blog好き

Aug 05 2006

Categories: anime, episodic review, zero no tsukaima
Tagged: zero no tsukaima

15 Comments »

“Jagan!”

It’s that time of the year for the Evaluation Fair where all the second year young Harry Potters go and perform a song and dance show with their familiars. Only the Pink Haired Zero Magic Mage has a pretty useless one that can’t sing, can’t dance, can’t stay out of trouble… basically, a failure. Louise is troubled and doesn’t know what to do for the fair. Saito first suggests washing panties. “They’re frilly! They’re frilly!” Dude has snapped. Saito then tries to wield the sword, but he seemed to have completely regressed his swordsmanship skills, contrary to the novels. Louise also wonders why she hasn’t been punished yet for the Mott incident, so basically with how poor of a job Zero no Tsukaima has been doing foreshadowing events, you know this will be explained pretty clearly within ten minutes.

Saito decides to try and improve his swordsmanship and is greeted by her holy hawtness, Siesta. Then the two embark on a quickie collage of how other masters are training with their familiars which more resembled a circus freak show than a mage school. Saito learns that this Evaluation Fair is extra special because Queen Henrietta is coming to witness the event. Afterwards, we see the green haired lady ask about security around the Staff of Destruction. I’ll be disappointed if she doesn’t steal it before the episode is over. Worst. Foreshadowing. Ever.

The next day, Queen Henrietta (voiced by Ayako Kawasumi) arrives with a slew of mean lookin’ guards. She is pretty damn cute and everyone ends up checking her out (and I don’t blame them… it would be a royal crime otherwise). That evening, Saito and Louise are still debating what to do about his act, and Saito seems dead set on washing panties. He’s too happy about this aspect of his servitutde.

The two’s lover quarrel is interrupted by Henrietta who greets Louise with a big hug. Apparently, the two were childhood friends who swore to protect each other (thus fulfilling this episode’s loli quota). A lot of blushing, hand holding, and hugging takes place. Delightful for some odd reason. Saito tries to butt in but gets rebuffed by Louise. Anyway, Henrietta tells Louise that she’s happy to meet up with her again and that she took care of the Mott situation for her. Vegas is giving even odds that Henrietta will be forced into a marriage that she doesn’t want thus causing Saito and Louise to save her thus causing her to fall for Saito and eventually leading to Louise whipping him. Even odds seem generous.

The Evaluation Fair arrives, and everyone’s familiars dazzle and delight the crowd, except for poor Louise. Her humiliation of having to go out there with Saito must be tremendous, and it is made worse by him trying to show off some sword skillz. Solid Snake he ain’t. Hell, he ain’t even Raiden. The two get laughed off the stage, leave dejectedly, and walk past the Quidditch fields and stumble upon Fouquet the Thief (whose really the green haired girl) trying to steal the Staff of Destruction… only she was failing.

Fouquet manages to get her golem to kidnap Saito, who is horribly useless, and Louise tries to save him, only she pwns the Staff of Destruction’s anti-theft system instead (which can’t even by broken into by a triangle class mage). I mean, what are the odds that Louise is secretly an uber-powerful mage who just has a little control problems? The episode ends Fouquet taking off with the staff, Saito getting saved by Tabitha’s familiar, and Louise showing Saito a little affection…

“When I was captured, why didn’t you run?”

“You’re dumb, aren’t you?”

“A Mage who abandons her familiar isn’t a Mage.”

Zero no Tsukaima Character Power Rankings™

Wait, Louise is turning into the sensible one? No more “muri”‘s? She’s getting her horsewhip blade grasped? What anime is this again?

I love the gimmick of having Louise spend so much of her time lounging around in her nightie. They need to apply this to the following list of currently running shows: School Rumble, Shadow Warrior Chronicles (it hurt my fingers typing that), Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Strawberry Panic, and Binbou Shimai Monogatari. I’d toss Tonagura into this list, but, well, you know.

Tsuki… tsuki… maarui otsukisama… the way Henrietta and Louise were blushing at each other, I’m sure that Saito was hoping for some hawt mage x queen action. Not that I was or anything.

(BTW, do you think Henrietta is going to hit on Saito at some point? Or will she stick with Louise?)

Siesta is love.

(If I were Mushishi, I’d try to get Zero no Tsukaima to swap Siesta for a non-lottery-protected first round draft choice as well as episode 15’s Suzu . Ginko needs a meido following him around, and I can’t think of a better one than Siesta for that job… that’s the only thing keeping the Pantheon Committee from approving his entry to the Pantheon.)

I loved that little crown that Henrietta gave her for winning “best familiar.” Yet her liveliness is starting to make Ayanami look like the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders by comparison.

“This vulgar and strange creature is the failure of a lifetime.” Like it or not, your stock is dropping big time. He’s absolutely useless this episode and turned into Louise’s comedic sidekick… I’m at a loss for words. I’m ranking him lower than Yuji now. What happened to the pwning swordsman who flirted with girls instead of blushing away from them? I’m disappointed that Saito is turning out to be such a wuss, which might be an artifact of JC Staff rather than the source material (which I have no read nor read anything about), but it’s still disappointing. I expected better things from him at this point. He’s almost hikikomori creepy now.

(His one redeeming moment was when he suggested that he perform his newest talent, “washing panties”… it took a lot of balls to say that, and I hope he was able to keep at least one after Louise was done with him.)

Just to get this screenshot in.

(Guiche looks more gay than playboyish.)

He named it “Belldandy”? Is everyone okay with this? I’m not. Why not name Montmorency’s frog “Kenshin” while we’re at it? I think names in anime should be like jersey numbers in sports– retire them after pantheon characters come along.

The plot for Zero no Tsukaima is getting really predictable. They need to drop any and all pretense of “plot” and just go straight fanservice harem comedy. That’s the only right thing to do at this point. This show will never be the next Twelve Kingdoms or Fushigi Yugi, but at least don’t let it turn into the next Rizelmine.

(At least the next episode preview shows that Hakuoro’s harem buggy is making a guest appearance on this series.)