Zero no Tsukaima (Zero’s Familiar) is about “Zero” Louise, a magician that’s terrible at magic, always blowing things up and such, and the familiar she accidently summons, Saito, a human commoner from our world. Louise lives in a world of magic and goes to a magic school, and no, it’s not Hogwarts. Saito himself is special (when are Harem leads not?), being summoned with odd runes on his hand that let him transform into a master swordsmen when he grips a sword. This is the story of these two’s rather ‘odd’ relationship.
Louise is all tsundere, caring for Saito, yet constantly beating him up and denying him food. Saito is an uncommon harem male, having a backbone and standing up to people that insult him. We seem to be getting a lot of character’s like that lately, with Archer, Mister, maybe Shirou, and some others. Guess the japanese like their manly men now. There’s two reasons I’m watching this show. One is that both Louise and Saito have the same voice actors as Shana and Yuiji from Shakugan no Shana, making for some good fun as they play essentially the same role (and I just got around to watching Shana this summer). Second is Kirche, the red-haired, big breasted, sexy antagonist to Louise. If you haven’t notice I have a certain ‘fetish’ for characters like that (see Kikyou of SHUFFLE! for a good example).
In this episode, Saito finds out why Louise is called a “zero ” and starts annoying her about it. She get’s ultra-pissed off and says he won’t have a meal for everytime he said zero. After missing two meals he’s begging her to relent while changing her. I must say that it’s weird how Saito get’s all flustered over Kirche later, when he regularly see’s Louise naked from changing her. Must not be a lolicon eh? Louise relents and Saito start’s thanking her, saying how he’ll never say again that she has zero magic and zero breasts, even though that’s true. Smart man, that Saito. Louise explodes on him, denying him food and making him sleep in the hall. There, he is found by cute meido Siesta and taken to the commoner’s kitchen to eat something. Turn’s out, he’s the hero of the common people who hate how arrogant the nobles are. They even give him the nickname ” Our Sword “. Siesta later leads him out and tells him how Louise bought an expensive potion to heal him earlier. Siesta asks if they can talk longer sometime, to which Saito agrees. Add meido to harem.
On his way back, Saito is attacked by Kirche’s Salamander and taken to see her. Kirche meets him in her sexy lingerie (as seen above, depicted by Utility Pole Spirit, best fanartist in the world), clearly meaning business.She goes on about how much she loves Saito and how cool he is for beating up a noble. However, before they can get to it, Kirche’s other lover’s start barging in from the window, prompting Kirche to keep setting them on fire. She finally kisses Saito, but then Louise chooses to barge into the room. She asks whose familiar Kirche thinks she’s kissing and tells Saito to come with her. Kirche say’s that it’s tyranny to say who a human can love, to which Saito whole-heartily agrees. Louise finally persuades Saito to leave by saying how all the nobles will be after him the next day. Of course he still requires some ‘ physical ‘ persuasion to leave (ie. much pain to the ear).
Louise of course is angry at Saito again, getting out a horse-whip to beat him with (so your that kind of girl eh Louise?). Stopping Louise for a second, Saito realizes she’s beating him because she’s jealous. This earns Saito Louise’s ” One Hit Kill ” knee to the groin. Louise say’s he can definitely not go out with Kirche, as their two families hate each other. After explaining the situation, Louise decides she should get Saito a sword to defend himself with, and they leave on horse the next morning. Seeing them leave, Kirche goes to enlist the aid of Tabitha, the local Rei/Yuki clone and her awesome dragon familiar. And so they set off in hot pursuit (lol at Tabitha having to tell her dragon not to eat Louise and Saito).
Louise and Saito are at the sword salesmen, who is trying to trick Louise into buying the super expensive gold sword. Louise refuses, and asks what she can buy with a 100 new gold. Turns out all she can get is an old bronze sword and she buys it. Saito keeps talking about how much a piece of junk the sword is, but Louise say’s she already bought something expensive and didn’t have enough money. Saito remembers how Siesta told him Louise bought the medicine that made him better, and that seems to content him. Meanwhile Kirche and Tabitha are spying on them, and Kirche goes to buy the gold sword, using her ‘femenine wiles’ to lower the price. Back at the school, Kirche shows Saito the sword, and both her and Louise start arguing, challenging each other to a duel. However Tabitha doesn’t much like this idea, telling them both you can’t duel inside while taking their wands. They decide to have Saito decide instead which sword he likes better. Saito can’t decide (and gets punished for it), but before they both start arguing again the sword interrupts them. Yes it seems the sword can talk and it’s name Derflinger. Saito decides to keep it, and Louise wonders why strange things seem to gather around her…
As I said before one the reason’s I’m watching this show is Kirche, which this ep had her in spades. So sexy! Anyway’s were introduced to a talking sword this ep with a weird name, further cementing this show’s tie with Shakugan no Shana (just call it Shana part 2). Too bad it doesn’t have Margery’s book’s va, as that would be awesome seeing as it’s the same kind of ” inanimate object that insults people “. Animations good all around as it’s by J.C. Staff. Can’t decide if I should get the op single yet, as it’s catchy but not overly good like NHK’s op and ed (which I’ve raved about enough on this blog). Next week we focus on meido Siesta and her apparent problems with slavery…
