Zero no Tsukaima

I can’t say I liked Zero no Tsukaima as much as hormonal, pre-teen male otaku out there.

Plot-wise, I’d say it’s a revamped version of Maburaho. Other than being produced by JC Staff, the two series have other things in common. First off there’s the setting – both series are set in a magic school. There’s also the harem anime aspect – Louise, Siesta (my favorite!) and Kirche are all fighting over the token loser male character, Saito. Finally, there’s the ecchi. It’s a good thing that the ecchi in Zero no Tsukaima isn’t as heavy as Maburaho’s.

It was a stable ride for me during ... the whole series. There were no high points and low points. Let me reinforce my first point by saying that if I were a guy I would probably like Zero no Tsukaima more. Louise’s tsundere antics would probably captivate me, and Kirche’s presence would probably get my temperature rising, but that will probably never happen. As for Saito, he didn’t really catch my attention. I did love watching his fight scenes but when he’s not fighting, he’s quite bland. Tabitha is too reminiscent of Yuki Nagato for me, but she’s not as cool.

As expected of JC Staff, the animation was good enough to satisfy me. Everything was very cutesy though – from Louise’s pink hair (as well as the bevy of pastel color schemes throughout the series) to the Pokemon-ish familiars (except Saito, of course). The CG was lukewarm, and it’s a good thing they used CG minimally.

Apparently most of the voice actors of Zero no Tsukaima also worked in Shakugan no Shana. The most notable name would be Rie Kugimiya, Louise’s seiyuu, who is known as a tsundere seiyuu. She was Shana in Shakugan no Shana. There’s also Satoshi Hino, Saito’s seiyuu, who was Sakai Yuuji in Shakugan no Shana. Other name worthy of mentioning is the very well known Yui Horie, Siesta’s seiyuu and Takahiro Sakurai, Guiche’s seiyuu.

I like the music too. The opening and ending themes were both j-pop-ish, which can be a good thing. Both songs were very cutesy and catchy, and I liked both. As for the BGM, I’d say they were decent tracks. The BGM was fitting to the mood and feel of the series, but I don’t think it’s THAT good.

While I wasn’t that pleased with it, it wasn’t so bad after all. It started and ended on the same note and consistency is a good thing for me. I might watch the second season just to see if I’ll like it more.

I\'ve always had a weakness for magic schools - like Harry Potter\'s Hogwarts. That\'s my main motivation for watching this anime. And who wouldn\'t want to be suddenly thrust into a magical world from a boring life, right?

The story\'s not as lighthearted as I thought. Immediately there are the ecchi elements and the political conspiracies that surrounds the characters. But other than that, you get what you expect: the marginalized boy and girl who suddenly become the hero and heroine, seemingly more than what they were initially shown to be.

Nevertheless, Zero no Tsukaima is a fine anime. Nothing too extraordinary, but not that bad either. ... Maybe the problem is that it was too short and we never really got the whole picture. Hopefully the second season will be better.

Hello everyone Shawn aka TheKazeTrigger here and welcome too, my next MVM Entertainment anime review.

This time I will be reviewing the anime The Familiar of Zero.

Now unlike my Shakugan no Shana review where I reviewed all the seasons I will be only be reviewing the first season of The Familiar of Zero.

Why you may ask well one I only own the first season of The Familiar of Zero on DVD and secondly at this time of the review I have no interest of watching and reviewing its squeals and from what I been told from my mates told that the squeals for The Familiar of ... Zero are not that good.

Now The Familiar of Zero are quite a polarising series because I see people whom love the series or downright hate it with the burning passion.

What do I think of The Familiar Of Zero?

Well let’s find out shall we.

Story.

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The story of The Familiar Of Zero are set in a magic school called Tristen Magic Academy where my main heroine Louise are a second year student their.
Sadly, for Louise her studies in spell casting are not good at all and all of her attempts at magic end up backfiring in an explosive manner which has earned her the nickname “Louise the Zero.” Too, add insult too, injury in her latest failure in the mystical arts occurred during the familiar summoning ceremony were sorcerers age expected too, call forth an animal companion. Instead of summoning something great like a Dragon or a bear, Louise summons up a teenage boy from Tokyo named Saito and from their the relationship with Louise and Saito beings.
Personally I found the story of the Familiar of Zero too, be pretty enjoyable for the most.
Sure it kinda cliched at times but for what it are its enjoyable too, watch.
Also the comedy of the Familiar of Zero can be a hit or miss for some but for me the comedy are enjoyable too, some degree but the gag about Saito having too, washing her panties gets really annoying as the season progresses.
As for the World Building it’s actually quite good. It does a good job exploring the magic aspects, beasts and society of the Tristen Magic Academy.
Lastly the pacing for this season are good and it really help the season because not only this are more of a character driven series but it also builds up too something in the last couple of episodes of the first season.

Overall the story are decent but enjoyable.

6/10

Characters.

