00:01
Oh, 100% like what if animators could get three days worth of work done in like 30 seconds.
Yeah, exactly. Yes, that seems very clearly part of the animator's fantasy.
Konnichiwa! I am your host Mayu for 2AM OTTACK!
In this podcast we talk all about anime, manga, movies, music, and history through our distinct perspectives
as a born and raised Japanese non-otaku, that's me, and an American anime fan, Cisco.
That's me.
There's so many anime came out this month.
That's true. Yeah, it really feels like the big release months for anime are January, April, and like a little bit July,
and then there's like a trickle in like October, but January is a huge like burst of anime.
Yeah, and we've been trying to find the anime that we like, and it's not easy.
It's not. Sadly, it's not that easy.
Exactly, and we tried watching Tensei Reincarnation.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like that describes fully more than half of anime currently being made,
so even though it's not like our go-to, we decided to give some of these series a chance.
So we tried, and none of them really worked for us, except today's anime we are going to talk about, Zenshuu.
Yes.
Before we start talking about Zenshuu, please subscribe and follow 2AM Otaku on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify,
or give us thumbs up and leave a comment about today's episode.
So Zenshuu is an original Japanese anime television series produced by MAPPA.
The series premiered on January 5th, 2025 on TV Tokyo and its affiliates,
Susuko, could you try to explain what Zenshuu is about?
Sure. So the premise of this particular anime is that an animator, a famous director of anime,
who's already had one hit work, is eating a clam bento at her work,
and the clams have gone bad, and she eats one and immediately dies,
and is reincarnated, or not even reincarnated, is just like directly transferred into the world of her favorite anime movie.
A Tale of Perishing.
A Tale of Perishing, which is about, it's sort of like a fantasy isekai,
where the main character, Hiro, I think fails to save some of his friends,
and then has a slow mental breakdown as the heroes lose the battle and the world is destroyed.
03:02
And she really liked it, so she was transferred into it.
What appears to be the beginning of the movie,
so she then discovers that she has the magical power to animate things,
which then become real in this other world,
and immediately starts changing the plot of the movie,
by making sure that the most annoying character doesn't die in the very first episode.
And then she continues to use her animated powers to sort of change the story as she goes along.
Because she watched the movie so many times, she knows what's coming next.
Well, she thinks she knows what's coming next, at least.
I guess we're only up to episode three, right?
But already, the way that she's changed the story has resulted in some unexpected encounters.
So, Zenshuu, I think the English title is the same, Zenshuu.
In Japanese characters, it's written like, whole, fixed.
All fixed.
All fixed. We don't really say Zenshuu in a regular conversation in Japanese.
It is like a special term used in the anime industry.
Yeah.
It means like, all, retake, or redo everything.
Redo everything.
Which I don't think many animators don't want to hear or say.
Yeah, I think if the director is like, Zenshuu, then it's like, all of your work was trash and you have to start over from square one.
And that's a really bad thing in animation companies.
That's an interesting title.
Yeah. I mean, it definitely implies that she's going to entirely rewrite the story of what happens in her favorite anime.
And it also, I mean, the process of her animating as a special move, essentially, is her redrawing everything to have a different outcome.
So, I don't know, I think it's kind of cool as a term that is both an actual piece of vocabulary in the animation world and describes both the plot of the whole show and her specific power.
So my first impression of Zenshuu is like, it's just like a good old days anime.
Like a hero style anime.
Yeah, for me, it's really got like a magical girl anime vibe.
I think not so much in terms of the setting, which is very much like an isekai anime, but in terms of the animation of her using her special power, right?
She gets kind of a transformation sequence, right?
It's just like, you know, Sailor Moon, you know, changing and becoming Sailor Moon from a regular girl.
Yeah, there's a transformation sequence. It's the same music every time.
It's extremely vibrant colors and really high quality animation.
So even though it's a transformation sequence, you don't get super tired of watching it, despite it appearing in every episode so far.
06:03
Yeah, so it's got kind of a callback to that Sailor Moon magical girl vibe.
Right, right. But the main character is a manga artist.
Right.
So she's not fancy.
She's definitely not fancy.
Yeah.
She is, I think, I mean, I think it's a really smart move that in the first couple of episodes, her hair covers her entire face, sort of.
Do you remember why?
No.
Because she is trying to finish her next work about first love, but she can't do it.
So she decided not to cut her hair until she's done.
Oh, OK.
But that doesn't explain why she wears it over her face so that she looks like Sadako, right?
Sadako, a monster.
