I was kinda worried about the Adult Swim and as such the major media network influence on it but I was going to give it a chance regardless because Cowboy Bebop director. Guess I won't now lol.

uzumaki is a disappointment

I agree that scene was on the nose and I was cringing, but I'm mainly getting impatient for something significant to happen in the plot. If the narrative doesn't start pulling its weight in episode 4 I'm going to be totally checked out for the rest of it.

That sucks. I feel bad for the Japanese creators that have to go along with it, but money is money I guess.

>>5607
I was already on the fence after episode two seemed to establish this was going to be a weekly adventure type series instead of following one overarching plot. It takes away any seriousness and urgency the setting created so I wasn't invested at all in what was going on. I could have grit my teeth and bore it if I really wanted to see how other things played out, but the sakuga will be compiled at the end and I doubt I'll be missing any critical context just watching that.

>>5682
Fair enough. I don't drop things unless they're godawful or very long so I'll see it through to the end. I was in denial but you're right that they're trying to do an episodic thing. At the end of every episode they say something like "oh well, that was useless," which is probably another attempt to replicate Bebop, but the circumstances are such that it's frustrating instead of chill.

>>5683
Well, good luck. Tell us how it ends. I'm already watching >20 shows this season so I can't justify sticking with it just to see whether they pull a Maeda with the plot of this one cour show.

>>5685
>they pull a Maeda
Jun?

>>5682
It is a Watanabe show after all. Unfortunately Watanabe seems to emulating current Hollywood dogshit writing rather than being inspired by it like in previous shows.

I, for one, am enjoying it. I expect it to be a solid 7/10. Biggest gripe for me is the lack of urgency and how nondescript the characters feel, and with only one cour I don't expect much improvement on that front.

>>5689
I think Watanabe's talent lies much more in his animation direction than his writing. He's got some credits here and there for episodes, and maybe he's actually done a much better job at writing in the past. But there's some connections you can make here and there that make you wonder.

Like Nobumoto Keiko (https://anidb.net/creator/5560) who was probably the main writer for Bebop and helped to an unknown degree on Champloo/Space Dandy/Carole&Tuesday as well, but she's dead now sadly. Independent from Watanabe she wrote Wolf's Rain. Also Natsume Shingo (https://anidb.net/creator/9862) has worked with Watanabe before to a significant extent, being the subdirector to Watanabe's chief direction on Space Dandy and having episode direction/script credits over the final episodes of both seasons and first episode of the first season. Independent of Watanabe he did the direction for the first season of OPM, ACCA 13, the new Boogiepop, and worked/helped with Morimi Tomihiko and Yuasa in various roles on the Tatami Galaxy series and similar works. His most distinguished accomplishment I think is that he did the direction for Sonny Boy which was his original work.

Then there's Satou Dai, who actually does have a credit for Lazarus as one of the scriptwriters, but I don't know how involved in the overall writing he's been. With Watanabe he has some credits for Space Dandy, Bebop, and Champloo. Independent from Watanabe it seems he helped write Eureka Seven and Ergo Proxy some 20 years ago along with GitS: SAC (probably mostly Kamiyama on this one), but more recently he's done Listeners, the new Pokemon, and this https://anidb.net/anime/18227.

One has to consider if his status as an all-around legend has been built on being the face of works by perfecting their animation direction while others elevated said works through their writing. Just my thoughts on the matter.

>>5604
I think it is fascinating that you consider such a minor nonsense thing to be the issue, when Lazarus has far bigger problems, completely unrelated to any "politics" you might see in it.

>>5698
He elaborated more in >>5682 but the OP part is probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.

>>5698
I don't consider having a main character's driving motivation being completely shallow and unrealistic and then having their viewpoint sympathized with instead of challenged to be "minor nonsense". It's bad writing and indicative of what will follow. It wasn't addressing the issues seriously and they didn't serve any purpose for the plot, it's just token sociopolitical messaging thrown in for no reason.

>>5702
Does it make you uncomfortable when fiction resembles the less pleasant aspects of the real world?

>>5703
I think you're trying to provoke OP instead of trying to have a meaningful discussion with him.

>>5695
True. If you grabbed Cowboy Bebop and replaced everything outside of the writing with Lazarus' quality of animation, character design, and soundtrack, Bebop would've been considered pretty boring.

>>5704
To some extent, because I find such types tiring. "oh no the story has a thing I don't like politically in it" is a very frustrating useless form of critique.
Especially when it comes in the variety of "this was thrown in FOR NO REASON", clearly it is there for a reason. Things in stories are generally present for reasons. This sort of attitude makes me wonder if there is a point about the media in question being made at all, or whether it is an attempt at signaling certain beliefs to others.

To show some good faith:
>>5702
How would Lazarus need to address those issues for it to be doing so "seriously"?

Not to get political, but I was skeptical from the moment the first character on screen was a black person, gave it a try until they reached the trans. Dropped it instantly.

There's a real dirth of cool martial arts inspired choreography in the industry today so I'm going to watch it anyway.
>>5695
Because Watanabe is so talented on the visual side of the things personally he's also always attracted a lot of talent in that field to work with him. Tensai Okamura is responsible for a lot of those great action scenes storyboards in Bebop, and he's back working on Lazarus, for a low hanging example.