Zenshu (currently streaming on Crunchyroll) is a rambunctious romantic comedy-adventure that spoofs both the popular isekai genre (in which the main character is either transported or reincarnated into an alternate world) and the animation business itself. The series was produced by MAPPA Studio, whose work ranges from Jujutsu Kaisen and Yuri!!! on Ice to Chainsaw Man and Lazarus. In an interview with Animage, show creator Kimiko Ueno said the filmmakers realized that although isekai was an enormously popular genre, there had never been a series about an animator being reincarnated into another world…
Created by Ueno and Mitsue Yamazaki, the show centers on heroine Natsuko Hirose who went straight from school into the animation industry. Her impressive draftsmanship and directorial talents enabled her to create the runaway hit Sukeban Magical Girl Dark Academy. A dyed-in-the-wool perfectionist, “Zen shu,” which roughly translates to “fix everything,” sums up her attitude. But she’s been assigned to direct the rom-com Hatsukoi First Love, and the storyboards have her completely stumped. Natsuko has never been in love — she’s always regarded people as something to study for her drawings — and has no idea how to tell this kind of story.
‘What makes Zenshu so much fun is the take-no-prisoners silliness of the parodies … The more the viewer knows about anime and animation, the more fun it is to watch.’
‘What makes Zenshu so much fun is the take-no-prisoners silliness of the parodies … The more the viewer knows about anime and animation, the more fun it is to watch.’
At times, Natsuko recalls toy designer Tsukiko Sagi in Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent. A mixture of talent and luck led Tsukiko to create the wildly popular toy puppy Maromi. Now everyone expects her to repeat her previous success, but she has no idea how to do it. Both characters are swept up by circumstances they’re unable to control, but Tsukiko is a tragic figure, Natsuko a farcical one.
When she eats a clam bento lunch box — long past its sell-by date — Natsuko succumbs to food poisoning. She awakens in the series A Tale of Perishing, which she loved as a girl, although it was a notorious box-office flop. Natsuko quickly finds herself caught up in a battle against the kind of bizarre enemies that typify isekai series. When one of the weird insect-like monsters known as Voids comes after her, she knows she’s in trouble. Then the peg bar in her pocket begins to glow and a mysterious voice tells her, “You need to draw!” The messy mop of hair Natsuko uses to hide her face from the world begins to float like a magical girl’s in a transformation scene. A desk with an animation disk appears; papers fly as her pencil zips across the page: Natsuko bangs out the animation of a creature that somehow appears and destroys the Voids.
She knocks out more than a week’s quota in a matter of minutes (noting that she’s animating on 3’s), then collapses — leaving the characters from A Tale of Perishing trying to figure out who she is and how she managed to destroy the invaders.
What makes Zenshu so much fun is the take-no-prisoners silliness of the parodies. Sukeban Magical Girl Dark Academy sends up Sailor Moon: The main character announces, “Even if the sun forgives you, my lightning will not!” before she zaps the villains with her heart-topped staff. The first creature Natsuko draws to destroy the Voids is a spoof of the god-monster in Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. When she starts to redraw that character during a second Void attack, she can’t do it. The voice admonishes her: “no stock footage!”
A Tale of Perishing pokes fun at countless isekai series, beginning with its pseudo-medieval setting. Natsuko recognizes the open-air market, the cafes, the beastmen (human-animal hybrids) and minor human characters like old friends. If Mihara Ryo from Water Magician or Akira Oda from My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s walked into the scene, they’d feel right at home. The leader of the anti-Void forces is dashing blond Luke Braveheart, for whom Natsuko has nurtured a schoolgirl crush. His corps of heroes includes Unio, his blue-and-white unicorn sidekick; the Elf Memmeln, complete with pointed ears, who recalls Frieren; and the robot QJ. Otaku have seen them all before.
Ultimately, Zenshu is a great, big inside joke in the tradition of Animation Runner Kurumi and Pompo the Cinephile. The more the viewer knows about anime and animation, the more fun it is to watch.
Zenshu (12 episodes) is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Watch the trailer below:
