The Familiar of Zero

Alt title: Zero no Tsukaima

TV (13 eps)
3.82 out of 5 from 38,895 votes
Rank #2,042

In a world where magic is a reality, the young Louise is at the bottom of her class. Dubbed "Zero" by her classmates at Tristein Academy (due to her zero success rate for magic), Louise (along with all first year students) was charged with summoning a familiar; and instead of a cute magical creature, the familiar arrived in the form of... Saito Hiraga, a normal Japanese boy who was abruptly teleported from his own world?! Can both Louise and Saito come to terms with their new and complicated "relationship" and (more importantly) help Saito find a way home?

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Reviews

babyeinstein12
7

StoryWands! Cloaks! A magic academy nestled in the mountains! Sound familiar? Yes, Harry Potter would most likely come to mind, but just take out the Voldemort aspect and replace it with a little ecchi fan service, a lot of romance, and a positive avalanche of cuteness. Zero no Tsukaima offers a playful jaunt into another world and casts a spell that will leave you very much charmed. Louise, referred to as “The Zero” by classmates for her dreadful magical skills, accidentally summons a boy named Saito into her life. The out-of-place Japanese youth finds himself submerged in a completely different reality, where wizards reside in castles and boss around the peasants. Within this unique land (faintly modeled after pre-industrial Western Europe), Louise and Saito’s relationship builds with intensity and good pacing; daily quibbling turns into jealousy, blushes, and furtive glances, to eventually comprise a boiling cauldron of passion. At the same time, the duo confronts challenges of a whimsical yet problematic world, where thieves, revolutions, treachery, (bouncing boobs), and perverted men run amok. Both romantic and narrative elements are convincingly mixed into a lucid whole. In many ways the story moves along like a Mozart work – and no, Zero no Tsukaima is NOT an attempted portrayal at classical music, but it’s the best metaphor I can think of. Like Mozart, the story is pleasant, linear, catchy, shallow, and light as a feather. It’s not mawkish or profound, and still for an unknowable reason, it benefits you to give it a try. Here is a plotline that promises nothing but gives you something sweet to digest, and in the end you find that surprisingly, your stomach feels satisfied. Unlike Mozart, however, some of the progression in Zero no Tsukaima fails to make complete sense. Among the string of adventures that Louise and Saito undertake, a couple seem to have been pulled out of thin air, contrived in a hurry to squeeze everything into thirteen episodes. (I affectionately term these as “WTF” moments). Thankfully, such “WTF” zingers mellow out into engaging plot spurts that delicately tend to Louise and Saito’s blossoming romance. Although the viewer might not actively acknowledge the relational development, he or she can still “feel” the cauldron of love boiling closer to breaking point. Humor flickers in and out of the story like a faulty wandlight and draws strength more from the characters’ outrageous antics than from a clever script. While Zero no Tsukaima is certainly of lighter substance, you won’t be giggling every minute – though what it lacks in humor it fills in with total romantic kawaii-ness.AnimationLight, faded colors, soft edges, and brief instances of visual beauty all reveal J.C.Staff’s characteristic style in Zero no Tsukaima. In many ways, the show cuts the image of Toradora!’s younger, cuter sister (though it does precede Toradora! by two