Zenshu Episode 5 Review: An Unexplored Direction

Today’s episode of Zenshu was pretty good as it finally shows something unique. Let us see how this episode turned out.

Zenshu Episode 4 Recap

Natsuko already knows that Memmeln was responsible for transforming the void into the priest during the festival, which led to chaos. However, because Memmeln is one of her favorite characters, she chooses to stay silent when Luke asks if she knows who’s behind it. Instead, she decides to investigate on her own, hoping to understand why Memmeln has seemingly turned into an antagonist.

As Natsuko attempts to follow Memmeln, she gets caught by Luke, who, upon learning her intentions, insists on joining her. He, too, wants answers. However, their undercover efforts don’t go smoothly, and Luke soon finds himself in trouble.

The reasoning behind her betrayal stems from her desire to bring everything to an end simply because she’s an eternal being tired of existence, which feels more selfish than tragic for a character once seen as a hero. But her deep-rooted nihilism vanishes the moment an attractive character talks her out of it. The character is a creation of Natsuko.

Zenshu Episode 5 Review

Today’s episode was a lot better than the previous few episodes as it was different. Here, in the beginning, we see Natsuko in her old world, overworking herself yet again. Her assistant approaches her with unfinished work whose deadline has long ended. But Natsuko does not care as she must get as much inspiration as possible from others.

We all remember that the project that she was relentlessly working on was about first love, a subject she had no experience of. Hence, we see her hounding everybody, asking them about their first love and telling them to draw it even if they do not possess the ability to sketch like her. She also creates an unapproachable air around her, claiming that she can do all the work herself as it is easier than having faith in others.

Something similar is happening in her current fantastical world. Natsuko is the one who fights with the enemies all the time and saves the day. She knows this and also basks in the praise that she gets from others. You can also see that this constant recognition and dependency on her power is kind of getting to her head. But this is not all, as we also see some recurrent characters like Destiny, who has finally opened her orphanage.

Natsuko, Luke, and Unio are responsible for getting more children for the orphanage, and, in turn, Natsuko ends up meeting Justice, a past member of the nine soldiers. But Justice is a shell of his former self as now he passes his time by drinking and gambling. We do get their background story, and for once, it is a very plausible reason why Justice left the party.

But this was not a monotonous episode, as it had many layers to it. First of all, the romance aspect of the anime gets some kind of development, which is a good thing. Plus, the conclusion was not something that we had already seen in the previous episodes.

Verdict

I like today’s episode a lot more than I thought I would. Hopefully, with the introduction of Justice and a new antagonist, the anime will get a new directive and have more to the storyline. The trope of Natsuko being able to do everything is finally changing, and I appreciate that a lot.

Also Read: Zenshu Episode 4 Review: Fangirling Is The Redemption