Now I been told from my mates that Lousie are the worst tsundere girl and too, be honest she’s not that bad. Sure at times she can be annoying with her abuse behaviour too, Saito and also she are loud and whinny but for the most part she’s a meh character overall. I can definitely see people hate her but as for me I found her too, be tolerable at best.
Next we have are Saito whom are you typical generic ecchi shounen, brave, protective and never wanting too, give up. I have nothing else too, say about him because that’s what he literally does in this anime. He’s a generic character whom does generic things.
The rest of the character cast are also generic ecchi characters whom also do generic ecchi things.
But hey least they enjoyable too, watch unlike the cast of Love Hina.
In short this character cast are nothing but generic.

5/10

Art/Animation.

Visually The Familiar of Zero are decent with a standard looking world and character deigns. Sure theyre are some good actions scenes every now and then but the most part the art and animation are standard tier expect for the fights.

6/10

Sound.
The soundtrack for the Familiar of Zero are actually good and it really fits with the mood and atmosphere of the anime. It’s honestly the best thing about this whole anime in my opinion.
We got some great tracks such as Good Friends, Louise's theme, Gandaaruvu, Seiso, Hajirai and those tracks alone made this anime more enjoyable.
The opening are great and very catchy and the ending theme are cute but are not that catchy.

Now for Sub or Dub.

The dub are honestly mediocre and all of the voice actors did a decent too, mediocre performance on the roles.
As for the sub. Rie Kugimiya as Louise was great and it was easily the best performance from this anime. As for the others are fairly standard.
If you planning too, watch The Familiar of Zero. Go with the sub because the squeals don’t have a dub opinion at all.

8/10

Final Thoughts.
The Familiar of Zero are a generic but enjoyable time-waster series if you have nothing too, watch.
The story was meh, character are mediocre too, decent, art/animation are decent, a nice soundtrack and the dub are okay.
Personally I don’t think this show are that bad or great too, be honest because this show are just decent and harmless.
Only buy The Familiar of Zero on a sale because buying the Familiar of Zero brand new on blu ray. along with its squeals are like buying Assassin’s Creed Unity Notre Dame Edition on launch. It’s totally not worth it too, be honest.
I currently own this on DVD and I brought it for £5 which are the most appropriate price for the series for this.

I give Familiar of Zero a 6/10 (It’s your everyday generic ecchi series that are enjoyable too, watch if you have nothing too, watch at all)

The Familiar Of Zero are available from MVM Entertainment in the UK and they currently licensed all four seasons on DVD and Blu Ray.

Anime recommendations

Shakugan No Shana

KonoSuba

Toradora

Dog Days

Slayers

Hayate The Combat Butler

Rokka no Yuusha


For my next MVM Entertainment anime review I will be doing a straw poll of what anime you guys want me too review and if that anime wins I will review that anime. Please stay tune for that.
Alternatively you can visit my profile and go too my straw poll link and you can vote from they're.

Anyway this was Shawn aka TheKazeTrigger and I will see you guys next time.

To make it as blunt as possible, you probably shouldn't watch this show unless a) you're under 16 or b) you're unreasonably obsessed with Louise.

The premise of this inane little harem romance is that a boy called Saito from modern Japan is sucked into a fantasy world named Halkeginia by an incompetent tsundere witch girl named Louise and becomes her familiar. He is subsequently beset by numerous confessions of love from such starkly original characters as a large-breasted vixen, a demure maid, and a Rei/Yuki clone, but of course, this story is about Louise, and it's her who he ends up with. There's some sort ... of plot involving a Staff of Destruction, and then later on Louise almost gets married to a moustache, and then the Rei clone goes crazy in the third season, etc., but this show's main focus is putting the male protagonist into WACKY situations like that time he accidentally touched that girl's breast and then Louise used magic to blow him up! Or maybe she whipped him and called him a filthy dog! Oh, those crazy kids!

Unfortunately, I am in the grossly unenviable position of having watched this as a teenager and have therefore become inextricably attached to Louise, who I will not hear one bad word about. In her defence, Saito is hardly an ideal partner either. Case in point: the fourth and final season, in which Louise and Saito move into a house together, and he insists upon inviting the maid character along with them, not only to live with, but to share their bed. Said maid had at this point been thoroughly flanderised into a sex-obsessed bimbo with nothing on her mind but Saito, and had made it clear to both Louise and Saito that all she wanted was to jump his bones. If you expect a romance that actually progresses, look elsewhere. This is a show for teenage boys, and few outside that demo are likely to appreciate it.

On the other hand, the romantic development for the first and second seasons is solid enough despite the inevitable harem stupidity. Beyond that, the show is occasionally funny, but more often than not bland and overly reliant on the antics of the stock characters. By the end of the whole series, the humour is wholly absent—or rather, the writers had no more jokes left.

Subtract all of my points if you don't have lewd thoughts about Louise.

The plot is okay but the heroine character design is awful.

