#natsuko hirose

[ianime0]

Zenshu | Ep10 | "Natsuko! Union!" Kill her! "Stop!" It disappeared? Did we do it? I think we did. Yeah! We did it! We did it! We defeated Natsuko!

[dramaticweathergirl]

I create this drunk Natsuko fanart weeks ago. Eat your fill Zenshu fans, we're getting depressed these following weeks 🙌🔥🗣️

[raidoki]

Started watching zenshu, they cute ig 🗣️

[loremori]

[cambo-writes]

Being a bit insane about Zenshu, pt 2.

Not related to my previous post on the show, but a follow up for that will come once I have time for a rewatch.

I think there’s a possibility that the Voids, while a physical enemy within the world of /A Tale of Perishing/, represent more than that now that Natsuko has taken the helm as the protagonist. I think that they could very well be the end of the movie itself. A fade to black.

The moment that the movie is truly derailed, is the same moment that the voids start to copy Natsuko. According to the Director, the movie still has to end eventually, and it cannot exist in perpetuity, presumably because it needs to finish its plot and reset. Over and over. So, when something starts artificially extending the movie’s run time, it gets incorporated into the “natural order”’s defenses, and works even harder to bring about the end.

Also, the fact that the Ultimate Void brings about doomsday, killing pretty much everyone, bringing about the End. I think it’s a bit more literal to our Reality than initially thought.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Okay, so ZENSHU is a new anime that FINALLY does something actually cool and meta with the isekai concept, following an animator named Natsuko who get's isekai'd into her favorite flop anime movie, which is destined to end in total tragedy for all the characters. She discovers she can do a magical girl sequence and animate something that will save the day (like the God Warrior from Nausicaa) in exchange for having to sleep however long it would have taken her to animate IRL (three days, usually). She starts saving the characters and and starts changing the narrative that way

This leads to possibly the best character arc of all time, where she meets the hero's love interest and the movie's quintessential damsel in distress, who is destined to get in trouble all the time and fridged at the end of the movie. (Her name is Destiny that's how destined she is).

...Only then Natsuko animates a cerval cat pro-wrestler to save the day, and Destiny is SO ENAMORED by it all she decides to get INCREDIBLY RIPPED and become a prowrestler herself, leaving her destiny as a love interest behind, her skimpy fanservice outfit transforming into a skimpy cerval cat pro wrestler outfit. She and Natsuko become friends, and she breaks off from this hero to forge her own path.

The story also kind of playfully interrogates how Destiny was underdeveloped and granted no agency by the narrative. She mentions having no friends and being lonely. She's notably awestruck when Natsuko says she's going to live and dress however she wants (in response to her baggy sweatshirt and cousin It hair being mocked):

And when she chooses to embrace her pro wrestling love, she echoes these words.

Destiny has this whole thing going where she's nobly forcing herself to marry this gross guy to open this orphanage, and Natsuko points out to her that this subplot makes no sense because she could just open the orphanage herself:

The narrative always framed it like Destiny couldn't do anything on her own, so it doesn't even occur to anyone until Natsuko brings it up. But once she realizes it, Destiny does decide to live how she wants and open that damn orphanage herself.

The show could have just had Natsuko hate Destiny (since she clearly also likes the Hero) or made fun of her and treated her as useless and awful, but instead it's made clear she IS a very sweet person, she makes friends with Natsuko, the show treats it as a thought experiment on "what if the classic Damsel in Distress fated to be Fridged learned she had agency and developed her own interests with the help of another woman?" It's a really light hearted take on the subject, but that's what makes it so fun.

Anyway ZENSHU is really good stuff so far, one of the few modern isekai that has rights, and finally one that plays with classic tropes in an actually interesting way. The director and screenwriter, Mitsue Yamazaki and Kimiko Ueno, are some cool ladies who've previously worked together on one of my faves, the Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun anime, and their talent really shows here.

[harmorii]

natsuko everytime she watched that damn movie

[fandom-skellyweirdo-jumper]

Zenshu's Built in Character Flaws aka Why Luke Braveheart and Unio seem to be Assholes and why I like it. (A repost of a reblog to stand as its own post.)

Regarding ep1, we all gets to see the 'stoic' act of Luke and Unio as we watch them insult Natsuko foe being in the desert without waiting to hear an explanation and leave hear to starve when she is hungry. And than in ep 2, we see blanton sexism that Natsuko points out when he gives his reasons as to why Natsuko can't join the 9 heros.

And I can see how a lot of people might regard these moments as annoying or infuriating as Luke and Unio are supposed to be "Heros" and anime is following annoying tropes. (At this point i feel we can comfortably regard Luke as more of a warrior than w Hero I'd say.)

But, to me, it all makes perfect sense.

Because these unheroic flaws are evidence that Luke Braveheart is a protagonist of an old school fantasy anime film (aka the old school fantasy anime film that Natsuko watched as a kid) and one that was regarded as unpopular/a flop/bad by critics.

Unio has the perfectly annoying traits of a side character/sidekick you'd see in like the 1980s (?) (I'm thinking of scrappy from Scooby-Doo). Arrogant, likes partying and drinking over listening to a warning, wants rewards as a hero, flirts with Memmeln ect.

Memmeln is there as the token women warrior who doesn't even speak up much for herself or show alot of emotions (from what I've seen in the first 2 episodes).

And QJ is the intelligent character that's there more to exaggerated the danger coming towards them than to actually be helpful since its an action anime film. Example: "CHANCE OF SUCCESS IS 3%" & "Charging is what he's going to be doing from now on whenever you actually need him."

They all exist as animated characters that a kid would watch in theater in the 1900s and believe they were the coolest people ever as they believed the film was the coolest thing ever produced. But than acknowledge all the media's flaws once they got older.

All of this I'm ok with and am able to stand because Natsuko clearly does not put up with any of that crap and seems to be admiring everyone for their animation art and nostalgia.

She does not treat them like great heros of legends like people would do with meeting [the Avatar from atla] or [Harry Potter]. She does not worship or dream about them like celebrities but as the childhood characters she has known well and appreciated for a long time.

And I'm really excited to see how the anime grows everyone or even just Luke from their 2D archetype into more complex people. And I'm excited to see how Natsuko treats them as time goes on. (Frankly the running gag of her swinging Unio by his horn in hilarious. She has no respect for anyone🤣😍🥰)

[offonaherosjourney]

What a choice to have an immortal elf character fall to nihilism, depression and despair after centuries of losing her friends to war after war after war until she is so broken she actively prays for the end of the world and then have the main character be like "girrrrl, i know how to fix you. you just need to find a hyperfixation. here, let me introduce you to this thing in the music industry of the world where i come from called idols" and have the elf girl decide she wants to live after all just so she can keep simping over her new favorite anime husbando.

What a correct choice, that is

[mp-potions]

[hopefultimemachinedelusion]

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BOOOOOOOOY

ITS AN EMOTIONAL MEAT GRINDER

LOST HIS BROTHER AND HIS LOVE AT THE SAME TIME!?!?!?! WTFFFFFGG???????

[ianime0]

Zenshu | Ep10 | Natsuko! Luke, no!

[hikimur]

Ещё одна милашность~

[nuclear-poi]

[loremori]

SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!!! 😭

[julietcpulet]

natsuko x luke really understands that one of the best things a man can do is let you wear an oversized hoodie, leave your hair down and serve you obscene amounts of food while looking at you like you’re not a trash goblin