MAPPA's new anime is all about anime production

Summary

• Zenshu, an original anime from MAPPA, explores the darker themes of anime production, focusing on the physical and mental health consequences.

• The show revolves around Natsuko, who reincarnates in her favorite childhood anime, A Tale of Perishing, to rewrite the script and change her destiny.

• With a unique premise and a solid team that includes director Mitsue Yamazaki, Zenshu offers a fresh take on the isekai genre that's worth checking out.

Lately MAPPA has excelled in manga adaptations. Jujutsu Kaisen, The chainsaw manthe restart of Ranma 1/2and dozens more are recent hits for the studio, practically guaranteeing more success to come. Adaptations of manga or visual novels tend to take over the industry overall, and very few anime in any given season are truly original works. This model has worked exceptionally well for them over the years. While there have been some original anime releases lately that have been well received, few have received any form of popularity or lasting power in recent years.

But something new is on the horizon; a completely original anime about… well, anime production. As a major departure from their usual shōnen affair, Zenshu promises to be a heartwarming peak in the anime industry with the gorgeous MAPPA visuals and character designs. While only time will tell if this 12-episode show will do well, but with one trailer having already amassed over 800,000 views and most other trailers on Crunchyroll having a tenth or less of the views than Zenshu official trailer, we can imagine that this is already rising to become the slice of life of the next anime season.

What is Zenshu about?

An anime director has a hard time writing about this topic

Zenshua title based on the Japanese word meaning “to do it all again,” tells the story of Natsuko, who enters the anime industry headfirst after high school. Her debut anime became a huge success, which was a relief after the hard and exhausting work it took for Natsuko to complete the anime. The problem arises when she is given the task of directing an anime about her first love, something she had never experienced before. He struggles to find inspiration for this project with no personal experiences to draw from and runs into severe writer's block with deadlines looming. He stresses frantically about what to do and begins to get worse from the stress.

“My first anime became a huge success, sparking a social phenomenon and earning me recognition as an emerging genius director.”

Natsuko tragically overworks herself to the point of death… in the real world, at least. He wakes up in the imaginary world of A story of deathher favorite anime from her childhood that led her to become an animator. Although she is initially shocked to experience the anime's plot firsthand, she discovers that she has the ability to rewrite the script, revive the world, and change her destiny in the fictional world of her childhood anime.

Who is working on it?

Same director as Nozaki-Kun monthly for girls And others

The staff working on this anime are no laughing matter. The director is Mitsue Yamazaki, best known as the director of the hit one-season film Monthly girls Nozaki-Kun, an anime produced by Square Enix in 2014 about the production of manga. Other anime directed by her include The sleeping princess in the demon castleand was also an episode director and responsible for the storyboard for various episodes of Attack on Titan, Noragami, AND Bleach, among over 20 other anime to date. He certainly has a lot of experience on the subject matter of his new anime project, Zenshu, at this point.

Additionally, screenwriters have incredibly extensive backgrounds in their craft. The main writer of Zenshu is Kimiko Ueno, who wrote the screenplay for the recent hit Dungeon Meshithe dystopian musical anime Carole and Tuesdayand screenplay and series composition work for The Royal Tutor series. He also has more than 20 anime credits under his name.

The character of Natsuko is voiced by Anna Nagase (Ushio Kifone in Daylight saving time renderingHarley Quinn inside Suicide Squad Anime). Other anime characters include her childhood anime protagonist, Luke Braveheart, voiced by Kazai Ura (Yoichi Isagi in Blue block). More voice acting talent for Zenshu includes Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist), Romi Park (Edward Elric in Fullmetal AlchemistTemari inside Naruto) and Manaka Iwami (Torhu Honda in Fruit basket).

How is it different from other anime about anime?

We've seen this before… right? (Wrong)

We have seen a lot of anime in the past regarding the creation of anime. Shirobako, Keep your hands off the EizoukenAND Kakushigoto have shed light on the anime and manga industry in the past, sharing some of the struggles that creators of our favorite medium tend to face. But while many of them tend to have a light-hearted approach to these topics, Zenshu focuses on the darker side of things; this anime speaks openly about the often ignored, but very real concept of physical health taking its toll from working in the industry.

Karoshi (過労死, かろうし) is a Japanese word meaning “death from overwork”. This is such an epidemic in Japanese work culture as a whole, but especially in non-union sectors like the anime and manga industries, that it has earned its own word. The most common form of this is heart attack and stroke due to stress from overwork. An estimated 10,000 people die each year due to conditions worsening or completely worsening due to the overworked Japanese workforce. Zenshu still takes a lighter approach to this. After all, Natsuko was reincarnated in her favorite childhood anime. But his death in the real world feels very real and traumatic, and may serve to remind everyone to stop and smell the sunshine for a while.

While this is an original anime with no source material to reference, making it difficult to predict its success, the MAPPA trailers give us plenty of information to go off of. The biggest piece? That this anime is a unique take on the isekai genre that's worth checking out, even if you're sick of the copy-and-paste isekai fare that's dominated the screen lately. This is first and foremost the story of an anime director and the media medium that led her to that career, and because of that premise we're excited to give this one a try, too.

Zenshu will premiere on January 5, 2025 on Crunchyroll.