So, another of my most memorable series finally ended, and after watching the finalé it left me with that familiar feeling of nostalgia and void. Moreso, because Zero no Tsukaima has ended for good, particularly that the Light Novels reached their conclusion first.
The episode overall worked for the emotional aspect that between Louise and Saito they expressed their feelings of love towards each other without inhibitions and being transparent at not hiding anything from each other.
I can't believe it was just the start of summer about six years ago when I first tuned to Zero no Tsukaima, watching at the very start Louise messing up her spell and summoning Saito into her world in front of everyone.
The relationship matured in great millions from how Saito was literally whipped and forced to wash Louise's laundry at the beginning of season one up to becoming her only man and marrying her at the end of this final season.
He met with Louise's classmates, the Teachers of the Academy, Queen Henrietta, Julio, Tiffania, many allies, and formidable foes along the course of the story spanned in four seasons of worthy anime.
But, I do digress at how the story for this fourth season handled things with the climax and the conclusion:
Spoiler:
1. I disliked they ass-pulled the Ancient Dragon to be the last Big Bad for the fourthe season, because it was only a force of Apocalyptic nature per se; it lacked conscience and sentience.
The formidable villains our heroes fought were people of all kinds and species, cunning, scheming, and manipulative, and I believe that's what truly made them both dangerous and remarkable as long as the writers properly fleshed them as 3-D believable characters.
2. The second copout is that the Elves lent Tristain a helping hand with dealing with the Dragon. When both Saito and Tiffa got abducted by the Elves and put into their court, the Elves' disdain and speciestic hatred for humans was more than meets the eye.
- I see the Elves assistance as I sort of rushed Deus-Ex-Machina vehicle to grant the people inside the Academy and the Tristain fleet a stand against time.
- I would have preferred if the writers have handled the rest of this season with the Elves leading into an open-scale, world war between Neftys and Halkeginia with both sides standing to their own ideals and beliefs, but adding a twist that another party would be playing both sides of the war.
- If you ask for my opinion, the Elves were just added for decoration into the storyline to give more weight to Tiffania's status as a persecuted child.
3. The third ass-pull, although minor, was for the writers to quickly threw at us that there was a solar eclipse happening at Saito's world, and he used it to work the other way around to return to Halkeginia.
However, the first season had already established that a solar eclipse acted as a bilateral doorway connecting both worlds. The problem I saw for pulling that surprise was we were never prepared or hinted at the possibility of the solar eclipse in Saito's world, until the audience got to see the contents of the newspaper Saito read informing about the coming solar eclipse.
4. What I saw as the last cop-out was Saito travelling back into Halkeginia by stealing a modern JSDF plane. It doesn't matter how much he became powered-up by Louise's magic, Saito would have been noticed by the staff one way or another and be deterred, at least once him getting into the plane and taking off.
Other things to complain were that the Gunson siblings were added just to temporary foes to Louise and Saito. When Josef was alive they put a good fight, but with Josef dying very sooner they quickly fade and only to return as were mercenaries on paid.
There were a few little details that bothered with this episode, but I do praise the series overall due to its soundtrack which never ceases to mesmerize my senses, and I see that the opening for the second season is like the mascot theme for the whole franchise because the last two seasons have played different variations of the second opening, and it was played more prominently in Louise & Saito's wedding.
Moreover, I believe it was a nice touch, and one which I prayed for the most ever since Saito returned two times to his world in the previous episode and the epilogue to the finalé.
Spoiler:
That he finally returned to his parent's home, and I always wanted to see who were Saito's family, and if the novels give any description about them.
I mean how many months Saito stayed in Halkeginia after vanishing all of a sudden and never got any chance to be remembered about his family.
What about his family: his dad, his siblings if he has any, and his mother, the most worried and concerned about his whereabouts?
But, as I said earlier, it moved my heart that the whole series ended with Saito bringing Louise to his house in order to introduce her to his parents, and Louise getting that nervous look on her eyes made her reaction quite cute and natural.
After all, Louise might have felt guilty, since she brought Saito into her world against his will from the start, and she never thought about how Saito's family might have been worried about him since his dissappearance.
Saito's family could remain a mystery to us the audience, unless they decide to produce an OVA detailing Louise & Saito's honeymoon at the Hiraaga household.
And I wonder how would the Hiraaga's react when they answer the door and learn their long and lost, missing son turns at their front door, and, furthermore, he gives them the unexpected surprise after not learning anything about him for a time that he got married and brought along his wife with him?