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.
areudirty
kianamaiart
germansingergirl
ellievsbear
dailybridgerton
pixelskylines
yousharknotpass
origamiaround
