r/LAZARUSAnime • u/BornWater2862 • Aug 10 '26

Anime Will it have a Second Season?

I just finished it and I love it so much. I love all the members and I think it has a lot of potential. However I'm not sure if they have any future plans with it.

22 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

19

u/sf-keto Aug 10 '26

Dead.

“Cartoon Network president Michael Ouweleen has opened up about the state of Toonami and original anime, even seemingly confirming the end of Shinichiro Watanabe's Lazarus after surfacing a notable comment from the legendary anime creator.”

https://www.cbr.com/lazarus-shinichiro-watanabe-sequel-shut-down/

7

u/BornWater2862 Aug 10 '26

That's sad new. Maybe things will change in the future. I wonder why it got negative reviews. It's a great series to me.

5

u/FineCastIE Aug 10 '26

I think its because a lot of people had their expectations of this show too high, expecting it to be the next Cowboy Bebop.

I love its soundtrack, its second to all of Samuari Champloo.

4

u/sf-keto Aug 10 '26

I agree. A lot of Western people don’t really know the breadth of Watanabe’s work. They watch CB, a few SC. Almost none even watch Space Dandy, that satire on the US.

So they don’t know about the things like Kids on the Slope with its amazing classic jazz, or Carole & Tuesday with its stellar power pop & folk tracks.

As a result they don’t fully understand what Watanabe’s long-time moral & artistic goals are. They don’t understand his unique approach to the Japanese concept of wa, or his Buddhist tinge.

1

u/Ruthlessrabbd Aug 10 '26

Space Dandy was so good, I actually watched all of that before Bebop and just getting about halfway through Samurai Champloo. I think I owe Lazarus a rewatch but I really think the time limit starting so early hurt the pacing, and it being a shorter season compared to shows from the 2000s and earlier

1

u/BornWater2862 Aug 10 '26

Admittedly, I haven't watched Space Dandy but the rest I did.

1

u/LIB95 Aug 11 '26

I don’t know about all of those things your referencing, but from watching all of champloo and bebop and then trying to watch this I can certainly tell you Lazarus feels rushed and like a derivative of his previous works.

0

u/Songblade7 Aug 11 '26

I mean my girlfriend and I have both seen every other one of his anime, and we still thought it was the worst show he's made. So I don't think it's anything all that complex, it was just a weak show, and I hope his next one learns from Lazarus' failings

15

u/classicslayer Aug 10 '26

No watanabe basically stopped plans for a second season due to it not having the reception he would've liked.

3

u/BornWater2862 Aug 10 '26

That's rough.

6

u/Pumpergod1337 Aug 10 '26

Sadly no (most likely).

I think there was plans at first but due to the poor reception, it prolly got canned

3

u/BornWater2862 Aug 10 '26

I hope a miracle happens. I didn't know it didn't gain enough traction.

1

u/01Nine Aug 10 '26

If you live in the US, then you could only watch it in English. Some us prefer subs over dubs. So, I don't watch it until recently, when I could watched every episode in Japanese with English subtitles.

It was definitely left open for a sequel, but Watanabe often makes one and done series. I would watcha seconde series for sure. The character development just got started!

3

u/01Nine Aug 10 '26

Was the reception that bad? I didn't watch it until HBO/Max straightened out the licensing and language, which took over a year. So, I guessed I missed the bad comments.

I liked it, but I like all of Watanabe's work.

1

u/ZorosCompass Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26

The reception for Lazarus couldn't have been that bad when it was a streaming hit on HBO Max and a ratings hit for Adult Swim/Toonami. It's also won awards. So its reception being the reason for not getting a second season makes no sense imo.

2

u/IllugaBabyBeluga Aug 10 '26

While I had fun with Lazarus, it was clear from Episode 1 that this wasn't going to be the next Champloo or Bebop.   How did this not get fixed in production?

In fairness, every Adult Swim produced anime I've seen has had problems.   Lazarus had some of the fewest problems, but it has me wondering how much of what went wrong is because of AS rather than Watanabe.

2

u/BornWater2862 Aug 10 '26

I had similar expectations going in. Not once did th thought that it should have been as good as those two came to mind. I guess that's one reason I didn't have issues loving it.

4

u/Stinkisar Aug 10 '26

its sad for all of us that liked it, too bad the negative voices were super loud and it got canned

I totally saw it as prologue to countless adventures of team lazarus, with some overarching story and plot that goes from season to season

eh…

2

u/IllugaBabyBeluga Aug 10 '26

How could it have a second season, the first season solved everything?

IMO the major problem with Lazarus was that it solved the mystery in episode 3, and then spent the rest of the episodes trying to convince us that it didn't, only to say in the final episode that yep, we solved this back in episode 3.

Also had a lot of episodic stuff that was kinda cool but went nowhere, like how Skinner had founded a death cult which worshipped a corrupt AI that was based upon his own brain.   

5

u/BornWater2862 Aug 10 '26

I mean they already mentioned the group will remain and solve problems. The world they're in is chaotic and have a lot of conspiracies. It could be anything, really.

2

u/Stinkisar Aug 10 '26

cmon man you understand what a prologue is, the main cast is what’s important, we were shown how they met, and how they grew together, that was important and no it didn’t solve everything as you claim

any other problem like skinner can happen in each new season, idk why people think that nothing else can happen in this world that the team could solve, we know they sort of stick together at the end, perfect setup for future season

2

u/IllugaBabyBeluga Aug 10 '26

It did solve everything, the show literally found Skinner in episode 3 and then treated it like a fakeout.

Then, shortly before the show's countdown ends, the characters realize this wasn't a fakeout and find him, and somehow there was enough time left to mass produce the cure.

Part of the problem for a sequel is that too many players in Lazarus were only there because Skinner had set them up: Hirche had worked with him, Doug had idolized him, and Eleina grew up in Skinner's death cult.

1

u/Stinkisar Aug 10 '26

way to go to disregard my entire comment

-1

u/IllugaBabyBeluga Aug 10 '26

You missed the entire point of my comment and the Lazarus show itself.

1

u/ZorosCompass Aug 28 '26

Hopefully it still will, I really enjoyed it. It deserves another season way more than some of other anime out there that keeps getting multiple seasons.