Yeah, she looks like a monster.
And I think that was like really, really smart as a as a design choice, because I think it's an honestly like it would be more of an interesting story if she was a bit more of like an ugly duckling.
Like anime is terrible at trying to convey that its main characters are not conventionally attractive because they almost always are.
And I'm thinking about the Apothecary Diaries, which we're also watching a little bit of.
And they're also the main character is supposed to be not conventionally attractive because she has freckles.
Yeah, that's a big no-no in Japan.
And like what?
I don't know, flat chest.
Yeah, like I have a problem with that being like a marker of unattractiveness, really.
I know.
But like, OK. And anything, is there one other thing?
She has like a scarred arm.
Right, right, yeah.
But like, I mean, like, yeah, OK, sort of.
But they almost never show it.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, every once in a while you'll get an anime that has unattractive characters in it, but they're not the main character.
And I think like they could have afforded to make the main character of this anime be like just slightly more plain.
As soon as her face is uncovered, you're like, oh, she's also like really pretty.
I know, yeah.
And that feels like just like a missed opportunity to be like some people aren't necessarily super conventionally attractive.
And that doesn't mean they're not like powerful and like good people and interesting and everything else.
So on the one hand, I accept it like it's an anime.
They're going to have to make the main character look hot.
But at the same time, there's part of me that's like.
I think they needed it for the transformation scene because like most of the time her face is covered.
Right, right, right.
Having the more, you know.
The transforming.
Yeah.
Some facial close ups.
Yeah.
Yeah.
OK, so I guess like whatever.
It just feels like one of those things where the story might have been even better had that been part of it.
I don't really know where the story is going in terms of her like romantic connections with other people and whether that's going to be like an important plot point or not.
But I wouldn't say I was disappointed.
It's fine the way it is.
But also there's part of me that has like a hard time believing some of the setup because it's like, yeah, but then like you're, you know, I don't know.
09:05
Yeah, that's my feeling.
I think it was anyway, to get back to my original point, having her hair cover her face was a great choice because it took that element of her character away for a long time in a way that helped the storytelling of the show.
There are more other stuff.
I realized this anime being a little bit of old time anime.
Mm hmm.
Each episode is featuring other animes.
Huh?
So first episode, the first time Natsuko draws to defeat the void.
You know, there's like a gigantic like a thing trying to fight with the void.
Remember?
Oh, she draws like a.
Looks like a giant monster.
Like one.
Yeah, it's like a Kyojin He.
Giant God Warrior from Nausicaa.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, that makes about that sounds about right.
It'll be like a drippy and like not really complete form.
Yeah, it looks a little bit hastily assembled, but it has like a I just have like an eye laser.
Yeah, Nausicaa's one that has eye laser.
I don't know.
I don't remember.
I can't remember how it beats all of them.
But yeah, there's like a billion things it's fighting and it like blasts them all immediately.
Right.
Yeah.
OK.
And the second episode is featuring Macross.
Macross.
Yeah.
Like the missiles.
Missiles.
Yeah.
It's the same idea.
And actually the animator, Ichiro Itano, who worked on Macross, worked on the second episode.
Oh, like drew that portion.
Yeah.
So they're all kind of like intentional callbacks to other animators, like most famous work.
That's pretty cool.
And the third episode is featuring Tiger Mask.
Right.
Which was a manga way back in the day and became an anime or not?
Yeah.
Oh, OK.
It's pretty.
Those are pretty old.
I don't know how old is Macross, but Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa is.
Oh, yeah.
The original Macross is very old.
Yeah.
I think the original Macross is no later than the early 80s.
So it's like Showa era animes so far.
Like let's be real and say the Showa era is way too long.
Right.
That guy reigned for like a much, much too long.
Yeah.
Like the Heisei era.
Like if you're like this is a Heisei era anime.
Like you're only talking about like 20 something years.
Right.
Showa lasted like 50 years or something.
No, no.
Almost 60.
Over 60.
Over 60 years.
So I think like that's too big to like class things as like this.
In fact, like up until that, you know, he the Emperor died.
All anime was Showa era anime.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Like so that's why I feel like yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of like valid to say like Showa era, but like also
feels like a bit too broad.
I think like locating the anime that have been used as reference so
far as specifically like late 70s early 80s anime is a little bit
more specific and it makes me think about the ways in which like
Dandadan is borrowing also from well, I guess if it's barring
12:03
Ultraman.
Ultraman is like even older, right?
That's like 1960s.
Yes.
So this is later than that.
Yeah, it's still like pre like late 80s, you know, sort of golden
era.
