Having done all the coding for Anime Arimasu, I can say that there’s more than just better banners, tabs, and categories here at the new host =p In any case, I’d like to thank Maestro for his awesomeness in hosting us for free. If you’re feeling extra generous, feel free to donate to Maestro’s hosting [he hosts a lot of well-known blogs for free]. The link’s in the sidebar, gogogo! And now that hosting’s out of the way, I bring you your awaited Ruizu:
 

Rawr.

         In an interesting twist, the harem situation has switched, and it is Louise’s turn to be chased after. ‘Cept… well, Saito’s competition is a PEDO. Needless to say, I’m disturbed. However, it was still a rather good episode, with a little love competition between Saito and the pedo.

Zero no Tsukaima 10
The Princess’ Request

Summary
         After flying through the window and appearing in Louise’s room, Henrietta moves on to reveal the true intentions of her visit. For political reasons, she is to marry Germania Royalty, and she wants Louise to run on a little errand. Henrietta recently wrote a letter to the Prince of Wales (her cousin and childhood friend), and should this letter be revealed to the public, the Germania marriage would be cancelled. Sounds pretty much like a love letter to me, really (despite the incestuous implications of that assumption). As to why that letter wasn’t addressed to Saito is completely beyond me. Silly Henrietta, you mixed up the addresses of the Prince and Saito! Is THAT your true reason for wanting the letter back so badly? ‘kay, back to reality (and by “reality”, I mean the ACTUAL anime storyline). Guiche pops out from behind the door and admits to listening to the entire thing. He pledges his support, and with that, becomes part of the recovery team.
         Later in the night, Saito’s doing his nightly panty washing, when he accidentally breaks the panty waistband. Something tells me he’s going to receive a lot of crap from Louise for that move. Siesta appears, apologizing for not believing his love potion story earlier. Sorry hon, but it’s already too late for you. Actually, it was too late for Siesta the second Saito was summoned by Louise. And even then, I should go further and say it was too late as soon as the name “Zero no Tsukaima” was conceived. Which is really unfortunate, but alas.
         The next day, Saito pays a visit to a school professor, whose name completely escapes me at this moment. Obviously, he is not important enough to warrant remembering his name. That, or my memory sucks, which is completely and utterly true. In any case, Saito inquires about Gundalfs and the history of magic. The professor tells us of how there originally were five magic elements: fire, water, wind, earth, and void. However, the void element was never confirmed and thus, the known elements were reduced to only four. And if void mages were to exist, they would have Gundalfs as familiars. It is essentially circular logic, the way the prof is thinking. Void mages do not exist because there are no Gundalfs, and Gundalfs do not exist because there are no void mages. It just makes me wonder how the hell they came up with the idea of void mages and Gundalfs in the first place, if there’s nothing to suggest the existence of them. In any case, Saito gets distracted by the pretty colours of a potion bottle, which apparently is “dragon’s blood”, according to the prof. He reveals his proud story of obtaining the blood when two dragons never before seen appeared in the skies, one of which disappeared, and the other falling to the ground. He collected the blood of the fallen dragon, and is currently trying to replicate it.
         The night before setting off on the mission, Louise feels a little down and is worried about her abilities as a mage. She feels inadequate for the job, and questions her usefulness. Cue Saito, trying to act all cool and taking advantage of the situation. He assures Louise that she’s not useless and promises that if anything should happen, he’ll protect her.
         It’s the morning of the mission, and the three students are waiting for their escort sent by Henrietta. In this timeframe, Louise essentially gets brutally violated by Belldandy, much to the amusement of the guys. The escort finally arrives, and it’s a… really old man. It’s Ward, the captain of the Griffin squadron. From here on, he shall be referred to as Pedo-sama, for [soon to be] obvious reasons. Apparently Pedo-sama is engaged to Louise, and has been for many years now. Pedo-sama picks up Louise in his arms, and the group sets off on their mission. Over the course of the entire ride there, Pedo-sama essentially professes his undying love for Louise, slightly disturbing me. Saito shares my dislike, but for slightly different reasons. A little competition only brings about jealousy, and jealousy we did see. Upon arrival at La Rochelle, Louise feels the need to explain to Saito why Pedo-sama’s all over her. Doesn’t do her any good, only leaves both parties feeling a little bitter.
         After an awkward dinner with Pedo-sama, Saito gets the full story from Delflinger, all about Gundalfs. They are familiars that are able to wield any weapon with proficiency, even without previous experience. The only catch is that whatever you’re trying to use must be designed to be a weapon, and not simply something you intend to use as a weapon. Meanwhile, in Pedo-sama and Louise’s shared room, they’re reminiscing on the past, and how even back then, Pedo-sama was still Pedo-sama. Back to the present, Pedo-sama leans in for a kiss, all the while promising Louise that he’ll protect her. This triggers Louise’s memory of when Saito said the same thing the previous night, effectively making Louise feel guilty. Pedo-sama, realizing he lost this round, rents another room to stay the night. Phew, close call there.
         And finally, here comes the part we’re all waiting for. It’s the next day, and Saito and Pedo-sama are to duel according to the agreement they made the previous night at the dinner. Saito starts off with an impressive offence, even doing some fancy wallrunning while swinging his sword. With a little magic, Pedo-sama knocks down Saito, winning the round. Pedo-sama taunts Saito, claiming that Saito isn’t fit to protect Louise. With that, round two of the duel begins… only to cut to the ED. *sigh* And I wanted some Pedo buttkicking!
 
