English Dub Review: Lazarus “Almost Blue”

I’m almost blue, da ba dee da ba dy.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Lazarus team move on to some remote islands, where they find a group of people Skinner bought an island from who also don’t feel pain, and thus have never tried Hapna.

OUR TAKE

We’re officially into the second half of the show now, and this week takes a dive into more ambient storytelling as the characters go out to wetter lands to think about climate change. Remember that this takes place about a quarter century from now, where the effects of a warming planet are going to be even more impactful than they are now, specifically with more ice melting and more floods. This, unfortunately, leads to some characters thinking on how maybe the Earth would be better without all of these people who are about to die and that Skinner was right to end up killing them all, which is a common sentiment in movies and shows from the past twenty or so years when a lot of lives are on the line. And the reason it’s unfortunate is that it assumes everyone has equal responsibility for the earth’s climate becoming like this when, no, it’s really just a bunch of companies run by a handful of billionaires who have the most impact and responsibility. You shouldn’t litter, but it also doesn’t make much difference if some oil company is burning whole forests or dumping chemicals in the water. But still, don’t litter.

Anyway, with that rant out of the way, as mentioned, this week is more about vibes, as we see an extended portion of the episode of the team searching for answers without any dialogue so we can vibe to these cool artistic moments of things underwater. Unsurprisingly, this does remind me a bit of how episodes of Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo would do the same thing from time to time, so this basically just seems like more of Watanabe’s signature directorial style. Unfortunately, while these segments are beautifully animated, I can’t help but be reminded of how flat the characters of this show have been. I’m definitely seeing the glimpses of characters they vaguely resemble in terms of temperament, like Axel being the Spike or Mugen type of free spirit, Doug being the stern Jet Black or Jin type, Chris and Eleina being Faye and Ed-ish, while Leland is…Leland. But we did get a bit of info on Eleina last week and it looks like Chris is set to be more explored next week, so all hope is not lost there at least. Still, despite their being a literal ticking clock, and only two weeks to go in-story, things don’t feel very urgent. Maybe that will change as we get closer to the end.