Anime: Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi

The second season of Zero is a fair addition that adds some more background to Louise's history as well as continuing the storyline from where the first season ended. Not much has really changed in most of the categories, the series still retains the feeling of the original. Thus, if you liked the characters and ecchi-based humor of the first season, and can deal with some inconsistent pacing and some really random side stories, then this is a good follow up to watch.

Animation:
There really isn't anything new to note here other than the overly-proportioned sisters of Louise and yet another blonde male character to get mixed up with. Otherwise you get pretty much the same animation quality, same light ecchi, and same blasé action. As Saito solidifies his relationship with the girls, do expect a bit more physical contact.

Sound:
I didn't particularly take a liking to either the OP or the ED this time. The ED is a very playful song, which is somewhat problematic as there are many episodes that end on a serious note up to the ED. The BGM is the same as the original series.

The VA cast returns so expect a great performance as always. If anything, you'll notice the increased time that Ayako Kawasumi gets.

Story:
The story, which for a long time takes a backseat to the Siesta vs Louise vs Saito clash, pretty much spans the entirely of the Tristain and Albion. There are some interesting backstories, such as Agnes' search for her village's pillagers, but overall the story felt pretty bland. They failed to capitalize on many of the themes that they originally played with in the original, including the class-system and the introduction of interesting relics from Japan.

The story winds through a lot of subplots to eventually land us in Albion during the war effort. A ridiculously debacle on Tristain's side (caused by an even more ridiculous instant-KO device on Albion's side) pushes Louise and Saito to the front lines, leading to a fairly epic climax. The resolution is very succinct and begs a lot of questions to be answered in the third installment of the franchise.

Character:
You're not going to find as much of Louise's classmates as the focus moves more towards the supposedly political front, as well as Louise's family. While it was cool meeting her relatives, it didn't contribute nearly as much as I had hoped to the Louise->Saito development. The pair do make progress, if you will, but it is always undone moments later as Louise's embarrassment reverts her back to Tsun mode.

There is a fairly satisfying amount of character development, as well a decent amount of background for the new characters- but like the first season, I wasn't wowed in particular.

Value:
Overall this is a nice addition to the franchise. It introduces some additional interesting characters and (eventually) takes us to a fairly engaging climax. It's a good watch for fans of the original, though it will bore you even more if you didn't like the original.

Review
Zero no Tsukaima was a somehow good ecchi show with tsundure in a tolerable dose. The story was slow to move but had some importance and the premise was good enough to at least make you wonder about the possibilities of what could happen. You had a modern-age guy thrown in a medieval fantasy world were his knowledge was very likely to be an important factor. While the first season was refreshing by the time it was released, this second season is simply a unbearable experience, following the main flow of anime that are still in evidence as far as 2011: make tsundure plague everything, use lolicon, blushing lolis, shy girls, use the same draw style everywhere. I would recommend reading my review about the first season in order to grasp everything I'm to spill.

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1. A sequel? Really?
   Where the first show at least proposed a good premise, the second never even try to create a plot. Everything that happens in the setting is kept at bay and all the focus goes to Louise and Saito arguing, blushing and doing some accidental perverted action. Any depth it could bring is simply tossed aside and there's not turn of events to keep you watching even for a while. This ends up basically as a slice-of-life with no defined objective, just a wandering collection of tsundere behavior and ecchi scenes... a pity, but expected.
   
   Nothing new to the quality...
   Much like the first season, what we see here is a mere sequence of animation and sound quality. The atmosphere is the same, the characters are the same, the voice actors are the same, but I could say that music became a bit more noisy this time, with more creaking music in play than before, which is certainly bad. Louise also starts appearing and talking more and more, and always blushing and arguing, making her already annoying voice a terrible asset to the show this time around.
   
   No improvement in the cast as well
   The same weak characters are here but they manage to be even worse. This happens mainly because there's no motivation of the sorts to move them but also because they were shallow since the beginning and were simply too weak to withstand more than 12 episodes without becoming unbearable. You can still be engaged by the stunning colors or if you're in love with Harry-Potter clothing, but there's never anything good on them.
   
   That's what happens whe you put a sequel to something like this
   Zero no Tsukaima II is shallower than it predecessor and uses only the elements that were always present, tossing anything it had of original or different away. The plot became almost irrelevant and only work as excuses to put the characters in embarassing scenes (to them and to the audience most of the time).
   
