The Familiar of Zero News

 After making a bit of an asshole of myself in the forums again, I've decided to try fostering some of that discussion I keep bitching about, this time on a random show-to-be.

As some of you might know, spring season anime are slowly being leaked. I know it's a bit early for those of you still digging yourselves out from the cruel snow-mageddon for thoughts of birds, bees, flowers and allergies, but the wheel of fate keeps on turning, the panties keep on flashing, and the animators of a tiny nation keep on producing weird cartoons. Weird for different reasons, yes, but still...

Oops, getting too far off track. Anyways, I feel like talking about a little preview of a show I've stumbled across on this spring preview chart put out by chartfag recently. The show is called Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou, a show based off a manga which itself was based off a novel I will probably never read unless someone does the grunt work of translating it or I learn more than a few phrases of Japanese.

Based on what little I've seen of the manga, it looks interesting, but not quite new and radical. The story premise is thus: an orphan boy named Sai Akuto (or Akuto Sai? Can't remember which came first), raised by the church, is on his way to a slightly high-tech Hogwarts school called Constantin Magical Academy. He even meets a nice girl on the train who will become a giant tomboyish love interest later. However, when brought before the Sorting Hat...err, large crow who gives out career aptitude tests on his first day, the crow declares that he is destined to become the Maou, a.k.a. the "Demon King."

 
As you might guess, this kind of scares the crap out of Sai, because he was raised in a Church and planned to become a great priest and help people, whereas this Maou character was infamous for destroying a good chunk of the world before he was finally brought down. So for the rest of the story (at least what I've read), Sai is essentially running around and trying to prove to anyone he can that he's not going to become this incredibly evil guy in the future. As you might guess, most of his attempts only end up digging that hole deeper.
 
Along the way, this Sai kid builds up something of a posse (I'm tempted to say "harem" but I'm not ready to call it one yet. Chances are I will end up doing it anyway soon). There's the aforementioned violent girl with the magical wooden sword. There's a red-haired girl named Kena with the ability to turn things invisible and has a real interest in everything about rice (seriously). There's a private detective girl who happens to be a robot (don't ask me how this is possible), a little boy who only seems to be there because Sai saved him from bullies, a witch with a talking hat, and a large-breasted popular girl who just might be the one to steer Sai towards becoming the Maou for her own goals (possibly involving her brother's head in a jar...ick).
 

Based on what I've seen from the preview, and the fact that the manga appears in Champion Red magazine, I can predict that there will be a lot more overt fanservice than you might expect from this show (what am I saying? Of course I expect it!). Clothes will get ripped, tentacle monsters will be accidentally (or intentionally?) summoned, and things will have a way of working themselves out as Sai tries to find some way, any way he can to escape from his fate as the next Demon King. It seems like Zero no Tsukaima in reverse, and that's why I'm kind of interested in it.

So tell me, those of you reading this: what are the odds this will become just another forgettable fantasy anime? Does it already sound like a clone of another show, and if so, which one(s)? And how much fanservice do you think they will roll out within the first episode? My money's on "every three minutes."

Also, for those who might have missed it, a preview trailer of the anime was released quite recently:
 
 

The next anime that I decided to watch was Zero no Tsukaima aka The Familiar of Zero.  There are three seasons of the show and one OVA.  I could say this show doesn’t need an introduction since it’s quite popular, but I will post the plot summary from Wikipedia for those of you who don't know about the show.  Here is how the show starts out:

The Familiar of Zero follows the adventures of the protagonists Louise and her familiar Saito. Louise is a second year student at the Tristain Academy of Magic. In this world, those who can use magic are either mages or nobles.

Louise is terrible at magic, and can never use it the way she wants to. She is given the nickname "Zero Louise" by her classmates, due to the inability to use any of the four common magic elements, whereby a mage's power is determined by the number of elements they can use ranging from a single element, one (dot mage), two (line) three (triangle) and four (square). Early in the school year, the second year students summon their familiars; this is considered a special ritual where a mage summons their eternal protector and partner, which usually is some sort of magical creature. Louise manages to summon a human commoner named Saito Hiraga, leaving her totally humiliated. Due to the sacredness of the ritual, Louise is left with no choice but to reluctantly accept Saito as her familiar. She proceeds to treat Saito as any other familiar only worse, making him sleep on a bed of hay and beats him with a whip for little to no reason, among other things.

One day Saito challenges a noble who disrespects commoners ( Guiche) to a duel. Saito is beaten badly at first, but once a sword was put in Saito's hands, he gained a mysterious power and with this power he is able to defeat the noble in the duel. Louise and Saito's relationship's develop during the course of the story. Together they face many mysteries and uncover unexpected truths, including the nature of Saito's mysterious power, and the truth behind Louise's inability to cast magic.

