savannah.roberts - 2016-08-07 22:16:14

SPOILERALERT

I kind ofguessed, when that blue haired girl Illococoo first emerged, that she hadsomething to do with Tabitha and after a few minutes you could easily guess,that she was her blue pet dragon too but transformed into a human or the otherway round. I really liked when, especially in episode 11 you could see thesweet side of Kirche towards Louise, and that she indeed is an understandingperson if she wants to be. Tabitha's behaviour in episode 12 was very unexpectedtoo, not even mentioning that she kissed Saito in front of Louise. The verylast kiss scene between Saito and Louise was very sweet. So far so good, I willrate every season equally, because there are huge differences between the firstseason and the second and third. I personally liked the 1^st seasonthe most.

patrick53 - 2014-10-14 06:14:57

[Note: This review encompasses all four seasons of Familiar of Zero. It is also old.]

Familiar of Zero was J.C. Staff’s fantasy action show produced and released in little seasons throughout the years between 2006 and 2012. Combined, the entire show is 49 episodes long, which would be fine if they had entertaining content to fill up these twenty hours.

We open in a magic school in a generic fantasy setting, where a student named Louise is not very good at magic. Since she can only produce small explosions from spells, she earns the nickname Zero from her peers. One day when the students summon magical pets called familiars, Louise accidentally brings a boy from the real world into the fantasy world. The boy named Saito is now Louise’s personal servant since he is technically her familiar. They go on adventures, meet new people, explore the magic, participate in warfare, save the day, yaddah yaddah yah, fanservice.

The unfortunate part about the show’s premise is that all of the subjects they focus on have been done better elsewhere. Both Fate/Zero and Garden Of Sinners blow away any competition with their renditions of supernatural powers. Fantasy warfare has much more interesting executions in Berserk, Vision Of Escaflowne, or even Maoyuusha. And if you’re looking for fascinating regions and their inhabitants, look no further than Fullmetal Alchemist. The only unique aspects left are the random objects of Saito’s normal world that somehow wound up in the fantasy setting, but unfortunately they didn’t really dive deeper into it at all.

So the world-building and setting are shot, there’s got to be more to the story than just that? It irritates me to say that the meat of the series is devoted to an insultingly shallow harem ecchi consisting of one of the most unlikable casts I’ve seen. Of all the sets of characters in shows and films, there’s no contest which cast digs under my skin more than any other.

Let’s begin with Saito, the crowning achievement of the otaku vessel. At least with other bland observer protagonists in anime, there are little things about the character to at least distinguish them from the completely normal everyman. But the writers go above and beyond to make sure that the possibility of a tangible personality is nonexistent, that he has minimal drive outside of his loins so he can be pulled around the world by a bunch of cute girls.

Speaking of girls, Saito has about a dozen sexy anime ladies in the cast to choose from to satisfy hormones. Of course he never does, but they like to remind him constantly that he can do anything to them whenever he wants. Put simply, everything that has a vagina is written with a mad desire for the Saito D. When all is said and done, this is their only character trait: varying amounts of how desperately they want to get into the guy’s pants with a full range of breast sizes. I’m not going to steer around this with some bullshit womanly sex drive excuse. This is a writer generating a bunch of sex objects and giving them the blind desire to throw their bodies at the boy that the viewer imagines himself as. It’s an awful way to fill up twenty hours, and it’s just the worst case scenario of anime female degradation. They aren’t tangible characters with personalities or challenges, they’re lazy tropes in cup ranges A to F for those who want to choose their favorite to get off to.

The depressing part is fact that some of the girls actually did feel like characters with issues before being reduced to even more mindless wanking material. A Rei Ayanami trope shrouded in mystery at the beginning had a backstory similar to that of Asuka Soryu’s (we’re below the bottom of the barrel at this point, ripoffs of good shit are welcome by now). At least it was something that gave her conflict instead of the others. But by the latter half she winds up throwing herself infront of Saito completely naked, reduced to another sex object whose conflict disappeared into the void. Any regard for her character was stripped away along with her outfit. A princess who had little interest in Saito proved to be a good friend and companion to a lot of people in the cast. She got stuff done by making decisions regarding the military and economy, resulting in a likable, respectable character. But not only does she eventually become uninvolved with leadership, she goes behind all of her friends’ backs to try to get freaky with Saito. We witness this boring man’s harem build to its fullest potential, and unless you’re putting yourself in his place enjoying the escapism bliss, you can’t do anything but cringe.

The background cast gets very little focus since the harem aspect is what carries the show for the intended audience. Male characters get minimal screentime, females get the fanservice treatment, and overall enjoyment is nil.

The animation is unfathomably boring, sporting minimal movement and expression, displaying the most infantile designs, backgrounds, and effects possible in anime. Nothing caught my interest, nothing stood out, it just happened to be the most generic visual work possible, which certainly doesn’t help when we have to stare at it for twenty hours. The music wasn’t much better, consisting of an assortment of instantly forgettable tunes, alongside many openings and endings that were painfully mediocre and annoying. So what was already a carelessly recycled ecchi formula is made even more unbearable to sit through.

To recap, a wholly unimaginative setting with an undeveloped war plotline to provide shallow framework to the boy’s growing harem, a stereotypical collection of walking boobs to carry out the obvious intentions from the writers, and no tangible shred of effort in execution whatsoever. This is my one of my easiest picks for the worst, if only because it goes on and on with the cheap sex fantasy to fill up way too many episodes. Can’t say much else about it aside from the obvious time I’d love to have back from watching a prolonged psuedo-hentai made to cater to thoroughly noxious mindsets.

Familiar Of Zero (2006-2012):
2.2/10