Shinichiro Watanabe Shares His Thoughts on Lazarus and the Anime Industry At The Japan Society

LeSean Thomas put it best at the Japan Society in New York. The place held a few events in November revolving around creators. While the convention scene is important, there is only so much ground that can be covered in a limited conventional panel setting. The Japan Society allowed Thomas and renowned Director Shinichirō Watanabe to explain the various influences that went into his work. The host of the interview was LeSean Thomas himself, as he asked Watanabe various questions about Lazarus and his general thoughts on the industry.

One key idea that permeated the entire forty-minute interview was how passion can facilitate a lot of things. Watanabe does his best to work with talented people who catch his eye and admits that he is a fan of movies and music first before he is a director. This mindset inadvertently led him to get unique talents to work on Lazarus, like Chad Stahelski, the action choreographer for the John Wick films, to help with the action, as well as the musical talents who made up the show's soundtrack. It was interesting how Watanabe described working with these two entities at separate points during the interview, but the story was roughly the same. Watanabe wanted to reach out to them after seeing and hearing about their work, acknowledged the fact that their budget was very limited, and then was caught off guard by the fact that these creators showed such a strong willingness to work with him despite any limitations. If anything, it seemed like people wanted to get involved in the project as much as possible, and Watanabe never stopped being taken aback by how strongly other people wanted to work with him.

In fact, being caught off guard or revealing how he discovered new things was a funny recurring bit that happened throughout the interview. He explained how, when working on Lazarus, he wanted to get a writing team to work together throughout the whole show. It's not uncommon in Japan to get a team of writers to help develop the overall premise of a show, but apparently, having a dedicated writer room that works on the show throughout is rare. However, what Watanabe thought was this revolutionary thing would later reveal itself as being not that uncommon over in the west when it comes to the production of western animation.

When it comes to the story, Thomas seemed to push to see if any real-world influences impacted the story. While Watanabe didn't mention anything specific, he did admit that how chaotic the world is right now did inspire the story of Lazarus. He admitted that we live in a time where real-world events have become more dramatic than a show. I do respect the fact that he also made his stance on the growing concern with AI and its place in animation. Watanabe doesn't think that AI will ever replace human passion, as that is one of the main things that allows these shows to resonate with so many people. This is a sentiment that I and a lot of people in the audience wholeheartedly agreed with.

One thing I appreciate about Watanabe is how he mentions that he will try his best to make sure that he is not regurgitating the same thing over and over again. Doesn't matter if it's a movie, a TV show, or a small animated short; he wants every experience to feel different. After the interview, The Japan Society also showed a special screening of three animated projects back to back. The first one was the first episode of Lazarus, followed by Baby Blue, an animated short film about two childhood friends cutting class and trying to go to the beach to spend one final evening together. It's an incredibly simple yet surprisingly powerful story that has so much time to breathe despite the short runtime. My favorite bit of trivia revealed at the Japan Society by Watanabe was that he apparently made this short as a direct response to a conversation he had with another creator who claimed that they didn't like killing people in their projects. Watanabe jokingly said that he looked at his own projects and felt really guilty, so he decided to make this short as a response.

Following those, we got a special A Girl Meets a Boy and a Robot, a special animated short that barely anybody had seen at this point. It was only shown at small film festivals and is part of a four-part anthology film, called Edge of Time, where the other parts were animated shorts spearheaded by different animators and directors. Watanabe joked that you don't have to watch the other parts to understand or enjoy this short, and actually joked that it is probably less confusing just to watch this short on its own.

I can understand where he's coming from, despite not having seen the other shorts, because there is a lot that isn't explained in this short film. It follows a small girl with a red hood, who is traversing a desert in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world. Most of the short film is very atmospheric with very minimal dialogue. A lot of time is spent enjoying gorgeously rendered landscapes. The use of red for things like the sand, the rust on the dilapidated metal fixtures, and even on the hood of the young girl who reminded me of Red Riding Hood definitely helped make this very visually distinct from Watanabe's other works. It especially looked good against a blue and purple sky.

Naturally, the music is also incredible. There's a strong emphasis on the piano and light motifs revolving around using very limited piano notes. This gets mirrored by an event that actually happened in the short film and was one of the most charming moments in the film. I could be reading a bit too much into it, but my interpretation is that the music is playing with the idea that harmony can be accomplished even with limited notes, similar to how you can still find brief moments of happiness in a dilapidated environment. The visuals and music really come together to sell this idea.

Without giving too much away, it's implied that most of humanity is gone, with the only things really remaining being automated machines that are just attacking any sign of life that they come across. There's a very interesting twist that happens at the end of the short that did admittedly leave an impact and was quite clever, especially if you're paying attention to the beginning of how the short starts. There are some things that probably would have benefited from a bit more explanation, but given the atmosphere and limited run time, it works well enough.

It doesn't matter if you're a Watanabe fan or a fan of animation in general; this short film was a solid endeavor with a lot of different, distinct forms of beauty carved into it. I wouldn't have minded a mini-series playing with this idea to get a better understanding of this world. Maybe Watanabe has plans to explore these ideas in a future project, but for now, I'm happy with what he was able to make here and look forward to his next project.