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 es 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

Memmeln Main

Suzuki, Minori Japanese

Unio Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

QJ Main

Suyama, Akio Japanese

Justice ing

Park, Romi Japanese

Heartwarming, Destiny ing

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Mayor ing

Inada, Tetsu Japanese

Pegbar ing

Nagase, Anna Japanese

Ultimate Exister ing

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Hosaka, Takanori Producer

Yamauchi, Mirai Producer

Ogawa, Takahiro Producer

Ikeda, Tomokazu Producer

Reviews

May 31, 2025

KimuraTheHatoru

Recommended

Spectacle. When i think about this anime this is what comes to my mind. A spectacle. Flashy and good looking animation . This is the driving force behind this show. But even in that category it's not without fault.

What i mean by that is simple. The fights themselves. While the animation was polished to no end,and looked good on screen, the finer movements weren't pronounced.For example when the squigly bugs attack the people... the weight behind those blows is severly lacking . They didn't feel like they got smashed , they felt like they got hit with a delete ray.... It's hard to explain honestly. ... Animators with a lot of talent but no experience i guess? But when it comes to the big flashy animations they hit the jackpot, the arrival in the final episode when that effect happend on screen (trying to sound vague as to not spoil and stuff) , it was gorgeous. It all peaked in the final episode.

Now that the animation discussion is out of the way...... What about the story? Well... Generic. That's the harshest criticism i can give. The finer details aren't upsetting . But overall it's very generic,but just intresting enough to keep you watching . It makes sense though, given the theme of the anime i guess.... And while i dislike these sort of everybody's fine endings.... It wierdly made sense in the story. It wasn't a true happy ending ,it was more like a reset button got hit. Everybody was returned from the nothingess of the Void. It was intentionally made this generic i believe(the story),but also coherent.

Honestly ,i enjoyed it. It's not much to think about...... And the only direction i can see a continuation to the story going is a spin-off series, with the adventures of the people in the anime arriving in the real world,and some explanation as to where the void and those creatures come from,because honestly they weren't explained even tho they were a rather intresting point in a generic story and all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 10, 2025

aquillos

Mixed Feelings

Love it or hate it, Zenshuu as an experience was memorable. The animation quality alone makes it worth watching as a tech demo, and if you were to remove the story altogether and watch it on mute it has enough visual impact to remain entertaining. The animation is seriously that good, especially if you have nostalgia for retro fantasy art styles. The ideas are beautifully rendered and tastefully imagined throughout the show's runtime.
That said....
Are those ideas worth the insane level of care and precision that went into fleshing them out in animation? Would Zenshuu be as good without all the eye candy? Does ... the story hold water on its own?
As much as I wish I could sound off in response with a definitive yes, all I can muster up is a lukewarm, disappointed.....
Sort of.
As I see it, Zenshuu is best enjoyed as a parody of the fantasy genre. They feed you exactly the story beats, characters tropes, and designs you expect to see in a bread and butter classic fantasy show called "A Tale of Perishing," then throw a janky, isekai comedy-shaped wrench named Natsuko right in the middle of it. The gimmick of Zenshuu is following Natsuko as she re-directs her favorite movie, obliterating all the plot's turning points at will and shaping it into what is effectively a fanfiction AU where she gets to date her favorite fantasy hero and hang out with his friends. On its own, this would be pretty entertaining, but things quickly start to go awry. People die. Things blow up in Natsuko's face. Natsuko has to wrestle with some hard-hitting questions: "Is this sloppy, convenient revision really the story, really the character I know and love? Is an original work sacred, immutable?"
Apparently, the consensus of Zenshuu's writers and the grand message of the show is.....
"Who cares!? Fanfiction is fun. Here's Cthulhu getting blown up by a naked man with a sword laser."
The climax and resolution of the show is so abrupt and nonsensical that I find myself grasping at straws to understand what the hell even happened. In an instant, they errata every single consequence that they built up through the show's runtime. Over the course of two minutes we go from abject cataclysm to literal sunshine and rainbows without a single concern for logical continuity.
I can't say I'm surprised, given how goofy the premise of the show is. After how seriously they take some of the plot points, though, I'm just.... Disappointed.
Zenshuu depicts some wickedly heavy emotions and topics but fails to really do anything with them. The whole thing ends up being a beautiful but stale nothing-burger of a dream sequence with a ham-fisted, bland happy ending. They pretend like they're in on it, with a fourth-wall breaking wisecrack about happy endings, but it doesn't change that a non-sequitur in place of what's supposed to be the most critical junction of your story is just obnoxious and lazy.
The "ending" is so lame that I can't help but feel like I'm missing something, but I promise you: there is nothing there to miss. You should think as Natsuko does: "I like it because I don't totally get it." Just don't think too hard about it, champ. Everyone's alive and happy. Nothing bad ever happened. Was it all a dream? Maybe. Who cares? Roll credits.
Zenshuu is like one of those glitzy designer cakes made entirely out of near-inedible fondant: once you sink your teeth into it, there isn't a whole lot there.
A lot of things could have made this show more enjoyable from a story perspective, but the production is top notch. Worth a watch just to form an opinion on it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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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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