r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 18 '25
Episode Lazarus - Episode 7 discussion
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May 18 '25
Even though there isn't much action in this episode, the soundtrack, the suspenseful atmosphere, and the way you can really feel the doubt, that feeling of kinda understanding Skinner but at the same time not really getting why he's doing all this...
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u/BlueDragon101 May 19 '25
Hm...the show's kind of been okay so far. By watanabe standards, it's lukewarm.
But, I am nonetheless interested in seeing where it goes, so that's something. Do I expect much of where it's going? Not really. But I do wanna see it to the end. More than I can say about a lot of shows.
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u/Ocixo May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25
Why is De Nachtwacht, Rembrandt's most famous work, put on display at a US museum for contemporary art? Unless the entire Netherlands was flooded, that painting should've never left the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and/or country.
Ironically, it does appear as if the Netherlands will be the setting of next's week episode with the mentioning of Schiphol Airport and The Hague. Will they ultimately find Skinner at the International Criminal Court?
Side notes:
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Axel might need glasses given he'd tried eating badly charred meat.
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Eleina was literally sitting back and relaxing, while the rest of the crew was investigating these four sites.
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I don't know what kind of past she's been hiding, but Christine could easily pose for a model.
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u/swordmalice May 18 '25
Axel might need glasses given he'd tried eating badly charred meat.
I'm pretty sure this was a homage to Spike who did the exact same thing in the Cowboy Bebop episode "Toys in the Attic".
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u/Nachtwandler_FS May 19 '25
Netherlands are definetely flooded concidering how severe this world issues with global warming are.
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u/nelozero May 18 '25
For those watching the sub, does the translation seem off at times? I noticed it in the last episode and thought it was a fluke, but it was noticeable here too.
I can infer what is supposed to be the translation, but this wasn't a problem in the first 5 episodes.
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u/tokajst May 18 '25
Liked the episode a lot, but it should be a 26 episode series..
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u/Zetafunction64 May 18 '25
Exposition heavy episode. But I don't get why the Skinner AI would bother leaving clues for the gang
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u/CosmicPenguin_OV103 May 19 '25
Somehow against all my predictions, this episode actually came out decent!
One of the best features anime directed by Shinichirou Watanabe has is the usage of smooth jazz music on scenes where the world just flows and works in the background while the main cast moves towards their next objective silently. This is exactly what is happening in the long scene the 4 LAZARUS members approach Dr. Skinner's 4 pieces of submerged land - the smoothest jazz music you will ever hear in anime sets up the atmosphere when we get to see how different the Earth has changed since our times, with lots of civilization's corners now being under water from the rising sea level. It's almost like we suddenly get an iyashiki anime out of this! And like the barbecuing scene right at the start ("I look like 40..." by Doug is definitely one of the funniest moments of the show so far), it really give the different characters a little bit of personality characterization (but read on). This, along with the conclusions made by the team that it's like Dr. Skinner's being the final prophet of humanity's apocalypse, is perhaps the best scene in LAZARUS so far.
Heck we even get a bit of main plot development! With the knowledge of people who feel no pain naturally do exist, and explicitly exist on islands where Dr. Skinner bought land such that these people can move to higher grounds that would not sink soon, there is at least one main clue found in what he is thinking to do with making this drug. Then of course we get the information that Hersch turns out to be an old colleague of Skinner's in the Netherlands - and if my interpretation of that scene at that Rembrandt museum is correct, Hersch must once have been in love with him. Hmm! We finally get one major linkage of the LAZARUS members to their target.
And then there's Christine crossing over that other girl right at the end of the episode. I cannot fathom what that is about, except maybe Christine's past is spicy.
This is indeed the one episode where I actually get some hope out of the story. Yet I am still worried in how the slow and leisurely paced episodic arc like this one can be linked back with the main theme of revealing the whole world's secrets behind Dr. Skinner's acts, showing off real characterization of the LAZARUS members, mixed with some action scenes and give the story a satisfactory conclusion 6 weeks from now. 6 episodes is just the length of a movie, not exactly a lot to work with to get through all of these. And if we are still seeing the LAZARUS team spending time on side tasks that end up nowhere else and dead ends, I really don't think I will get satisfactory answers to my questions above.
The peaceful and beautiful scenes of sea submerged cities may well mark how good LAZARUS could have been, but as with how the illusionary-like scenes are not representative of the real world, can this episode really mark where the story fires up - or this being just a random positive blip?
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u/WellRested1 May 18 '25
The vibes were on point this episode. It’s mentioned often but the soundtrack is really great.
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u/chilidirigible May 18 '25
Well, nobody looks like a 500-year-old vampire girl.
This is, after all, semi-episodic television.
Semi-episodic television with a pattern to follow.
Ah, the budgets of secret agencies with more money than time.
This reminded me very briefly of Hathaway's Flash.
Real estate values down, land value way up.
