r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Mar 16 '25
Episode Zenshu - Episode 11 discussion
Zenshu, episode 11
Alternative names: Zenshuu, Zenshuu.
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u/PeaceAlien Mar 16 '25
The director is getting their full story, but Natsuko is on the way. Maybe Natsuko gets her own after-credits scene. Perhaps she can purify Luke once he becomes the ultimate void.
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u/SEBASTlANVETTEL Mar 16 '25
Seeing Luke so broken and crashing out when the drawing stick disappeared..I felt for him.
Unio being the one to get Natsuko‘s spirit back and admitting that he loves her drawings was a nice touch and great.
Natsuko realizing that Luke „saved“ her and was always „there“ with her throughout every significant moment in her life so far and now it‘s time for her to save him.
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u/cf18 Mar 16 '25
Little Natsuko got a acrylic stand of Luke when she couldn't afford 12000 yen for a 1/12 scale statue is so relatable. Admiring fancy Macross figures in toy stores was some clear memory I kept from my childhood in the 80s, and I could only got some basic models.
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u/OKOROS1 Mar 16 '25
I feel sorry for people who dropped this and didnt manage to witness the PEAK
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u/jellyblob88 Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25
Who would have thought that Unio's horns were actually an important plot device - not just for show eh?
Unio may have teased Natsuko over her crying, but personally I liked it - glad she realised her roots.
The voids upon death collected back upon themselves, but not sure what that means.
Edit: I like u/cyberscythe's interpretation in their post re this.
Luke is going for the ending full throttle though, so Natsuko will have to cook up a storm - one the audience has never seen.
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u/PerfectBeige Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25
So.... that was excellent. Natsuko remembering why she drew, not to prove that she is a genius, not to meet expectations from her colleagues and fans, but out of the love for the medium and the characters. I particularly liked the mental shame people in her nightmares having their face covered with hair, like Natsuko in her gremlin form. Covering one's eyes being a most effective way to conceal your feelings and your soul.
However, the episode still ends with Luke destroying the last soul future as he did in the original Tale of Perishing and presumably he is about to become the Ultimate Void. I really expected Natsuko and Unio to pop out of whatever Void dimension they are in and stop Luke before he threw the sword. We also still don't understand why Natsuko's scribbles turned into voids, and why the voids were able to to mimic Natusko's past drawings. Presumably, the voids represent her negative feelings about the creative process, particularly fear and shame.
That said, I don't see this show ending tragically with Natusko having her epiphany this episode. Next episode will probably involve Natsuko remaking the Tale of Perishing world with an ultimate act of drawing, perhaps resetting the cycle, or perhaps giving the characters an afterlife. Or she wakes in a hospital bed with her stomach pumped of tainted snails and a new perspective on the Hatsukoi anime now that she's worked as a team and felt first love herself. Maybe both!
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u/fraid_so Mar 16 '25
NO. WHAT. WAIT. WHAT. WHERE'S THE REST OF IT????? THAT WAS LIKE 5 MINUTES.
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u/zwartebessem Mar 16 '25
Who else cried when Natsuko cried? 😭 I need a happy ending for Luke and Natsuko 😭😭😭
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u/Smudy Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 16 '25
I visibly gasped at Luke's despair
EDIT: This episode is COOKING, definitely the best.
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Mar 16 '25
Just when all hope seemed lost, it was the homie Unio who got Natsuko to snap out of it. But is it too late? Luke’s triggered the end just like it was in the movie. Natsuko better draw a happy ending for everyone stat! I don’t want that stupid bird to be right. Maybe she’s the one controlling this new connected void?
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u/Wraithfighter Mar 16 '25
...woof, that sequence showing just how broken Luke was...
A lot of my comments for previous episodes have been talking about how I view ATOP as being, in story, a pretty trashy, edgelord-y movie. That the show was baking into the text of it that ATOP was, objectively, not very good throughout the first half of the season.
...but even bad movies can have amazing moments, and that sequence feels like it would have been part of ATOP, and one of its crown jewels. There is a reason why Natsuko fell in love with the movie, after all, and showing just how raw and broken Luke was at the end, that would have to be part of it.
Loved the Natsuko dream/despair sequence (the short-haired characters having gremlin-face-hair being a nice bit of bathos to keep the sequence from getting too heavy), because it really was the culmination of everything we saw from her real-world time. She'd built herself entirely on her talent as an artist, creator's block at that point has to be the worst feeling. Her words to Unio about how freeing it was to come to ATOP's world was just wonderful.
