zero no tsukaima 2
Categories: anime, episodic review, zero no tsukaima
Tagged: zero no tsukaima
23 Comments »
Zero no Tsukaima is growing on me, mainly on the strength on (1) Saito (2) Shana and (3) fanservice. So what else is new?
(Must… resist… urge to make fake headline like “Shakugan no Shana II 2″…)
This episode is all about Saito going around causing trouble for everyone. Starts off by showing how he gets sucked into Louise’s world… glowing ball… some music ripped from The Matrix… random passerby meido… and next thing he knew, he’s Louise’s pet dog.
All the “nobles” treats him like shit for being a commoner, even though he’s probably gained some super-awesome power from being an earthling transplanted to Hogwarts (like Superman going from Kryton to Earth). I always found it weird that it’s always some high school or middle school Japanese kid who gets sucked into these alternate worlds and never some starving Euthiopian boy or Italian soccer player… what are the odds? Anyway, Louise treats him like dirt (including making him eat off of the floor), yet he still finds her cute because he’s seen her breasts. Since everyone summoned their familiars, the mages are supposed to be bonding with them this off day, only Saito and Louise look at each other with the same digusted looks Eri and Hige give each other. Good times!
Saito wanders off and find Siesta, who is instantly a top 15 meido with her compassion. Saito immediately starts hitting on her. Good job. I approve. He is interrupted by Guiche, and Saito decides to pay him back for episode one.
Guiche has been two timing, and Saito heroically exposes him. Just proves that Guiche is no Tamaki… then again, who is? Guiche challenges Saito to a duel, and then he lets his bronze golem fight for him instead. Wuss. Real men settle differences with their Jack Johnson and Tom O’Leary. The golem starts owning Saito, and even with Louise telling him to stop it and quit, Saito can’t. Pride, honor, and all that jazz. I full-heartedly agree with his, “I can tolerate eating off the floor, but I’m definitely not bowing down to an asshat like you” policy. He reminds me of Balboa in Rocky IV, where Drago owns Rocky for like ten rounds, but Rocky endures, and the whole Russian crowd starts cheering for Rocky.
Guiche idiotically tosses Saito a bone by giving him a sword, and once Saito touches the sword, his runes glow and suddenly he becomes the next re-incarnation of Himura Kenshin, Yagyuu Jubei, Van Fanel, The Flame Haired Red Hot Eyed Hunter, and Touka all rolled up into one. Okay, maybe not that l33t, but still pretty damn awesome. Annihilates Guiche and his golems. And promptly falls asleep afterwards.
Zero no Tsukaima Character Power Rankings™
Seems to take everything in stride. Definitely good change of pace from the standard loser heroes in typical harem shows. Even though he gets sent to this new world, he seems to have quickly accepted his fate and tries to make the best of it. I liked his, “I’m happy, but I’m also ticked off” response when Shana, err, Louise tosses her underwear at him. I also liked how he stands up for himself and shows some backbone. Good guy; likable hero.
(Plus, just gotta love how Saito notices that Louise is topless, gets a good look, then he blushes and turns away. Healthy!)
Everyone treated Saito badly because he was some pet-commoner, except for Siesta. So she wins compassion points from me. Then there’s the fact that it’s Horie Yui in her first ever meido role, I’m beyond giddy. (Don’t quote me on this, I’m probably wrong.) Anyway, fun fact: Horie Yui was the original voice for Shana in the drama CDs.
(Horie Yui is the Drew Brees of seiyuu. You can win a Super Bowl with her, but you’re not going to be a 7 point favorite every week like if Aya Hirano/Carson Palmer or Rie Tanaka/Tom Brady were your star. I’m off-topic again…)
As much as I feel sorry for how badly everyone at Hogwarts treats Saito, I remind myself that he lives with a walking peep show. That’s not a bad thing. I might as well change the meme to common familiar are potatoes to accomdate Louise. I’m definitely rooting for an episode where she walks around her room topless screaming at Saito, “Where is my magic wand? Where is my fucking magic wand!?!” Use your imagination for the rest.
