The entirety of Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE” is essentially a detailed look into Natsuko’s life story. A story that leads up to her present day and pre-isekai problem of trying to depict a first love story. Needless to say, it can be a bit difficult to draw out a first love if your first love was and always is anime.

Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE”: Details

Zenshu NA key art
This is also to explain just why Natsuko acts the way she does now.

Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE” is the seventh episode (you can read my reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, and Ep. 6 here) of this isekai fantasy anime series. Said anime series is not the anime adaptation of any manga, but rather, it is its own original anime. MAPPA (Zombie Land Saga, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man) is the animation studio behind this anime series. Crunchyroll is the company licensing this anime for its global release.

Production Cast

Tokio Igarashi is the director and storyboarder behind Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE”, with Kimiko Ueno as the writer, and Kayoko Ishikawa and Kazuko Hayakawa as the animation directors. As for Zenshu as a whole, we do still know that Mitsue Yamazaki is the director, with Kimiko Ueno as the script writer. Yoshiteru Tsujino is responsible for character design and world setting, with Kayoko Ishikawa also doing character design while also being the chief animation director alongside Etsuko Sumimoto, Kazuko Hayakawa, and Shuji Takahara. Sumie Noro is the assistant director, with Akio Shimada as the art director, Ayako Suenaga as the color designer, Kenta Fujita as the director of photography, Mutsumi Takemiya as the editor, Yukari Hashimoto as the composer, dugout as the sound producer, Makoto Tanimura (Sound Wing) as the casting manager, and Takahiro Ogawa as the animation producer.

Now as for that music: the opening theme song for Zenshu is “Zen” by Band-Maid. Meanwhile, “Tada, Kimo no Mama de” by Sou is the ending theme song.

Voice Cast

Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE” features the voices of Anna Nagase (Madeleine Morris in English dub) as Natsuko Hirose, Kazuki Ura (Ryan Negrón in English dub) as Luke Braveheart, Rie Kugimiya (Luci Christian in English dub) as Unio, Minori Suzuki (Alexis Tipton in English dub) as Memmeln, Akio Suyama (Derick Snow in English dub) as QJ, and Romi Park (Corey Wilder in English dub) as Justice.

The other notable voice roles in this episode include Kanon Takao (English dub voice unknown) as Midori Ichihashi, Hiro Shimono (English dub voice unknown) as Shu Ninomiya, Tomokazu Sugita (English dub voice unknown) as Saburo Aoi, Urara Takano (English dub voice unknown) as Naomi Fukushima, and Manaka Iwami (Dani Chambers in English dub) as Destiny Heartwarming.

When and Where to Watch

Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE” made its its streaming and airing (aka. simulcast) debut on February 16, 2025. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. In fact, you can watch this entire anime only on Crunchyroll due to it being an exclusive there.

Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE”: Synopsis

Memmeln doesn’t get much screen time in this episode, but she does get a bit at the end.

Alas, Zenshu is still an ongoing anime series. In fact, Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE” only just made its debut three days ago as of this writing. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis of this anime from Crunchyroll rather than a spoiler-filled plot summary. Here’s that synopsis below:

Natsuko tries to figure out exactly what first love feels like for her upcoming film.

Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE”: The Good

Zenshu Ep. 7 "FIRST LOVE" screenshot 1
You can tell that this is when her love for anime began.

The story of Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE” is definitely the front and center of this episode, and the best thing about it. All because it’s basically Natsuko’s backstory episode. In previous episodes, we got tantalizing hints of that backstory, but nothing more. Now though, we get all of it all at once, and wow, is it amusing. No spoilers, but it definitely shows that Natsuko has been obsessed with drawing anime from a very early age. Not only that, but there are some subtle and not-so-subtle hints that Natsuko herself is bisexual. The hints were there even in previous episodes, but this episode makes those bisexuality hints even more obvious. It’s always refreshing to have a bisexual hero, and a heroine at that, especially in an isekai anime.

Of course, this is all with MAPPA’s signature high-quality animation to flesh out that story. Their animators continue to produce a very good-looking anime in this episode. Heck, they even snuck in Natsuko’s signature outside-context animation style into this episode. This time, it’s in an ultra-realistic drawing style right next to an anime-style drawing. You’ll know it when you see it, but it’s hilarious to see when everyone is in an anime style.

Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE”: The Bad

Zenshu Ep. 7 "FIRST LOVE" screenshot 2
You can’t escape from the Natsadako ghost.

Alas, this is not one of the usual episodes in which the story is balanced with action. Zenshu Ep. 7 “FIRST LOVE” is all about the story, delivered with some of the best comedy I’ve seen in a while. Alas, this will not be enough for the action junkies, and indeed, the very end of the episode is a nod to that.

Thus, if you want action, then might I suggest watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, and/or Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II? Those anime should have more than enough action to satisfy your inner action junkie until Zenshu returns to its usual fantasy action.

Tune back in to THS to find out more about Zenshu and other anime when we do.

Keep Reading:

Zenshu Ep. 6 “CHANGE”: Flight Of Dragons [Review]