There is no way an abusive, egocentric, greedy, possessive, not good looking loli Louise suit the MC. If author could not design a heroine as alluring as Rias Gremory, MiraJane, Makima, Shinobu or Esdeath, they should have designed the heroine character at least to look like the princess(Henrietta) or the maid(Siesta) if they want to force such ridiculous love interest.

How on earth she acts like a King when she's not even the prettiest or the hottest there still baffles me. The worst couple in anime history.

Overall the story is good but MC ... is forced to have a love interest to wrong character. There is no likeable traits in Louise. She was too annoying and abusive. A total turn off in personality wise or attitude, and a total turn off physically where she looked like a 9 year old karen brat while acting all privileged.

STATUS FILE:[ imgur.com/m0PvQNw.png ]
OTHER STATUS AT BOTTOM

THIS IS A REVIEW OF ALL 4 SEASONS: ZnT, FnK, PnR + F.

STORY
The story starts in Hogwarts with a young witch named Louise. There is a ceremony being held for the students to summon their 'familiar' who will stay with them as their servant for the rest of their lives. All the other students have already summoned their's, ranging from fire salamander to a giant diglet. However, when Louise, who is renowned for being shit at magic, tries she summons a fricking human. Even so, everyone seems to thin this is the short straw and Louise is not impressed, ... which doesn't make sense since he is by far the most useful out of any of them. Anyone, for the rest of the anime Louise and her familiar (Saito) go on a load of wacky adventures with elves, dragons, airships and loads of BDSM.
After fucking around and saving the world once or twice the story just ends. Without closure on just about anything except that Louise is most definitely a sadistic freak. SPOILERS[Remember that fucking ring thing with the water fairy? Yeah, so do I, but the authors didn't]
However, there is a possible reason for not many people shitting all over this anime too much. The original LN author, Noboru Yamaguchi, died before writing the last two books, leaving his kouhai too attempt to finish things up. And so I guess this time it can be forgiven, as at least Saito x Louise got pretty much canon, but then again, it was from about episode 6 (out of 50).
Another, important plot point is the violence shown. Us anime viewers are well accustomed to people being shot, cut in half, and killed in many ways. However, for whatever reason I, and many other viewers, found some of the stuff in ZnT hard to watch. And it wasn't the actual fight scenes, as they were very toned down, but the sheer amount of tsundere-induced domestic violence, Saito is subject to intense uncensored whipping sessions which he doesn't even seem to mind all that much. However he does get Louise back by performing the most dramatic male bitch slaps ever to come out of anime. [youtu.be/5-ncqu5rYcY?t=25s] Glorious.

The cast is as big as you'd expect from a 4 season anime, the main character is Saito, who I'd rank slightly higher than your average MC, but still incredibly flawed. But he can fly a fighter plane so that's cool.
Louise is the main heroine and love interest, who is an A class tsundere, and extreme caution should be taken when in the range of her whip.
Saito also acquires a respectable harem, including the maid Siesta; dandere Tabitha; literal slut Kirche, oppai-elf Tiffania and Henrietta, the queen of the entire country.
There are a load of others, but honourable mention to Jean-sensei, who was the best character up to and including 'the event with him as the main part of it'. Afterwards he is just as shit as most of them.

The plot was decent, however cannot be enjoyed by anyone who remembers anything before two episodes ago or has any interest in world lore or continuity in general. Also (very) decent fanservice.

PRODUCTION
This show is a very JC-style one, with that showing in the animation. A standard, unchanging reasonable quality, albeit with slightly dodgy looking action scenes. Not much to say on animation though, it was decent but nothing special by any means.

The OST consisted of four OPs, all of which very nice. The EDs were of a higher quality than your average, with ED2, 'Suki Kirai! Suki!!!', being the best Sound Track of them all. The total track size is relatively small, but not noticeably.

CONCLUSION
If you like long romances, vanilla fantasy and tsunderes or you just enjoy yourself a good bit of BDSM, then watch it, if not then don't force yourself too. Just watching the first season is cool too, as it wraps up pretty nicely in and of itself. If you've seen similar shounen JC Staff shows like Shakugan no Shana or Railgun, then its on the same street as those.

Maybe if the author decides to make like [CENSORED] and pull some bullshit 'not dead' shit then he could Saito bitch slap that faggot who fucked up the ending. Rest in Peace.

