Zero no Tsukaima

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If you as an author manage to create a character that explodes the popularity of an archetype, then you deserve kudos regardless of everything else (well, the rest can be evaluated separately). The tsundere archetype became all the hype at the time with Louise being the one to blame. Whether it's her trademark 'b-b-b-baka' or her quirky stuttering, Louise is a character with a strong recognisable personality that became iconic in the anime community. I guess that's also due to the voice actress' great work with Louise which cannot be understated.

Story 8/10
Original at its time (at least for animes), Zero no Tsukaima's story can ... pretty much be summed up as anime hogwarts on a much lesser scale. It doesn't have the depth nor the intricacies of hogwarts and it doesn't try to but for what it's worth, they did a decent job creating an anime school of magic whilst maintaining its own identity and incorporating traditional anime ideas into its story. I have issues with the later seasons but that's another review.

Characters 8/10
Like I said, even if you hate the characters, you have to give props to the author for creating such an iconic character that became the face of tsundere. Louise is proud, spoiled from a high upbringing and one that viewers may initially dislike, but the author dives into the character to explain why it is she is the way she is as well as giving her development throughout the show to somewhat improve on her negative qualities. Though many will say that she never gets there in the end, Louise at the very least remains true to the essence of her character throughout the show and maintains the attributes that makes her character so iconic.

Artstyle 8/10
Nothing to complain about here. Good for its times.

Music 8/10
The OPs of the show are a guilty pleasure of mine. Kind of like the anime itself.

I hope this review can be useful. English is not my nacional language so It will probably has some mistakes.

Story: The plot occurs in a Cademy of Magic, where Louise studies with her familiar Hiraga Saito. The story's beginning is very similar to a slice of life, introducing you to that world slowly. Then the big war starts and both Saito and Louise are "forced" to participate on it. The main characters have theirs own goals; Saito doesn't want to stay on this world anymore he wants to go back to Japan (his homeland). Louise is called "Zero Louise", because of her inability to use ... any of the four common magical elements. The power of a magician is determined by the number of elements he can use, ranging from a single element (magician "point") to four elements ("square" magician). So, Louise wants to prove that she is capable to become a good mage even if she is not able to use any of the four elements (fire, water, earth and wind).

Characters: The protagonists are Louise and Saito. Louise is a noble and her pride always comes first than everything. In the beginning, she appears to be an arrogant, envious and stubborn person. However, in reality she is very soft and gentle and always do what is possible to help her friends or her country. Because of her incapability to use magic of the four elements (fire, water, earth and wind) she started to be bullied by hers classmates and her family started to see her as a disgrace. Making she became someone lonely and sad. With the story's progress is revealed that Louise are able to use a different element of magic, which hide a power beyond the others four elements. Hiraga Saito is a student, who was summoned by Louise to a parallel world. He's a curious boy, hate wars and he would die protecting the ones he love without thinking twice. Saito is very emotional, when he kills someone (even if it is a globin) his hands starts shaking (not shaking, because he is afraid. He is against murder), if his friends die, this would destroy his heart. He is against wars and doesn't want to kill anything. He only fights to defende himself or someone. When Saito was summoned by Louise, he got the power of Gandálfr and with this power he is capable to use any type of weapon just touching it. Both Saito and Louise also have cliches caracteristics, for example, Saito is very perverted sometimes (as all others ecchi story characters) and Louise is a tsundere. Despite of this, I liked they very much.

Art: The art is cute and pretty. Unfortunately, It is simple.

Enjoyment: When I was reading this novel I laughted a lot and found a ton of enterteniment and fun.

Overall: Zero No Tsukaima is a good novel with good characters and an interesting story. The characters' relationship development is great and the romance is sweet. I would recommend this novel if you want to read a good fantasy romance with comedy.

This was a way to painful to read...

Story- 4/10
We've all seen these troupes and cliches before, perverted boy gets summoned to a magical world, tsundere, the main heroine sucks at everything but is secretly the chosen one, and a magical school. And let's not forget that our main character has the most powerful ability of all....he somehow gets every girl to gravitate around him.
This, of course, causes jealousy to arise literally everywhere and this is one of the biggest and most worse aspects of the novel. Louise and Saito get jealous and angry over the smallest thing, I can't root for this ship ... because they are constantly fighting and obviously for a functional relationship, you need to be more tolerant and put more trust in your loved one, but they never, EVER, seem to understand this simple concept and are always fighting, to the point that it looks like an abusive and toxic relationship.
The idea of a human being the familiar of a magical girl does draw some interest and I like the idea, but then they start shoving so many troupes down your throat, that this ends up another cliched story. I can't help but compare it to Re: Zero that despite looking cliched at first, it quickly becomes it's own unique story and I had hoped Zero no Tsukaima would do the same but I was sorely mistaken.
But that's not where the biggest problems arise.

Art: 6/10
The art is fine though I feel like it's not consistent, like Louise seems to change the design in every novel, just look up the Light Novel's covers and you'll see.

Character: 3/10
The charatcers are absolute trash. None have any depth to them and are simple 2-dimensional characters. Let's get into explaining the harem.
Cliched Tsundere- Let's start out with Louise. The pink hair, small, flat chested, Tsundere. And you can already see where this is headed. This little ***** gets jealous so often it gets old, if Saito were to pay attention to a plant, Louise would get jealous and burn the plant. She is an annoying tsundere brat who gets jealous over everything and it was a pain to have her an MC. And she puts saito on such a tight leash, i'm pretty sure she would dig out his eye if he were to look at another girl.
Big Boobed and kind maid- Their's, of course, the maid with big boobs who like Saito and of course, Saito some romantic moment with her since she got them big jugs, thus getting Louise all jealous and their goes the cycle again with Louise and Saito getting into a fight about ANOTHER misunderstanding, you would think they would know by then, they only love each other and they need to trust each other.
Big Boobed and kind Elf- It's the exact same thing as the maid, except for the fact its an elf, but who cares right? She got big boobs and that's all that matters, lets not even develop or care about her actual character development.
Princess- I can't even say anything here, this character is so boring and simple it's beyond help, the only aspect about her is that she loves her country and Saito.
Saito- This guy is a perverted boy and since he is a pervert he likes them big boobs, sadly Louise ain't got those so here goes the jealousy and misunderstanding. Don't forget, I'm pretty sure he wants to bang Louise, this guy is soooooooo boooorrrriiiinnngggg. I'm not even sure what his motive is to help Tristian (The country the novel takes place in) but that fact he is the MC and has a hero complex.

Enjoyment- 1/10
In the end, if you see this Light Novel, burn it. It's horrible. I had wasted my life on half of this novels, hoping it would get better, but I soon realized they had dug their grave to dig and they would never be able to become better.

Overall- .5/10