Zenshu Ep 10 Review
Interesting thing about me: there is only so much sadness that I can handle. That’s true for everyone, but I have a harder time than others handling sad moments due to how my brain works. So, when faced with a story that veers into the realm of overwhelmingly depressing, my mind reacts in the only way it can: it waits. It waits for things to get better before it lets me go back to something. In the case of Zenshu, the ending to the last episode, coupled with the spoilers for this one, made me do just that. Otherwise, I would’ve plunged into despair like Natsuko does as the story goes from correcting itself to over-correcting.
Rock. Bottom
QJ is dead, to begin with, and the entire Last Town is nearing rock bottom. People have been forced to flee from their homes as refugees, and Luke is pushing himself to his breaking point once more. Except, unlike before, he does not have Natsuko to save him, because she’s handling QJ’s death even worse.
In a nutshell, this entire episode can be summed as Natsuko being pushed further and further into despair. She blames her hesitation for making QJ sacrifice himself. She blames her drawings for being used as fuel for the Voids. And to make matters worse, Elder Baobab drops a big bombshell about the prophecy of the Nine Soldiers: it’s a lie. It was something someone made up to give people hope that they could survive the end of the world. Whoever came up with that prophecy wanted to give people hope against impossible odds, but they didn’t believe it would come true.
This is Barbaric Overkill
There was probably some big, Game of Thrones-type lesson that Kametaro wanted to teach people when she created this story. However, it’s beyond me. Prophecies can wind up being hit or miss in fiction, so that doesn’t help things. What makes things worse, though, is how the world of the story begins to overstep its bounds trying to correct itself. Firstly, Destiny tells Natsuko that she’s going to marry the Chairman after all. Then, out of nowhere, the townsfolk start believing that Natsuko is a traitor because her drawings turn into Voids. The craziest part, though, is the fact that the Void Cult returns and starts saying Natsuko is their antichrist.
No matter how you slice it, whatever the world is doing to make things turn out like this is overkill! Natsuko herself recognizes this as an angry mob tries to kill her right as more Voids attack. However, I think the fact that things start turning out this way is the whole point. The story is trying so hard to get “back on track” that it’s made things far worse. The most sinister aspect of this railroading, though, is what it does for Natsuko. It effectively has her take Destiny’s place in the story as the one whose death will send Luke over the edge.
This is Why I Waited
This is why I had to wait until the next episode to review this. If I hadn’t done that, I would’ve spent the entire week driving myself crazy over what happens next! It’s chaos, plain and simple!
WORST ZENSHU EPISODE WHAT THE FUCK pic.twitter.com/hrEky5V2zD
— PICTURE PERFECT ERA (@akudamadriver) March 9, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Luckily for us, the anime will have already finished by the time this goes out. Here’s hoping that it winds up being a banger.
This ending is so good
Zenshu ed pic.twitter.com/S619dC4dMr
— ANURAAAAAGG (@AnusamXX) January 6, 2025 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
