Zero no Tsukaima (second season) - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[Pellissier]

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire 12 episodes of Zero no Tsukaima - Futatsuki no Kishi (aka second season) ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about the DVD only footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

• General impression of the series.
• Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
• Thoughts about the animation quality.
• Characters/Character Design
  
  
• How did the anime compare with the manga?
• Which kind of footage (DVD only) you feel you'd really like to see.
• What the show meant to you.
• What could the creators/animators/writers could have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

[mdauben]

Originally Posted by Pellissier

[*]General impression of the series.

Sorry to say, but overall I found it disappointing. There were some exceptional moments of comedy and of drama, but overall it just did not even live up to the first season, let alone the source matieral.

[*]Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.

The story itself was too rushed, the pacing was off, and they attempt to cover too much source matieral in 13 episodes.

[*]What could the creators/animators/writers could have done better.

They should have either (a) run the season for 24-26 episodes, and used the extra time develop the relationship, characters and storyline of Louise and Saito, or (b) they should have totally dropped the resurection of Wales story arc and severly cut down the Agnès story arc. The former really contributed nothing to the overall story, and the latter (while important as part of Saito's motivation) was not important enough to justify the amount of time that was spent on it.

Animation Quality: 1-10

I would give it a 6. It was good, but nothing exceptional.

Voice Actors: 1-10

I would probably give them an 8. Some good acting, particularly from Rie Kugimiya.

Script: 1-10

No better than a 3, I would say. This is where the series really fell down. The job they did of adapting the source matieral to the anime was terrible.

Editing: 1-10

I guess this would involve editing, but the crude juxtopositioning of the emotional content of the series with the comedy aspects hurt both (I am thinking especially of the final episode). Probably a 4.

Emotional Involvement: 1-10

At times I would rate it as high as 8 or even 9, at others only 1 or 2. Overall, I would say a 4 due to the poor pacing and mood breaking "comedy".

Average = Total Series Rating
Only a 5 or 6, I would say. Not terrible, but not particularly good, either.

[grey_moon]

I gave an average of 5...

I was able to marathon both seasons back to back and I really enjoyed S1 which made S2 really disappointing for me. The worst aspects of everyone's characters seemed overly exaggerated for example Saito's breast fetish given a ridiculous hormonal jab.

I just couldn't understand how ZnT S2 ended up the way it did, the idea behind the story and the characters were great, and S2 for me did ZnT no justification at all. Only when I read DarkNemo2000's insights of the novels did I realise that the animation company butchered what could have been a far more enjoyable series.

I just don't understand how a director sacrifices a good story line for some tit gags and some pathetic fillers.

Very very disappointed, wish I could read Japanese so I could read the novels to purify ZnT.

For me ZnT ended with S1, S2 was just a bad dream....

[Uwashio]

I gave it a one. It just seemed like an ecchi anime with a plot but bsed at the very end.

[Darknemo2000]

Anyone who bothered to read my previous comments probably know what to expect from my general overview of season number two. Without a doubt - it is very negative.

General impression of the series.

Very disappointing. Surely from the very beginning once I heard that it will be another 12 pathetically short season that will try to grab even more volumes than season one did, while being shorter.

But I didnt knew that it will be SO bad.

Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.

It has very little real ZnT story just some jumping from one filler to another, giving us same lame perverted jokes without any consistency. It rushed from one end to another without giving at least one real direction.

Original novels are done so much better that it seems its almost a crime to compare those two, as it had the direction, had its own style that was not necessary based on repettative perverted jokes. Surely it sometimes also went overboard with fanservice but it never was nearly as bad as in anime.

What could the creators/animators/writers could have done better.

Everything? Well not really it had a few quite enjoyable scenes, yet the incredibly short length hurt the anime too much. Not to mention that the bigger half of the season was wasted on fillers or not really important sub-plots. Leaving only 4-5 episodes for 5 volumes of novels (as a original main story and plot). Thats kind of short considering that usually it takes 20-24 episodes for 4 volumes of a novel.

It should have been 24-26 episodes long at least, so that even with such talentless director as now, it wouldnt hurt so much. Or they could have cut all fillers out and reduced sub-plots like Agnes arc severely so it could give more focus on main character development and war itself.

Now all we have gotten some untalentated director jumping from one scene to another just because they look good or have fanservice forgetiing in between, and also forgetting the main plot line along the way. Thus leaving "jumpy" and rushed scenes in the very end.

Animation Quality: 7

Nothing fantastic but nothing that would make you cringe every second. I also watched Kaze No Stigma at the same time which for the bigger part had twice as bad animation (improved only in the end) thus this judgement isnt very precise.

Voice Actors: 8

Rie is still great. At least that.

Script: 2

Plainly bad... The best scenes were as a rule the ones that were left more or less unchained from original, while completely original scenes were rather plain, lame and repetative (perverted saito jokes, and Louise explodes on Saito endings are the best examples of those as they were not present in original source).

Editing: 3

bad work in general...They couldnt really work with original material that had a specific style of smoothly going from sad scenes to comedy ones. The jumps between sad and comedy scenes in anime felt out of place and were ruining the mood be it tragical or comical (best example - the ending of the last episode, really badly done).

Emotional Involvement: 5

Nothing much to add there.. i usually was rather bored during this season. The biggest exitement were - A) how much they will screw up novels this time and B) will it be Louise-explodes-on-Saito ending or something else (which was pretty rare).

It is stll Zero No Tsukaima so it has some specifical features that are attractive enough to be interested, but it was way too little. More so this eason felt like a filler episode season where the main role took a side character (Agnes) more often than the real main ones (Louise and Saito).

Total Series Rating: 5

It a below average for me. So far there have been only a little reviews that I read in japanese (didnt had much time to search) but 5 and 6 were the most common marks written for this season as I have noticed. So i will stay with majority and say that it was only an average or below average season.