META
Length- 4 cours / 50 eps / 20 hrs
Release- Summer 2006, Summer 2007, Summer 2008 & Winter 2012
Studio- JC Staff
Source- 2004 LN by Noboru Yamaguchi

RATING
Watch?- Nah
Best Character- Jean-sensei
Worst Character- Yaoi bait Julio
Best Feature- Top class domestic violence

FUTATSU NO KISHI:[ imgur.com/tqEUoTL.png ]
PRINCESSES NO RONDO:[ imgur.com/YLU0khz.png ]
F:[ imgur.com/esC2Ymq.png ]

Well, here comes Zero no Tsukaima, a harem-type anime with a tsundere for a main heroine. Another harem anime? Haven’t we had enough of this already? Yep, here’s another anime with a cliché characters, a subpar plot, and a ridiculous amount of fanservice. What? Seriously? Yes, seriously. Zero no Tsukaima is just another one of those terrible animes that people would consider crap. But why? Wasn’t J.C. Staff the one who made this anime? I mean, J.C staff was pretty successful with Toradora! Wasn’t it? Well you see, Zero no Tsukaima is one of those “failures”, so to speak. It failed in almost every ... aspect and is actually a terrible anime despite its huge fanbase. Why is that you ask? Well, I’ll give you the reasons why. Also, I would like you to know that this would be a review for the entire series and not just for this season. Now let’s move on to the review.

Story: The all-important story. Every anime needs a good, gripping story to entertain its viewers right? Well unfortunately, Zero no Tsukaima( which I will just abbreviate to ZnT for simplicity’s sake.) failed to deliver this all-important part of an anime. To tell you frankly, it had a great concept of what it was going to be. A simple summary of the story would be that Saito, a normal, everyday teenager was suddenly dragged into an unknown world and made a familiar by a magician nicknamed as Zero Louise, due to her lack of talent in using magic. It then turns out that the reason Louise can’t use magic efficiently Is because she only excels in a special, legendary type of magic which is void magic and that Saito is the knight of legend, Gandalfr. From that simple summary, one can guess that this would be an epic tale about two legends, trying to fulfill their destinies while encountering numerous hardships along the way, all while developing a romantic relationship between the two. Unfortunately though, the author just decided to go “Fuck that shit, who needs a decent plot when we got a tsundere main heroine, a pevert main hero, lots of tits and an entire harem at our disposal?” Yes, this is exactly what happened to ZnT. Instead of creating an intricate and enjoyable story and focusing on developing the plot, they just decided to give us a crap ton of fanservice, tits, a harem, and then proceeded to screw up the plot and rely on half-baked comedy and tits to try and hook its viewers. Although this would have worked if done correctly, even the comedic side was done half-baked. One of the running gags in ZnT is that the MC, Saito, is an idiot who cannot seem to be able to hold in his boner and literally just drools of every boob he sees, and then proceeds to get dragged into the most awkward circumstances, and then gets beaten up by Louise. It was funny the first time but after seeing it in every single episode that had a scene wherein the MC interacts with a girl (which is like every fucking episode) it got old so much that it only served to annoy me every time it happens. So yeah, the comedy part was pretty horrid, but what exactly happened to the plot then? Well, as you would expect, the plot turned into a complete mush that only serves to further Saito’s harem(I would explain his harem later) and to create more opportunities for them to insert their stupid gag instead of actually developing the plot. I mean seriously, the plot had more plotholes than there are pimples on a boy going through puberty and had as much plot development as a porn flick. Yes, it’s that terrible. But seriously though, the series doesn’t even have a proper antagonist. In each season, a new antagonist is introduced, then they try to set up a scene where the MCs will fight the antagonist, only for the antagonist to be killed/go MIA in an instant, never to be seen or mentioned in the story ever again. So for short, not only doesn’t ZnT have a proper plot, it also doesn’t have a proper antagonist. The last thing that I would like to mention is about the lack of details and proper explanations in ZnT. Now, this is a common problem among a lot of animes, but ZnT just took it to new extremes. There are so many instances wherein inexplicably unbelievable things just happen. It seems that every time something bad happens, some incredible “coincidences” just happen for some reason. Like for example, in one instance, MC Saito is trapped in a room with only a brick wall separating him from his enemies and apparent death, but then guess what? MC Louise “accidentally” learns teleportation magic and teleports him and his friends to safety. Such ridiculous plot armor only exists in fairy tales, and in my opinion it is completely retarded to even try to incorporate them into anime. To sum it all up, I give it a 4/10, just because it is utterly ridiculous up to the point that they might as well add “the power of love” as one their plot armors. Oh wait, they already did, Stupid me.