Also, I noticed fighting scene music sounds like classic.
Yeah, that's true.
You know fighting like anime scenes.
Yeah, it does.
It really feels a bit out of place in the rest of like the manga
setting which I guess is sort of part of the theme, right?
I'm like she isn't from their world and the solutions she conjures
are not the solutions you would expect from that world setting,
right?
Like she hasn't drawn any magic happening yet.
It's always like a giant Mecca or like a pro wrestler or like a
bunch of missiles like wait, what?
You know, like none of those things belong in the world that she's
been teleported to.
Yeah, and it is like bizarre that she's coming up with such like
different ideas for how to like solve the problems.
I think also this includes a little bit of that like mangaka's
fantasy wishing like, you know coming up with idea really quick or
finishing the work really quick like Natsuko does.
Oh 100% like what if animators could get three days worth of work
done in like 30 seconds.
Exactly.
Yes, that seems very clearly part of the animators fantasy.
And then like she passes out after she, you know, defeat the void
and then like sleeps through like three days, right?
Because that's also like an animators fantasy that she would ever
be allowed to sleep for three days in a row.
Yeah, because like I'm sure animators like has to stay up late and
like not sleeping well, but after they are done like they just like
sleep pass out probably.
Yeah, I told you about like good old anime vibe, but also I thought
I felt like the, you know, she's trying to change it into something
new.
I mean, not only she Natsuko is trying to change the story.
She was, you know, she used to watch so many times when she was a
child, but also she doesn't dress in a like a fancy clothes.
I mean there was a scene like she was forced to dress in a like a
fancy dress, right?
But when she is transforming she wears like hoodie and like Crocs.
Yeah, purple hoodie some like jeans and like really ugly red and
white Crocs.
Right?
And then like what she does is like drew drew drew drew like so fast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then like, you know, do use a pencil.
Yeah, the part where they're being attacked by a monster and she's
like, hang on.
I have to sharpen my pencil in like super sped up time is very funny.
It's pretty funny.
Like, you know, but she's got her own power, right?
To defeat it.
I also like that.
15:00
She does a check right on her own animation before she finishes it
and puts it down.
Hang on.
I'll make sure it's good.
That is so funny.
Yeah.
Also on Episode 3 Natsuko tells Destiny the character to build an
orphanage like a house, right?
Rather than like, you know, just like sacrifice herself by getting
married to a rich guy and then like who promised to build an orphanage
house, right?
Which is like, you know, she changing the story by saving others in
the anime.
But also she won't I think she's like, you don't have to be because
you're a woman.
You don't have to marry, right?
For like a dark kind of reason.
Also the characters the daughter of the mayor and seems pretty rich
on her own.
That's true.
Yeah, it seems like it's unclear whether that's her trying to fix
what she perceived to be a plot hole or whether it is really her
trying to sort of update her own favorite anime by giving it a more
modern sensibility or both.
But yeah, I think that part's cool too.
Yeah.
I noticed like one voice actor Baobabu.
High Priestess Baobab or something like that.
She has a book which tells you like what's going to happen if void
like in the future.
Yeah, she has like a book of prophecy.
Yeah.
And then she played a voice for Obaba-sama in Nausicaä.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Wow.
She must have been a lot younger when she did the voice of the old
lady in Nausicaä.
Yeah, Wikipedia says she's 89.
Right now?
And she's still working as a voice actress?
Damn, that's awesome.
That's so cool.
Good for her.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What do you think?
So we watched only three and there are only three out right now.
What do you think?
What's going to be like after this?
We really enjoy watching Nausicaä like fighting.
Right.
And everything.
But it's like getting a little bit.
It seems a little repetitive.
Repetitive.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, one question I have is like, how long is the series going to be?
Is it going to be 12 episodes?
Is it going to be 24 episodes?
Are they just going to try to make it run as long as possible?
Like that seems like it would be a huge mistake to me.
This seems like it has to be a story that has a set beginning,
middle and end.
And with the pacing so far,
I agree that it seems like it cannot possibly go on that long.
Right.
She's living out a movie.
Movies are only, you know,
especially animated movies tend not to be that long.
We've seen a couple like portions of what seemed to be key plot points in
the film via her memories.
She's already changed at least one of those major plot points in the film.
18:02
To me, if this goes on longer than 12 episodes,
it's going to have to take like a radical turn.
Something like the characters from the movie come back with her into her
real life.
And I don't know, then they work the animation.
Like, I don't know where it would go from there.
Really.