years): It’s strikingly similar, not as developed, and more apt to escape parental scrutiny. Weaknesses exist: unsubtle color shading, overly simplistic character designs, and occasional lazy bouts with background movements; but the tone radiates such charm that they are easy to overlook. The important thing is that everyone looks adorable. Whether it be students, villains, animals, or adults, the animators carve each being into diminutive proportions that supply them with a distinctive doll-like impression. The main duo especially oozes with chibi-tastic delight.SoundThe show boasts a relatively prestigious cast, including the “Queen of Tsundere” Rie Kugimiya as tough, soft, adorable Louise. Incidentally, she and Yui Horie claim main roles in Toradora! and execute them brilliantly (as Taiga and Kushieda, respectively), but here, their performances as Louise and Siesta fall rather flat in comparison. Both carry out their jobs sufficiently, as do the rest of the cast, but if you are accustomed to more involved voice acting with such seiyuu, the ones here will slightly disappoint. Satoshi Hino, however, impressed me with his endearing yet somehow sexy quality to Saito’s voice. On the other side of the audio tape, Zero no Tsukaima equals if not surpasses her rival sibling in the soundtrack’s style, charm, and retention rate. The background music, while not particularly striking in and of itself, suits the circumstances and gives everything an added fantastical flair. What takes the cake is the closing theme, “The Real Feeling,” sung by Kugimiya herself and placing a capstone on Zero no Tsukaima’s utter cuteness.CharactersEver since I made the jibe of Zero no Tsukaima being Toradora!’s younger sister, I cannot stop paralleling the two. The perpetual comparison cannot become any more evident after one looks at the characterization of Louise: Wavy, curtain-like hair, eyes that slant downward, tsundere qualities – she is the predecessor to Aisaka Taiga from Toradora!. Actually, I take that back. Louise is the predecessor to Taiga, with the edges of her personality cut off. Indeed, the budding witch enjoys brandishing her whip, but compared to the “Palm Top Tiger,” she is nothing more than a pink-haired pygmy puff. She isn’t particularly mean to begin with, but as Cupid’s Arrow digs deeper into her exposed royal belly, she develops into a mostly helpless girly girl. While the show lavishes attention on her and Saito’s dynamic relationship, it sweeps the Louise as her own character under the rug. Saito comes across as pleasant, brave, occasionally rash, and most importantly, a breath of fresh air. For once, we see a boy who actually deserves the interest of multiple girls. The females themselves, while entertaining, largely rut into stereotypes and fail to develop sufficiently: Siesta smiles and smiles, Tabitha burrows her head in a book from beginning to end, Montmorency enjoys a brief episode of glory, and Kirche appears and re-appears like an annoying wet dream (yes, wet dream). They all become nicer to each other, but that’s about it. In the end, Zero no Tsukaima decides to spend its limited time not on the individual characters but on tying them together to make the product stronger than it would have been otherwise.OverallThe important thing to remember is that despite its weaknesses, Zero no Tsukaima avoids pretentious complexities and is capable of providing solid entertainment. It does not make for a particularly intellectual viewing, but in many ways that’s what is so refreshing about it. With all the similarities the show shares with Toradora!, it gave me something Toradora! did not: Some good old fun.