Summary of Summary
- Possibility of incestuous Royal relationship.
- Saito’s jealousy of Pedo-sama
- Arrival at La Rochelle, mission’s going smoothly
- Duel with Pedo-sama, possibility of pedo butt kicking
- Pedo-sama. *shudders*
 
Screencaps

From this angle, it looks all wrong…

Aww, Louise is concerned over Saito!

Isn’t he like, TRIPLE her age??

Isn’t he like, QUADRUPLE her age?? (And Yotsuba, much?)

Kick that pedo’s butt!

Bonus picture of Pedo-sama

 
Thoughts
         Whoa, this episode had a lot of tidbits that got me thinking of how this series is going to proceed. So instead of ranting on how disturbed I am about Pedo-sama, I’ll go into theories instead.
         Shirukii and I both agree that the supposed “dragons” that the professor saw was nothing more than two airplanes from Saito’s world that somehow came to the world of mages. Continuing this, the “dragon’s blood” becomes gasoline, which makes a lot of sense given Saito’s strange fixation on its scent.
         Taking this into account, I think that those two planes will essentially lead to Saito’s return to his world. One plane disappeared, which I suspect Saito will find and pilot, using the fuel that the professor creates when replicating the “dragon’s blood”. Now Saito’s no pilot, but if we continue the theme of war and the military as seen with the Staff of Destruction [and possibly Siesta’s grandfather], then it wouldn’t be surprising to find that the planes are actually military aircraft, thus being created for the purpose of being a weapon. Being a Gundalf, this should allow Saito to use his… “Gundalfery” and instantly learn how to use said weapon, meaning he instantaneously becomes a pilot. This solves the problem of how Saito is to return back to his time, yet other things related to his return have yet to be explained.
         As I said before, I’m not going to delve into how disturbed I am about Pedo-sama, but he’s still quite the topic of discussion. I’m fairly certain that he’s working under Cromwell. The person who freed Fouquet and the person accompanying Fouquet in the dark throne room of Cromwell seems to be Pedo-sama. Looking at his cloak, they have similar characteristics. Both have white outlines, are black in colour, feature white cuffs, and are folded at the shoulder in the same way. In fact, the only real difference between attire is that the mystery man doesn’t wear a hat and has a cloth covering his face. A hat is easily taken off, and the mask is there so that we cannot see the mystery man’s facial hair, in which if we did, I’m QUITE sure it would match up perfectly to Pedo-sama’s.
         On top of that, the mystery man’s hair colour seems to be silver/grey. If more hints are needed, then I shall supply. In the dinner scene, there is a short period of time when we can see Fouquet, in which she seems to be sitting alone. After the dinner and after Pedo-sama leaves Louise’s room however, we see Fouquet now accompanied by the mystery man. Coincidence of timing? I think not. Finally, before he left Louise’s room, he kept talking of wanting more, of being a Noble that will “move all of this country, no, all of Halkeginia”. A little ambitious, I must say. His plans for accomplishing this must lie with Cromwell.
         On the plus side, Pedo-sama probably only wants to use Louise’s abilities as a void mage, and doesn’t ACTUALLY want her. Because that would be disturbing. The day he consummates the marriage is the day he’s charged with statutory rape. But I digress; I said I wouldn’t talk of his pedoistic ways.
         Having dealt with Saito and Pedo-sama, I’ll move on to the last male on this mission: Guiche. It’s quite a distinct possibility that Guiche WON’T turn out to be completely useless and excess baggage to this trip. Belldandy’s fascination with jewellery will most likely lead to the discovery of Cromwell since he wears the Ring of Andvari, which will also reveal the true identity of Pedo-sama. This will tie the original mission given by Henrietta to Cromwell and also lead to the end of the series. Louise and Saito will defeat Cromwell and get the Ring back, returning it to the Water Spirit. The Spirit will probably reveal some information about the past Gundalfs, which can allow Saito the knowledge of how to get back to his own world.
         With any luck, when/if Saito goes back to his world, Louise will tag along for the ride, keeping up with her theme of “well you’re my familiar, so isn’t it obvious?” Should he really pilot a plane, lets just hope his Gundalf abilities don’t suddenly quit on him.
         So yes, that’s my take on the end of this series. Just watch, come episode 11, I’ll be completely proven wrong. But with only three episodes left to watch, there isn’t much time to tie everything together, which my theory seems to do fine.

//Soda