Zenshu episode 7: Natsuko Hirose's backstory reveals her bizarre journey to the top of the animation industry

Zenshu episode 7, titled First Love, premiered in Japan on Sunday, February 16, 2025, at 11:45 pm JST. This episode provided a much-needed backstory for Natsuko Hirose, the series protagonist. Interestingly, the majority of this episode was told from the perspectives of multiple people who had witnessed and fallen in love with Natsuko's journey to the top.

However, Zenshu episode 7 ended on a surprisingly ominous note, as the mysterious bird-like creature, who had been warning Natsuko for the past couple of episodes about a possible upcoming tragedy, finally made its appearance. This development generated a lot of hype as well as concern among viewers, who are patiently awaiting the release of the upcoming episode.

Zenshu episode 7: Natsuko's obsession with A Tale of Perishing launches her to the top of the animation industry

Zenshu episode 7 opening moments

Shu Ninomiya, as seen in Zenshu episode 7 (image via MAPPA)

Zenshu episode 7 began from the perspective of a nine-year-old elementary student, Midori Ichihashi, who recounted the events from her and Natsuko's childhood days. She highlighted the impact that A Tale of Perishing movie had on Natsuko, and how it led her on a journey to the top of the animation industry.

Watching Natsuko get so immersed in something that she genuinely loved to do had a profound impact on Midori. In fact, she ended up falling for Natsuko, who she claimed was her first love.

The focus then shifted to Shu Ninomiya, a middle school boy on his school's track team. He was also in the same class as Natsuko, who he discovered to be quite unlike other girls. In fact, she was unlike anyone he had ever seen, causing him to arrive at school even before her to observe her actions.

Eventually, the two crossed paths when Natsuko decided to study him to see the movement of his Adam's apple. While her bizarre behavior did catch him off-guard, Shu happily complied with all of Natsuko's strange requests—after all, he was visibly infatuated with her.

Shu even became the fastest runner on his team for her sake, as he claimed that she was his first love. However, his feelings remained unrequited—since Natsuko was only interested in him for studying his running movements.

Zenshu episode 7: Natsuko's directional debut takes the anime industry by storm

Natsuko as seen in the anime (image via MAPPA)

The focus of Zenshu episode 7 then shifted to Saburo Aoi, a college student who dreamt of becoming a great anime director and carrying the entire animation industry on his back one day. However, his dream was a far cry from his current situation, since Saburo and his team at the Animation Research Club couldn't even come up with a decent idea for an animated music video, which was to be featured at an upcoming music festival.

Fortunately, Natsuko arrived at the club just in the nick of time to save the day. Despite being younger than the other members of the club, Natsuko's talent far surpassed theirs, to the extent that she did almost all of the work by herself. She even took over the project as the director.

Natsuko finished the animated video in no time. It was her directional debut piece, which became a massive hit among fans and kickstarted her career in the animation industry. She eventually joined Studio Konkon, where she produced more massive hits that further propelled her to stardom. Soon, Natsuko became renowned in the animation industry as a certified genius.

Her progress was closely monitored by Saburo Aoi, who considered Natsuko to be his greatest rival as well as his first love. He admired her growth from afar while also aspiring to reach the same heights as her one day. In reality, however, he couldn't even graduate college and was apparently held back multiple times due to his lack of talent.

Zenshu episode 7: Natsuko's inexperience with romance stifles her creative genius

Natsuko and Naomi, as seen in Zenshu episode 7 (image via MAPPA)

While Natsuko did make a name for herself as an unmatched prodigy in the animation industry, she was soon faced with a massive roadblock. One day, the president of Studio Konkon handed Natsuko the responsibility of working on a romantic comedy series, which revolved primarily around the one thing Natsuko had never experienced in her entire life—first love.

Due to her stubborn nature, Natsuko was hellbent on working on all aspects of her new project by herself, even though she couldn't come up with a decent storyboard on time.

Driven to a corner, Natsuko went to extreme lengths to look for inspiration—from mugging random people on the street and interrogating them about their experiences with first love to injuring her own coworkers just to recreate a romantic scene from a manga.

Zenshu episode 7 closing moments

Natsuko Hirose, as seen in Zenshu episode 7 (image via MAPPA)

The closing moments of Zenshu episode 7 replicated the events of the anime's first episode, where Natsuko Hirose died from food poisining in the real world after consuming expired food.

It was then revealed that the events of this episode until now were just Natsuko reliving her past life in a dream. As she woke up surrounded by her new friends in her new reality, Natsuko began wondering whether the world of A Tale of Perishing was even supposed to be such a happy place.

To her surprise, the mysterious bird-like creature that had been delivering ominous warnings to her for the past few episodes suddenly appeared before her and confirmed that the world of A Tale of Perishing was never supposed to be a happy place—possibly hinting at a dark yet unavoidable tragedy taking place in the future episodes.