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The first episode of the brand-newAdult Swimanime,Lazarus,dropped on Saturday (or Sunday, depending on where you are) and even though it has only been a single episode, the brand-new anime created and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe,with animation production by MAPPA, did a pretty good job of introducing its main characters.
Even though we don’t know much about their backstories per se, there are a lot of elements thatLazarusmakes use of in its first episode that still manage to give each of the main characters just enough of a personality for them to be interesting, especially in the context of the plot. Axel Gilberto is an enigmatic figure, yet his personality appears so clearly inLazarusepisode 1. So, just what do we know about thefifth agent of the Lazarus organization?
Every time I’m visited by a stranger, they’re either a lawyer or a hitman.
– Axel Gilberto, Lazarus, episode 1
What We Know About Axel Gilberto, So Far
Anime’s Latest “Malandro”
Axel Gilberto is the final piece needed to complete a specialized team of operatives tasked with locatingthe ever-elusive Dr. Skinnerbefore his thirty-day deadline is up. When Hersch approaches him at the Northport County Prison, she reveals that Axel is there serving a whopping 888 years for crimes yet to be really explored. However, what does come to the fore in that regard is that whenever Axel Gilberto is caught and incarcerated, his escape is but a matter of time. He describes it as a “bad habit”, but when he showcases this ability for the first time inLazarus, it becomes very clear that it is the work of an escape artist. No, an escape genius. This particular aspect of his character becomes central to what happens in the remainder of the first episode ofLazarus, as Axel continues to give Hersch and her operatives; not to mention the police, the slip with hisdeath-defying stunts and parkour.
His ability to weasel his way out of a pinch even against all odds is in the realm of savantry, but this isn’t just an ability; it could potentially be a metaphor for Axel’s greater personality. Not only is he confident and witty, but he’s also fearless, capable of tricking a police officer out in the town while still dressed in his prison jumpsuit, or leaping from rooftop to steel bar without a moment’s pause. The fact that Axel even shared a belly laugh with the aforementioned police officer about the “ridiculousness” of a prisoner in full prisoner garb walking around as conspicuously as Axel had been and about his “fashion choice” is a great moment of insight into his character – he’s an escape artist because deep down, Axel is a brilliant trickster. His tendency to escape from prison is reminiscent of the primary titular character of theStudio Manglobe original anime series,Michiko and Hatchin, in which the character Michiko Malandro’s notoriety also comes partly from her tendency to escape from prison.
What’s With That Prison Sentence?
Axel Gilberto’s 888 Years of Penance
We don’t really know what Axel did to have multiple life sentences piled on top of each other to the effect of nearly a millennium in jail, but it’s safe to say his escape artistry hasn’t helped his numbers at all. However, the specific number of years sticks out because it’s such a deliberate placement of some kind of possible thematic content. The number 8 has significance across a wide variety of cultural and religious beliefs, with the number correlating to luck, auspiciousness, wealth and other positive elements. In Japan, for example, the number 8 can carry metaphorical significance as it can be used in place of infinity, as seen inphrases like 「八百万の神」”yaoyorozu no kami",which, when read directly, is actually “8millionsof gods” but is actually intended to mean “countlessgods”.
In effect, the 8 here plays the role of a placeholder for the uncountable, which could also be interestingly applied to the understanding of Axel’s prison sentence: perhaps it isn’t literally 888 years, but an uncountable number of years. The reason why reading this figure of 888 in this manner is significant at all, rather than just taking it at face value the way one would"60 billion Double Dollars", “3 billion Berries” or literally any other figure for this man’s prison sentence, is becauseLazarusopens with religious and/or spiritual imagery in the sequence with Dave explaining how the world changed because of Hapna.
What Could it All Mean?
Maybe the Numbers Connect to the Series Somehow
The brief image of countless “eyes of Fatima”; an age-old talisman that wards off the Evil Eye, as well as the visualization of a spinningdriedelat a few points in this introductory sequence, adriedelbeing a four-sided spinning top played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, act as our connector to this realm of religion, culture and myth, at least in part, as it is thought in some circles that the four letters that correlate to the sides of thedriedel,when put through the lens of the numerological practice ofGematria; the assignment of numerical value to names, words or phrases, supposedly come out to the number 358, which is identical to the figure that emerges when the same practice is applied to the four letters used to spell the Hebrew word for “messiah”, a word that’s extremely relevant given the premise ofLazarus,in which world hopes for the emergence of a saviour who can find Dr. Skinner and obtain the antidote for the mutation of the Hapna drug set tokill off its users three years after being taken.
The number 4, which is a well-known symbol of misfortune in East-Asian cultures, correlates to the number of sides of the driedel, and, perhaps more importantly in the context of the series: to the number of years it has been since the development of Hapna, with this in turn also being the number of days the Biblical figure, Lazarus, lay dead before being resurrected by Jesus Christ in Christian lore. Regardless of what the numbers and figures mean, Axel Gilberto is a figure considered to be of extreme importance to Lazarus (the project), and his escape artistry is one part of what is going to be a very intriguing set of skills to unfurlas the series progresses. Long story short, we don’t really know what this guy’s deal is (yet).
