Zenshuu.

Since Natsuko Hirose became a professional animator, she has quickly risen to stardom and even debuted as the director of her own anime series. Everyone expects her next project to be another masterpiece; but Natsuko struggles to meet deadlines, micromanaging every aspect of the work until one day, she collapses from food poisoning.

When Natsuko wakes up, she finds herself in an unfamiliar place, immediately pursued by a monster called a Void. However, she is saved just in time by the members of the honored Nine Soldiers: Luke Braveheart, Memmeln, QJ, and Unio. Natsuko is suspicious at first, but soon realizes that she has been summoned to the world of her favorite childhood movie—A Tale of Perishing. As familiar events begin to line up, she seeks to avert the tragic outcome of the upcoming Void invasion.

Much to her surprise, Natsuko gains the power to turn her drawings into reality when her animation peg bar lights up. She begins eliminating the Voids as they come, changing the story and joining the Nine Soldiers. Using her new ability and vast knowledge of the movie, Natsuko wants to change the events to her desire and find a way back home.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hirose, Natsuko Main

Nagase, Anna Japanese

Braveheart, Luke Main

Ura, Kazuki Japanese

QJ Main

Suyama, Akio Japanese

Memmeln Main

Suzuki, Minori Japanese

Unio Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Justice Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Pegbar Supporting

Nagase, Anna Japanese

Heartwarming, Destiny Supporting

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Ultimate Exister Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Mayor Supporting

Inada, Tetsu Japanese

Hosaka, Takanori Producer

Ogawa, Takahiro Producer

Yamauchi, Mirai Producer

Ikeda, Tomokazu Producer

Reviews

Mar 23, 2025

FenrirBlack22

Recommended

An absolute love letter to the cheesiest corniest most beloved beautiful story telling tropes and beats in all of anime. One of the best anime original anime I've ever seen and one of the best anime I've seen in a good while. Solid 9/10. It would have been a 10/10 Masterpiece it played the story too safe. It was predictable a lot of the time and very by the book. You could follow the three arc structure it had going episode by episode which while could be intentional seeing how the show was based on a movie within the story. If that was the case ... then bravo for such meta storytelling. An absolute love letter to the cheesiest corniest most beloved beautiful story telling tropes and beats in all of anime.
The characters were phenomenal. Some more than others. Memmeln felt very under utilized despite having her own personal tragedy and character growth but it was so short and felt like too easy of a change for someone with such deep seated anxiety and issues. The Bird Director was probably the biggest disappointment. She was neither an ally or an enemy. Just a random inclusion despite being such a significant figure when it came to "A Tale of Perishing". Her inclusion had a lot of potential as an antagonist but it never went anywhere and frankly if was removed all together nothing would change. Luke, Unio, Justice, and of course our heroine Natsuko win the gold star for not only being just great characters but each having their own well rounded character arcs and development. This show was not carried by the plot or the references to other anime, but these characters.
Shifting to the plot, it was very by the book. A character like Natsuko struggling with pressure that came with success and her own shortcomings sent to a world where she is given god like powers and omnipotence as she struggles to use said powers and knowledge to change a fate written in stone. She did everything she was supposed to do for a character. She struggled, grew, evolved, and in the end over came her short comings established in the first episodes. It was well executed, handled, and animated with incredible skill and grace. It was also safe. Nothing really stood out about her character or the story as a whole. The anime reference and easter eggs were a nice touch for any anime fans but overall the plot was standard, safe, and predictable. Everything from beginning to the last scene was exactly what one would expect from a series like this. It was amazing, beautiful, and exciting to watch as well.
In a lot of ways, Zenshu's predictability is part of its charm. It truly is a love letter to the 3 arc structure of story telling and all those movies, shows, and stories that follow it. It was not trying to rewrite the rules because it was celebrating them. This series is a celebration of anime and animation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 23, 2025

hazzinesaid

Mixed Feelings

Anime is often boring, though occasionally entertaining. Despite MAPPA's efforts to add artistic value to its works, the writing team repeatedly fails to deliver a cohesive story or an experience worthy of being remembered by future generations—or even something I'd recommend to my friends. Despite a massive budget and talented animators, the story remains weak, lacking logical consistency and relying on laughably dumb solutions to its conflicts.

