It’s a tone-deaf project at best.
Summary:
- Zenshu is an upcoming anime project about an industry worker.
- Normally, such projects interest fans, but this isn’t the case here.
- MAPPA is notorious for terrible treatment of animators.
Over the years, we’ve got many series that focus on the process of creating something. The most famous ones for the anime medium are Shirobako and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!), while for manga, Bakuman is the most commonly brought up example.
Just a few days ago, an original anime following the struggles of an anime director was announced. However, fans were not very happy about this announcement before the details were even revealed — and that’s because the project will be made by MAPPA.
What is it about?
The anime, titled Zenshu, is following Natsuko Hirose, an incredibly talented animator. She earns a reputation as a genius worker, which allows her to become an established director shortly.
However, at some point, she has to direct a romance movie — and she struggles with it as she has no experience with love at all. We don’t have much more — not even the air date — but the synopsis is already giving a good idea of what the anime is going to be about.
Normally, such a project would at least catch people’s interest. After all, anything that focuses on the industry is interesting in itself and has the attention of some fans just because of its themes. However, fans are calling out this particular project for being disingenuous — because of the fact that MAPPA is producing it.
MAPPA is a controversial studio, especially for such a project
Studio MAPPA has been involved in multiple controversies recently regarding the treatment of animators. The most notorious one was about Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, during which the studio regularly employed many freelancers for low pay and had them work overtime constantly — and that still wasn’t enough.
A studio with such a history making a project that romanticizes being an anime industry worker is an absolutely terrible idea. Fans are already calling MAPPA out for this, saying that they will ignore Zenshu out of principle — and they have a point.
After all, MAPPA trying to show how awesome it is to be an animator is hypocritical, considering the notoriously terrible conditions at the studio itself.
Technically, Zenshu is an original project by Mitsue Yamazaki and Kimiko Ueno. As such, it’s hard to guess how much the actual MAPPA higher-ups are involved with it — perhaps it’s just an unfortunate choice of studio made by the original creators.
Still, the fact that MAPPA is making the anime is enough for many to not watch it.