Characters: As I’ve said before, ZnT is an anime focused on making scenarios wherein they could add ecchi and add more members to Saito’s harem. As such, one can expect that the characters are really bland. For one, there is ABSOLUTELY no character development in this anime, none whatsoever. I mean seriously, the main character Saito, a perverted, two-timing guy who has as much sex appeal as Makoto from school days is still the same character he is four seasons after he appeared. Louise, a tsundere loli who only is Saito’s master and supposed “lover” is still the same stereotype anime girl who always gets into trouble and has to be saved by Saito. Then there’s Siesta, a typical maid who becomes a bitch after she falls in love Saito turns into a slutty bitch after who does absolutely nothing but press her boobs onto Saito in hopes of getting noticed after four seasons. After that, there’s Tabitha, your typical silent, mysterious girl stereotype that has as many expressions as Kristen Stewart who is still the same girl she is after four seasons, with the exception of being able to blush and sneaking into Saito’s bed while hoping to get laid or something(no really I’m serious). Then comes in Princess Henrietta, a stereotype girl who seems refined and stoic outside, but apparently has a habit of seducing our MC Saito whenever no one’s around. And finally, Tiffania, your typical air-headed girl with huge, f-cup boobs that always gets into “unfortunate” accidents with the MC is still the same air-headed girl with huge tits when the story ends. You see, there’s your problem; The supposed main characters are all bitches who could all have had a good, deep personality in them are all reduced into mere bitches who fight over Saito’s attention. Now, although there a lot of instances wherein their characters could’ve been fleshed out, like when their back story is explored in an arc, what the anime does instead is to make the girls seem all helpless and make Saito save them and as a result, they fall in love with him. Heck, I even think that some of the side characters have deeper personalities and are more fleshed out than the actual MC’s. I mean, Agnes and Colbert, two side characters had an ENTIRE arc dedicated to them just to reveal their back stories and were actually given a good introduction and excellent character development, all done with good execution but were just thrown away into the sidelines, only appearing thrice or four times in each season after their arc were finished. Now, there’s the problem. Instead of focusing their efforts on developing the main characters, they put their efforts in developing characters that would barely appear in the series while they could have given all that effort into fleshing out the main characters or even at least removing Saito’s inability to reject a girl’s advances especially since he’s already in a relationship. And top it all off, even the antagonist are just plain terrible and don’t stick around for long, as I’ve mentioned before. With all of those blunders, the only score I could give it is a 3/10, since pretty much every character are just about as interesting as one of those singing birthday cards; fun at first, but just damn annoying and noisy later on.

Animation: Pretty much the only good thing in this anime. Animation was smooth and shiny, just the way I like it. Although just like everything in this anime, there is always something lacking. The action scenes are so dull, it’s almost a bore to watch them. While fight scenes are supposed to be epic and adrenaline-inducing, the fight scenes in ZnT is just about as dull as watching someone else brush their teeth. It’s so slow that it almost look like it’s from a children’s cartoon show. So even with the animation, I can’t give it a perfect score due to the failure on the part of the animators, so instead I’ll just give it a 7/10 and be done with it.

Sound: There really isn’t much to say about the sound except that all of the BGMs were reused from the first season till the end and that the openings are pretty much sound just the same, only with different lyrics. 7/10

Enjoyment: Despite all of the negative comments I put up there, I actually enjoyed the first season. After that though, everything went downhill and my hopes of seeing a new masterpiece were completely shattered. But still though, I will take into consideration that I enjoyed ¼ of this anime so I guess giving it a 3/10 is good enough.

Overall: In conclusion, I would like to say that Zero no Tsukaima could’ve been a great anime. Unfortunately, all of that potential was wasted on a subpar plot, mediocre characters, and lame humor. To all those who are planning to watch this, only watch it if you are a die-hard tsundere fan or just watch the first season since the rest are crap. Overall I give it a 5/10.

If you have any comments, please post a comment on my page. I will gladly receive any criticism, good or bad and I will try my best to reply to your comment. Thanks for reading my review :))

Funny episodes but the overall storyline was too predictable.

I'm sure the creators intentions were for this anime to be light-hearted and straight forward. But the plot was too predictable for my taste. For the fantasy + magic genre, you'd generally expect something from the plot line. I put the series on hold at episode 9 because I got fed up with how obvious everything was. Overall, this is a good tsundere rom-com if you're not interested in a complicated storyline.

Do you like tsundere girls? Do you like recycled jokes about boobs and the main character getting caught in misunderstandings and getting blown up in almost every episode? Well this is just a few of the things the first season of 'Zero no Tsukaima' has to offer...

Story: 5/10
If you were preparing yourself to watch a pants dropping fantasy show with a stunning, jaw dropping plot line, you'll be fairly disappointed. To be honest, there's not much to talk about regarding the story. Throughout the season, there wasn't anything fascinating or amazing about the plot line. If anything, it was pretty cliched and predictable. With ... regards to the ending, it really felt a little like deus ex machina and was kind of abrupt.

Art: 6/10
There isn't much to talk about in the art department. There wasn't anything stunning or jaw dropping. The animation was decent and fluid, so there wasn't any eye sores throughout the season.

Sound: 6/10
In regards to sound, there was nothing memorable. None of the shows tracks were ear catching or stunning. However, the sounds did set the mood well and were used appropriately. (Additionally, in my opinion, the opening song wasn't that great...)

Character: 5/10
The characters were very generic and cliched. You have this tsundere girl named Louise that later develops feelings for Saito Hiraga. Then you have Saito, a generic, Japanese boy that takes the sword and saves the day, totally uninteresting. The side characters don't really do much but add to the stories humor and, occasionally, plot line. Despite there being character development, there wasn't a major impact. The character development felt like the show took a sticker and placed it over table.

