Zenshu Anime Teases Unique Isekai Concept With Premiere
MAPPA's newest original anime is here: ZENSHU tells the story of an established anime director Natsuko Hirose, who finds herself struggling to come up with storyboards for her upcoming romance movie.
When she accidentally chokes on some clams, Natsuko finds herself in the world of a fantasy movie she was watching. Since she knows the plot of the movie, she is able to assist the protagonists and affect the outcome. But can she make it back and just where is she?
It's been a while since MAPPA has done an original anime. ZENSU probably doesn't have the best premiere but it's quite interesting because you get a two-in-one type of deal, with two almost fully separate stories and two distinct art styles. Natsuko doesn't show her face while in the real world, she's a lone wolf and a perfectionist who finds it troublesome to actually communicate with others properly and let them grow because she is concerned about the expectations she has set. This carries over to The Tale of Perishing world, but there, nobody knows who she is and nobody expects anything.
The world Natsuko ends up in has another layer: the person who directed the movie recently died, alone, after getting food poisoning. Their best-known work was Tale of Perishing, but the movie was always seen as mediocre. For Natsuko, who is struggling to live up to the reputation she has, this is a stark reminder that if she fails with the new movie, she might also be forgotten someday. And since she seemingly struggles with depicting romance due to being alone, Tale of Perishing director dying alone strikes a cord.
Another aspect of ZENSHU that viewers may find interesting is getting to see how an anime production pipeline works. The title "zenshu" refers to "redo it all," as evidenced by Natsuko saying it to one of her subordinates. The first episode gave us only a bit of that and it's unclear whether we'll go back to the real world with Natsuko. I truly hope we do, because otherwise, we'll just have a generic isekai world to look forward to.
ZENSHU is streaming on Crunchyroll this winter.
© ZENSHU, MAPPA