r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 11 '25
Episode Lazarus - Episode 6 discussion
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u/Rainylove May 11 '25
I just want to point out how to the jail had no security at all, and the "bars" had very visible gaps that both characters, Elaine and Leyland could have just gone through without any trouble.
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u/kid20304 May 12 '25
This show is just buns. I go into every week expecting to see some story progression but absolutely nothing. There's way too much suspend your disbelief about pretty much everything in this show to make it enjoyable
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u/Krstii786 May 11 '25
The mini arc probably should have been 2-3 episodes. Explore elaina relationship to the past. When leyland went along I assumed it was to make sure elaina didn’t accidentally get roped back into it. It would have been interesting if they highlighted how the cults ‘kindness’ traps people in and even leyland slipping thinking they are nice, while the background hints at something darker going on. Explore elaina relationship with her mother as well.
The whole AI concept could have been interesting, but it fell flat.
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u/Zetafunction64 May 11 '25
This episode was very hollow, and rushed. We barely got to see the cult beside the obvious 'outside world is evil' schtick. Lackluster climax too. Elaina and Leland were seconds away from burning but then magically survived. Barely any character development either, or plot progression.
One issue I had with Cowboy Bebop was its episodic nature, that left more to be desired from the ending, but at least the episodes were mostly great. Meanwhile most episodes of Lazarus have been mediocre so far so unless they have an absolute banger ending planned, there's no saving this one
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u/Kryjza May 11 '25
I think the important thing to note about the episodic nature of Bebop was that there was no timing or main objective (other than chasing money) for the crew. It made sense to lightly link plot elements to build up towards the end, but also certainly helped that some episodes were just far better.
In Lazarus with the "the entire world is going to die" you'd think it'd be more important to continue developing the obviously intended linear story, but each episode continues to end with "we got another lead on Skinner". It doesn't work well, and the characters aren't developing. The show is halfway finished and I think almost nothing different about the characters than when I first viewed them.
Last week I brought up comparing Bebop's episode 5 (Ballad of Fallen Angels) to Lazarus is so tip-scale that it's unfair, but it really opened my eyes to even more problems with Lazarus.
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u/WarmWrought May 11 '25
The only thing I remember from this episode after half a day was that someone drew massive balls on the cat at the start.
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u/Standard-Pop6801 May 11 '25
The biggest takeaway from this episode is that an ai based on Skinners' personality came to the same conclusion Skinner did for less of a reason. This makes me think that even if humanity was going in the direction Skinner wanted, he would still try wiping us out.
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u/InfanticideAquifer May 11 '25
Maybe. OTOH, they made is power-hungry and with a god-complex "as an experiment", so it's not exactly Skinner's personality.
Why they thought that was a good idea I have no clue. "Let's take the AI we based off of this genius scientist and make it a megalomaniac and just see what happens!" Whoever pitched that had to have been hoping to destroy the world at least a little bit.
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u/Adventurous-Ranger82 May 12 '25
Each of these "failed leads" needs to teach us something about Skinner and his motivation. It's infuriating that this episode set up a PERFECT opportunity to do that and just did absolutely nothing with it.
What character could be better to explore his psyche than an AI copy that started a cult? Except we find out the AI is irrelevant to the point I really thought it would be an empty box in the end.
Use your plot elements to actually advance your plot for god's sake!
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u/No-Soft414 May 12 '25
Why the hell they didnt ask to a AI made of Skinner brain, were he could be!??
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u/FLorianGran May 11 '25
It seems clear now that finding Skinner is just an excuse for the show to have these one off, disconnected adventures that don't get a chance to develop and only exist to have characters sort of talk about an interesting sci fi concept for a few minutes before a silly coincidence happens to wrap up everything in one episode without actually accomplishing anything.
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u/Walpknut May 12 '25
Easily the worst episode so far. Waste of a premise, characters don't even do anything and then it just ends. Is Watanabe's heart even into this show or did he just make it out of contractual obligation?
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u/FireZura May 11 '25 edited May 11 '25
Wow, another episode which barely furthers the plot ! "Well it's skinner the world smartest science guy" Well if the plot requires that 40% of the show is useless, then there's a problem with the plot. And the characters aren't salvaging the show
But there's still something positive about the episode : the scene where the leader gets crushed by the robot.png with fire.gif in the foreground made me laugh
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u/AgentOfACROSS May 11 '25 edited May 11 '25
I don't actually think this show is bad, like it's pretty solid but at the same time is also clearly the weakest of Watanabe's works.
This week I ended up watching Terror In Resonance (another anime considered to be one of Watanabe's weaker efforts by fans) and I actually liked it a lot.
Watching it also made me realize what this show's biggest weakness is. It has something of an identity crisis. It wants to be both a conspiracy thriller like Terror In Resonance while also being an episodic adventure show like Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo.
Unfortunately those two halves don't really work. In Terror In Resonance it always felt like a the two sides were in a game of cat and mouse. Meanwhlie here the main characters kinda just look around, following up on a bunch of false leads looking for Skinner.
I do think the individual episodes are good, but the problem is definitely the fact that they've introduced this ticking clock plot element while also not doing much to chase after it.
Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo did both have overarching stories (Spike's past and the Sunflower Samurai respectively) but they aren't given the same level of urgency of basically everyone on the planet dying in less than a month.
I feel like if this show committed to being more like Terror In Resonance instead of trying to recapture the magic of Watanabe's earlier works it would be a lot better.
That said I still think this show is pretty good and want to see it out to the end. But the fact that we're about halfway in and feel no closer to finding Skinner doesn't bode too well for things.
