Anime "LAZARUS" directed by Shinichiro Watanabe will be released in 2025

The anime LAZARUS, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, has been confirmed for broadcast and streaming release in 2025. Alongside this announcement, new images, action-packed footage, and cast details were revealed at New York Comic Con 2024.

Mamoru Miyano stars as Axel, whose "hobby is breaking out of prison." The "Lazarus" agent team includes Makoto Furukawa, Maaya Uchida, Yuma Uchida, and Manaka Iwami. Megumi Hayashibara plays Harsh, the mysterious woman leading the team, while Akio Otsuka portrays Abel, the head of the NSA (National Security Agency), and Koichi Yamadera plays the scientist Skinner. The anime is set to consist of 13 episodes, and comments from the cast were shared during the event.

LAZARUS is an original series produced in collaboration with Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and will air on Saturday nights in the Toonami block. The story is set in 2052, an era of unprecedented peace, largely due to a painkiller called "Hapuna," which has freed humanity from suffering. However, three years after its invention, the neuroscientist Dr. Skinner, who developed the drug, disappears—only to resurface later with a shocking revelation: Hapuna is fatal three years after ingestion. With only one vaccine available, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of the five Lazarus agents who must retrieve the vaccine to save the world.