Zero no Tsukaima

Here's little critique I made a bit into season three after not being able to take holding in my growing frustration, so obvious spoliers (They're very light spoilers which won't necessarily ruin anything)

Bit of critique, They seem to make a point of making it a cliche of Louise nearly every episode saying something along the lines of “Oh Saito! Why me? Why do you choose me?” It makes it hard to watch at points. Since he’s a teenager it should seem plausible he would act like one instead of instantly obeying her from the begining. And even at this point when he seems to have ... much more freedoms he continues the cliche. “Because you chose me of course!” I suppose it would help if we knew about his background when he lived in Tokyo, but honestly “I’m not an aristocrat, I’m not worth anything” has been said several times too many within the span of just a few episodes. Thevshow would be much better if he, while still Louise’s famiiar, was able to form some sort of relationship with other characters without being interupted everytime because they feel that Louise has to be in every scene. She’s a bit of an obnoxious character. I understand she is supposed to be a tsundere character, but that doesn’t excuse the fact the only relationshio building is forced between the two charactes. Tabitha seemed to be an interesting character, her alone could make an entire anime series herself from just her background story showed so far.

Characters:

Almost each and every character that needed to have it was given a decent background or at the very least some recognizable trait. For the most part none of the characters were entirely obnoxious. Except for Louise, everyone had what screen time was needed.
Louise is a very cliche character, which is fine because it's a good cliche. It's everything else that's bad. Whomever made the series decided they reaaaaally liked Louise and decided to stuff her in nearly every scene, which wouldn't be so bad if every scene with her wasn't the same thing. Either an explosion because Saito was being a perv. A kissy scene with Saito because "Don't leave me Saito", or in general something that just doesn't sit right with me.

Saito is interesting and I'll keep his short. Very cliche, boy meets magic girl by summoning, falls in love with girl and says he'll never betray his feelings for her. And does it every other episode. If it wasn't for Louise getting stuffed in every scene he may have been to actually be able to develop a relationship with at least ONE character. Tnis ruined his character development, as character development is done best with multiple characters at once which can't be done if his master is placed in every nook a cranny of the series.

As for my final review I though it was average, it definately gave me something to do after watching Toradora, which means it's not a complete failure.

[No plot spoilers]
After watching the whole first season I can't help feeling that I've only watched an intro for the second season. The story focused too much on pinky and had a story which could have been condensed intro a lot fewer episodes.

Now my main problem with this anime is pinky(the nosy aristocrat a.k.a. zero). If not for her I would have rated this anime as a 8 instead of 6. She feels the entire time like a thorn. I kept trying to enjoy the anime but that girl kept on being annoying. Ok I get that maybe that's how she was supposed to ... be, but, as a viewer, I don't like being annoyed by watching a character. They tried to pull off a two-sided character, but all I saw was a weird unpleasant combination.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the "Pokemons in Hogwarts" story.

I was lead to Zero no Tsukaima through Toradora. I have a weak spot for Tsundere's. I personally liked Louise. She was such a great character and had the most character development.

Zero no Tsukaima is the first anime that left me questioning whether I enjoyed the ride or not... In my opinion, I feel like the progression of the story and the way the characters are conflict in so many ways. It was overall slow and Louise, the main female character, despite having lovely development, lacked story. In most episodes, she was just there and used when needed, she had a few episodes ... where she was used for comedy relief, well she was mostly used for comedy relief. She did, however have romance plots, but even those lasted over two episodes before being pushed to the side by another female character that needed attention. We all know romantic series have always been a tricky, unforgiving genre; you make one mistake and the story slowly begins to crumble, I believe this is one of them.

Zero o Tsukaima was, is supposed to be a Romance/Fantasy/Sci-Fi anime and where it succeed I Fantasy and Sci-Fi, it failed in romance. Sure all the female characters had their crushes and such, but nothing really got to me. I believe I read somewhere, " Zero no Tsukaima should be an enjoyable action anime based in a majestically magical world, sadly it executes the premise horrendously, clinging to repetitive comedy and a subpar plot. The characters were written poorly; this is evidenced by their shallow nature and monotonous interaction, of which Saito and Louise are the worst offenders."

To make it as blunt as possible, this is one of the few that shouldn't be on the 'To watch' lists. It is an anime that should be watched whenever you're bored or something. I wouldn't necessary say, don't watch it, the Art is amazing, beautiful and the sound/music is just as beautiful. But the plot and growth. Blah.