   Unlike the first season, it's hard to endure this one. The fun it had was all because the genre was lacking at 2006 and because it was barely put together in a way that could be controlled. This second season, however, is completely out of control in terms of blushing and annoying moments, making you embarassed of watching it at many points. Instead of becoming more serious and exploiting the complexity (or creating complexity) of the setting, the show becames even shallower and more childish.
   

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Comments
I can't say much about this. While I was surprised by Zero no Tsukaima I, I was devastated by this second season. It was tough to watch it fully and after a few months I didn't even reminded what happened in the plot anymore. I could only remember Louise talking and annoying me more and more. When I put the show in my PC to remind me of the plot I instead remembered that the plot was almost nonexistant and every random scene I scrolled had Louise angry or blushing and her annoying voice zinging in my head.

A shame... it was hard for me to get interested in a show like these, and this second season simply got me away from anything related. It was perhaps the first show that made me angry with these oevrabundant lolicon shows that came after. What happens here is very similar to Shakugan no Shana, were the first season was refreshing and interesting but the second was only there to show tsundure girls with annoying voices.

Zero no Tsukaima, what a pleasant series. I loved it, when I saw the second... I was so happy. Oh what utter disappointment.

You'd think at the end of the first season, with Albion declaring war on Trysting, that there'd be plenty to carry on into the second. But the war seems to be an overarching subplot. More importantly it seems, is the lecherous dog Saito and the punisments that Louise gives him. If I had started this when I was new to anime, I probably would have loved it, however... the same cannot be said now.

Animation - Same great taste, now less story
While the beginning of the series had some pretty decent animation, that quality is inconsistent and drops to absurdly poor quality near the middle. There are a lot of still frames with added recycled frames, add in some funky background music...

The character's still look the same, but they act almost completely different, which will be addressed in character. There were a lot of lacking backgrounds, panning still frames, reused frames. Sometimes when used right, they aren't that noticeable, but here it is. Saito gets into a fight and leaps sideways, well there will be more fights later, so lets add speed lines with brightly colored background and there, fight scenes are done.

Sound - No witty comment
The sound here is just aweful. Louise's voice seems to boom over everyone elses and there are all these odd sound effects that don't be long. Add in the bits of classical music... it just doesn't mix well and leaves a funky residual feeling.

Story - Oh the misery
This story is really miserable. Seriously. I could barely finish the series. I watched the first in one sitting, I watched both seasons of Nodame in one sitting, I watched Kannagi in one sitting (not the same sitting...). I could not do that with Tsukaima II, it took me well over a week to finish this. I was lucky to watch an episode a day.

Well, it partly picks up where the first left off. Trysting is at war with Ablion and they seek an alliance with Germania. All the boys at school are drafted into the military and that is about where the story ends...

Most of the story was about Louise chasing after Saito, constantly beating him up and him getting all perverted over the girls. Seriously, he was nothing like that in the first. Siesta even got into the bath with him, do you remember what she said, "I trust you Saito, you aren't the type to do anything" to which he respond that she knows him so well. However, he would have raped her, then flipped her over for round two in this one, that is if Louise didn't interfere and give him a nice hazing.

While it is funny at first, the misunderstandings and Louise's hot temper, the joy quickly fades away. It becomes boring and repetative. How many times can she blow him up in a single episode? I think the highest count was 11. Then all the seemingly nightly beatings. By episode 4, it is boring and you don't care anymore, unless you are into that kind of stuff...

Then there are a few characters that are introduced, Agnes, Louise's sisters... they are all annoying at first and a few of them, that annoyingness doesn't fade. Every time Louise's oldest sister (the blonde... can't remember her name) would appear on screen, I would shudder. She is extremely violent, not only towards Saito but Louise too. It just gets annoying! Enough already. I wanted to watch the development of Louise and Saito's relationship, not her chasing him around the castle beating him with a few missions intermingled.

Character - Forget the first season
Firstly, the thing that annoyed me right off the bat. Saito. Plain and simple, he annoyed the piss out of me. I thought it was likeable during the first season, but during the second. He is a perverted pig. Which is the complete opposite of what was set up in the first season, if he was like that from the beginning, then so what, who would care? All those chances with Siesta and Kirche that he could of had, but didn't because he wasn't a lecherous pervert. All that is out the window.

