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 :))
