Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

A Shoujo ai centred Weblog

Zero no Tsukaima – The Redemption?

Posted on | August 29, 2006 | 3 Comments |

Earlier this season, I was very quick to slate Zero no Tsukaima as having a weak and annoying male lead and a Shana-clone as the main driving force behind a series with a rather dubious plotline dressing up a blatant harem anime-wannabe. I remember reading on a forum quite recently that the reason one person liked it was that there was zero chance that Saito had of forming a harem. Well, what about Kirche, Louise and Siesta? Isn’t 3 enough for harems these days? Sheesh…

Anyway, it may surprise people (but probably not) that I have been watching ZnT again. And (shock horror) enjoying it.

The previous two points stand – Saito is probably one of the weakest male leads in existance. For a start, he’s still rather boring, and completely unfunny (especially when he tries to make pantsu jokes). He doesn’t show any loyalty to either Louise or Siesta and he’s just bulging with useless chivalry. For the uninducted, “useless chivalry” is a plot device in anime in order to get characters with no actual good points to get loved up by all the girls. Even Love Hina’s Keitaro didn’t stoop that low.

Nevertheless, even with Saito and pink-haired-Shana as lead, the introduction of the other characters does make the series rather more interesting. They are, obviously, extremely stereotypical – Kirche is struggling not to be Marjorie Daw mixed with Shikijo-sensei from Maharomatic (I’m sure there are more chichi onnas that compare better, but I can’t think of any at the moment), and Tabitha, who, like most internet forums have already said ad nauseam, is actually Nagato Yuki from Haruhi with a wand.

The storylines are still as, if not more predictable to the point that I predicted the end of the Fouquet storyline in the first 10 seconds of episode 5. Literally. However, there are a few things that are approval worthy with the story:

  • They’ve kept Louise rubbish at magic (Though her storyline has “latent power” written all over it). For the uninducted, “latent power” is a plot device in which all main characters who are crap at something are actually the best at it in the world. Just they don’t know it. By this logic, I must be God. But I don’t know it.
  • They didn’t spin out the Old Osman/Miss Longueville gag all through the series. It was funny the first 4 times…
  • Their magic words are neither Engrish or what passes for Latin in Japanese anime circles (or should that be Jatin?)
  • Kirche is hawt and obviously wants to have hot-yuri-rape-sex with Tabitha
  • “Its just old porn” cracked me up.
  • Louise and Princess Henrietta’s (who, interestingly, is voiced by the same seiyuu as Osaka from Azumanga Daioh) relationship is ultra-kawaii. Everyone knows that childhood friends eventually hook up and do the dirty – its a well documented fact. For the uninducted, “childhood friends” is synonymous with “having-hot-perverted-secks-behind-everyones-backs”
  • “Why are you spanking me so hard tonight, HIme-sama?” “Its because you were a naughty girl, Louise Francoise, you know that skinny little ass is mine and you keep showing it off to that hentai Saito!” “Augh! Hime-sama, IKU!”
  • Actually, that didn’t happen -_-;;

Though its painfully obvious where the show is going to go story-wise (All the legends in Louise’s world relate to things coming over from Saito’s world; Someone in power is actually someone from Earth and in the end, Saito will choose to stay with Louise.), I will probably keep watching, if only for the very very very slim chance that All the girls realise that Saito is an idiot and pair off to have hot lesbian secks. Wait…I do that with every series O_o.

Apparently, I should also read the novels.

Category: Anime, Comment, Zero no Tsukaima

Comments

3 Responses to “Zero no Tsukaima – The Redemption?”

  1. Mayu
    August 30th, 2006 @ 8:04 am

    I think episode 8 is the turning point. Tabitha doesn’t seem as much of a Yuki rip-off after we hear her backstory.

  2. Fedyfausto
    November 17th, 2006 @ 3:40 am

    http://www.zero-tsukaima.135.it

    this is fist italian web site of this anime

  3. Mak
    January 14th, 2007 @ 5:38 pm

    Tabitha seriously reminds me of Yuki…>_>’

Leave a Reply