Zero no Tsukaima

13 Episodes (Second season in progress)
TV Series
Comedy/Adventure/Romance (Kinda)

I finished watching Zero no Tsukaima a while ago. The 13 episodes of the first season go quickly. The premise is that a magical school girl named Louise summons a boy from Japan as her familiar- which, basically, means slave. The series brings Harry Potter to mind, what with the magical school going kids and all. I have to admit, I was a bit turned off by the slave concept in the beginning, but I'm glad I watched the show.

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière (yes, I copy pasted that) is from a magical family, but is pretty bad at magic. When it comes time to summon a familiar, she summons a human from another world- Saito Hiraga, a Japanese high school student. The summoning appears to be an accident- poor Saito was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course, summoning a "commoner" (non magical person) in funny clothes earns Louise much scorn- especially since he does not obey her. She further reinforces her nickname "Louise the Zero."

Saito, though unable to use magic, has some powers of his own in this world. He can weild any weapon - or anything intended to be used as a weapon- expertly. This talent earns him respect among the other commoners and even a certain amount among the nobles. As one might expect, there is an ongoing power struggle between Saito and Louise, do to the fact that she sees him as a familiar (at least in the beginning) and he does not. But, also to be expected from an anime, a sorta sweet love story evolves.

The artwork in Zero no Tsukaima is lovely, though fairly standard. What can I say, I'm a sucker for big eyes and candy colored hair.

The wikipedia page says that another series is in the works- I can't wait!

School Rumble

26 Episodes
TV Series
Comedy/Romance/School

Going into this one I knew that the plot would probably carry over to a second series as I was aware that "2nd Semester" was already available for download. So with that knowledge I popped School Rumble in and sought after what all the fuss was about. Fuss? Yeah, fuss. This anime won several coveted Anime Reactor Community Awards during the years is was on air. That would of course include the top prize of Best Overall Anime. Anyway...enough lauding let's get on with the review.

School rumble follows a pair of high school students (Jesus...what anime DOESN'T??!) as the tool around at school getting involved in various love triangles and fantastical experiences. Frankly, even though there are a lot of series out there that tackle the whole high school/love triangle thing, School Rumble does it very well. It doesn't get bogged down in the seriousness of relationships and keeps everything light just about all the time. From our male protagonist getting depressed about falsely perceived love lost...and hitching a ride with a pirate ship helmed by a giant of a man...who used to draw manga; to the object of our female protagonists affection wearing a kappa suit when it's raining outside; oh yeah...and stop somewhere in the middle for a "little" sister being able to read the minds of all the males on the planet (sans one or two). Roll it all together and you get a really enjoyable romantic comedy that's completely unabashed about how weird it feels like getting. Fan service is to a minimum but self referencing, and industry referencing is at a maximum. I recommend this for anyone. But please keep in mind, as I did, that you won't get an ending with this series. They give you 3 dream sequences for the last episode and the writers actually point and laugh at the viewer for buying into their tricks. It's great :)

Now...soon as I finish Karin I'm off to watch 2nd Semester...just to see how this thing ends :)

Tommy