Enjoyment: 7/10
Despite the show being just a decent anime, I found myself enjoying this show a lot more then I thought I would. Something about this show made me want to watch more. Was it because of the shows harem? Maybe it was because of the shows 'misunderstanding' jokes? For me, I enjoyed it because of the pairing. Saito's and Louise's personalities are totally opposite which lead up to some humorous situations.

Overall: 6/10

This first season of the show is decent. The art, sound, and voice acting are all decent. All except for the story and the characters, they were pretty mediocre.

HOWEVER, this is just the FIRST SEASON of the SHOW.
I highly recommend anyone that gives this show at least a 5 or 6 rating to watch the second season. Though, in my opinion, the second season doesn't fix all the points, it makes an attempt to correct them. And one of the HUGE fixes they make would be in the character development between Louise Françoise and Saito Hiraga. This is a huge point that made the second season of the show, Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi, worth watching.

EHH.. ok I guess nowadays I really only watch anime to kill time because I have no money to go out, so I pretty much have become accustomed to the same old cliche. To start off the story was relatively good for only 13 episodes. The way they slowly added pieces to the puzzle definitely kept you enthralled. However, despite this the story was totally predictable and you had almost the whole story figured out about half way to two thirds through, again it was only 13 episodes so I guess that might be reasonable.

The character models where pretty good I think. Louise' light pink ... hair almost made me overlook her incredibly overbearing, selfish personality, which is a common thread in anime of this genre. The background animation was so so at best with rip off's from Harry Potter.

The opening theme wasn't too bad and worked well with the story's basic premise of literally starting with a kiss. The background music was actually quite appealing and gave life to some of the short lived fight scenes.

The characters are where the anime looses points for me. The anime is utterly cliche with the same nice guy, mean girl act. Why is it that in 70% of the anime I watch the main protagonist always chooses the girl that treats him the worst, in this case the female lead treats the protagonist like a pet. For example, for all 13 episodes the male lead (Saito) sleeps on the floor on a stack of hey without even a blanket, while the female lead (Louise) sleeps in a luxurious queen size bed. The developers also focus to much on cheap laughs through excessive and unnecessary violence from Louise. To be honest it's not funny and it's just plain annoying I don't understand how they came up with 3 seasons. In a nutshell Saito is a cliche Mr. Nice Guy character who really has no real reason to even endure or like Louise, but still ends up with her in the end, even when there was another character whom he liked and was treated way better by. I just wish once that the protagonist would fall for the underdog instead of the romantically cliche female lead.

Despite it's clear faults I did have a few laughs and overall did feel good after watching it. However, This isn't something I would watch again. Well then again I probably will watch the 2nd season. But trust me their are loads of anime out there with way more depth than this one.

I did not really like anime but with a nice drawing. Subject of a beautiful and natural, but 2 The topic of the season was a little different. The properties of the characters were more varied. There fore 2 I did not like season. As a result, was a good anime.

Saito... Louise.... Saito.... Louise...

The anime's genre itself really suits me. I am a huge fan of Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Adventure, Harem and *cough* Ecchi *cough*. This is why I picked it up. And honestly, I don't know what makes me enjoy this anime, but I do.

The Saito and Louise relationship is a relationship that I really like, but at the same time really hate. If I were Saito, I wouldn't put up with being treated the way Louise is treating him. He still does, and to be fair, Saito isn't the perfect guy either, considering the harem going on and him not really understanding ... what Louise wants.

Nonetheless, the relationship progresses in a good way throughout the season, and even more in the next one. And there are really some touching moments throughout the season, which I must say I really enjoy.

Now, it comes to the plot/story. Here I must say I am not too impressed. Suddenly, a big problem erupts, and I am thinking: Ok, this will take some time to fix. 10 minutes later: Oh wow it's done already.
This is pretty much how much of this anime goes. And for some parts, it can be good, but for others, you wish you would see more epic fighting/magic then you already see.

I can understand why this anime isn't liked by everyone. By some, it might be dull, boring and not entertaining, but for people like me, who really enjoys watching just a goodfeel anime that makes you go aww and yay, with a huge touch of fantasy/harem and some ecchi and some small touches of magic/fighting, I would recommend the anime.

It doesn't really live up to it's genres the way to be expected, but I am still watching episode after episode of this, mostly to see how the relationship of Saito and Louise is going to develop, and the story is at times also very exciting.

I will give this anime a 6 purely because I am enjoying it, but it's far from amazing.

I have to mention that I only watched this aime until s3 ep5. So the review is until that point where I just could stand it anymore and dropped it. I'll prevent spoilers.

It is kinda a wet dream of every SJW fantasy. A male MC which is leashed, wipped and put into chains while still in love with Main Girl.

For season 1 you really need to endure ep2...I think that's the point where most ppl just did drop it.