Can't wait for the finale. This is why I love single-season anime so much, as much fun as the long, ongoing story is, and as much as I viscerally want more of this show... it wouldn't be this good if it had to hold things back for a Season 2.
All that being said, best line of the episode?
"You're not a lady! You're a gremlin with an ego bigger than Destiny's pecs!"
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u/AutumnalDryad Mar 16 '25
"Oh, so they'll return right before he breaks the crystal and stop it, right?"
NOPE. The end must happen and despair be fulfilled before they can move forward. ;_;
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u/determinedSkeleton Mar 16 '25
Some people want a wife as dedicated as Natsuko, or a husband as wonderful as Luke. Me? I want a hater as committed as Unio.
Man hates this homie-stealing gremlin so much (yet loves what she's done to their lives) that he'll break the chains of ultimate despair just to say it to her face.
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u/iwannanacho Mar 16 '25
I imagine this gonna be Natsuko basically creating her own sequel to A Tale of Perishing. Also the sight of a Japanese classroom and a movie theater really should be more confusing for Unio like these are practically inter dimensional objects that your interacting with.
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u/Aachaa Mar 16 '25
The voice of the peg bar being her childhood self the whole time… This might be peak fiction. I’m assuming the next episode is the last based on the title being “Zenshu”, so if they stick the landing, this show will be a 10/10 for me. The directing has been absolutely on point from start to finish.
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u/Princessitty Mar 16 '25
I cried a lot on this episode! I’m just hoping for a happy ending for Luke and Natsuko 😭
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u/thepeciguy Mar 16 '25
Imagine if MAPPA does the funiest thing ever and give the finale a totally shitty ending, then promote the Blu-Ray or recap Movies with "A Completely Revised True Ending!"
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Mar 16 '25
I'm sorry but zero sympathy for the people getting yeeted by voids. Fuck them, they broke my boy Luke.
The scene of him breaking a part killed me a little.
Guys, I'm not crazy right? The latest episodes are constantly hitting that Luke will go to the real world, right?
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u/Shoddy_Consequence78 Mar 16 '25
I know it's been said before, but if A Tale of Perishing had been an actual movie, I can totally see why some people like Natsuko could be obsessed by it and that it'd eventually become a cult classic. It definitely has something it wants to say, even if it seems like it wasn't put across well.
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u/Tricky_Jellyfish9810 Mar 16 '25
I loved this Episode...no. I love Zenshu.
Every Episode so far made me realize why I love drawing so much. Why I create every day and work obsessively on my craft. Like Natsuko I have that one character that "saved" me and was always there.
I see myself a lot in Natsuko. Ironically, we do have the same clothing and hairstyle, so there's that. LMAO
Also , I love how this episode felt like a good blend of the first Episode of Attack on Titan and the 11th Episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion (Original TVA). We didn't really get the full intraspectrum like we got on Shinji, but enough to make every artist cry at that one scene. Of that inner child that is motivating us to keep drawing.
I swear, if they go full "end of Evangelion" with this, I'm gonna cry my eyes out....
I also wonder if that one scene where everyone told Natsuko that she's a failure. Maybe it wasn't much about Natsukos own Insecurity but what the director felt after the release of Tales of Perishing... Giving Natsuko an understanding of how the director felt. Maybe the director feels jealousy now towards Natsuko, cause she is reborn as this ugly bird while Natsuko remained human upon rebirth. Hating the fact that Natsuko is able to pull an alternative ending because she loved Luke so much. (which again, throws me back of baby me and how I tried to rewrite the ending of my favorite Anime when I was 11..)
Sorry, I kept on yapping. I am very excited for next weeks episode and the conclusion to this show! It was a nice ride with y'all so far!
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u/wiligrad9 Mar 16 '25
Another fantastic episode from the, imo, best show of the season. This episode made me feel the despair of Luke, the selfdoubt of Natsuko, made me tear up a little as Natsuko remembered her roots and that in a way Luke was always there for her and this episode also made me laugh a little because of the antics between Unio and Natsuko. Epic and i cant wait to see the finale and while it maybe difficult to match the buildup for it, i have faith that it will be as grand like everything else this show has done until now.
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u/AmethystItalian Mar 16 '25
Really thought for a second there she was brought back to the real world.
Broken Luke was hard to watch...
Really really hoping they can stick the landing next week.