Episode Appetizer: ZENSHU - "First Stroke" [Episode 1] -

MAPPA flexes its anime muscles once again, but rather than a shonen adaptation, they’re giving us an original Dungeons & Dragons-styled isekai that feels like a game. ZENSHU is written by Ueno Kimiko (the new Ranma ½, Delicious in Dungeon) and directed by Yamazaki Mitsue (also Ranma ½, Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun). Fans of Shangri-La Frontier, prepare yourselves.

Hirose Natsuko is an anime director prodigy. Her first movie was a monster hit, but now the studio wants her to do it again—with a rom-com. That wouldn’t be hard if she knew anything about love or had any social skills at all. She doesn’t. Natsuko is a goblin girl—she’s growling, obstinate, and she lives inside her mind cave—with her face covered by her hair (it’s hidden for most of the episode). Do I dare call her a Cousin It-Girl? I do dare. Combine those traits with her trademark purple zip-up hoodie, and the future cosplay is photo-ready.

After a disastrous incident with a vengeful “clam lunch”—when we say “she ate,” we’re not talking about Natsuko. However, she IS athletic. She ends up jumping worlds and fighting for her life in a desert wasteland as familiar as her childhood. That’s when she meets her heroes (oops, we’re not supposed to meet those): Luke Braveheart (human knight), Unio (unicorn shifter), Memerun (elven archer), and QJ (dungeon master robot totem).

She thinks she’s at a con, witnessing the best cosplayers ever, and she ends up insulting Unio by complementing his “authentic animal smell.” I’m going to stop here and giggle. Go on without me. That’s how Natsuko earns the nickname “black-haired gremlin” and that’s fair. Did Natsuko just land in a theme park based on her favorite movie “A Tale of Perishing”? Or is this a real place and she’s the hero it needs? Somebody has to fight the massive horde of blackhole spewing insects called Voids AND prevent the bad ending from the original movie (The Great Void). It might as well be the goblin-gremlin-girl with the vision to remake this tale, taking it from perishing to persistent.

The title “zenshu” means “redo everything,” but after previewing the first episode—”FIRST STROKE”—I think of ZENSHU as DO OVER. Natsuko has a chance to figure things out in a place where writer’s block will get her deaded, meanwhile “A Tale of Perishing” gets a rewrite and a second chance because Natsuko has entered the chat/conversation/scene. Both the woman and the world get to redo everything and try to get it right this time.

The palette in ZENSHU is bright, primarily based in golds, reds, and shades of orange, with pops of other colors layered in. The art style reminds me of something…but I’ll tell you later because I haven’t remembered it yet. I do recognize some visual references to epic fantasy illustrations from stories based on European history. To that point, there are various species living and fighting together. Where something like Frieren is sentimental and introspective, ZENSHU is brash and flashy at the start, but I suspect Natsuko’s journey with Luke and the rest of his party has a similar destination—she needs to understand love to write about it—and I’m ready to go with her. Mostly cause she’s rude x feral and that’s hilarious.

Since this is an original anime without a manga origin, let’s enjoy the surprises together and see where Natsuko’s pen takes us.

Watch ZENSHU streaming on Crunchyroll Jan 5