I think based on what we've seen so far,
my hope is that the series itself just isn't meant to be that long and has a
wholly contained story.
That's told in 12 episodes with like a final ending.
That's like, and then it was over.
The only other way I can see it continuing is that she teleports into some
other anime with like a different story and continues revising stuff.
I mean,
my big questions at this point are sort of like,
is there going to be a romantic angle here?
Like, is she going to fall in love with the main guy?
Is that going to mess up the story somehow?
And is it going to eventually go in a depressing direction where it hues more
closely to the plot of the original film where her changing can't really
change things?
Or will there be sort of unexpected consequences of her choices in ways that
make it sort of more dramatic or attention?
Because I can't really imagine her being allowed to just wield the superpower,
like fix all the problems sort of.
And then what?
Right.
So, I mean,
I think there's still like a variety of different interesting ways it could go.
But the less emotionally complicated it stays,
and so far it hasn't really gone in that direction.
I think the more tired of it I will become over time.
I think it's going to connect to the first episode when she is working on her
next movie,
which is a love story,
love story.
And she is struggling to finish it because she never had first love.
Okay.
So somehow she's going to fall in love or like finds love or see love or
something.
Right.
And then maybe somehow go back to.
That'll inspire her for what to do for her actual film.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
That could be a possibility.
That would be a good direction,
I think,
for it to go.
But I'm curious as to,
you know,
how they're going to play that.
Right.
Is that going to be,
she's the one in love or she is observing other people's relationships.
I mean,
it really seems like there's going to be a thing between her and the main
character,
but that it's going to be messy because,
you know,
does she save his actual love interest from the original story or does she let
her die so that she can become the heroine?
Right.
That's probably like the next story beat.
Spoilers.
Okay.
Let's do word of the day.
Okay.
What's today's word of the day?
I mean,
we already explained Zenshu,
so it can't be that,
right?
Nope.
Damn.
Oh,
I know what it is.
The tapu.
21:00
Tapu.
Yeah.
Right.
I think.
I'm not sure.
I don't know what this thing is called in English,
to be honest with you.
Uh-huh.
So I imagine it's called a tap or cause it's got to come from English,
right?
This is clearly a professional animation tool that's used to hold pages
together in like,
it's sort of like a three ring binder of sorts.
I think I thought it was a ruler.
It's like a ruler,
but I'm pretty sure it's the piece that holds the pages you're animating
together at the top so that you can flip through them and see what the
animation will look like when it's done.
And that's her magic item.
Like other magical girls have a wand or a lipstick or a,
I don't know,
compact,
right?
She has a tap.
And,
or whatever this thing is called in English.
And that's,
it sort of looks like it's going to be a fan.
I keep expecting it to be a hand fan that she can open,
but you can't open it.
No,
because all it does is hold pages together.
So I think that thing,
I mean,
I don't know how to translate it actually,
but I think that thing is the word of the day to understand like what that
is and why it's her special power thing.
Yeah.
I wonder if this is going to have like special meaning.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The only other words of the day I can think of are words that I don't
actually think need to be words of the day.
Cause anyone listening to this podcast already knows what they are.
So like Isekai would be another good one because that's what's going on in
the show,
but everybody knows what an Isekai is,
I think.
Yeah.
Is there a,
like a recognizable word?
Yeah.
I think it's,
I think it's like entered English at least among anime and manga fans,
because there are so many Isekai anime.
So too many.
Too many.
In fact,
way too many.
I guess we're doing it anyway.
It means other world and that's all it means,
but it's,
it seems to imply specifically a fantasy setting,
right?
Swords and sorcery,
elves.
What else comes with an Isekai?
Really good food.
There's no like statistics or anything,
but in my image,
whoever writes Isekai is like man.
Yeah.
Maybe.
I mean,
maybe if there were like fewer,
like busty elves in like very little armor,
like we would have a different idea of what an Isekai is like,
but the Isekai tend to be like kind of like vibrant middle agesy type
places.
And the good food in an Isekai is one of these things that always
baffles me.
Cause I'm like,
guys,
food in medieval Europe was awful.
Europeans wanted new spices so badly.
They sailed literally all the way around the world to try and get them
because their own food sucked.
There shouldn't be good food in Isekai animes.
It's one of the things that I like about,
um,
got a ton de mosquitos,
right?
Right.
Uh,
I can't remember the name.
It's basically like a guy like who is good at like online shopping.
He's not even good at it.
He's just,
24:00
he's just a regular guy.
He's a regular guy.
He has two magical skills.
