The Creator of ‘Cowboy Bebop' Thinks Reality Is More Dystopian Than Sci-Fi

Shinichiro Watanabe's first anime, 'Cowboy Bebop,' was quite an opening act. A story of space bounty hunters trying to scrape by, its genre mash-up of westerns, science fiction and noir, with a jazzy soundtrack, was a critical and commercial success in Japan and beyond. Its American debut on Adult Swim, in 2001, is now considered a milestone in the popularization of anime in the United States.
Not one to repeat himself, Watanabe followed up 'Bebop' with a story about samurai and hip-hop ('Samurai Champloo,' 2004); a coming-of-age story about jazz musicians ('Kids on the Slope,' 2012); a mystery thriller about teenage terrorists ('Terror in Resonance,' 2014); an animated 'Blade Runner' sequel ('Blade Runner Black Out 2022,' 2017); and a sci-fi musical show about two girls on Mars ('Carole & Tuesday,' 2019).
Now, he has returned to the kind of sci-fi action that made his name with 'Lazarus,' streaming on Max and airing on Adult Swim, with new episodes arriving on Sundays. The show is set in 2055, after the disappearance of a doctor who discovered a miracle drug that has no side effects. Three years later, the doctor resurfaces with an announcement: The drug had a three-year half-life, and everyone who took it will die in 30 days unless someone finds him and the cure he developed.
Watanabe has never been shy about being a fan of cinema. 'Cowboy Bebop,' for instance, makes specific references to films like 'Alien' and '2001: A Space Odyssey.' For 'Lazarus,' Watanabe went further, teaming with a Hollywood filmmaker, the 'John Wick' director Chad Stahelski, to design the thrilling, kinetic action sequences of the anime.
In a video interview, Watanabe, speaking through the interpreters (and co-producers on the series) Takenari Maeda and Saechan, discussed the making of 'Lazarus,' the timeliness of the show's story and how watching the original 'Blade Runner' inspired his multicultural and inclusive anime casts. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Unlike your previous sci-fi projects, 'Lazarus' takes place not on a distant planet or far into the future, but in our world just 30 years from now. Why was that important?
In the past, I would look at other works of fiction and get inspired by them. But this time, just watching the news and taking a look at the world, things happening right now seem more dramatic and kind of crazier than fiction. Because I was inspired by events going on in the real world, putting it too far into the future would lose that touch of reality.
What was it like to work with Chad Stahelski on the action scenes? How does having a separate team of action choreographers design those scenes impact the work of the animators?
First off, they are big anime fans and they researched anime choreography on top of making live-action movies. They had very deep pockets in terms of ideas that they can come up with. At one point, Chad and his team said they could use one pencil to kill people. But upon asking them about it, they could come up with another 20 to 30 ideas off the top of their heads. So we were able to use their ideas as references to make the animation. We had to figure out which aspects of their footage we could stylize for animation.
The anime starts with a doomsday clock saying there are 30 days until most of humanity dies, and yet we see businesses going on like normal, talk shows interviewing artists, and more. Why did you contrast the urgency of the story with scenes like these?
That was inspired by reality and experiencing the Covid pandemic. Not everyone was acting the same way. There were people who didn't believe in it, and there were people who didn't wear masks. I thought the anime would be more grounded in reality if I made it so we had different reactions from the characters.
In 'Lazarus,' artificial intelligence is depicted as a threat to the arts, as it was in your previous anime 'Carole & Tuesday.' Does that reflect your feelings about A.I. in relation to animation and entertainment?
A.I. has become a powerful force within the industry, but I don't have a very positive outlook on the situation. It's difficult to go through the creative process, but if we let A.I. take over that part, what is left for us creators to have fun with? In 'Carole & Tuesday' the characters know it would be much easier to create music through A.I., but they want to have fun through the creative process, and those are exactly my thoughts. I create anime because I want to.
Music is always a key component of your work, and the 'Lazarus' soundtrack includes acts like Kamasi Washington, Bonobo and Floating Points. How was the process of collaborating with them?
They live in different places, so getting in contact with them was difficult. But we tracked them down when they happened to come to Japan and worked it out. None of them had experience with soundtracks before, so the one big comment I gave when I started working with them was to just work as if they were making their own album. Don't think of it as a soundtrack, make it your own.
Your shows always have diverse casts in terms of ethnicities and genders, with several of your anime including transgender and nonbinary characters. Why is it important for you to include that in your work?
Probably the biggest influence for that is the movie 'Blade Runner.' It was a melting pot of race and gender. I watched that movie when I was very young, and thought it was very cool. That movie was set in 2019, and when I watched it in the '80s I really did believe that the world would become like that.
But once that time came, the world was nothing like it. So instead, I created that world in animation.

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