Zero no Tsukaima

Source NSFW, but oh so funny

(Originally 11 Oct 2006)

Zero no Tsukaima started off favourably. It may horrify you to learn that I find groin kicks hilarious. I might think differently if I were on the receiving end of one, but it's one of the best forms of slapstick humour.

The series could have been a commentary on challenging nobility and authority figures, since here was a character who didn't really possess any magical ability yet could hold his own in a fight with a magical noble.

Towards the end, it just kind of fell apart. There wasn't much of a plot linking episodes together, other than Saito getting his ass (or other) handed to him. But it had an intriguing backstory, with the mysterious interactions between the magical world and the real world, and how it seems that the real world totally beats the stuffing out of magic. The scene in which the Staff of Destruction is deployed, primitive as it is, was really well done, which is to say, it was as badass as Shiro Amada using the same weapon against Zaku MS' in 08th MS Team.

Likewise, the Dragon's Raiment use was satisfying despite being an incredibly lopsided battle.

Towards the end, the secondary characters were reduced to some bail-out squad for whenever the leads got into otherwise inextricable situations. And the villains were meh. The final story arc was half-hearted, standard let's take over the world, lose the war in the very first battle fare. I was struck by the lack of any real premise, but I suppose people do wake up one day, get together, and declare that they want to take over the world for the hell of it.

Apparently the light novels are really good, from which the material for the anime was derived. The series needed more than 13 episodes — the light novels haven't even concluded, currently weighing in at 9 volumes.