ThatAnimeSnob
3

SEX !!! If that made you more interested in reading further, then Zero no Tsukaima is the show for you. If not, then don’t even bother because it’s all you’ll get from this crappy quadrilogy trilogy. It is just an ecchi comedy with a pint of fantasy shenanigans for flavor and NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Do not try to see it as some sort of an amazing setting with elaborate mechanics and complex social structure because there isn’t much in terms of plot or character development beyond the funky premise. But if you are somehow satisfied with aimless softporn that makes vague tributes to other famous shows, and you never get bored of the stereotypical tsundere, then you will definitely enjoy Zero no Tsukaima way more than I did. When I said tributes, I referred to a bunch of unintended comparisons, such as: - Harry Potter because the setting is about a magic school, where aristocratic wizards rule over lower commoners. - Shakugan no Shana because the lead girl reminds us of her (or for the same reason any other loli tsundere voiced by Rie Kugimiya). - The Lord of the Rings because of a fantasy war raging on in the background. So yeah, imagine Shana riding a flying broomstick and giving us lots of panty shots, while she wastes hoards of Orcs next to Mount Doom for 48 episodes. And instead of a red eye the main villain is a bald Lich constantly scheming behind everyone’s backs. And having a thousand horny NEETs near by taking photos of Shana’s tsun moments while screaming OUR PRECIOUSSS !!! Sure, it could work; I love just the description of it.… Too bad that instead of all those awesome events I made up, all we get in this show is jack SHIT! STORY The story is (as it usual is in such shows) just an excuse to have a ball-less dork doing WHATEVER before he starts tripping on boobs and getting his ass kicked hard by a loli. Yeah, sounds funny … if it doesn’t repeat every 10 minutes without any sort of progress and while there are a hundred other shows WITH THE EXACT SAME THING GOING ON. So yeah, the premise may sound original, or interesting, or captivating, but the presentation is just the same old tsun fuss all over again. Here, let me give you a list of the subplots you can find in here:- A magician girl’s struggle for acceptance by her society, who considers her weak- A normal boy’s drama of being away from his home, against his will- A conflict between the rich and the poor- A mystery regarding a powerful magic element- A war between two powerful factions for the control of the world Boy, this could mean the birth of the most awesome epic adventure of the PAST 30 YEARS! Tremble Lord of the Rings! Step out of the way Game of Thrones! Run to the hills Malezan Book of the Fallen! Here comes Zero no Tsukaima! Yes, it would be quite lovely to have at least half of all that, and yet what do we actually get? NOTHING! A big, ugly, fat, shitty zero, as the titles implies. The only progress we get from all those amazing subplots mentioned above is the fan service which keeps increasing exponentially while context and plot go for a walk. They occasionally try to make it epic and interesting (especially during the first and the last seasons) but it never manages to be anything more than a minor side dish before the next done to death ecchi scene comes along. So much for priorities …The truth is that the novels the anime is based on have a lot more plot and far less softporn in them. But as usual Studio J.C. Staff only cares to make its adaptations as fappable as possible instead of making them decent and faithful to the source material. But what can you expect when their target audience is deviant NEETs and their ace card is a loli tsundere voiced by Rie Kugimiya? CHARACTERS But who cares about the story if the characters are unique, special, developed or just highly humorous? Most people care about the cast and not the story anyways. That is why the cast of this trilogy is again SHIT because they are carbon-copied harem archetypes you can find anywhere, with absolutely nothing special or memorable about them after awhile. Why in blazes would I find Louise any better than any other stereotypical tsundere? She’s no Asuka Langley; that’s for sure. And why is Saito any better than all the rest of the harem or shounen leads out there when he allows to be humiliated all the time without even being a masochist? Or why is anyone else in this show worth remembering when I can think of a hundred other similar characters with far more depth and development? Some say it was the voice actress who made it all worthy, but, surely, after a dozen identical Rie Kugimiya roles I no longer give a fudge. Some others say it was the jokes that made them feel funny, which means absolutely NOTHING because I have seen shows with far more original jokes and greener pastures. It goes further down the gutter if you think of what progress the cast had throughout the season. Any hints of development we had in season 1 are conveniently deleted in season 2, and the hints of progress we were given in the finale of the second season play no importance in the third. As for the fourth season, the characters ACTUALLY develop, but it is done in a lazy and rushed way. Plus by then you have run out of toilet paper and no longer care about their personalities. So no, they are even less that average since for 48 episodes we see them doing aimless things with ZERO importance before ending the whole thing in the most boring way imaginable. Hell, they shamelessly reset development just to prolong the show’s crummy plot. Just how tasteless do they expect us to be for liking this crap? VALUE & ENJOYMENT Yet another high-seller garbage of a franchise. Sure, it sold a million bucks amongst the sick otakus but that does not prove it is a quality show; it only proves how low the bar is for most in the target audience. The fandom just loves mediocrities and never gets bored of eating the same piss soup every day. This mentality would perform miracles in a communistic society. But, being the capitalistic pig I am, I say this is a dreadful franchise and I would never recommend it to anyone, other than to waste his life when there are better shows out there. Now where is my tuna salad, zero coke, French fries with ketchup, and Cheeseburger with no onions? p.s.: Oh, I forgot to say something about the production values. Well, not my fault if they are the least of the things anyone should care about in this shitty franchise. Ok, here you go, animation and sound are good if all you want is generic pop songs, blunt medieval backgrounds and simplistic character figures that do and say generic harem stuff. There, now my perfect analysis is complete, have fun you tasteless otakus. VERDICT: S1: 3/10, S2: 2/10, S3: 1/10 S4: 3/10

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