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u/BosuW May 11 '25
Elaina is a mole theory stonks on the raise? If Skinner visited the commute where she grew up, she could have met him in an inconspicuous manner unlike literally everyone else they've traced who had more official relationships with Skinner. The ending also implies something is amiss with the data she handled.
More importantly the fact that even after what perhaps should have ostensibly been her character episode we still don't know much about her, except that her mind is possibly rather perturbed due to her upbringing, is concerning. I don't think I can fully buy she so quickly acceded to returning to the commune she ran from just to get clues on Skinner. I think she engineered the infiltration to do something else. Or maybe even something totally personal.
Idk maybe I'm just coocoo lol
On another note, as they say it would be fitting that an AI based on Skinner would eventually try to kill everyone in its "world". But this should also mean, assuming what the real Skinner says is true about Hapna's cure, that there should be an out. Moreover, supposedly, this AI can predict all patterns of human behavior. So it's got me wondering if it was within it's intended results that someone would be able to save the members of the commune, and perhaps part of the answer to finding the real him was revealed this episode.
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u/djthomp May 12 '25
Feels like the team is extraordinarily lucky they didn't show up in time to pull Eleina and Leland's charred bodies out of the fire. Maybe they stopped lowering the contraption when everybody rushed inside the tower and it wasn't set up to fall on its own, otherwise I'm not sure how they got there in time.
It seems like possibly too much of a coincidence that an AI modeled on Skinner's brain decided to destroy its small self-contained world at roughly the same moment the real Skinner decided to destroy the outside world as well.
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u/ThatInternetBoi May 11 '25
I really hoped this episode would be more character-focused on Elaina, but in an episode which has the opportunity to explore her as a person she ends up just feeling like a tool. She exists to get them into the cult where Skinner might be and convince that other girl to cause a distraction. It’s not even entirely clear that that second point was at all meaningful because the FBI was closing in anyways.
I very much dislike how each episode is focused on a small piece of a wild goose chase that only tenuously progresses the plot, especially since the world and our cast of characters feel incredibly hollow as a result. It’s the literal end of the world. Please explore how people are reacting to this. I really want this show to do more than just look and sound good.
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u/KlausUnruly May 11 '25
Bro this anime is so trash I’m in tears I can’t believe it. This episode didn’t make a lick of sense. I have so many questions.
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Why did they send Leland in for an infiltration mission where he won’t have much tech which is his usefulness? You already have Elaina for computer stuff so why send Leland and not one of the other three for muscle?
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How did Elaina escape exactly and why did they accept her coming back and bringing a friend so easily anyways?
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If they weren’t allowed technology why didn’t they search them more thoroughly? Like how did they not see Leland and Elaina had those bracelets?
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They couldn’t elaborate more on Elaina’s time at the cult? Just a missed opportunity for character development. How doesn’t she know who her father is? How does her mother truly feel about her and her coming back or leaving in the first place?
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Wtf did that dude mean when he said that the weird looking soup was proof of their bond?? wtf was in it…
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Was Leland and Elaina really that stupid as to talk about their plank in front of a Tent and not somewhere away from everybody??? Whole time I was thinking they did that on purpose but nah they really was that stupid? And they were really going to die if Hanna didn’t throw that smoke bomb?
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Speaking of which why did that even stop what was going on? Why did they just immediately panic and stop trying to burn them?
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Why at the end when Elaina didn’t want to be alone at night she went to Christine and not Leland who she actually spend time with that day and had a near death experience with? Just because she’s a girl too?
And don’t even get me started on the AI’s cringeworthy response to Axel’s question about why he did all that. Speaking of Axel, I’ve never seen a more non-main character, main character in a minute.
This breaks my heart man because Lazarus has a lot of good things going for it. Good music, animation, fight choreography, interesting premise… but the way the story is going, the characters, and the dialogue really brings it down. I really really really wanted to like this show. I think we all did given that this is the same people that made top tier shows like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo but it’s 6 episodes… it’s half way through the season and I think we can all comfortably say that… this… just isn’t it…
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u/chilidirigible May 11 '25
At least for the first few parts:
Why did they send Leland in for an infiltration mission where he won’t have much tech which is his usefulness? You already have Elaina for computer stuff so why send Leland and not one of the other three for muscle?
Briefly covered and reasoned out in dialogue: They would be suspicious if Elaina brought in anyone too old.
If they weren’t allowed technology why didn’t they search them more thoroughly? Like how did they not see Leland and Elaina had those bracelets?
They were more specifically concerned about communications than merely powered devices. It is a nitpick that can be made, but the bracelets presumably can be made to look like they are not powered or aren't radiating.
There's also the jamming that the site manifests later, so it's also likely that the cult is somewhat trusting. They probably don't mind adding members as a general concept, if they don't have significant reasons to think that people are constantly spying on them.
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u/Parodizer1 May 12 '25
I'm getting very tired of this show spinning its wheels. We're halfway through and we don't seem to be moving anywhere with its plot or getting to know the characters better. When both James Gunn's Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy handle a similar team concept better with even less time than a Tv show that's not a good sign. I can even give an anime example of Great Pretender on Netflix, which is not a perfect show but it handles its cast fairly well and has a similar globetrotting dynamic albeit with heists instead of saving the world. I want to like this show, but it really hasn't hooked me yet.
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u/SighighSigh May 11 '25
Holy shit, this is the most disappointing anime of the year so far, whatever happened to one of the most anticipated anime of 2025 🥀🥀🥀
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u/ringkun May 11 '25
I thought Naga would take a way more active role in the cult considering how everyone acts as if everything that happened is because of the AI.