Rybiczek said: I can see how many people is loving this season, and I couldn't be more surprised. Don't get me wrong. Even though Zero no Tsukaima is an ecchi (which i personally hate), I probably watched it at least 3 times by now, and that says something. Zero no Tsukaima is a bag filled with great ideas and potential, and I can see it and appreciate it, but when watching, I always look forward to that potential being used and sadly... it never is. It's only my opinion, so I ask you guys not to get offended, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on it.
At the beginning of the journey we meet Saito who is true to his word, honorable in his own way while a little goofy, kind to others while a little childish and stubborn himself, honest and loyal, and we kind of pity him for being stuck with someone harsh, difficult and selfish like Louise. Louise being overly agressive works in first season... it even works in second season, but 3rd is an abuse.
With time, I grew to pity Louise though. She's probably just as important part to the story as Saito is, yet who is she really? Girl chosen by the hero. All characters in the anime are Saitos friends, they fight for sake of Saito, even if they help to rescue Louise they do it for sake of Saito. She has no actual friends in the entire anime, and the one friend she supposedly has - Henrietta, is the worst example of one. If someone really tried hard they would call Julio her one and only friend. That's fine though. Her character is a fair enough excuse for her having no friends, even after everything she did for other characters.
At the same time, Saito changes from a hero to parody of himself for sake of pulling out the long term ecchi. He turns into a liar, an 'accidental' cheater, a character similar to Guiche if we were to exclude being brave and having some modesty. Something that could be easily avoided by not having him lean in for kisses and closing his eyes during them in response to every single female approaching him. It might be surprising to know, but ecchi is possible without main character actually having an intimate and emotional relationship with each and every female character on set. And just like that, the entire assertiveness he had in season one just disappeared into thin air somehow. It was easy to understand him being in a center of a harem when he was exceptional among other male characters, but with time he lost most things that made his character special and the only exceptional thing about him ended up being the power that came with being a familiar - something he didn't really have to even work on as if it could be anyone in the end. All it really takes is for a person to imagine the entire story with the gender of characters completely switched. None of that whole ecchi or romantic background would be considered anywhere close to ok and noone would be defending female Saito for the way she choses to deal with everything - by ignoring the problems and outcomes (ofc same goes for male Louise, but it is not considered ok by viewers even with her being female).
Other than this, there is so many loose ends in the show... What happened with the ring Saito was supposed to give back to the Water Spirit? We know that the first time he found it it ended up in vault of Henrietta and got stolen again. What happened when we got it back again? Did I sleep through that part? Did he go to die before giving the ring back? Not as true to his word as the Water Spirit trusted him to be in the end, is he? But sure, maybe I blinked too much and missed that part, it happens. From beginning we are kinda lead to assume Saito had no family or friends in his own world. He never once even thought of them since being summoned by Louise, but we chose to ignore it since its just the beginning of the story. We get to final season and we see him go to his old place not once but twice. House which is clearly inhabitet by his family members. Talking about the ending of last episode. Do they go to our world forever or just to get Saito to introduce Louise to his family? How did they manage to do that without Saito being able to amplify Louises powers? If they stay forever, what kind of sense it makes for them to do so? They spent so much time in Louises world, everyone and everything they have is in there by now, so it is rather ridiculous. They just came to introduce Louise? What right do they have to believe that Louise will be able to cast her spell to go back from Saitos world? I guess they can take over another army plane since Saito did it already before, alone, one guy with no tools, no plan... Wondering when the next eclipse would be... Talking about plan, what do they expect from Saitos family? The boy went missing for X years (?). Will they just enter with smile and "hey peeps, this is my wife, sorry i didn't call". What happened to the other characters? Del suddenly got ressurected and they knew it made so little sense for him to be - without him even trying to - that all they had to say about it was "I don't even know...". In the end everything just magically turned out all right. Saito is alive, because he suddenly has an additional life-force coming from being the Gandalfr that isn't being burned out, even though being the Lipfrasir didn't give him any additional lifeforce over the one he had as a human, so we can assume that the moment anything happens that will make his Gandalfr rune disappear, he will just be dead.
That said, this anime COULD BE one of the best anime of the type produced. The ideas are just amazing, the world is entertaining and makes you wanna know more about it. I feel it's on point with the animation (outside of few missteps, especially in season 1 and 4) and character design. Saito must be one of the best visually designed young characters of the type in it's time. I can't help but think of him as prototype for the design of Kirito from SAO. He looks kind, realistic, plain, relatable and yet adorable and handsome at the same time. He doesn't look overthought or as compensation for bad story. It's such a shame that people working on this project took too much to heart the "ecchi" part of it and weren't confident enough in themselves to realise the potential lying in this show. I will definitely one day watch this anime yet again, and I will grieve after what we could have but never will.