From the top of the expectations pile to pretty near the bottom we move to Zenshu. There are a couple of reasons it’s here, one of them simply being that original anime have been scarce on the site for a long time and I always prefer to give them a shot. We also have the director of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (perhaps the most inexplicably un-sequeled anime ever), Yamzazki Mitsue, who’s barely directed since. Paired with writer Ueno Kimiko we have a fully woman-helmed anime, which is a relative rarity.

Most of all, though, is the (perhaps grisly) spectacle of MAPPA producing a show about the production of anime. The irony is as subtle as a kick in the head, and while I never harbored any delusions about what this show would turn out to be in that respect, it’s somewhat surprising that it exists at all. I have much the same problem with anime about making anime that I do with anime about the idol industry. They always sell out, even if they start out making overtures to genuine criticism. In the end they’re cheerleaders and apologists, because that’s the sort of series the production committee system allows to be produced.

As it turns out Zenshu doesn’t really seem interested in that at all. I like the idea of two women making a show about a female anime director, but this one isn’t really about the production process at all apart from as a plot device. Hirose Natsuko is a rising star whose mahou shoujo series went viral, and now is picked to head up production of a theatrical romcom of significant stature. She’s a control freak who insists on doing everything herself (the messaging apparently that production crises are the fault of arrogant creators, not black company studios). Eventually from a combination of overwork and expired clams (they’ll get you every time) she winds up isekai-ing into the world of an anime she loved as a kid, whose female director has just died.

There’s a fair bit to unpack there, starting with the question of whether that creator really died of “food poisoning” or exhaustion (not that the latter would be allowed here, openly). But the salient point is that the world of the anime – “A Time For Perishing” – isn’t especially funny or entertaining. Nor is Natsuko a particularly winning character, though she’s not exactly supposed to be yet. At this point I’m assuming the isekai side of things is going to be an ongoing presence, which would mean any focus on the problems of anime production is likely to be minimal.

Expectations are part of the problem here, there’s no denying that. But execution is the real issue, and the first episode of Zenshu just wasn’t all that interesting to me. Natsuko struggling to direct (and storyboard) a romcom because she herself is a social misfit with no romantic experience could be a fruitful narrative direction even if the series totally punts on highlighting the problems in the anime production system, but the early evidence is that’s not going to be the major focus either. I’ll give Zenshu at least one more ep to prove itself given the pedigree and circumstances, but I’ll need to see more than I did this week to be convinced.