This is a story where there are two worlds,one is the world of normal humans and the other one's the world of magicians. A girl named Louise living in the world of magicians summoned a familiar (a pet) from the world of normal humans called Saito, by living together for long time they fell in love and bla bla bla... If you watch this anime, all you will get is a short tempered girl like one from Taradora and a foolish boy. Their words didn't go any further, from season 1 to season 3, all you will see is Louise get jealous when she finds ... that Saito thinks about another girl. What a boring story -.-

If you are suggested to watch this anime, say nai nai nai and instead go for Shakugan no Shana if by any chance you haven't watched it.. The story is a little bit more interesting than this one at least.

I've just finished all the seasons hoping it will get me some interesting stories,unfortunately I got too bored that I want to delete all the episodes. Well, if you are a boring anime lover this one's just for u ^^.

An cute series, filled with tropes and predictable gags. Louise is a bugling mage who accidentally summons Saito from modern day Japan to be her familiar. What ensues is a "love" story about a tsundere who can't express her true feelings and the dense guy who loves her. Romantic Comedy ensues. While the first season has some charming moments by the third season the gags are running thin, by the fourth season you just want to shoot yourself. How two people who 'love" each other can have the same misunderstanding time and time again is beyond me. A little character development would have gone a ... long way to help this series out, instead it relies on the same song and dance, time and time again. Any development that does happen is hastly undone minutes into the following episode, or within the episode itself, as if the writer had some sort of pathological fear of change. If you are like me and you don't want to be banging your head against the wall in frustration do yourself a favor and watch the first season, then watch the last 5 mins of the last episode of the final season, there is your pay off.

Let's just be fair and say this anime was something!
i watched it as we are in 2016 i mean it's about 11 years and i enjoyed
it more than most nowadays animes exaggerating as i finish one ep i flip to
the next one so we really should give it its chance and who
knows may be i won't like the other seasons...LOL
The Story was in short simple went on a mediocre pace not so fast not so slow
was many characters to cover it did it fair and square i said simple but a bit
classic coz it's 2006 and all beside the echi ... wasn't that much that's i like
but it decreased gradually that's caught my attention The Story didn't
go overboard despite it's based in a magical world and that can be a bit
respected.
The Characters were many but every single character story was told at least in
what serves the story the MMC (Saito) is rude with a long tongue doesn't care
about status or u can say doesn't know about it and that's a good point about him
i liked the voice actor of this character but the FMC voice was a little childish but
somehow matches the bossy character i'd say that i liked the character of Louise.
The Art wasn't that awesome but i'd ignore it as it's a 11 years gap thought still
some bad works till today...LOL

ok this anime pisses me off..That fucking tsundere is abusing the fuck outta that guy..beating him up n shit FUCK THAT BITCH.She made me drop the anime cause she is the main "Love" companion for the guy for some reason. Just make him fuk da bitch with big boobs..or that maid not the fucking tsundere
Story 8/10:
The story isint too bad..its entertaining what can i say.

Art 7/10:
I onestly dont give a crap about the art of an anime..it seems fine its not like fate/zero but its alright

Character 6/10:
oh boy oh boy...as i stated above that tsundere bitch is terrible!She is so abusive and annoying..i hate ... how animes make the tsundere the main girl..when the real girls should be the ones that are not faggots that beat up there love interest. The main guy is alright..think he addapts to the situation a bit too easy imo.

Enjoment 4/10:
Didnt enjoy it cause of that tsundere..everything else was good exept for her

Overall 5/10:
i think i said enought about that tsundere. If u dont like tsunderes and u dont have a "Fetish" for it then dont watch this anime

The Zero no Tsukaima anime is very mediocre although some aspects of the anime is somewhat redeemable:

The story is "ok" not at all great.
The two main characters are fair they do have some good chemistry together
The supporting cast are entertaining.

So this is the part where I deconstruct and critique the anime:

The story is average at best, this is because of the substance it gives like what's the motivation of the character main and the sub character. The 2 main character are somewhat common today, but something stands-out in the focus of the story instead of the Male protagonist, Saito, being the main focus it was ... the Female protagonist, Louise, who stands-out more. There chemistry is fair it's not at all bad and sometimes cute. The Sub character are good some better. Siesta is supposed to be an another love rival of Louise but it doesn't really feel like it. Saito doesn't really care that much of her, there was this one episode where Saito tried to save Siesta but it was overshadowed with how much of a douche bag are the Nobles not focusing on Siesta but more on focusing the Nobles greediness. After that episode where Saito saves Siesta, she was really static just there and from time to time appear to make Louise envy her she was just a plot device where the creators could just put and pull out of the scene. Siesta overall is really not that significant in this series.

