The story follows a chain of somewhat ridiculous coincidences that kept me laughing continually as the series went on. There was good drama and occasionally some fun adventurous/actiony pieces.
Characters:
Honestly, the characters did it for me in this series. You have Louise, who works very hard to keep up a good face and prove herself a worth mage, while continually failing. You can see how she takes out her feelings of shortcoming on Saito, whom she has a love hate relationship with. Then Saito, who is just the unlucky guy who fell out of the sky into Tristain who is struggling with understanding the world he is now stuck in, and understand his feelings for his 'master', Louise. Then throw in Siesta, the good girl-better choice-adorable servant; Tabitha, the silent-studious-super power; Guiche, the womanizing-overly confidant; and of course Kirche, the always horny-boobs. Throw them all in a bag, shake it up and there's bound to be plenty of room for laughs.
Story:
The story, I'll admit, get loose at various times. There is always the sense of Saito trying to discover what his place is in the new world, and how to get back to his world. Then there is the ongoing battle of who Saito should be in love with along with his feeling that he should protect everyone regardless of their class. It takes the series a little while to develop a genuine evil-antagonist, which makes the overall story sail better (now that all the characters we like seem to have a common goal) but up until that point, I was willing to forgive that thanks to all the constant mini-fights between the characters.
Drama:
I loved the awkward feelings and uncertainty that were present in almost all the character relationships. I won't lie, I occasionally got mad a Saito when it seemed like he finally smoothed things out with Louise, only for him to fawn over someone else, but without his endless distractions, the fun and funny tension would have been gone.
Themes:
The show is a comedy-ecchi more than anything else, but there are a few deeper themes present in the show that make it further interesting. What role does pride play in how we live. Equality amongst people of different classes. How do we communicate love to the people that matter to us. Most of the themes appear only fleetingly, but they still make you think for that brief moment.
Overall, I really enjoyed the show. Zero no Tsukaima:
* delivers on the drama
* catches the watcher's curiosity (both in story and in characters)
* provides plenty of laughs
I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good, misguided love story.
