Rie Kugimiya and Satoshi Hino reprise their roles as Louise and Saito in the second season of Zero no Tsukaima, and remind me once again what an awesome pair they make, ever since the days of Shakugan no Shana.

I figured I’d try watching this series raw, and for now I seem to be keeping up fairly well. But there are bound to be misunderstandings here and there seeing as my Japanese skills aren’t the greatest, so bear with me!

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

The episode starts off with Saito in the war plane that he used in the final episodes of the first season, flying into the eclipse that will take him home to Japan. Surprisingly he makes it through and is back home (appearing over Akiba of all places) but his excitement is cut short when he realizes Louise didn’t make it through with him. Saito ends up in tears, there’s no meaning in making it back if he’s separated from Louise, in his grief he ends up crashing the plane.

However, the whole ordeal ends up being a dream, and Saito springs back to life at the sight of Louise, hugging her tightly. Louise tells him to calm down and come back to bed, but thanks him for caring so much about her and tells him to never look at any other girls but her for the rest of his life.

The next morning, Louise surprises Saito with a gift, a pair of flashy glasses that refuse to come off after Saito first puts them on. Regardless, the two head out to see the parade being held for princess Henrietta. Outside, they bump into Siesta whom Saito immediately starts flirting with. When his gaze shifts to Siesta’s melon pan, the glasses Louise gave him start to flash and beep wildly. It turns out that they are a magical relic that goes off whenever the wearer leers at girls. This happens over and over again, from Montmorency to Kirche, even Tabitha, resulting in a disciplinary explosion from Louise every time.

With Saito bruised all over, the two finally make it to town for the parade. But when Henrietta passes by, Saito’s glasses start going off again, prompting Louise to put a crater in the middle of town. Henrietta’s guards think that it was an attempt by Saito to harm the princess and take him into custody.

Meanwhile, back at school, a mysterious woman breaks into the dungeon to talk to the corrupt priest from the first season (the one with the mind control ring). He immediately recognizes her as a possible ally and begs for another chance to make up for his failure, but the woman ends up killing him instead.

Back to more pressing matters, Lousie desperately tries to explain the misunderstanding to the princess, but is stopped by her guards. In the dungeon, Saito curses Louise and her “gift” but ends up with an unexpected audience from Henrietta.

She tells him about the incident at the school’s dungeon and asks him to once again lend his power to find out what’s going on. Not being one to turn down a beautiful girl, Saito agrees and in return receives the promise of a favor from the princess. Just as his mind starts to run wild, Lousie barges in, but instead of busting out the horsewhip, she breaks down in tears and goes dere dere on Saito.

Saito and Louise are returned to the school by Henrietta’s personal guard, Agnes, and told that their mission is to act as spies in the school and find out who is responsible for the recent murder. Before going, Agnes kindly reminds Saito to cease any inappropriate behaviour towards the princess.

You can guess what happens next…

The next morning, Agnes rushes to the school to deliver a message, only to find Louise in the middle of an S&M session with Saito. After getting over her initial shock and embarrassment, she tells the two that the princess has gone missing.

…or at least I think that’s what she said, her message ended with “sarawarete” which I believe means something along the lines of “stolen” or “swept away”.

Thoughts

Zero no Tsukaima hasn’t changed a bit from the first season, which may or may not be a good thing. On one hand pointless fanservice is fun, seeing Louise stroll around in her nightie and melting in Saito’s arms is entertaining (mindless, yes, but still entertaining). But this led to a huge problem last season, until the end the series was more fanservice than plot, so all the important story elements were literally crammed into the last few episodes. The result is either a feeling that the first 9/10 episodes were a complete waste of time, or that the ending could have been much better given more time. The latter sentiment led to hopes of a second season, which we got, but it seems like the same mistake is being repeated.

But that having been said, I’ll still enjoy Zero no Tsukaima for it’s ease of watching. Saito is a hilarious male lead, he really respects and cares for Louise, but can’t surpress his natural playboy instincts and ends up coming off as a pervert 3/4 of the time. He has the mind of a typical adolescent male, which leads him to chase after anything with a vag00, but unlike the majority of male leads in harems, is pimp while doing so.

And if anything, I’ll remain a loyal viewer because OH GOD LOUISE IS HOT.

I religiously follow any of Rie Kugimiya’s roles, no one does loli tsundere better. Louise’s tsuntsun:deredere ratio still needs a lot of work though, she really needs to give up that horsewhip.

The technical aspects of Tsukaima’s second series remain more or less on par with the first. The animation production team is still JC STAFF, and the quality is exactly the same as its predecessor. Character designs seem to have gotten a bit better, especially when they go in for close ups. Music, once again, is a secondary point for me, the OP was decent and the ambient soundtrack is similar to the first. I didn’t really like the ED though, as a seiyuu Rie Kugimiya is great, but her singing could use a little work.

With a whole cast of new characters, Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi has tons of potential to develop a great plot, but it’s more likely that we’ll be bombarded with fanservice episode after fanservice episode. But with new characters like Agnes, and the possibility of more Siesta and tavern wench, either outcome is fine by me.

I’m not sure whether I’ll continue to blog this though, anime like Zero no Tsukaima is usually laid back watching for me. I sit there, enjoy the fanservice and ignore plot holes and inconsistencies. But if I blog it, I’ll end up pointing out places where it could have been better and exposing glaring gaps in plot and character, blogging it might end up being nothing more than a killjoy. But we’ll see…depends on how the rest of the season turns out and the progress of the continuing spring season. Nanoha subs, etc.

And on a closing note: Omni commented on this as well…

Isn’t this guy supposed to be dead?

~ Shirukii ~