‘Zenshu’: An Animator Gets Isekai’d Into Her Favorite Anime

The Smiths put the core of becoming a full-fledged adult in society aptly.

I was looking for a job and then I found a job

And heaven knows I’m miserable now

The same mantra applies to Natsuko Hirose, who joined the workforce early, at the tender age of 17. A prodigy animator, Natsuko’s debut anime was a phenomenal success cementing her position in the industry. Her next project, which is a rom-com, however, seems to have hit a bit of a snag.

A perfectionist by nature, she insists on drawing the storyboard herself. This wouldn’t be a problem if not for the fact that Natsuko has hit an art block. With the days to the premiere swiftly approaching, the grains of sand in the hourglass are falling faster than ever. 

While Natsuko takes a lunch break, news breaks out that a popular animator has died of food poisoning. As she mulls over the sad state of affairs, she too falls victim to the same fate. RIP.

Though the verdict is still not out if she’s actually dead.

Zenshu is an isekai anime. Isekai is a genre where the protagonist is transported into another world, which is most commonly a fantasy setting. The process of this transportation is death, more often than not, at the hands (or more accurately grill) of Truck-kun. Evidently, Truck-kun has upped its ante and manifests in various shapes and forms, this time around, in that of a meal.

Natusko’s dying thoughts are about which actor should play the role of the main character in her favorite anime, A Tale of Perishing.

The good news is that, unlike most isekai anime, Natsuko doesn’t find herself in a completely alien world. She’s been reborn in the aforementioned anime, so she knows what she’s in for. The bad news is that A Tale of Perishing is a bleak and tragic anime.

Determined to save this grim isekai world, Natsuko uses her knowledge of the anime to radically change the course of events for all the characters in it.

Life imitates art, but in this case, art imitates life. Zenshu is not an anime originating from a manga or light novel. Studio MAPPA, best known for animating shows like Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan’s Final Season, has created and animated Zenshu. And they’ve drawn on their experiences while making this show.

It’s an open secret that an animator’s life is as tough as the one the characters they animate live out. Zenshu illustrates this well. The anime opens with Natsuko huddled over her desk, painstakingly drawing and redrawing her storyboard. With her long-disheveled hair which she won’t cut until she finishes her storyboards, she resembles Sadako (the girl from The Ring). The atmosphere is claustrophobic as she sits in her matchbox-sized cubicle which is her entire world.

The workplace environment isn’t conducive either; executives cheerfully pushing animators to the brink of exhaustion, the pressure to ensure the anime is a success, fast approaching deadlines, the tense staff who make their displeasure felt when the director vetoes their suggestion. Everyone is waiting with bated breath to see if they can survive the production.

Certain groups of anime fans are the harshest critics, if they find that the anime hasn’t met whatever bar they have set, they make their sentiments known. With the advent of the internet and social media, their toxicity spills over everywhere. Animate a panel wrong and they will double down on the studio responsible. In Zenshu, we see this as Natsuko doomscrolls at her desk. She sees that her fans have already begun to make threats if she doesn’t deliver a finished product that meets their expectations. Each comment driving another dagger into her soul. It is a killing environment.

As far as protagonists go, Natsuko is an interesting one. The typical isekai lead is a loser, for lack of a better term and they range from the unemployed to the shut-ins. Natsuko, in contrast, is employed and she even states she lives a productive life. She also stands out because she already knows what is to come.

In the isekai world, she quite literally wields the power of the pen. The objects and creatures that she draws, materialize in the form of key animation frames. It effectively hammers home the fact that this is an animator who got sent into an anime world.

Typical of MAPPA, the art is detailed and the animation is fluid. There’s a distinct shift in tone and palette from our world to that of the isekai. For the first time, we’re getting an animator’s point of view of an anime as Natsuko journeys through this strange new world. She narrates things that most people don’t notice; the activities of background characters that are overlooked, birds flying and the like.

There’s even the bitter feeling of meeting someone you idolize and seeing that they may not necessarily be what you thought them to be. In Natsuko’s case, it is the main character of A Tale of Perishing, Luke Braveheart.

This is not your generic run-of-the mill isekai anime. It is a self-aware show that functions as both an entertaining tale of the genre and a look at what an insider in the anime industry faces.

Zenshu is a celebration of the unsung heroes that bring heroes to life.