Man I wasn't in the mood for some cliche. This anime didn't really give me that much interest. But it was kind of enjoyable at some points I guess?

Story
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The story here is just plain and filled with cliches. I mean what? Honestly wasn't surprised with what I was about to watch. The anime was just too predicting. Usually I would rate an anime that is too predicting like a 4 - 6 based on my feelings and how much i enjoyed it. I mean, it's a tsundere anime so what is to be expected eh?
6/10

Art
------
The art style here is great, i mean there ... isn't much to say about it. They didn't use CGI or at least I didn't notice. CGI in my opinion is just not compatible with anime unless it is made fully on CGI like Berserk. Usually they use CGI for huge things or moving things cause I think it is easier to render and easier to put in for the animations.
9/10

Sound
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I guess the OP is fine? I mean it doesn't really pick my interests. The M/V was good I guess since it didn't really show what was going to happen in the whole entire anime. The soundtrack kinda lacks because at cool moments, It doesn't make you feel 'Wow! The soundtrack is so goddamn epic!' like Attack on Titan or Hero Academia. Though I understand that it is probably hard to get a license for the good music and epic ones/make them so I'll give it a go here
6/10

Character
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Okay here is where the anime kind of lacks. The Male MC, Saito, is the normal standard anime kind of guy thats personality is mostly like other typical comedy/romance/drama anime. His pervertness is not high so that is a good thing but it's there. And on episode 11 it is just so fucking predicting.
Louise is your typical tsundere so there isn't much to complain though episode 11 just was too cliche.
5/10

Overall
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Honestly episode 11 is the only complete fuckup cause i've seen a similar plot like so many times (maybe not that many). But I was able to finish this in 4 - 6 hours. I enjoyed it in my own way I guess. Anime could've been way better but hey, would recommend if you into comedy I guess? Anime is fine as it is then.
6/10

The Familiar of Zero S1 is an anime that isn't for everyone, and that's perfectly ok. I didn't want to do this review of S1 until I finished S2 (Which I'll be reviewing shortly after this goes up so check it if you're curious if it gets better, will do my best to warn before spoilers for S2 if any are mentioned) which I just finished watching. But, enough about S2, this is a review for S1.

... I'm going to be blunt and this will prolly drive you away from the series so if so do see my review for S2 before saying "am ... outta here." So, The Familiar of Zero's world is an interesting take, as in the world itself and it's characters. Being set in another world that is similar to England, France, EU/UK (I'm no expert but its prolly a mix of it, not just one or the other but again, I'm no expert and only know enough to tell it's based on it) but more of the days of old from my understanding and of course there's no technology. Just old weapons. The world Saito (MC that gets summoned to this world) is from seems to be based on modern day Japan (Btw, modern as in of the year this anime was made, 2006) and what can I say? The world itself of The Familiar of Zero is intriguing. Its, hard to describe WHY I like it and it's characters and WHY I like the anime series in the first place, especially when S1 was so dang rough to watch at times. Our Mage who summons Saito, is Louise, aka Zero Louise because she can't properly cast any magic and things blow up as a result. This can often be humorous and for me never got old.

Now I want to stress again, I personally enjoy the world and characters of The Familiar of Zero, I especially liked how reserved Saito is in S1 with women and scenes you often see in ecchi/comedy anime (which this anime is in its genre) mean while so many MC boys would be total perverts in anime with those genre. It was a breath of fresh air to see, more so because that's SO COMMON for anime made around the time this one was (Still is to this day but there's more variety now too!) I even like Louise herself, but, admittedly... there were times in S1 I really just couldn't stand her and now, let me stop wasting your time and remind you again, see S2 review if you're going to nope outta here after reading this.

