Adult Swim’s Lazarus is preparing for the end as the original anime from creator Shinichiro Watanabe has seen big success on the Cartoon Network programming block. Having plenty in common with the legendary anime Cowboy Bebop, the series focused on a drug that spelled certain doom for millions of people across the globe, setting up an action-packed story of intrigue and espionage. In a recent interview, Watanabe proved that he still is very much in the anime game even when this series draws to a close, discussing the next project that he would like to see hit the light of day.
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In a recent discussion with the outlet Deadline, Watanabe confirmed that he would like to work on a scarier, supernatural anime series in the future, “I’d like to make a series based on a ghost story in the future. I’ve been consuming a lot of ghost-related media lately—specifically, movies where evil ghosts make an appearance. Oh, and I recently watched The Exorcist.” Stories like Cowboy Bebop and Lazarus had plenty of fantastical elements in their respective stories but the supernatural, for the most part, was quite separated from both, to say nothing of his other series such as Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, Terror In Resonance, and Carole & Tuesday to name a few.
Watanabe Talks Anime’s Past
Considering how long Watanabe’s tenure in the anime world has been, it should come as no surprise that he was more than willing to talk about how things have changed in recent decades. Here’s what Shinichiro had to say about the differences in making anime,
“In the past, anime production budgets were very low, so there wasn’t much wiggle room for what we could actually make. There was no way we would have been able to call on Chad’s team in the past due to budget constraints. Now, while the budgets are bigger, there’s a lot more we can do, and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, but there aren’t enough people in the industry to get the work done. We can’t just add more people willy-nilly; the animators are artisans and craftspeople, so they take a long time to train. That’s the reason we have a shortage now. This goes to directors, too. They take a lot of time to train and a lot of skills and experience to have a good director direct a series.”
Horror And Anime
The anime medium doesn’t have nearly as much representation in the horror world as Hollywood does these days. While Junji Ito adaptations have received their fair share of anime adaptations in the past, there are still quite a few creepy tales that haven’t received the same opportunity. Fingers crossed that Watanabe will one day make his spooky series and revitalize the horror medium in the anime world.
Want to keep tabs on the future works of Shinichiro Watanabe? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Cowboy Bebop and Lazarus and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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Image courtesy of Netflix.
