Synopsis:

This episode starts off with an unknown mage dropping in on our beloved academy, opening a hole above its treasure room, and stealing some jewels. The mystery thief identifies herself as Fouquet, the Crumbling Dirt…aaaand cue OP.

Cut to the ever lovable Shan…err…Louise and her unwilling familiar Saito preparing for a yearly tradition where familiars are evaluated. This year is to be especially important because the Princess (Queen?) of Toristein is going to be attending. The evaluation basically consists of the familiar showing off its talents and abilities, of which Saito has NONE. After realizing his complete worthlessness Saito suggests he do the only thing he’s good at…washing Louise’s panties. Obviously not appreciating the sarcasm, the pink haired tsundere brings out the horse whip. But by some miracle of Haruhi, Saito’s sword catches her eye and she remembers he’s a decent swordsman…NOT, turns out he can’t swing it properly, and the whole ordeal vs Guiche was a fluke. But alas, with nothing else to work with Saito grabs his sword and heads out to practice.

After being ridiculed by some passing nobles and showing no improvement, Saito decides to take a break. Cue Siesta entrance stage left! She takes him to where all the other familiars are practicing and gives him a little background info on the princess before wishing him luck and running off to help prepare.

That evening the princess herself arrives leaving a sea of flustered students in awe. After a brief introduction and greeting from the headmaster we flash forward to night time.

Saito is showing off his drunken bar dance leet sword skills, leaving Louise less than impressed and ready to bust out the horse whip. But wait! There’s someone at the door, seeking salvation Saito goes to greet the guest who turns out to be the princess, who proceeds to glomp Louise. After some flashbacks and random Saito-grade stupidity we learn that Louise and the princess are childhood friends. Apparently the reason why Louise hasn’t been getting punished for her and Saito’s recent fiascos was because the princess has been defending her. Of course for every dramatic moment in this anime, there has to be a counterbalance and what better way to follow up to a touching reunion than some more Saito abuse. (Though I must say he’s getting good at dodging the whip)

And so we arrive at the familiar examination, impressive displays from most of the students, except Guiche…that guy creeps me out. Tabitha is soooo channeling Yuki, everything she does is so effortless and nonchalant toss her a book, some glasses and maybe an optical mouse and I dare you to tell the two apart. Realizing that she’s hopelessly screwed, Louise tells Saito to walk on stage, bow, and get off. As they’re called up and Louise announces her familiar’s class (Commoner) the audience bursts into laughter. Aggravated, Saito lashes out at the crowd, of course this doesn’t help and he ends up being dragged off stage by Louise. The winner of the examination? Yuki Tabitha of course.

After the ceremony the princess asks to see Tabitha’s sylph in flight again. Suddenly a loud crash is heard which turns out to be the thief from earlier coming to steal the “Staff of Destruction”. Despite his best efforts (lol) to fight off the thief’s golem, Saito ends up in its grips. Louise tries to cast a spell, which ends up missing (surprise surprise) and nearly killing Saito. Interstingly enough, it cracks the treasury’s wall, which the thief (triangle-mage) couldn’t break. Taking advantage of the crack, the thief breaks in and makes away with the staff. Add some random ecchi from the headmaster and that’s Tsukaima 5! Great ep.

Thoughts:

Really enjoyed this episode, Saito deserves credit as the gutsiest Harem lead I’ve ever seen. Personally, I would never mock Louise, hontou ni kowai! Though I would like to see their relationship begin to develop past the status it seems to be stuck in. Slapstick romance comedy is a nice starting point, but they need to move forward, and there isn’t much time left to do it either.

There wasn’t much action in this episode, as is the trend for Tsukaima, not necessarily a bad thing, but something I’d like to see played out more. This show needs an epic Yuki vs Asakura type battle, unfortunately, I see this happening with Saito as opposed to Tabitha =(

The revelation of Louise’s relationship with the princess was a nice boost for continuity, which was previously lacking.

All in all an excellent episode, though I would recommend more Tabitha and Siesta, less Saito cruelty. And most of all, more dere dere Louise, whatever happened to her T_T. The only dere dere we’ve seen from her is some brief moments of concern while Saito was getting manhandled by a golem.

Sorry for the low quality pics, sceenies are from the medium quality kuroneko sub AND they had to be resized =(

…lucky bastard

…I retract that statement, unless Saito is into S&M

Ecchi headmaster for the ultimate win

Oh Siesta, should Louise steal Saito away, I’LL always love you <3

Victories

- Tabitha, Yuki channeling ftw
- Ecchi headmaster, made me literally lol
- Saito’s bravery/stupidity
- Siesta, Horie Yui = <3
- Loli Louise

Phailures

- Guiche, he named that thing Belldandy!? BLASPHEMY!
- Engrish “FIREBALL!”
- Staff of Destruction? It seems J.C.Staff has misplaced their creativity
- The pacing of this anime seems to be running slow, I don’t see how they’re going to tie everything up in 13 eps

~ Shirukii ~