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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Rent |
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[series:4862#628] | ||||||
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(All 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 'Ultimate Void' from occuring, because that would result in the end of the world, including Natsuko. The other surviving 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 the changes she makes to the story are not identical to those she has already performed. 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 seemingly intriguing discovery is that a character in this world is almost certainly based on her boss back in Japan; why might that be? But ultimately this is the only character of this sort and it doesn't make much of a difference to how the story ends. There were a couple of good jokes too, like the one about some merch associated with a character. This show was pretty much seeming to do 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 exactly 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 most shows I wouldn't bother to guess what's really going on!). 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, unrelated 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 in which the voice which tells her to draw judges her standard response to be inadequate and demands something better. 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 aToP 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 Tsuruyama, 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 (again) in Zenshu you never know what will happen next. In episode nine Natsuko shares the way the movie ended with QJ, the small flying robot-like hero. We learn a shocker: None other than Luke himself will become the boss Void when he gives in to despair. QJ argues that Natsuko has changed things so much that this dismal outcome is no longer likely to occur. Later there's a Void attack, and they are both reusing a weapon that was thwarted earlier and seem to be copying characters Natsuko has drawn--beating them won't be as easy as it had seemed (and I think we can guess who is really responsible for the latter). QJ plays a key role in repulsing this attack, but the cost is high. It seems that no matter what Natsuko does to change the details, the overall plot is indeed conforming to the movie. I was dismayed by episode ten, in which a rumor gets started that Natsuko is in fact working for the Voids, and, even though she has saved everyone numerous times the people believe it without a second thought. Maybe this had to happen, because something similar did in the movie, but it could have been handled with some finesse rather than the people just being total idiots. I would have had Luke point out to the crowd that they'd all be dead already if it wasn't for Natsuko, and just have the people refuse to change their minds under any circumstances, which would indicate that they are under some sort of mind control rather than making stupid choices of their own. At any rate, some think Natsuko has betrayed them, others want her to do so, but no one tries to reach a rational conclusion. In episode 11 it seems that Natsuko and Unio are dead, but Natsuko finds herself wandering through her real-world life once more with everyone angry at her for the poor job she was doing on her second anime. This demoralizes her but I didn't see any major clues about how the story was going to end being provided to us. At one point Natsuko encounters a younger version of herself who asks her to draw something--please don't tell me that the entity that has allowed her to draw alternative outcomes to events was never anything but Natsuko herself! I was left fearful that maybe we never would get much of an explanation or conclusion. Unfortunately, it would seem that it was indeed simply Natsuko who was telling herself to draw new outcomes without realizing it. I wish this had been handled better; if Natsuko was authorizing herself all along, why did she lose the ability for a while? And how did she regain the ability, without even needing the voice, in the final episode? Why didn't Tsuruyama do anything to resist Natsuko's superhuman effort to force a happy ending upon her story? The 'trick' Natsuko uses wasn't all that remarkable--just have Luke, who had seemingly turned to evil and died reappear good as new and with the strength to smash the Ultimate Void--actually, himself, right? And everything miraculously resets to the best possible outcome. Natsuko winds up back in Japan with the inspiration to turn her floundering anime project around. There's a hint that Luke may have found his way there as well (he vowed to do so when Natsuko departed) but just a hint. I was sure there must be a few seconds more of the story after the credits but there wasn't. So, basically an OK ending but not the brilliant one I was expecting to an otherwise brilliant show. As a result I could not award this show a rating higher than Rent. But it is probably still one of the best isekai series ever--indeed, it expands the envelope greatly. Last updated Wednesday, March 26 2025. Created Sunday, January 12 2025. | ||||||||