He has an infinite item box.
Yeah.
That can follow him everywhere that he can just like magically
teleport stuff into or out of.
And he can shop on Nukton.
No,
Eon.
Eon.
I think.
Okay.
Yeah.
I think you're right.
Eon.
He can shop online and have it delivered to him in the Isekai.
And like 90% of what he orders is like beer snacks and like sauces.
Right.
A lot of stuff.
And then he cooks like basics.
He'll cook like yakiniku by like marinating the beef in some sauce.
And people will be like having their minds blown about how good his food
is.
And I'm like,
that's so realistic.
If you time traveled back to Europe,
like a bottle of barbecue sauce,
people would lose their freaking minds about how good it tasted.
It's called a campfire cooking in another world with my absurd skill.
Japanese animation companies,
please stop making titles like this.
This one doesn't really have much like,
you know,
boobs and this stuff.
No,
it doesn't have that much boobs.
The main characters are a dude and a magic wolf.
Right.
Right.
And there are very few female characters.
First time I didn't really like it,
but as I watched more,
I liked more.
And then there'll be a second season supposedly this year.
Hey,
this year,
I think.
Yeah.
I didn't see it in the Wikipedia anime coming out this year.
Maybe not.
I don't know.
It's been a long time.
Yeah,
it was good.
It had good music too.
Oh,
we haven't talked about the opening and closing theme songs of Zenshu.
Do you want to talk about it?
Duh.
Okay.
We always talk about it,
right?
Yes.
What?
You were going to skip it this time?
Okay.
All right.
Cisco's going to talk about the theme songs of Zenshu.
Here we go.
Yeah.
So the opening theme song is like pretty good,
right?
Who's it by?
It's by Band-Maid.
It's called Zen.
The music is Zen.
Oh,
I thought it was like someone we knew.
No?
No.
Okay.
Whatever.
The opening is like pretty good.
It's not the best.
It's not the worst.
Like it's totally acceptable for like an anime opening.
And the ending theme song is also kind of good.
I'm not crazy about the animation,
which has like a really weird sequence of the main male character running
towards the camera in a way that I can only describe as quote,
running like a girl,
which I know is like a sexist way to put it.
Yeah.
No, I have never.
He doesn't know how to run.
He doesn't.
Are you running like a person who doesn't know how to run?
Yeah.
That's actually a much better way to put it.
I mean,
he looks like he's about to fall.
Well,
he does fall.
He does at the end.
But like,
he's the legendary hero of this other world.
He should be able to run.
Instead,
he's like waggling his arms back and forth.
He looks like he's like super pigeon toed or something.
Like,
it looks like he's,
yeah.
Anyway.
It's ridiculous that he can't run.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's my focus.
27:00
Every single time.
Especially because at the end of the opening theme,
theme,
there's a very short thing where she has drawn herself running and is
checking her own work and she runs totally normally.
Explain that.
I don't know.
People in that you say,
I don't have to run anywhere.
So they never practice running.
Maybe.
Nonsense.
Anyway,
the music is good though,
for both the opening and ending theme songs.
The ending theme song is
I really thought it was by somebody else.
Also,
both of these,
the opening and ending struck me as sounding like other people.
Like,
I think one of them really sounds like rad wimps.
Right.
Is that the clue?
I think that's the closing.
The closing is like pulling hard from like rad wimps influences and the
opening.
I can't remember who reminds me of in a good way.
Like both,
the opening and the ending are pretty,
pretty like standard,
but like solid.
I think I have to listen more.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Well,
that's my thoughts.
All right.
Anything else you'd like to add?
No,
I just like,
I guess like,
again,
this is one of the better Isekai animes and the,
the conceit of having it be about an animator brings like another level to
it.
And really fits with like our watching habits,
given that we've already seen,
what was the other one we watched most recently?
We saw Shirobako and then we saw Eizouken.
Eizouken.
Yeah.
And so now here's another anime that's really about animators.
And so like,
in a way it strikes me as like the way Hollywood really likes to make
movies about Hollywood.
Right.
We're like seeing like a lot of anime and manga about anime or manga
artists,
but I respect that at least they're drawing what they know.
And it's a,
it's a,
it's a neat twist on what you see in most other Isekai anime.
So I like it.
Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode.
If you liked this week's episode,
please give us five stars on Spotify and Apple podcasts or like,
and leave a comment on YouTube.
Make sure to subscribe and follow 2AMOTAK and 3AMOTAK.
It'll keep us making more fun episodes.
See you next time for more 2AMOTAK.
