Zero no Tsukaima - Anime - AniDB (2025)

Note: This review applies to the first three seasons of Zero no Tsukaima. It is based on SS-AYU and SS-Eclipse fansubs, both of which offer great quality and good translation.

Quote:

But, I am an aristocrat. It is an honor to die for one's people. You make fun of it... but is it really that insignificant to die for others?

Originally written as light novel series by Yamaguchi Noboru and directed by Iwasaki Yoshiaki (Love Hina, Hayate no Gotoku!!) and Kou Yuu (Chrono Crusade) Zero no Tsukaima[/b] is a romantic tsundere comedy with fantasy elements. It's plot is relatively basic, if shallow - Louise a student of magic academy fizzles a spell and summons a young japanese male, Hiraga Saito, for a familiar due to mistake. The guy is pretty much lost in the new land, so he has no choice but to stick with Louise and her horrible treatment. The light hearted story goes to touch stuff like sacrifices for ideals, war politics, unequal social standing issues and more, but never really delves too deep into anything and tries its best to tell a light, romantic and ecchi story about the growing attachment between Louise and Saito, which, in this case, is surprisingly not a bad thing.

Out of the many anime I have watched, this series are one of the easiest to recommend. It builds all of its substance on tsundere and nothing else: it throws away drama potential to offer tsundere jokes, it throws away political warfare potential for tsundere charm and it exchanges character depth for recurring tsundere violence. So, yeah, the likability of this show completely depends on to what extent do you like tsunderes. Simply, if you are not turned on by the archetype - go away from this show, run as far as you can, you will most likely hate it. On the other hand, if you are the one who finds tsunderes close to your heart - don't miss your chance to watch this show, you will most likely love it, as Zero no Tsukaima is one of the few romantic tsundere shows which actually manage to go past the kisses and offer more.. errr, erotic romance. Since I personally fall into the latter category I have enjoyed this show pretty much, much more than I would dare to give it credit for.

Animation: 6/10

Animation done by J.C. Staff (Shakugan no Shana, Hayate no Gotoku) is exactly what you'd call average. Mostly deserted and bland backgrounds are redeemed by the vivid color palette and simplistic character designs are made cute due to many moe factors. We have pettanko, maids, meganeko, zettai ryouiki, elf ears and many others. I myself found character designs to my liking, with the exception of the oversized breasts of some. Fluidity falls into average category as well, everyone and everything moves in realistic ways, but fights are far from amazing. The artistic quality of animation starts and ends with clever ecchi snapshots which give the show much of positive flavor. It seems that, unlike the majority of other studios which make their ecchi either lame or bordering disgusting, J.C. Staff knows how to deal with eroticism with style (the trait I have already noticed in Hayate no Gotoku).

Sound: 7/10

All three OPs and EDs, as expected, are more or less generic pop songs, though they fit the show relatively well and are, dare I say, slightly above average of what you usually get in anime. OPs mix lyrical singing with upbeatness and EDs are those cute and really moe tsundere songs sung by Kugimiya Rie. I personally only found the second ED Suki!?Kirai!?Suki!!! notable because it was damn funny with Louise chasing Saito in that dog costume creating a clever satire of the real plot of the show.

Background music is composed by Mitsumune Shinkichi (Furi Kuri, Rozen Maiden). Unfortunately, unlike the other shows he had worked on, music in Zero no Tsukaima is not genius, good nonetheless, but nowhere near as awesome as in his other works. There are quite a few dramatic scenes which get boosted by the good use of music, especially the action ones and romance climaxing ones. If I recall correctly, best pieces account to various string instruments, though you can hear some beautiful piano from time to time as well. Unfortunately, the comedic nature of the show doesn't let the composer to use emotional string music much, so you also end up having to listen to much comedy fitting generic music. So it's not as much the problem with the composer as with the show itself why the music is, well, just good.

Voice-acting, on the other hand, is marvelous, though I guess it's already a given whenever the show is produced by J.C. Staff. They always get the best female seiyuu for their romantic comedies and not only Zero no Tsukaima is no exception, it might be their best. Quite simply, this show offers the tsundere queen Kugimiya Rie (Toradora! as Taiga, Hayate no Gotoku as Nagi), master of exotic, brassy voice Kawasumi Ayako (Seikai no Monshou as Lafiel, Fate/Stay Night as Saber), best of the soft voices Noto Mamiko (Monster as Anna Liebert, School Rumble as Yakumo) and a singer, romantic comedy veteran Horie Yui (Love Hina as Narusegawa, School Rumble as Sawachika Eri). All of these seiyuu are professional, talented and, really, beyond any need of more recognition. Though Zero no Tsukaima doesn't offer their best performances, the sheer presence of their voices makes the characters of the show appear much better than they really are. Especially Kugimiya Rie does wonders with her tsundere lines, I can never get tired of her. I should also mention Hino Satoshi (Shakugan no Shana as Sakai Yuji, Texhnolyze as Ichise) whose voice, though unremarkable, fleshes and fits the harem archetype males extremely well.