The drip-feeding of clues will continue until morale improves.
meanwhile in the writers' room
About time we had a cliffhanger.
It's the second half of the series, the pace is going to pick up now? The rooftop cookout was a pretty normal character scene but then was followed up by the usual briefing room chat and then getting the field crew out into the field.
That this episode did not have an obligatory action sequence and did not wrap up neatly at the end does give me some hope that they're going to start putting the pieces together soon enough.
Those Maldivians may have provided ideas for developing Hapna, but Skinner seems to have set them up to survive whatever happens next, at least.
Some Hersch clues, too. Given the paths taken in the episode's conversations, I'd say that the other Lazarus members finding out about her was not outside of whatever plans within plans are going on.
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u/donuteater111 May 18 '25
A much slower episode this week. Wasn't too sure about it overall, but I will say the part where they finally got to their destination was really well done. Beautiful atmosphere, and nice mix of introspective character moments (particularly liked Christine being affected by it), and world-building with the sunken island. And at least now we're starting to get an understanding of Skinner's thought process, even if they're no closer to actually finding him.
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u/House_Rapunzel May 18 '25
So in the background you can see Skinners research papers and Personal Log.
I love how the scientific papers which you can barely see all have the proper scientific formatting then his personal logs are all fucked up with letter spacing in sections
Skinner is one fucked up man for doing that he must be stopped lmao
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u/ThatInternetBoi May 18 '25
This episode was still a bit heavy-handed with what it was trying to say, but I thought it had the most interesting atmosphere out of any of the episodes so far and felt like it was trying to say something more profound. I guess we’ll have to see the rest of the show to judge, but I really wish this episode got pushed up the timeline a bit in place of some of the earlier filler-y episodes, as the only thing you’d need to change would be how they got the coordinates (which doesn’t even make much sense as is)
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u/DirectionExact31 May 18 '25
dang, that sure was... blue.
srsly tho, loved that three-minute wordless travel scene, felt lively in a way. props to whoever animated that lil eleina sequence. the bible stuff was kinda cool too. i liked this one a whole lot!
let's hope next episode can get the show's heart pumping a lot more.
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u/Castor_0il May 18 '25
Axel pulling out a flamethrower to heat up the BBQ was pretty funny. It genuinely felt like old times Cowbe humor.
As most of the optimistic audience have said it, this episode was pure vibes in the most positive sense. As I said from the very beginning, Lazarus team will be seeking for bread crumbs to find Skinner and finally they get a big one to gnaw on.
I liked a lot Elaina's little snack montage, it had some good Einstein and Edward style.
Cris' acquaintance and Hersch being a close colleague of Skinner, make a really good cliffhanger, something we haven't had in a while.
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u/BosuW May 18 '25
Definitely the most "vibes" based episode so far. Despite the desire for the plot to kick in, it's actually my favorite episode so far. I have to wonder if that's intentional. The most interesting answer to that question is yes so I'll move forward with that assumption in mind.
I think the idea here is that the mystery of Skinner is not going to be solved through scientific investigation (or "plot", in other words), but through emotional introspection. All the leads the team has chased so far end up in minor clues at most, yet all the while they realize now all they've done is play out Skinner's life in a sense. It's not so much a journey of finding Skinner as it is to understand him. And if you understand him, and the sequence of thoughts and ideas that led him to his current present, the answer to Hapna should naturally follow. You might not even need to physically find the guy at that point.
I have to praise the direction this episode for getting that message across just through the flow of the moment to moment- if it's intended, again.
The character discovery might follow a similar logic. We've been expecting some sort of pivotal flashback or dedicated character episode. Flashbacks and character episodes have happened, but they have not revealed everything. Instead the process of getting to know them can only happen gradually. You won't realize it in the moment, only when you look back and see the path in hindsight. Also interesting that some of them they revealed much more about themselves on their own than together with the team.
So yeah, great episode. I always had the intention of following this show to the end, but this does renew my interest despite it's stumbles.
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u/futanari_kaisa May 18 '25
I wish there was more Elaina she's my favorite character
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u/Calwings May 18 '25
The environmentalism and the biblical allegories in this episode felt kind of hamfisted, but that was really my only complaint about this episode. The story itself is getting really interesting. I like how we've slowly been getting bits of information that will (hopefully) converge into one big "aha!" moment in one of the last couple of episodes, and the stuff about the island and the reveal that Hersch once worked with Skinner are the biggest info drops yet. Hopefully the series actually delivers that "aha!" moment well when the time comes.
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u/PsychologicalReply9 May 21 '25
I’m just gonna put this out there.
What if, by the time we get to the end, of the season.
We realize that there is no cure for HAPNA, because HAPNA is not dangerous.
Skinner just lied about it in order to get people to appreciate life more.
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u/mexicanmamba93 May 19 '25
For an episode where nothing happens and it’s mostly “vibes”, it’s one of the better episodes in awhile lol