The anime Lazarus, which sparked a lot of discussion when it aired on Toonami in 2025, has officially been recognized as a worthy successor to its predecessors with a major win at the 2026 Anime Awards.
At the 10th annual Anime Awards held on May 23, 2026, at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa in Tokyo, Crunchyroll awarded Lazarus the title of Best Original Anime.
Shinichiro Watanabe, known for creating popular anime like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy, originally created Lazarus for HBO Max, but it ended up premiering exclusively on Toonami.
The TV show Lazarus aired for 13 episodes between April 6th and June 29th, 2025. As of now, it hasn’t been announced whether there will be a second season.
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“The year is 2052,” the official description for Lazarus reads.
The world was experiencing a new era of peace and calm, largely thanks to a revolutionary painkiller called Hapna. Developed by the highly respected Dr. Skinner, Hapna quickly spread worldwide and, remarkably, had no known side effects. It was believed to have finally relieved humanity of pain.
It’s just… unbelievable. Skinner vanished completely, and then, three years later, he came back – but not as the person we knew. He became some kind of prophet, and it brought about total disaster, the end of everything. The really terrifying part is this drug, Hapna. It’s designed to kill you, but with a three-year delay. Even a single dose is enough, and the clock is ticking. We’ve only got thirty days left before it’s all over for humanity.
The world can only be saved with a cure, and only Skinner has the knowledge to create it. First, though, we need to find him. A team of five agents, known as Lazarus, has been assembled from around the globe to do exactly that. Will they succeed in saving humanity? And what are Skinner’s real intentions?
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Despite being a well-made anime, Lazarus didn’t achieve the same widespread popularity as Cowboy Bebop. This is a common issue for original anime series that aired on Toonami.
Looking back at it now, in 2025, I really feel like I poured everything I had into that project, and I’m genuinely proud of what I created. I honestly believe I did the best I could with what I had!
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2026-05-23 13:11