Story: 6/10

The show takes place in, what I would call, a watered down version of Harry Potter world. There is this magic academy and the magical society, but there is little, if any mysteries behind it. You can see dragons and later elves come into play, so it is a most basic fantasy set up for the most part. I wasn't really interested in all those shallow politics, though I must say the addition of warfare turmoil between countries added some positive spices to the otherwise boring setting. The existence of Gandarlf and his ability to manipulate all weapons that exist was the only really interesting part of the setting.

There are very few good things to say about the show if I were to judge it as fantasy adventure anime. Setting is bland and the plot either starts jumping too fast, solving wars in one or two episodes, or lags for too long with virtually nothing serious happening. However, if you were to treat it as a tsundere exhibition for romantic purposes show, you would have to agree that it's fun. It does only one thing right, but that thing is the only that really matters. Frankly, I went to this show for tsundere action and I got more of it than I dared to imagine, serious story is so light that a gust of wind can blow it away, but it's not like I, or you for that matter, should have expected anything from it from the first place.

I must say that the growing attachment between Saito and Louise is very well fleshed out through the first three seasons and they actually go past the kissing period in the very first one. Period at which the majority of romantic comedies actually end. Some of the happenings which never let Saito and Louise move to official lover status appear forced and get annoying later, however, all of them flesh out Louise better and better while creating an even stronger bond between her and Saito. Though the relationship itself is jumping frantically between angsty confusion and bed-lovers in later seasons, all the regressions of relationship always originate from different reasons and are solved by overcoming different problems, thus making the love scenes between Louise and Saito even cuter and more engrossing. However, from the way I see it, the author has already used virtually everything tsundere's archetype and different traits of Louise's personality have to offer, so the show will either end with season four, or will finally become an another annoying speck of fanservice, which it still is not. Unless they were to come up with a plot device which would throw Louise and Saito into Japan, that would hold enough fun for another one or two seasons, hehe.

Characters: 7/10

The main lead, as you could expect, is a generic harem archetype. However, unlike the most guys who seem to just copy someone else's lines, he appears to talk his stuff from heart. Though indeed he is a perfectly normal Japanese adolescent and it is easy to tune with him, he does have HIS opinion about things and HIS way of doing things. I even thought him pretty cool near the end of season two. He doesn't offer new things and indeed follows the archetype, but he is fleshed out much better than the majority of characters from this genre are.

The star of the show and definitely the best character of it, is, of course, Louise. There is actually a reason why I do like tsundere archetype so much, it's because it has originated from some of the most awesome and important characters in anime business. Pride, deep feelings, ambitions and strong will, Lafiel of Seikai no Monshou had more than half of your usual tsundere traits even before the word was even created. Tsundere also comes with an integrated two-dimensional personality from the very beginning and if the author tries, like in Zero no Tsukaima, he can easily make it into a multi-dimensional one. Finally I find pride and high self-esteem always commendable traits in my characters and tsundere can't be one without them. In other words, though Louise is indeed one of the finest examples of tsundere stereotype, the author's passion to flesh her out and turn her into a distinct character makes her original enough to tell her and other tsunderes apart. She has a full fledged background, many worries and her tsundere appeal rarely feels fake or forced, especially since her standing of an aristocrat doesn't allow her to treat plebeians equally. Though not original, Louise is a character good and different enough to lead the show and its romance to where it is indeed interesting.

Other characters, unfortunately, don't hold the half of charm or depth Louise does. Most of them are only there to simply obstruct the romantic relationship between Saito and her. I think they've used each female character at least once to create a romantic 'misunderstanding' on Louise's part. Everyone in the side cast has at least one dimensional full-fledged personality and though they aren't deep, they serve in comedic relief moments well. Also, thanks to the good variety of characters, none of them have enough time to make you actually get bored of them. The Queen is the only exception to the one dimension rule, since she is fleshed out pretty well. I actually expect her to take one of the leading roles in the following season.

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:

Siesta - ISFJ (D)
Hiraga Saito - ISTP (D)
Tifania Westwood - ISFP (D)
Henrietta de Tristain - INFJ (C)
Guiche de Gramont - ENFP (D)
Agnes Chevalier de Milan - ISTJ (E)
Montmorency Margarita la Fère - ESFJ (D)
Charlotte Helene Orleans de Gallia - INFP (D)
Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, - ENTJ (B)
Zerbst, Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt - ENFP (D)

Value: 6/10

Zero no Tsukaima certainly loses a lot of its appeal once you know where the romance will lead up to and how the problems are going to be solved. However, the sheer charm of Louise and some nice music doesn't allow me to delete this show from my collection. I am most certain I wont re-watch it as a whole, but I am pretty sure I will check some of the cute romantic scenes again later, especially since this is the only tsundere show which goes THAT far.

  1. Conclusion[/u]:[/b] Watchable by anyone who is of 13 years old or older Zero no Tsukaima is one of the best tsundere comedies in the market. However, it weighs on its tsundere appeal so much that it forgets to nurture its other ones. In other words, watch this show then and only then if you are indeed a fan of tsundere archetype. If you don't find tsundere moe - don't watch this show, or you will most definitely be disappointed. Other shows with attractive tsundere romance I found entertaining are - Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora, Shakugan no Shana and the best one Toradora!. Finally, not strictly a tsundere and not even a comedy, but the best romance show in anime form, an ancestor of tsundere anime is the remarkable Seikai no Monshou.
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Zero no Tsukaima - Anime - AniDB (2025)

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