SHINICHIRŌ WATANABE: The big decision in terms of design was who are we gonna ask to design this for us? We asked the French designer, Stanislas Brunet, to join us for this. He’s part of a team called Studio No Border. French artists have a very different, distinct style from Japanese designers. That’s also why we asked him to join us for our previous project, Carole & Tuesday.
They begin their design by thinking about how the buildings should be constructed. Should they be 3D-printed or not, for example? I’m a big fan of their aesthetics, which is why I relied on them again. They use a 3D program called SketchUp Terra and a big benefit of this is that they make very detailed 3D models of the buildings. We’re able to take those and then use them for our actual art designs.
Another rule or policy for design in Lazarus is that while we are in a futuristic city, I wanted to add some contrast and disparity between the richer and the poorer areas. So, it’s very futuristic and clean in the areas that have a lot of money. However, the poor areas are like slums and very dirty. Another reason why I went this way is that it adds more reality. If everything is very futuristic and very clean then it doesn’t seem as grounded in reality.
That’s super interesting. I also love how the action and chase sequences have such kinetic movement. The fight choreography is so impressive, too. I know that Chad Stahelski is the series’ Action Supervisor. Can you talk about his role in Lazarus and what that relationship was like?
When we first reached out to Chad’s team, they were still recording John Wick 4. So, it was a bit difficult at the time. It seemed like they weren’t going to be able to fully participate, so we were completely fine with just getting some advice from them. However, upon speaking to them, they were very much on board for joining the project and doing as much as possible. They used their stunt team to record some live-action previews, which they sent to us and then we used as the inspiration for the animation. Their participation, since they’re very busy, became dependent on the episode. Chad worked on some episodes and then the animation staff from our end worked on some episodes.
It may be a fun challenge for the viewer to figure out which is which. Try to figure out which episodes are Chad’s and which is our animation staff. Then, you can check your answers by watching the end credits, since Chad’s name will be there for the episodes that he participated in.
