Some people think that living for centuries would be awesome. However, what good is getting to live for hundreds, even thousands of years, if everyone you know grows old and dies without you? In fantasy novels, it is the curse of many elves to outlast their fellow mortals, like Memmeln from Zenshu. Even with everything Natsuko knows about the film she’s stuck in, she doesn’t know what drives Memmeln. And that not knowing almost costs them the Nine Soldiers everything in the new episode of Zenshu.
Memmeln is a Void Stan
As Natsuko is working on her drawings, Luke asks a question out of the blue regarding the Void that snuck into the festival last episode. None of them know how that happened in the first place, but Natsuko knows…sort of.
Spoiler alert: Memmeln is part of a group that cast a spell to disguise the Void as the priest. Their plan was to summon the Ultimate Void, but when they do, and Luke killed it, it was revealed to be Memmeln. The problem is that the film never explained why this happened, so Natsuko’s left fumbling for answers, just like Luke.
Which leads to the big “wtf” reveal of the episode: Memmeln is part of a group of elves that are fed up with living. They’ve seen death and destruction too many times over the course of their lives, so they just want the pain to end. In short, they’re trying to create a mass extinction event to embrace death.
Immortality is Overrated…
Great plan, Luke. 🤣 #ZENSHU @RyanNegronVO @MaddieMorrisVA pic.twitter.com/Rd5TQ8UvLi
— Vincent Sophuok (FU, Musk) (@VincentSophuok) January 27, 2025
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While there’s no denying that getting to stave off aging for a century or two would be nice, not everyone thinks of the downsides of such a long life. Live long enough, and everything starts to become a blur. People you know and love die, and you’re left alone. Living that long can be a curse unto itself, something Memmeln is acutely aware of. However, instead of cherishing the time she has all the more, Natsuko points out how self-serving her plans are. And she’s not wrong. It is rather selfish to unilaterally decide to end the world.
So, the big issue is how do Natsuko and Luke convince Memmeln and her group not to go through their plans? Something Natsuko knows well: the immortality of a creator.
Unless you create something really cool!
It can be argued that, besides the existence of the soul, the only true form of immortality is having the world remember your name. And in this regard, great storytellers can wind up being remembered long after they’ve left this world. Homer, Shakespeare, Tolkien, all of them have been dead from anywhere from several decades to thousands of years, but people still remember them. Centuries from now, people might still remember Toriyama, Tezuka, Oda, and the other great mangaka of 20th and 21st centuries. The bottom line is that all these people created characters that, even after they’re dead and gone, are going to be remembered.
So, Natsuko plays into that with her latest drawing. It’s to remind Memmeln and her choir that, for all the suffering and loss that comes with the fullness of time, there are still beautiful things worth cherishing. Granted, she used a boy band heartthrob from an anime she worked on, but that doesn’t take away any of the poignancy. No matter how much destruction and loss the world is filled with, there’s still beauty to be found!
ZENSHU IS SO REAL FOR THIS.
So it had a depressed elf character who was tired of living for too long and watching her friends die. She wanted to kill everyone and to change her opinion Natsuko made her an anime idol boy voiced by Mamochan LMAO
😭🥺🫶 pic.twitter.com/f6UN8TMig1
— Toribanashi – Watch my new video (@toribanashi) January 26, 2025
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Natsuko and Luke’s plan works. They manage to convince Memmeln and her followers to not give up on life when they can still stan anime husbando’s. The bad news is that seeing them go off together briefly gave Unio the impression that Natsuko and Luke were dating. And Luke’s denial at the end only makes him even more suspicious.
Luke and Natsuko secretly dating??? #ZENSHU @RyanNegronVO @lucilovesmic pic.twitter.com/aPy4qdSuDC
— Vincent Sophuok (FU, Musk) (@VincentSophuok) January 27, 2025
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Who thinks Natsuko and Luke are going to date?
JUST DATE ALREADY #ZENSHU #anime pic.twitter.com/NUm1FZApd7
— Anime Culture (@AnimeCulture00) January 26, 2025
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It’s official: Zenshu is shipping Natsuko and Luke, which could be both good and bad. Good, because if it goes through and she gets some character development before waking up back in Japan, Natsuko would have the experience to finish that romance anime she was stuck on. Bad, because it could lead to the story ending far worse if something bad happens. That, and she and Luke would be separated if she went back home. It could go either way.
Clearly, Zenshu is playing the long game and trying to make us invested in how things will turn out, and it could go either way.
This ending is so good 🙌
Zenshu ed pic.twitter.com/S619dC4dMr— 🍁ANURAAAAAGG (@AnusamXX) January 6, 2025
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