The reality is, when this anime actually starts (as in, Saito gets summoned0 we're introduced to something I hated, but sadly fits with the time period of our world (Keep in mind this world is NOT our world, but the creator clearly based it on our world) and that something is... abuse. Let me run through what i hated seeing Louise do to Saito in S1. In the first 3 episodes she tried to use a spell on him to silence him, instead that let them understand one another. The reason for silence is they couldn't understand one another and of course, he was more or less kidnapped against his will, well, not really but that's how he perceived it and understandably so. When they could speak things got worse. She did the following: Made him go without food. Sleep on a pile of hay in her room (and only the 1st night made him wear a color so he wouldn't escape, he stops trying when he realizes he isn't on Earth anymore btw) I feel as though no blanket was given either, thankfully he had his clothes still from his world to wear. and she's yell at him, not appreciate her new familiar or anything. All she'd do in the beginning is gripe at him, make him do her laundry and other things like dress her (only in the beginning for dressing her) and lastly, the thing that really ticked me off to put it nicely, she used a horse whip on him and continued to do so whenever he acted out of line or when she was jealous. I am not kidding when i say a house whip btw.

Now, most anime would play this up for laughs, ya know, it's the boy's fault for being a perv haha oh so funny he got what he deserved (Japan logic in anime btw) but if you recall, I specifically pointed out one of the things I like about S1 is, Saito is not a perv and is reserved and gets embarrassed in certain sitches even making him look away. Of course, sadly, this means most of the time especially in the beginning of S1, Louise is just physically abusing (and verbally abusing too) poor Saito. Now, I've made Louise out to be a horrible person but she isn't really, but in S1 she certainly comes off more horrible given Saito doesn't do anything wrong or to deserve that... this is partly what made theS1 unique, the best way i can describe S1 is, like light and dark, u can't have one without the other, meaning there's prolly going to be parts you like about S1, and at the same time parts you dislike or HATE about S1. As for Louise, she's honestly not a bad person, but that does not excuse her behavior nor her actions, abuse of any kind is not ok, and since its usually not (I wanna say never but can't recall every scene for sure) Saito's fault, i never once found any of the whip scenes to be funny and yes the creator/whoever did this is playing this up for humor, it just doesn't work due to Saito not being a perv and yes scenes like that can be funny in fiction, just depends. Irl its never funny and is never ok to do.

Now if that bad bit wasn't enough to scare you off here is the other part you should know, S1 is sadly... almost entirely predictable. I legit saw through all but 2 or 3 things, most of those things I didn't see coming were very small and minor things. That doesn't mean its bad, it just means, its predictable and thats ok, ultimately all the good things which i can't mention due to spoilers about The Familiar of Zero are what help to make the anime more enjoyable for me and S1 itself is bad in many parts of it, its not for everyone but is still worth a watch as it has its fans and no I don't mean S&M fans as I feel anyone can be a fan of this, just depends on you, the viewer.

I have two ratings for this anime.

The Familiar of Zero S1 I rate a 6.0 out of 10.0
I also give it a Love score of 7.0 (You can think of love as enjoyment to better understand the rating, but it's love not enjoyment for my scoring) I really enjoyed the anime and really liked it, but the actual score (6.0) better reflects the many problems that S1 has. Please see my review of S2 if you're not sure if its worth watching still or are like me and wish to give it a chance.

Zero no tsukaima is one of those few animes that I would recommend to some people despite the low rating I gave it. It has a an interesting world, many likeable characters, a decently written main character, well-thought abilities, etc...

The anime makes it clear from the first moment that there will be a love story between the two main characters: Louise and Saito, and while Louise is abusive and cold she's so innocent that you root for her somewhat, even more when even she doesn't know why she acts the way she does and regrets the flaws she shows towards people she cares for. ... Saito on the other hand is lecherous but cares for, protects Louise and is loyal, he has a lot of chances to take advantage of her innocence like some other characters try to do, but he seems to respect her.

The story has many great things to develop but it's poorly written so it doesn't polish any of the great concepts it presents, and it often goes in a vulgar tangent like "a thief has a mark on her chest, Saito you need to cause a ruckus looking at every girl's chest". We also get a lot of unnaturally bouncing chests, underage girls in very revealing underwear, and an exhausting amount of sexual innuendos.

I went in expecting more of a pure ecchi vibe, but was disappointed. I watched the English dub, not sure if the Japanese sub version has any additional ecchi content or not. I would have loved a few lewd escalations or more pantsu-centric content. Alas, so it goes.

To be fair, though, the story has a familiar and fun concept that unfolds at a pretty brisk pace, but the world our hero is slipped-into fails to shine as something truly spectacular. Adding some additional bizarre or unusual elements to the mix would help rescue the narrative from familiarity. Yes, Louise is cute, and the animation ... feels fine, but I'm left with the feeling that this could've been something more. Or, maybe I went in expecting something different.