And tbh it doesn't get better from this point onward. The same jokes are recycled like 1-3 time per episode. The Male MC looks at a ... female and will get wipped/punched bloody by the Female Tsundere. Yeah and that's kinda all the interaction they have in 3 seasons.

There are a few scenes which should be sad in both s1 and s2 but it just doesn't work at all because you know the male mc will get slapped the next moment by the female mc and that kinda ruins the mood. Every single "serious" moment if you even can call it that is ruined by it and you just roll your eyes in cringe way before it.

The action scenes are so badly done it could even be a powerpoint slideslow and it would make no difference. Hell even the most absurd CGI shows did it better.

There is no character devolpment over 3!!! seasons at all the female MC is still abusing the male MC in the most horrible ways possible while the male MC is a dumb shounen character which refuses to kill anyone even in a full out war and getting plot armor and even hyper plot armor and a new harem in s3. ;>
Starting with S2 the male MC suddenly becomes also a horny douchebag all of a sudden. There is no explanation at all but, yeah good writing. Seems he likes big boobs more than anything else out of nowhere just for the abuse jokes from the female MC.

So if you ever want to put a male on leash and treat him like a pet while feeling superiour I am kinda sure this show is just for you.

Before you start reading, I will first say that this review is an overall review to the whole series, not only Season 1 in particular.

Now onto the actual review:

It was a fun watch. It was interesting and funny enough to keep me going, but it's missing something special for me to say that it was magnificent. I have to say though that Season 2 'Zero no Tsukaima: Futaki no Kishi' was the best. It kept everything to a good balance and the ending was amazing. Only to be spoiled by its sequels. Season 4 'Zero no Tsukaima F' was a close second. It tried to ... replicate all that was good of Season 2, but you can't expect the audience to fall for the same thing again. BUT what Season 4 had was a good and solid conclusion to the series.

TL;DR - Wouldn't recommend it, but a good watch nonetheless. Stopping after Season 2 would make the experience better.

Magic is cool. Everyone loves magic. Having real magic, the stuff of fantasy is almost every child's dream.

Zero no Tsukaima is a rather hasty story that looks like it was at first originally to be a much longer first season as most of it is character development that suddenly, half way through, turns into everything is happening and then ending again all within one or two episodes leaving the finale rather lack lusting as you expected something more spectacular than was given. It opens a lot of question and leaves a lot of them unanswered as they go parading around the place, learning of many ... things but never really question why.

Art is fairly par as nothing really stood out in its 13 episodes. colors and cell shading is basic stuff and even the scenery looks made of the same stuff not being something of awe which is rather lacklustering considering how much landscape is shown.

Music is subtle but decent. It's used to empower the scenes and convey the correct atmosphere, but not at a pace that makes it stand out which isn't a bad thing. However it is noted there is some stock sample music which is rather disappointing. Sounds are rather basic as reused multiple times which almost makes it seem this anime had a low budget to start with,

Characters left a lot to be desired. There is still much untold about the main characters and the only back story we've heard is of an MC's classmate. However the development between the Hero and Heroine is easily seen and steadily grows.

Enjoyment was so-so. It makes you laugh but it also makes you wish it would sometimes move on to something more meaningful or interesting. Don't be surprised if you reach the last episode of the season and wonder is that really all there was. It produced such a beautifully large potential story then cut it off at the hips with such a sudden ending

This had so much potential. If this anime wasn't such a harem comedy type, it could have had such a good plot. I know i shouldn't be expecting anything too great, but honestly, this could have been really cool. If it incorporated a dramatic or more intense serious mood, it may have been really good.
What I DID like about it was the fact that he can use any earth weapon, especially the Zero (history buff). well, its decent for being a harem, ecchi, comedy anime, but it could have had a better story. If it took itself a tad more seriously like Chivalry of ... a Failed Knight did (which was a pleasant surprise), it would be a 9/10

Overall, this is a 5/10 for me, not that great. I'm on the 2nd season while writing this, so hopefully it gets better.

art = meh. I'd give it a 4. Nothing special there
Characters: cliche and mainly made to pander into stereotypes. Let's not talk about how terrible the villains are. It felt like no one was even trying to be interesting.
Story: most of it is dead obvious, but the way the real world mashes up with the magical world is interesting enough for me to give it a 5. Political intrigue does ensue, sidelined by cheesy plot, fan service and pointless shenanigans trying to make up for the bad characterisation. The romance feels forced for the most part.
If you're looking for something to pass the ... time while being brain dead, go for it. Perfect for little kids, I suppose?

Story: 6
The story could have been better. It dragged on for too long and some parts, and really struggled to try to be funny. Most of the time I figured, "Oh the writer wants this to be funny. It was hardly worth a chuckle, that's too bad". The characters do stuff with magic and have magical pets that are not that funny either. The magic serves it's purpose for the most part, but it mostly serves as a mask to try to keep the show interesting with its mostly lack-luster ability to provide humor. So the story gets a 6 which is like a D ... in the American grading scale for barely passing.