Around the 2:50 mark, when Louise spits out a “murie,” that’s when I lost it. Memories of Shana and Yoshida arguing behind the school came rushing back like a flood of zerglings. There’s an “urasai” around 5:35. Also, around the 21:00 mark, Saito falls alseep on Louise, and she starts complaining about how heavy he is. Ah, just like Shana when she took Yuji flying that first time. Good times…
Thank you, OP, for giving away the fact that the green-haired lady (sorry, wasn’t paying attention to catch her name), is probably the main antagonist that they show in the OP.
I may have to downgrade his ceiling from Ouran‘s Tamaki to Sister Princess‘ Yamada. Can’t two time properly. Can’t use his charms and wits to smooth talk the girls when caught. Can’t even properly beat up a commoner boy. For that, he’s gets last place in this episode’s power ranking.
23 Responses to “zero no tsukaima 2”
Leave a Reply
Whoooooa, Siesta’s voiced by Horie Yui? I need to start paying more attention to the cast credits…
(wait, you got Horie Yui in the cast and she didn’t sing the OP?)
Lol, I recognized her voice even without looking the credits. :D
The series will score with me if the next ep he goes, MAN I KICK ASS WITH SWORDS! instead of ignoring it like all other chars allways do.
Actually, then he would sound like Keanu Reaves, which is not good.
Series is getting better, but I hear they are condensing 3 novels into 13 episodes. I feel a wreck coming on in, oh, 8 or so episodes.
From watching this second episode, and witnessing how fast Saito seems to get used to this world and also how early we see Saruma… errrr… that old geezer mumbling things about the fifth magic, I am honestly hoping that this anime get a proper and good pacing like both Nanoha series did.
If they ARE condensing 3 novels into 13 episodes, this might not end well. =(
Who knows, it might just make it better, i wouldn’t mind a show with a fast story pace once in a while, im already fed up with side-storie episodes and whatnot (the ones that start and end at the same spot, minus the hotsprings episode). If they just keep the good parts, it should wrap up well. If they try to include everything from the novels they will fail and this will be a horrible mess. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Good to see that your sticking to one of the season’s new series’ at least (although I wanted to hear your opinions on Muteki Kanban Musume as well :p).
I can see why Saito isn’t complaining all that much. I mean, come on, if being a girl’s slave means undressing her, getting her underwear and probably recieving demands of massages every night, I’d do it too! (‘mana recuperation’ just popped into my head o_o)
I wonder if later on in the series all the girls will be fawning over Saito which will make Louise get pissed and try to magic them all away. Then, as usual she’d proceed in screwing up, just vanishing all their clothes, instead? (I can hear your little “I need to know these things” bit finishing off this idea in my head.) xD
Side note: I hope Baka-Tsuki (currently translating Haruhi novel) decide to do the Zero no Tsukaima novel as their next project. It’s only been up on the poll for three days but it has almost half as many votes as the leading possibility (Seikai no Senki) which has been up for a month so yeah… I’ll cross my fingers. ^^
“Thank you, OP, for giving away the fact that the green-haired lady (sorry, wasn’t paying attention to catch her name), is probably the main antagonist that they show in the OP.”
Episode 2 makes it pretty obvious. Maybe not from an actually doing evil point of view, but from bloody obvious story progression hints and foreshadowing surrounding the research of Saito’s runes.
You should have included the scene where Louise says “Otoko? Anta tada no tsukaima”
That was great.
Let me guess, based on the OP and ep.1-2 this is another one of those animes with a serious lack of clothing budget for the main character Saito. I mean, the same outfit althroughout?
And don’t they take a bath or even a wipedown? Louise undresses and drops off to sleep, wakes up and gets dressed by Saito…i was right!!! This IS the 17th century complete with outfits, hygiene (no toothbrushes either) and manners (me elite, you commoner)
“I’m definitely rooting for an episode where she walks around her room topless screaming at Saito, “Where is my magic wand? Where is my fucking magic wand!?!†Use your imagination for the rest.”
~~~~ ~~~~
I’m definitely not pure of mind anymore…
>> MAN I KICK ASS WITH SWORDS!
Reminds me of Fighter going, “MAN I KICK ASS WITH SWORD-CHUCKS!”
>> (wait, you got Horie Yui in the cast and she didn’t sing the OP?)
Shana/Louise sings the ED, so it’s all good.
