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The Winter 2025 anime season is underway, and one of its most anticipated premieres is an original anime by MAPPA, the animation productionstudio behind several popular anime titles, includingAttack on Titan: The Final Season,JUJUTSU KAISEN,Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku,DorohedoroandCHAINSAW MAN.ZENSHUfollows a genius young animator who is in a rut after the resounding success of her directorial debut, and the series' teaser trailers built up quite a lot of interest in the show which premiered on Sunday, January 5.
The title “ZENSHU” might sound cool to non-Japanese speakers, but won’t really carry much meaning, but the connection between the anime’s title and its content is quite interesting, but also rather straightforward.
What Is ZENSHU About?
Not Just Another Isekai
ZENSHUfollows Natsuko Hirose,a young woman who became an animatorimmediately after high school, and very quickly climbed up the ranks to become the director on an animation production project. The project was a mega-hit, garnering local and international acclaim, and made Natsuko a household name. The first anime was so successful that when she was slated to direct another highly anticipated anime, the adaptation of a romantic comedy titled “HATSUKOI: First Love”, the popular opinion was that it would bethe birth of yet another masterpieceof animation.
However, production was slowed because Natsuko was unable to create the storyboards for the project due to the fact that she had never experienced her own first love before. While eating lunch at work, Natsuko collapsed and died as a result of overwork, andawoke in the world of another animeshe worked on in her life, a depressing fantasy tale called “A Tale of Perishing”. Can life in a dire world reconnect Natsuko to the passion she has for art and animation?
ZENSHUis the original idea of series director Mitsue Yamazaki (director,Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun) and scriptwriter/series composer Kimiko Ueno (series composition,Delicious in Dungeon) and produced by MAPPA, with character designs by Kayoko Ishikawa (clothing design,Yuri!!! on ICE), who adapted the original character designs by Yoshiteru Tsujino. Akio Shimada serves as art director, with Kenta Fujita as director of photography and music by Yukari Hashimoto (music,Toradora). The main cast of the Japanese and English dubs ofZENSHUis as follows:
Why The Title Fits
“ZENSHU” is An Apt Title For An Isekai
The reason why this anime series is calledZENSHUis something that has been addressed pretty early into the first episode, and it sticks out quite a bit. In the early parts ofZENSHUepisode 1, Natsuko runs us through her stellar career as an animator so far, and tries to work on the storyboard for “HATSUKOI” to no avail. While she tries to work, one of her colleagues presents work for a PV for their current project and after quickly flipping through the entire project, Natsuko handed the folder back to her colleague andsaid one word: “zenshu”.
The title drop in episode 1 gives us a straightforward explanation for the series' title, which is written in Japanese 全修, with the first kanji “zen” being used to mean “all”, and “shū”, which is the root of the word “shūri”, meaning “repair”, but is also the main kanji at use in words like “shūshi” 修士, meaning “Master’s Degree”.So, in this case, maybe rather than “repair”, “remaster”?
The consequence? “Zenshū”, meaning “fix them [the animation cels] all” – Natsuko was saying the entirety of the PV had to be redone. Interestingly, not too long after watching an earlier work produced by their studio while having lunch, Natsuko would perish due to overwork, and find herself living out the premise of “A Tale of Perishing” and interfering in the story that had been set out, effectively “redoing” it. Of late, the kind of “isekai” adventure where a main character is by some mechanic, brought into the world of one of their favourite pieces of media or one with which they engaged a lot, has been on the rise (like in theDragon BallReincarnated As Yamchamanga,My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, or this season’sOld Man Reincarnated As Villainness). The series is the redoing of not just “A Tale of Perishing”, but perhaps one of renewal of a burnt out artist’s connection to her biggest passion.
