorning his return. I feel like there’s a lot of plot holes for some of these backstories and it kind of makes it hard to take it seriously, like with Eleina’s. I feel like they’re just there for convenience…
This means that Axel is the final of the Lazarus team to get his backstory in the spotlight. Yes, he was in prison and has a life sentence for constantly breaking out, but for what? Maybe next episode will explain more? He’s also the only person of the experiments to have survived, meaning that there’s something special about him or his blood. His immunity could possibly be the cure to Hapna. But that inkling of hope is dangling on a thread as Soryu has arrived to seek out Axel. Oh boy, things are going to get intense.
For those who watch the episode subbed, the supporting cast for this episode is as high quality as always. Leland’s sister Isabella is voiced by Ayane Sakura, who seems to be very good at voicing b*tchy sisters. Just how many mean sisters has this woman played? Yoshiko Sakakibara voices Dr. Millie.
With the last two or three episodes, the final battle looms. There’s also a lot of buildup for plot points like Eleina getting a fever that she hasn’t told Doug about, Soryu confronting Axel and the possibility that Skinner died in that airport attack and that the one seen on television is nothing but a fake. What do you think will happen now?
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
origamiaround
2087
germansingergirl
areudirty
dededos