I wouldn't recommend it to watch for anyone. Unless you have a lots of time to kill. But then again, there are much more better animes this year to waste your time on than this weak season. Or if you have really lots of time - just go and read novels. You will have much better time.

[iamthebest22]

I just find it hilarious, so 9/10 xD I always watch this anime after some sad and gory ones.

[X10A_Freedom]

Animation Quality: 6
Good, but nothing exceptional because the "average" animation quality of anime is so high anyway.

Voice Actors: 6
Again, good but nothing exceptional. Kugimiya Rie was good but most other anime leads also have good voice acting anyway.

Script: 1
Absolute rubbish. Especially Saito being a perv beyond help.

Editing: 1
Rushed, unsteady pacing. Lots of fillers here and there. Agnes arc isn't bad - what is bad is the time spent on it.

Emotional Involvement: 3
The poor rating is related to the editing. The series is just extremely shallow 90% of the time.

Spoiler:

I even found Corbert's death scene shallow and unconvincing.

Now, ZnT actually has a very good and interesting story. Unfortunately, the way it was done was not very nice.

Overall: 4.

[Sorrow-K]

I'm rating this series as "average". It had a few great moments, like the dramatic scenes in the final episode (ignoring the crap in the final few minutes) and the culmination of the Agnes arc, ignoring the roundabout route it took to get there. The biggest problem ultimately wasn't that there was so much trite crap in this series, eg, the fanservice, Louise's tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun and a tiny bit of dere behaviour, the inability for Louise and Saito to make any progress in their relationship and pretty much every single scene where Siesta showed up... it was the fact that these scenes turned up right next to the moments that were intended to be the most dramatic. If ZnT could just separate the serious moments from the light comedic ones in the same way as its predecessor it would have been worthwhile. Instead, the comedy because formulaic and inane, and would spoil any chance we, as an audience, had of taking the plot seriously.

I still really like these characters, though, (except for Siesta who has become so pointless it hurts) and that's what saves ZnT from being a total failure, but Kou Yuu deserves any and every criticism he receives, because he's taken a great concept and a fun franchise, and ruined it. If there turns out to be a third series of ZnT and he's directing it, then I'll go in with minimal expectations, to say the least.

[Kazuma77]

its 8/10, some of the episodes were boring, but some were funny, interesting and touching

[Computer_guy]

The ending was just wierd. Whats with the fairy? I think that just ruined it. It should've of been something where he defeats the whole army and then comes home all wounded and what not.

[rimaa]

i gave 7/10, it was pretty bad compared to the first season but it had its moments

[HurricaneHige]

Originally Posted by Computer_guy

The ending was just wierd. Whats with the fairy? I think that just ruined it. It should've of been something where he defeats the whole army and then comes home all wounded and what not.

the fairy is some importance later on the story, remember this anime is based off the novel, which is still ongoing. The end of second season =/= end of story, the way they handled the ending was disappointing tho, should've followed the novel more closely and leave a cliffhanger ending, that would've made the series at least 2 points better

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by rimaa

i gave 7/10, it was pretty bad compared to the first season but it had its moments

Agree.

It was definitely a let down from the first season. Had it's moments, but the fan-service angle has never bothered me so much. It was just way too much of an attempt for fan service for me to take it seriously compared to how I dealt with the first season.

Too slow at times, too rushed at others...

Just a disappointment compared to season 1.

[Joka]

I gave this 2/10, because it was so shitty. This season was pointless and nothing got done. I am sorry for wasting my time on this stupid shit.

[anti-random]

Yeah, I'll give it a 5. Some of the script behind the anime was so poorly done. I could have done a better anime with what they could have worked with.

[Pakxenon]

My review of this was up a few days ago.

4/10: Poor. I fast forwarded through this thing so I could see what a hackneyed job they did of adapting the novels (yes, I have read Sushi-Y's excellent summaries from the AQS forums). Louise and Saito have not advanced their relationship one bit, even with that boat scene (one of the few highlights they adapted correctly), the villains are still not evil, Saito vs 70k was lame, and a slew of other things I was irritated with.

[deathreape98]

id give it a 3/10 probably only because of the occasional comedy


saito confessing and then fawning over other girls=bad
it being waaaay too rushed=very bad
the final scene=painful to watch
did louise even use void magic once this series? i think she used a dispel spell, but i think thats it
saito shouldve owned that army...
little movement in the romance=very bad

[justsomeguy]

4/10.
The excellent OP was wasted on this season. 13 episodes was short, but it was possible to fit 5 volumes had the director and scriptwriters been remotely competent. Unfortunately, they decided to focus on juvenile comedy instead of actual plot or character development, which I consider completely unacceptable. The first season actually did a reasonably good job of mixing plot and characters with comedy, so this was a bad shock.
My score comes mostly from the fact that this is the sequel (as bad as it is) to the first season, and "I Say Yes."

[serenade_beta]

6/10

Animation Quality: 8/10 Good. I especially liked the 70,000 battle, as short as it was
Voice Actors: 10/10 No complaints
Script: 4 Too much Agnes, not enough Siesta
Emotional Involvement: 7 Sometimes good, especially the beginning to middle of the last episode

This needed more episodes. Not only is it unfinished, but the show feels rushed after Agnes's episodes. Siesta was also severely ignored.

[grey_moon]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

This needed more episodes. Not only is it unfinished, but the show feels rushed after Agnes's episodes. Siesta was also severely ignored.

Personally I think she was butchered in such a way that even Jason would have had a hard time beating.

I think S2 needs to be remade with a decent director who doesn't just think about tits 24/7. I got over that level of tit fetish when I went though puberty and I think the director seriously needs to have a few cold showers, or go through a gromitting before going to work again