Making an original anime — one that doesn't draw on a manga or light novel as its source — is quite rare in this day and age. Whereas a popular source material can be expected to land a hit of some level, sponsors may be hard to gather for something where you have no idea whether it'll become a hit or flop.
But that's exactly why one anime I was personally watching with special interest this season is ZENSHU. It's produced by MAPPA, which lately has the image of an unstoppable hit-maker — when you say "hit-maker," this is the studio. Incidentally, "zenshu" is apparently anime-industry jargon meaning something like "correct everything, all retake, do it over." Why give it such an ominous name (one that, presumably, the people writing it want to hear even less than we do)...? — maybe that becomes clear too as you watch the anime.
Anime you've seen somewhere before, scattered here and there
One of ZENSHU.'s charms is the exploits of the anime characters drawn by protagonist Natsuko Hirose. And those anime characters are, of course, original characters who appear only in this anime — yet every one of them is a character you feel like you've seen somewhere before. The way Gurren Lagann and Dokaben's Iwaki get consumed in a flash was kind of funny.
Doing parody seems very easy, but I think it actually requires a sense of taste. "Homage to existing works," which exploded in volume from around the early '80s, is a technique that's been used in all kinds of works — sometimes experimentally, sometimes as a litmus test (of otaku knowledge), sometimes as the clincher of a gag. But now that it's grown too plentiful, the honest truth is that parody has become a bit of an overdone meal. (Personally, I feel the quality dropped off a cliff around the time JoJo parodies multiplied to death.)
So what kind of parody is acceptable? It surely comes down to love for the work being parodied. Parody drawn from vaguely secondhand knowledge, or "this'll get a laugh, right?"-type parody, honestly isn't funny at all, and often comes off as unpleasant. But this work makes great use of its premise — people from the anime world fighting with the power of anime — letting its playfulness work well, and you can feel the spirit of going all-out on the parody without cutting corners even for a split-second scene. It's wonderful.
And, simply put, the soundtrack is cool throughout
Honestly, people might say I have a hopeless lack of vocabulary, but I can only say that every piece in the soundtrack is incredibly cool. What's more, it feels like there are a great many scenes where the soundtrack is playing overall. Music that sounds like it'd be used in an RPG, Celtic music that's absolutely essential to fantasy, music brimming with the "what's about to happen?!" excitement in scenes where protagonist Natsuko Hirose enters a key animation cut... and so on. I want to talk about every single piece of music.
Every piece is crafted to gain persuasiveness in step with its scene, so the tricky part is that I can only say I want you to watch and listen to it together with the anime.
Very easy to watch, easy to follow, carefully crafted to reach both die-hard anime fans and casual viewers — a fine work, ZENSHU. Why not follow it along? Incidentally, there were quite a few opinions on social media saying it has a Precure-ish vibe. I've never watched Precure, so is that so...? Please check that part for yourselves by actually watching!
I hope that, with this anime as a catalyst, lots of original anime start circulating in the world again. And since it's been a while since I've seen a work that uses its soundtrack this lavishly, I'd love to see that soundtrack fever spread to other works too.
Cited from the official site https://x.com/zenshu_anime
