The story really reminds me of fullmetal alchemist brotherhood. And in a lot of ways it is. To simplify, Zero no Tsukaima is like an opposite of fullmetal. Where fma had a lot of action and little romance, this has a similar story that is heavy on the romance and light on the actual action. And there's a purpose for this. Fma most likely had a budget 2 maybe 3 times as big as the producers here. Thus we don't get a masterpiece like fma but it's still a really well done anime.
But i do have some gripes with this show, especially with this season. It seems like most of the action at the end was really seriously cut off. The stuff you do see it pretty awesome, 1 v. 70,000, he kicks ass. But like i said before, the producers were probably like, "ok guys, this is really getting pricey, wrap it up!" but you know...in japanese.
Another small small gripe i have, is that i wish they would use the familiars a bit more like in a battle or something. The only ones we really see are the dragons...and the others are more of a plot device. And whatever happened to the fat kid with the owl...did he die?
Anyways, i think this is an anime definitely worth looking into if you're into romance with a good story.
