Zenshuu.

After graduating from high school, Natsuko Hirose starts her career as an animator. Her talent quickly flourishes, and she makes her debut as a director in no time. Her first anime becomes a massive hit, sparking a social phenomenon and earning her recognition as an up-and-coming genius director. Her next project is set to be a romantic comedy movie themed around first love! However, having never been in love herself, Natsuko struggles to understand the concept of first love, and as a result, she's unable to create the storyboard, causing the movie production to come to a standstill. One day, she passes out while working on her storyboard and wakes up in the world of her favorite childhood anime movie "A Tale of Perishing."

(Source: Crunchyroll)

Hirose, Natsuko Main

Nagase, Anna Japanese

Braveheart, Luke Main

Ura, Kazuki Japanese

QJ Main

Suyama, Akio Japanese

Unio Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Memmeln Main

Suzuki, Minori Japanese

Justice Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Ultimate Exister Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Heartwarming, Destiny Supporting

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Mayor Supporting

Inada, Tetsu Japanese

Pegbar Supporting

Nagase, Anna Japanese

Hosaka, Takanori Producer

Ogawa, Takahiro Producer

Ikeda, Tomokazu Producer

Yamauchi, Mirai 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

luxray978

Mixed Feelings

__Animation/Visual style__

As expected since MAPPA is working on Zenshuu the animation is extremely fluid and several creative shots make good use of the team’s skills. The combat animation is very cool and even the sketches and paper creatures look great. There's not much to say here besides top-class work. However a caveat here is that I didn’t find the visual style to be very unique, and the design of the world was largely generic. I guess that fits with the “forgotten XO’s movie” idea but I still didn't like it.

__Plot and themes:__


I found the overarching themes of Zenshuu interesting but I didn’t find them ... handled particularly well. The monster of the week format for the first half doesn’t work for me and many of the themes go very underexplored. Finally, the world-building is extremely shallow to the point where it goes beyond the point of being nothing and becomes actively distracting.

The aforementioned Monster of the Week episodes lack interesting monsters or solutions for most of them. They resolve with Natsuko drawing something from pop media and then the credits roll for the vast majority. They don’t bring anything to the table besides allowing the romance to progress a bit in the background. As such this time could’ve been spent on a more interesting plot device or exploring the many characters that lacked proper development in the show. I’m aware that for many people seeing references to animation history was cool and fun but I think this could’ve been integrated in a more interesting way than simply pointing at previous things. I would give a pass if this tied into a larger theme or arc around Natsuko being unable to create original media and overcoming that but it does not. They begin to improve on these towards the end of these episodes but the damage is already done in making me sit through the previous uninteresting fights.

In my opinion, the main themes of Zenshuu are First love, Oblivion/Depression, and feelings of inadequacy. Of these, the first is given the most screen time and is handled the best with a consistent and satisfying slow buildup and great integration through the vignette episode midway through the series. As for the last two they are certainly touched upon but I felt their integration to be weak despite the sudden heavy focus given to Natsuko's feeling of inadequacy. It’s a shame because I think both could’ve been the basis for an interesting show but ended up cluttering things and serving to push things out.

Zenshuu’s world-building generally occurs when characters have to pass through something for plot reasons or an offhand comment. As such things feel very empty and as a viewer, it’s sometimes hard to take the stakes seriously because of it. There’s no significant explanation for what’s going on or why people believe the things they do with one notable well-done exception over the course of an episode.

__Character Design:__
Character designs were at first annoying and then transitioned into being mostly nothing to me with the exception of Justice and Natsuko. While I’m aware it’s partially the “point” to have the 9 soldiers designs be scattered it still feels really bizarre at the start. As the series progresses they manage to work around this better and scenes feel a lot less weird but it was extremely distracting for me until I got used to them. Even after that, I found them to be pretty nothing with them being simple pastiches of other media. Justice’s design and VA are really cool and his swoon-worthy persona is accentuated by how he moves when he’s interacting with Natsuko. Natsuko is by far the standout with her hair covering her eyes serving as a unique design element and a great way to display her mental state.


__Character:__
As far as the characters themselves I find all of them besides the main duo to be extremely shallow even though many change throughout the story. Those that change feel less like a dynamic change taking course through the story and more like a switch being flipped to change them between modes. The prime example of this is probably a period late in the show where a character reverts their personality changes before immediately switching back again. However, the character who becomes convinced to give up their firmly held beliefs by kinda nothing and sticks with it is also not great. Unio is the closest to having a fully developed arc and I became a focal point for my attention, especially towards the end but things still feel shallow there.

Natsuko and Luke’s relationship on the other hand is handled really well. Watching the slow-burn romance is really fun and the way both Luke and Natsuko change as he realizes his feelings and she becomes more connected to the world is very cute. This dynamic was what kept me watching week-week and without it, I would probably have dropped the show.

__Treatment of women:__

Despite having a female protagonist Zenshuu has close to nothing to say about women’s role in society or their treatment. Destiny’s arc is kinda saying something about the way belief in powerlessness can reinforce it but it’s extremely shallow. A more critical observer may even find some distaste for the way the show seems to imply that situations like being trapped in an arranged marriage are easy to leave.


__Sound: :__
The sound design in the dark scenes stood out to me as a good way to show the change in tone.  There’s some good foley and other effects mixed in as well which I enjoyed. The sound is generally effective throughout the series but never massively stood out to me besides in the last episode. Besides that I found the OP to be a cool song and I added the artist to my music rotation so I would consider that a win. I can’t comment on the lyrics or how appropriate they are because I don’t speak Japanese so I’ll leave that to other people.



__Conclusion:__

Zenshuu is a very pretty show that often feels like it has the same issues as the poorly received old anime films it parodies at times. Worldbuilding and character development are shallow with the exception of the main cast and I found much of the early show to be quite a drag. Nevertheless, it manages to rally towards the end and create enough emotional impact through its main duo to push itself up to something interesting. As such my final rating is a 7/10,  If you really like isekai, are dying for a female lead slow-burn romance, or really want to see some references to old animation check out Zenshuu. 

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 4, 2025

TouKun404

Not Recommended

The show started as an average dumb isekai for the first 7 episodes, and then it kinda got interesting and had a better image of what it wanted to be, until that final. That goddamn final that doesn't make sense in any way, not a single thing about it follows the plot or clears up any of the plotholes. It feels like they started drawing nd randomly chose plot points as they went, and "fixed" everything in the final episode randomly.

The only reason I give it a 5 is out of the respect for the good animation & music.
Next time hire a ... writing team.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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