Secondly, Louise and her sisters annoyed me. Ok, not Catt onee-sama, but the other one. Eleonor, I think that was her name. There isn't one specific thing that annoyed me about her, it was her whole character in general. So if you asked me specific reasons... I'd reply 'Eleonor'. As for Louise, she is still the shy violent girl that she was in the first season, but even a little more so. She sends so many mixed signals... first she wants Saito to make a move on her, then when he does he is a perverted dog. When he gets neglected by her, Siesta makes a move, which doesn't get too far because Louise has to follow Saito around everywhere and interrupts their rondezvous with a violent beating for Saito.

Value/Enjoyment - I can't be bothered
Why should I be bothered? The animators weren't. So many things were short cutted. Potentially awesome fight scenes? Stills with speed lines. Story? Forgotten for the majority of the series because ecchi was more important, and then when the story does come, it is too rushed to leave an impact. I almost dropped this. In fact, I did drop this for a while but decided to pick it up again incase something awesome happened near the end that I didn't want to miss. Sadly, the one thing that would have been awesome suffered from a short cut and it felt flat and very disappointing.

Overall, I didn't enjoy Tsukaima II. I am sure I will watch the first season again, but it will end there. I MIGHT pick up the third season, but from reading the summary, I doubt it.

You s-s-s-stupid dog! What do you think are you doing, coming back for a second season? It's just because of that big-breasted maid, isn't it?


Everybody's favourite tsundere Louise, her familiar Saito and their friends return for a second season after they managed to repel the enemy's invasion at the end of the first one. Sadly the director conveniently chooses just to show the best scenes from the novels, spiked up with a lot of tsundere and ecchi fanservice, while ignoring the development our characters have gone through, as well as serious matters at hand.

And it was such a good setup. After having been attacked by Albion, Tristain and Germania seek out an alliance and declare war. While Princess Henrietta is on the verge of collapsing because of what has happened to Wales and the upcoming war with Albion, Louise and Saito have their own problems, how can nobles sacrifice their life just for honor, is what Saito, having come from another world, can't approve of.

But none of those plot developments are properly pursuited, instead for most of the series the subplot around Agnes and her quest for revenge takes the spotlight, with many fanservice episodes added. While the fanservice is definitely good it just feels out of place after the ending of the first season. The characters are once again at square zero after all the developments in the first season. Another problem is the horrid pacing, wasting almost the entirety of 10 episodes on fanservice and no plot progression is insanely stupid and makes the ending even far more rushed than that of the first season. While the key parts of the last two episodes are shown, they feel much too shallow to leave a great impression. Most importantly Saito's fight vs. 70.000 is rather weak, being finished in just a bit more than a few seconds.

Saito walking into Mordor episode? You wish! Not with this director who obviously loves fanservice over actual plot.

And if that wasn't bad enough the just had to put in the last two minutes to waste the small impression the episode could have made on viewers. Ingenious scriptwriters they had on this series. Good job, J.C.STAFF ... NOT.

Aside from the bad directing, horrid pacing and annoying scriptwriting the series does also disappoint in its animation. Once again the first episode is the best animated one, aside from a few really good scenes in the opening, and the last episode was quite nice as well. Inbetween the quality takes a deep drop, with either episode 7 or 8 being the most awful, the seemingly complete lack of inbetweens in scenes that required lots of movement as well as the high amount of badly drawn frames was almost unbearable. Overall the most annoying point is that all fights are just laughable animated and never try to draw the viewer in, it never feels more than a light comedy. Lack of details and highlights are just another point that makes everything look simply cheap most of the time.

The best part of the series, is probably the opening, I SAY YES by ICHIKO. The ending Suki!?Kirai!?Suki!!! is quite funny, sung by Kugimiya Rie it fits very well to her character, Louise. Props also to the sound effects, while the animation can't keep up, at least those provide a good background in most scenes, even if it's for little details. The background music itself does also feature some very nice pieces, especially the one using a sax late in the series, even if mostly only the plain happy feeling tracks are used and are providing dissonance whenever another serious scene is disturbed by the usual return of fanservice.

Overall if you liked the first season because of Louise being tsundere and all the ecchi scenes, then you'll like the second season as well, because it's just the same thing over again.

If you on the other hand expected the series to progress and show some more serious matters and character development, you're in for a big disappointment. Seven Seas has licensed the novel series in the US, so you are better off waiting for them to release it.