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[series:4862#628] | ||||||
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(Eight episodes watched): Well, here's an anime for which is was worthwhile to look up and list the names of all the major characters rather than just the top one or two. Early on, I wondered if Natsuko had a face at all, since her long hair completely obscured it, but in fact she does. The trouble is taken to endow Natsuko with a personality--she is eccentric, wants to do everything important herself, and is under great pressure. The thought occured to me while watching that unlike the typical isekai anime I had little idea where this was going but that was because this show had a good dose of originality to it and therefore the uncertainty was a good thing. Just what has happened remains unclear at the end of episode one: finally convinced that this is all not a dream, Natsuko recieves a message that she must draw, and she quickly sketches an alternate outcome to a scene from AToP, which becomes real. Some sort of interface between this fictional tale and the skills of an animator, apparently. Paradoxically, the uncertainty about WTF is going on here only made me more intrigued. Whereas the first episodes of most formulaic isekai anime leave me without any questions I want answers to, here I have nothing but questions and absolutely must watch episode two. In episode two Natsuko ascertains that there is at present no way to return to Japan, and whatever happens to this world will be what happens to her. Many isekai anime skip this step but I appreciated it. What must be done is to prevent the final 'Great Void' from occuring, because that would result in the end of the world, including Natsuko. The other nine great heroes are suspicious of her, but she can predict future events (since she has seen or read the Tale of Perishing manga, anime, movie, whatever) with a degree of accuracy and her predictions come true. It isn't clear whether she'll be able to repeat the miracle she performed during the last attack during the next one, but somehow she can, as long as it is not identical. That would make the story she is composing repetitive and boring. It would seem that some sort of game system wants her to write her own version of Perishing. Another intriguing discovery is that a character in this world is almost certainly based on her boss back in Japan; why might that be? And there were a couple of good jokes too, like the one about some merch associated with a character. This show pretty much does everything right whereas most isekai anime are just good enough. Who or what is this voice that urges Natsuko to 'draw' when a crisis occurs? And what is it's goal? In episode three it seems that some force is trying to compensate for the changes Natsuko makes to the story in order to get it back as close as possible to its original plot--though that is an observation of my own, not something any character says. For example, a new way is arranged for Luke to meet 'Destiny', his lover who is supposed to die a tragic death near the climax. Maybe if things were just allowed to take off in a totally new direction Natsuko would lose the ability to predict the future, so that must not happen. In episode four Natsuko figures out who helped a Void sneak into the city: it was the elf woman Memmeln, one of the nine great heroes. I had thought that this person was behaving in a distant and suspicious manner. In most Isekai anime the solution would be obvious: fight the person and kill him/her. But here Natsuko comes up with a clever way of rewriting the plot of the story (borrowing a character from another anime she worked on) so that isn't necessary. You never know what's going to happen next in this show, whereas most isekai anime are fairly predictable. In episode five we are reminded of the stress Natsuko was under in Japan before jumping to this alternate world. Also, she meets Justice, a man-sized dragon who was once a hero but is now a drunkard--there was no mention of this in the Tale of Perishing movie or anime. It seems that the plot is drifting away from the one Natsuko is familiar with after all. She has gotten somewhat overconfident and even a little haughty as she defeats Void threats one after another (the other heroes seem annoyed that she often won't even save a few Voids for them to kill). She borrows cliche characters from all sorts of anime genres to use against them. But one attack comes about which the voice which tells her to draw judges her standard response to be inadequate to defeat. She must think quickly. At the beginning of episode six the heroes (it seems only five of the original nine are still alive) have suffered a major defeat and total disaster is likely if something isn't done. I wondered if I had skipped an episode, because I didn't recall this situation being created in episode five, but apparently not. We are told that even Natsuko wasn't able to prevent things from spiralling out of control, and she was nearly killed as a resulting of acting impetuously on her own rather than in coordination with the heroes. The jaded Justice must be persuaded to return to service in order to stabilize the situation. Episode seven consists of flashbacks to events in Natsuko's life in Japan, in which we see how she first was exposed to A Tale of Perishing and was driven to become an exemplary but eccentric anime director. Or does it? It turns out to be a dream Natsuko had within the game world, and a scary one in her opinion, so we can't be sure this is exactly how things happened. Still, a fun change of pace. At the end of the episode the thought occurs to her that things are now going so well that the story she is re-living has taken on a completely different tone from the depressing one she once admired. And she gets a strange confirmation from an odd bird that she's on to something. In episode eight we get a surprising and intriguing explanation of what's going on. This bird is the resurrected author of the original Tale of Perishing, and she doesn't like all the changes to the story that Natsuko has been making. It keeps insisting that 'It's no use'--the story will end as the movie did no matter what Natsuko does. It argues that Natsuko has gained nothing as a result of being resurrected, but of course Natsuko has gained the ability to draw alternate outcomes to events and have them become real; the big mystery is who or what is allowing this. Later, Luke makes a sudden confession to Natsuko--this is definitely not the way the original story went. I was greatly impressed by this episode, which added two major twists to the story. Most Isekai anime are sorely predictable and have few surprises, but in Zenshu you never know what will happen next. Last updated Thursday, March 06 2025. Created Sunday, January 12 2025. | ||||||||