That’s the basics of the show.  The Familiar of Zero is a romantic/comedy with magic, adventure , and harem elements.  The show resolves around Louise (a tsundere) and her familiar, Saito and their adventures and you get to see their love relationship go up and down.  Besides Louise and Saito, there are many other characters as well.  Here are some of the important ones:  Agnes, Colbert, Guiche, Henrietta, Kirche, Montmorency, Osmand, Siesta, Tabitha, and Tiffania.  Lots of side characters in this show, some more important then others.  I really enjoyed Siesta.  She is a maid at the academy, but later becomes Saito's maid.  Since she is in love with Saito, she as the compete with Louise to get him.  Guiche is another great character was well.  He was the ladies man and all the ladies loved him.  He would go out with other girls even though he devoted himself to Montmorency.

Louise and Saito are easily the stars of the show and is probably why I really enjoyed it.  For Louise being and tsundere, she is always picking on poor Saito.  Whipping him and making him to humiliating things.  When she got mad at Saito for kissing or hugging another girl, she would just use her explosion spell at blast it at Saito.  On the other hand we have Saito, who was brought into this world thanks to Louise.  I guess you can see he is your average teenage kid with the powers of Gandalfr so he can kick some ass.  Besides those two, they story was solid.  It kinda jumped all over the place from war going on to saving Tabitha.  I guess I wont say it was a great story, but it was solid and kept me entertained.
 
The Familiar of Zero was a great romantic comedy and I really enjoyed it.  I loved Louise and Saito for their charm and goofiness.  The harem elements were good as well since I dig it.  If you are looking for a romantic show or looking for something funny, give this show a shot.
 
My Score - 4.5/5

I guess I haven't made a normal blog in a while.  Usually when I blog I talk about something in particular, but this time I just want to blog about what I'm doing.  First things first I finally got a hair cut.  I haven't gotten a hair cut since February or March I think.  It's been way to long.  Here are pictures from before and after the buzzer raped my hair.  I feel so much better after getting my hair cut.  I feel like a new man.

Before and after.  I've gone from ugly shaggy hair to a sexy buzzed head.




God, those pictures are scary.  I look like a rapist.  Haha.  Now for what I've been up to.  Like usual I've been playing a ton of Street Fighter IV like always.  I own the game on Xbox 360 and PC.  If you want to add me my gamertag is JJOR64.  I'm a solid Honda player and I'm always looking for a challenge.  Besides SFIV, I've been kinda playing Dragon Quest V on DS.  I loved DQ4 & 8 and this one is great as well.  Other then that, I haven't been playing anything at all really.  Everything has just been boring the crap out of me and nothing sounds fun.  Right now I'm just waiting for Christmas to roll around so I can get some more games to play.  These are the games I'm asking for this year.
 

1. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
2. Assassin's Creed 2
3. Tekken 6
4. Punchout!!
5. Wii Sports Resort
6. Left 4 Dead 2
7. Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
8. 2 2000 Nintendo Point Cards for DSiWare Games

That's what I want game wise for Christmas this year.  I probably wont get all of it, but that's alright.  I'm not asking for anything anime/manga wise since I just do all that stuff online.

Now for non video game/hair cut stuff.  Lately I've been watching a ton of anime (*inserts anime is for jerks joke here*) and I have been blogging my thoughts on the shows I've been watching here at Anime Vice on my blog.  While they aren't the greatest reviews at all, it's fun to do and I haven't done something like this at all in the past.  Sometimes it's kinda annoying to do, but I keep pushing myself.  Right now I'm watching The Familiar of Zero and going to start the third season tonight.  It's a fun and goofy romantic comedy with magic stuff.  Kinda feels like Harry Potter in a way, but it's a lot different and better IMO.  Plus it has lots of sexy ladies!
 
I guess this is the end of this blog thing.  I guess I will go make some supper and do something.  I also have a weird request.  Since it's the Holidays and all, anyone want to make some awesome photoshop pictures using those pictures of me?  I would to have the Anime Vice staff in the background or something goofy anime wise.  I guess I should stop this thing before I ask for something weird.
 
P.S.  Here is an awesome random YouTube video.  Enjoy!

I bought some new ones the only ones that aren't pictured here is my 2 Noizi Ito art books and a Zero no Tsukaima one. In order right to left and below they are:  4 Zero no Tsukaima art books(5 images), Megami Super Deluxe, Rightstuf catalog thrown in, Saber Portraits art books(4 images posted), and last but by far the best, is the Tinkle Byakuya Chakai rare art book(7 images posted).

If you own any anime/manga art books make sure to share them.

I did it today and expect to have it by Friday ordered by EMS at http://www.hlj.com/index.html