Natsuko is pretty unlikable in the latest episode. With her help, the city is surviving through every recent Void encounter without a single casualty. Pretty big wins, right? The problem is that they’re Natsuko’s wins. It doesn’t look like the rest of the Nine Soldiers get to do much of anything. Hell, the only other contributor at this point is QJ’s radar and only his radar. Sadly, our heroine isn’t the least bit gracious about her spate of good fortune, posing like a huge dork before the adoring crowd. Oh, how quickly she’s adapted to her new post-apocalypse home. Sure, the henshin stuff is amusing since Zenshu airs on the same day as that sentai isekai. But in general, her behavior is not a good look. I personally don’t find it endearing. Naturally, pride comes before the fall, so Natsuko quickly finds out that her latest creation is no good when the Voids attack again at the very end of this week’s episode. Past conflicts have been introduced and resolved in one tidy episode, so it’s about time we end on a cliffhanger. But that’s not really the point. The main problem here is that our heroine’s hubris is finally biting her in the ass, and this has been predictable from the first moment we met her. We already know that Natsuko has no leadership skills; she simply refused to delegate work, and as a result, her grand film project is in trouble. This week’s episode follows up by piling it on rather thick with yet another glimpse of what it’s like to work with our rising new star. Where’s the HR department when you need one?
But Natsuko’s hubris isn’t the only topic of discussion in this week’s episode. While combing the slums for kids — for Destiny’s orphanage, mind you, so nothing nefarious — Natsuko meets Justice, a disgraced former member of the Nine Soldiers. He quietly left the team because he suffered an injury to his wings in his last battle with them. Rather than letting Luke feel guilty over his injury, however, Justice left without explaining anything. So now, he makes a living as a bouncer and, uh, a skeevy drunkard? Seriously, he spends most of his scenes hitting on Natsuko. She also admits in return that he’s hot, so yeah. In fact, he’s hotter in her eyes now that he’s all destitute and shit. Yeah, I don’t get it. It’s like that Garrus thing from Mass Effect. People can get so dirty when they talk about the galaxy’s favorite turian, but I guess my tastes are a little too normie. As someone who enjoys vanilla ice cream, I can’t imagine how a scaly dragon man can be attractive. But I assume Justice isn’t here just to play romantic rival to Luke. If I had to guess, he’ll probably leap in and save Natsuko from the new Voids at the last second, have a painful discussion with Luke about what really happened, et cetera, et cetera. But even if it does play out differently — maybe Luke or someone else in the Nine Soldiers takes the hit for Natsuko instead — it wouldn’t change my opinion about this week’s episode all that much.
Truthfully, I’m a bit disappointed with this week’s episode, because the story is playing it too safe. Looking back at Natsuko’s journey thus far, it’s been a touch conventional: hero shows up and surprises everyone with their powers. Hero racks up victories. Hubris sets in. Hero suffers a blow to the ego and learns their lesson. Hero presumably learns the power of teamwork in next week’s episode and can take that lesson back to her actual job. It’s a tried-and-tested character arc, and that’s fine in your average story. And you could argue that at least she has a weakness unlike most anime protagonists these days. But Natsuko isn’t supposed to be your average John Isekai. She’s not just an “anima-ma-tor” either as Luke often likes to flub the word. She’s also a storyteller — a storyteller who has years of experience working in the anime-manga industry. I want a bit of that experience to come into play. Natsuko has been winning so much that the timeline of her favorite film has changed completely. She admits that she doesn’t even recognize the new Voids that are showing up. So… any further thoughts about the current situation?
As a storyteller in the industry, where does Natsuko think the story will go next? Maybe she can pause and reflect on how storytelling is different now in anime compared to what it was when she was a kid. As someone who is a huge fan of the original film — and has probably consumed all of the extra content related to the film such as interviews, deep dives, etc. — where does Natsuko think the creator would have taken the story if the film hadn’t flopped — if the film had been popular enough for sequels? Zenshu doesn’t necessarily have to explore these exact questions. Rather, my point is that I don’t want or need a standard isekai. A ton of new ones crop up every damn season. We’re up to our damn necks with isekai. The only reason I’m watching and writing about Zenshu is because our heroine isn’t yet another typical sad sack loser graduating from their dreary life in order to score easy-to-impress babes in a power fantasy specifically tailored to their (read: author’s) personality quirks. So give me more meta commentary. Give me more than the conventional character arc outlined above. Sadly, there isn’t much else worth watching this season (at least on Crunchyroll and Hidive).
Anyway, Red Ranger didn’t make me laugh this week, so I have nothing to say about it. Hell, I’m kinda annoyed that the team’s just going to gloss over Lowji attempting to get Togo killed because he’s got an unhealthy stalkerish fixation on Teltina. I saw an article about how M.A.O was joining the cast as Kizuna Silver, but it was literally a short scene and nothing else. So much for that. Eh, I might drop the show. I guess I could see how next week’s episode shapes up.
