For decades, Toonami and Adult Swim helped raise the profile of anime in the west through popular shonen like Dragon Ball Z and My Hero Academia. 2021 that is Blade Runner: Black Lotus is a joint collaboration between it and Crunchyroll, and now two of the upcoming programs in the late-night block see it further collaborating with a pair of big-name Japanese creatives.
Lazarus from Shinichiro Watanabe (famous director of Cowboy Bebop) was announced earlier in the week, but received its first look at San Diego Comic-Con. The series, which is worked on This is Vinland Saga Studio MAPPA (and fight scenes designed by John Wick Director Chad Stahelski), set in the year 2052 as a miracle drug called Hapuna eradicates all disease and illness in the world. Shortly after the discovery of the drug, its creator, Dr. Skinner rose and disappeared, and the show picked up the year after his sudden return.
Turns out, Hapuna has a short life span, and anyone who takes it dies three years later. In response to Skinner’s declaration, the titular Lazarus task force—made up of five elite agents from around the world—is formed to bring Skinner in and find a way to create a vaccine. A cool premise with an even cooler trailer, as seen above. expect Lazarus which will premiere on Adult Swim in the near future.
Uzumaki, Meanwhile, an adaptation of the 1998 horror manga by Junji Ito. This show was announced in 2019, and the word about it has been pretty quiet since then SEE in 2021. Adult Swim has released a new look at the upcoming series, which is being developed by Production IG (Kaiju no. 8, FLCL Shoegaze). While the release date for the Uzumaki still hasn’t been posted yet, the trailer here should tide Ito fans over until it arrives.
Like the manga, the show focuses on the fictional town of Kurouzu-cho, which has been plagued for years by a spiral-themed supernatural curse. High school student Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend Shuichi Saito become more and more aware of the curse and how it affects the rest of the town, leading them to try and find a way to escape or break the curse. The manga received strong praise upon release, with some critics at the time calling it one of the scariest manga around, and it can be considered one of Ito’s definitive works.
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