Art: 7
Importantly the art is clean, even though it is a bit simplistic. Sometimes simplicity can be a good thing, but it was a little too much. Like the magical pets, is that beautiful man's pet a mole, or is it his poo?

Characters: 6
The characters could barely hold my interest, they were very generic and just above the threshold of tolerable. In other words just very average. The characters and their interactions were integral to the enjoyment of this series. Though they are not very likable, yet dislike able at the same time. When they talk and I am supposed to laugh, it makes me not really want to laugh, but sometimes I smile for their minuscule glimmer of charm.

Overall: 6
Zero Familiars is a show that tries to be funny, but falls short in many of its comedic setups. Though the characters are a bit generic, they are the driving force behind the anime and pass by their small amount of merit. In nutshell, this show is just as average as they come. Also the title can be misleading, it says zero familiars but there are familiars everywhere. But it actually refers to how much this anime stands in comparison to other familiar anime in its genre.

well its OK until episode 11. it's no diamond in the rough but it's OK. but something happens in episode 11 that is simply unforgivable. to minamise spoilers basically the female mc is responsible for the death of an entire kingdom and the male MC who knew this would happen the entire time and tried to warn her reacts with " Oh Louise" im sorry but if someone kills literally millions of people from there own stupidity my reaction would be stronger no matter how much i loved them. also the rest of the show they just sweep it under the rug. WTF

I have a friend that really enjoys shows that have the tags ecchi, harem, and school in it. And at one point, I did as well. One day a few years ago, he recommended a show called "Familiar of Zero" because he can't read Japanese for shit. I never got around to it, because I used crunchyroll mobile which didn't have the first season of this show. So a few years pass and I decide to watch this show because I literally do nothing else with my life. So I watch this show, and I don't think I've checked my phone more in one sitting. ... The show wasn't necessarily bad, it just was so "meh" that I couldn't help but be bored. It wasn't bad enough for me to have fun laughing at it, nor was it amazing enough to keep me invested throughout the entire series. I have heard from my friend that this show is "really funny" and from other sources that it's a "comedic masterpiece" or so I've heard. I laughed like 1...2? I think I laughed like about 1 1/2 times if you lower my standards for comedy as low as the girls in Kirito's harem would go for the Kiri-dick. I watched this while talking with my friends in a discord chat and my friend was asking if it was funny or not. I replied with a question. A simple question. "Is this show supposed to be a comedy?" There were little to no jokes to it, I don't know why comedy is a tag. I think that's enough bashing on the comedy, I'll move on to a part I actually did like somewhat, maybe, not really, I'm grabbing for anything that doesn't make me look like an asshole for not liking this show. The characters in this show are...decent at best. I've heard Louise is a great tsundere, but I can't find myself interested in her. Maybe she gets better in the later 3 seasons this show somehow got, but that's not what I'm here to review. She comes off as this flat(not the way you're thinking) tsundere that's about as deep as the characters in PSO2 the Animation. She acts like a typical tsundere in one scene, then she shows some dere. Then, she's back to the tsundere. The switch between "tsun" and "dere" isn't bad, it just is "meh." I don't really care about her as a character until far too late into the anime. It's so far into the anime, I'm not sure how weekly watchers even made it through episode 5. Louise isn't the only problem. Saito is as flat as Louise's chest. We don't learn much about him at all. Was he a shut in? We don't know. Was he a functioning member of society? Pfft. Why're you asking me? We just learn that he was walking on the street, and then he runs into a portal thing that no one else can see. Then he's in a world with wizards. That's the extent of all I remember, so if anything more happens, then this show couldn't keep me invested in the plot long enough to even pay attention to the details. Backing off of Saito, we can delve into the side "characters." I wouldn't call them "characters," I'd call them "drawings will voices that move in a fancy way." I can't say much about them. We have a deadpan, a stick with balloons for tits(every highschool dxd girl except Koneko), and then we have conceited guy that does nothing. They don't get enough screen time or dialogue for me to feel anything towards them as characters, much less the people they're supposed to simulate. That's all I can comment on the characters in this show. Now moving onto the plot. The plot is pretty much summed up to "he was summoned into a different world, and now he wants to go back." Then it's hinted that other people were also summoned into this world. It goes nowhere with this for the rest of the series except when the ending hits, and it's kind of satisfying? Then the series pulled an Attack on Titan before it even came out. It shoehorned in some politics to keep the show running so maybe they can keep the viewer invested. I really hope shows drop this shit, because it just prolongs the show and keeps the viewer from watching the interesting aspects they came to watch. Overall, I didn't really enjoy this show(because it wasn't obvious enough). I don't particularly recommend this show to anyone, but if you're bored and want some half assed romance for an entire season to finally(maybe) get into the good parts, be my guest. I originally gave this show a 7, but I think I'll move it down to a 6 upon further inspection.