Zenshu

We all know the success MAPPA have had with adapting beloved shonen jump titles in recent years. From CSM, to JJK and even Vinland Saga on the seinen side of things, they’ve been on an insane run. Their anime originals on the other hand have been a bit.. well bad. Zenshu breaks the mould and is in my opinion, not just one of their best originals, but one of their best ever projects in general. They might have misled us initially into thinking this was going to be a show about making anime, but I fell in love with this fantasy world, the characters, theromance, the production values, it was all perfect and Luke and Natsuko quickly became one of the best parts of this season to me. Their haters to lovers relationship was so satisfying to watch play out, they felt like soulmates and completed each other so much. I think for many of us, their relationship and Natsuko’s personal development were the best parts of the show and just made this an incredible watch. If you like girl bosses, romance and self improvement stories, Zenshu’s a must watch. One of the best shows of winter 2025. The funny thing about it is that Zenshu was very much one of those shows that everything came down to the finale for me. It was either going to be a 10 or a 7 depending on how MAPPA wrapped things up with Luke and Natsuko and the big battle and I am very glad to report they did an excellent job. There’s a few minor things I’d have tweaked in the finale, but other than that this was an extremely solid anime original story that was consistent in its messages and themes, stayed on track, had great character development, awesome fights, a unique fighting mechanic and a loveable main character. Total contrast to some of their other anime original works, especially the disaster that was Bucchigiri. I loved this series though, we all expected this to be a shirobako style anime where we followed an anime director throughout the process of creating an anime, but instead we followed an anime director INSIDE an anime and got to see her grow and open up to others and the world. Natsuko’s character development is very satisfying. She starts off as a really aloof and frankly rude and disrespectful person who looks down on others. Thanks to being in her favourite anime and going on adventures to save the world she realizes the importance of teamwork and relying on others, something she really lacked back on earth. She’s someone who never viewed others as actual people, just tools to get the job done. The near death experiences she has in the anime’s world really help shape her into a better person and it’s so satisfying . It doesn’t happen overnight, but each episode we see bits and pieces coming together and that’s all you can ask for! The cast were amazing in this. They’re the main reason the show is as good as it is. MAPPA, in 12 short episodes, manage to create this family dynamic that makes this such a cozy watch. Every single member of the cast is lovable and you just want to see them succeed. It almost feels like this was a long running adventure shonen series with how attached to the cast I got. The banter, the disagreements and the makeups were all so endearing. Natsuko and the nine soldiers might have bickered a lot, but they always made up and pushed forward at the end of the day like a family. Further to that, the relationship between Natsuko and Luke was my favourite part of the show and it was so well done. I’m a massive haters to lovers romance trope fan and this was one of the best ones. The two of them slowly realizing how they feel culminating in those last few episodes was amazing. They both ended up being exactly what the other was missing in their life. Natsuko couldn’t take her work to the next level because she’d never known a first love and Luke couldn’t move forward because he was caught up on the pain of his fallen comrades and didn’t really have anyone who he could truly share that burden with. The term soulmates gets thrown around a lot, but Luke and Natsuko truly were soulmates! Now it’s MAPPA so you know we have to discuss the production quality. The show looked amazing. Designs, the fights, Natsuko’s drawing animation(even if it was reused) were all amazing. It seems like MAPPA made it a point of emphasis to put their A-team on this and it worked out very well. The final few episodes had some gorgeous animation and combined with the simple, but well written story made for an amazing experience. I had Zenshu as one of the best anime of the season ever since the first episode and it not only stayed that way, but only got better as I learned more about Natsuko and the other characters and as the romance developed. Things ended up being a little predictable in terms of the ending, but that’s not a bad thing because it’s exactly the sort of story I hoped for. If you like boss girlies, romance and some really unique action, Zenshu is a no brainer. One of the best shows of the year so far and I’m going to miss it so much. Luke and Natsuko, we will never forget you. Zenshu gets 10 drawing pencils out of 10.

__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 themhandled 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.

This anime is really good! I think it's one of the most unique ones out there. The way they get transported to the isekai world is totally different from other anime! The characters are so distinct that there's no way I could forget them easily. I really like Luke, Unio, Memelin, Natsuko, QJ, and Justice. They're strong and have different power that get me excited! Characters react to situations and events is good. The art is amazing, and the story never gets boring. And the ending... I NEED a season 2! I want to see Luke go to Japan! I think others will enjoy thisanime, this anime is little bit underrated but is good.

This could have been the best anime of the season, if it wasn’t for the finale. It’s an extremely underrated anime, from the start to the last two episodes, it’s almost perfect, very fluid animation, vibrant colours, map settings, music, character development, etc. Personally, the first episode is the one that hit me, and the second one followed it like magic, it’s easy to see the quality that Studio MAPPA put into their anime. It’s a new way to look into isekay, the amount of creativity put into this anime is amazing, surely an original anime for this year. Trama was predictable, like a writtentale, but very easy to follow and enjoy. Very nice and enjoyable the fact the protagonist doesn’t use some type of magic to combat but just the love for its job and the animation. But guys, character development here is amazing, done precisely and very slow through all episodes; take our protagonist, Natsuko: we see everything from her, thrown away in a new word, even if was one very close to her, given a new power to understand and use, try to understand what to do with the narrative of a movie she already knows and how to change it from a finale she likes but don’t want to happen, so struggling, at the same time growing into a different person, evolving, discovering new thing about other and herself, like how to love, and in the end, success from her struggling. It was a solid 9, until the end. It feels strange, like forced or do in short time. With some thinking it could be a better finale. And I don’t think there are hidden messages here, about the finale or how you should see it. Like, we want this anime to finish differently to the finale of "A Tale of Perishing”, and in reality, we have, two finales, both good and bad, and this feel pretty strange and rush too. There is no much to describe, I suggest trying looking into this anime, seeing from other comment, it’s a hit or miss, the first episode is enough to understand if you like it or not. The end is open, yes, but we don’t need a season 2. Thanks.