>> This IS the 17th century complete with outfits, hygiene (no toothbrushes either) and manners (me elite, you commoner)
Doesn’t Louise clean herself with the flame from the heavens… ? Wasn’t that the explaination given in episode four?
>>> Horie Yui is the Drew Brees of seiyuu. You can win a Super Bowl with her, but you’re not going to be a 7 point favorite every week like if Aya Hirano/Carson Palmer or Rie Tanaka/Tom Brady were your star.
I am in Purdue, and saw first hand the 4 year college carreer of Drew Brees and I can safely tell you that He won’t even get to Superbowl without help from super-duper Special Team plays and Moster RB carrying the team. He is good, but prone to make mistakes in critical time. You better sign a good punter as well for you are going to be facing lots of 4th and long situations and you will need very good kick off coverage team to help the defense when Drew Brees, out of no where, suddenly completes one of those 30+ yd pass. Strange thing is that 50% of times when Drew Brees enters 4th quarter with his team trailing, he pulls off 2 or 3 impressive plays to help his team catch up or take the lead: that is why Purdue went to Rose Bowl once. In end, comparing Horie Yui to Drew Brees is an insult to Horie Yui.
As for the series, it was not as bad as I feared, but I need to see more things that perks my interest in order for me to continue this series.
I love how Rie Kugimiya’s recent roles, Shana and Louise are so alike but then she has Camyu (Utawarerumono) The filled out child-like winged girl. I would love to see a picture with Shana, Loise and Camyu all together. =D
>> I am in Purdue, and saw first hand the 4 year college carreer of Drew Brees
I said the same thing about Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady back in 1998. Funny how I remember Brees leading the game winning drive for this game.
Jace… Jace… Jace…
Horie Yui’s not only already played a maid, but she’s even already on the Meido Power Rankings… as the lowly Multi though, so a spot in the upper crowd may be forthcoming perhaps.
See, this is why I said don’t quote me… I knew I forgot something. ^^;
We love you nonetheless. Buuuuutttt…. we’d love you more if you added poor Koyori in already. She summons the power of 2Chan, attacks with a magical duster and transforms Comiket into a giant mecha. Tell me those aren’t horrifying combat abilities.
>I wonder if later on in the series all the girls will be fawning over Saito which will make Louise get pissed and try to magic them all away.
The opening at least implies that Seista and the big boobed girl (I think it was her) will be going for him later on.
>Thank you, OP, for giving away the fact that the green-haired lady (sorry, wasn’t paying attention to catch her name), is probably the main antagonist that they show in the OP.
I can only hope that this is just some way of the producers misleading us. Or maybe she won’t actually be a bad guy, or at least not the “true” bad guy.
Well when I was watching this episode and the episode before it, I noticed something strange. The runes on Saito’s hands look exactly like Norse Runes. Well then later I decided to check this out and it seems that I was right and amazingly the runes made some sort of sense.
Gebu-Partnership, Gift (Rune of the Ritual of Commitment, Symbolizing the Familiar contract?)
Uruz-Strength, Endurance (Rune of Endurance, Probably symbolizes the strength after he grabbed the sword)
Nauthiz-Need, Self-Preservation (Rune of the Forging of Character, Symbolizes when Saito recognized there was nothing he can do about where and what he is but he would not stand up to such stuck up people)
Dagaz-Daylight, Dawn (Rune of Breakthrough, Symbolizes the summoning?)
Othala-Retreat, Roots (Rune of Regrouping, Dunno?)
Laguz-Water, Lake, The Sea (Rune of Radical Release, similar to what I said about Nauthiz, a “Rebirthish” type thing)
Fehu-Possessions, Manifestation (Rune of Right Nourishment, Well it’s the rune of what you need to survive… probably the need for food. Like when he obeyed Louise just to get breakfast)
Also in the mute spell that Louise used on Saito had the rune “Ansuz” which means signals, Omens: Too lazy to relate this to how it was used so here’s a definition- A message is being transmitted to you through omens and natural signs, perhaps through some human channel or oracle. If you’re fettered by your unconscious wishes and fears, they may distort that message.
… Wow. Color me impressed.
Um, the green-haired lady’s name is Mrs. Loungeville.