Lazarus Episode 4 Review - Take It To The Dance Floor
This is, by far, the best episode of Lazarus from content, pacing and even animation. I can’t believe it took this long for the anime to finally take a step forward. The past episodes seriously pales in comparison to this one.
Why I say so is because this is the first time Lazarus has a group mission where they sneak into a night club to seek out their target Sam Stephenson who was acquainted with Dr. Skinner. For the mission, Leland has to dress as a girl because Eleina is mission control and cannot leave the base—and it’s ‘bait’ just in case Sam doesn’t like Chris’s sexiness. What’s even more hilarious is that Leland’s disguise is completely different from the usual party-goer as he looks as if he’s going to Bible Study instead, but he still manages to snag a guy (or two if you count Axel’s flirting) who happens to be Visionary, the DJ and also the hacker Dr. 909.
Axel and Chris act as a couple as well as Doug and Leland. It’s super hilarious to see them interact, especially with Leland forcing Doug to dance and he’s the awkwardest dancer ever. Though, the former pair does make for a great battle couple as they’re the stars of the action sequence. I especially loved the scene Axel grabbed Chris’s hand and twirls around so he can use her gun. Though, Doug and Leland also get their fair share of action too with Doug joining in the action sequence and Leland being the drone guy who helped Axel reach the escaping Sam and Visionary.
I wonder if Mamoru Hosoda’s team had helped with this episode because the animation makes the characters look like they came out of a Hosoda work. Despite that, I think out of the four episodes, this one is the most beautiful visually because it does look more futuristic compared to the previous ones. The night club looks intergalactic with the lighting. The way the city is drawn is beautiful too! It definitely gives off cyberpunk vibes. While the action sequences are animated amazingly, I personally liked the part where Axel was flying on the drone more. I really loved the camera angles and the city view of the whole sequence. Seriously, this is an S-tier episode when it comes to animation.
Lazarus’s voice cast still amazes me because the previous episode had Yuichi Nakamura as Jill and now his bromantic bestie Tomokazu Sugita voices Sam in this episode. I didn’t even realize it was Sugita until I saw the credits. Damn, he’s good at the sleazy part. However, what shocked me more was that Visionary is voiced by Shoya Chiba. You might know Chiba as Taiki Inomata from Blue Box or Nirei from Wind Breaker. He usually voices chipper cuties, so to have him be a sleazy guy like Visionary is clearly playing against type. Other than the supporting cast, I’m clearly amazed by Maaya Uchida’s voice acting here. I usually associate her with young cute girls, so for her to be voicing a hot older woman with a deep sultry voice is clearly doing something to my brain…and she should voice more of these characters. Her brother Yuma Uchida voices Leland and he does a great job trying to play along his disguise by making his voice a bit more androgynous. I think it’s been a while since I last heard Yuma use a high-pitched voice.
Seriously, I hope the next episodes keep up the momentum. This episode was too good. It’s Friday as I’m writing this. Lazarus comes out on Saturdays. I can’t wait for the next episode. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!