That said, I can’t deny that the final episode was highly enjoyable. However, I would have preferred if we had gotten the director’s original vision, where character development felt more natural and the world-building and kingdoms were ... far more intriguing. As for the character designs, while technically well-executed, the color choices feel dull and inconsistent, making the characters look like a washed-out version of *Dragon Quest* designs—but worse. Even the protagonist seems like a recycled character from a previous installment, just with more garish colors.

I truly hope that one day, MAPPA creates an original work that can rival the quality of *Gainax* and *Trigger*, rather than continuing to churn out projects that lack creativity and solid storytelling.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 24, 2025

Cynthesia

Not Recommended

Oh boy what a mess. Zenshuu is a textbook example of the importance of a thesis. When your show doesn’t understand what it wants to achieve than the entire runtime is naturally going to lack direction and the viewer is left to suffer. So what does Zenshuu set out to achieve exactly? Technically it presents the key idea, your first love, right from the jump but instead of pursuing this idea it spends the remainder of it’s runtime dedicated to filler and references. Desperate attempts are made to mask this with colorful poppy animation but it’s ultimately fruitless as the overwhelming bulk of Zenshuu’s content ... is so lacking that it only exemplifies how annoying the remainder of the show is.



Don’t be fooled by the incorporation of references to the anime industry, this is not a love letter to animation nor is it some kind of passion project. Zenshuu is fundamentally a half baked isekai generic monster of the week show which follows a set formula for the first 4/5 of it’s runtime. Natsuko is thrust into the world of her favorite childhood anime and her presence brings inevitable changes to the script. Every episode then follows as 18 minutes of her frolicking about followed by a 2 minute action sequence at the end of the episode. Rinse and repeat for 10 episodes and rush in a dramatic (used loosely) finale and you have your show.



The issues show themselves early. First, none of the characters are likeable. None of them. Natsuko’s progression follows her going from an extremely entitled egotistical prick to a generic shounen protagonist, is this supposed to be likeable? She lacks chemistry with the remainder of the cast as well which obviously doesn’t bode well. She sort of bumbles her way from plot point to plot point without establishing any likeable or fun personality traits. It’s possible to write characters which have massive egos that are likeable but her arrogance comes across as a normal person LARPing as someone with talent. The fantasy characters are about as generic as it gets and feature no personality traits at all. So your main characters are an annoying brat and a bunch of people that fail to leave any impression at all.



So the plot fails and the characters fail, what about everything else? Well MAPPA is an industry leader and so they have more than enough resources to throw at this to make it look good. And to that degree they manage to succeed, in a very typical way. The art looks good but uninspired. Even in the scenes where Natsuko uses her drawing powers to unleash anime references against the copy pasted mob wave of the week they look… normal. Everything looks normal. The colors manage to pop out and movement looks clean and good, but it’s severely lacking in wow factor. It’s very difficult to illustrate over text but the visuals just look good in a very standard way.



Zenshuu fails because it simply doesn’t know what it wants. Does it want romance? Then why doesn’t it create more chemistry between the characters. Does it want action? Then why does it not measure up to par with other industry leaders? Does it want to be a passion project about the animation industry akin to Bakuman or Imouto Sae but with action focus? Then why does the passion stop at mere references. Zenshuu is a show that dips it’s toes in many genres but doesn’t have the guts to fully submerge itself in any one of them. As an anime original they have the luxury of tailor making the script and show nearly simultaneously but instead it feels as though they had to push it out with only a rough scatter plot of ideas. Simply a mess.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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