Random Anime Review Monday #7: Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi
My project: watch and write about the first episode of a series with as little prior knowledge as possible.
Week 7: Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi
Fansubber: Static-Subs & Ayu
We've kinda got Ah! My Goddess in reverse here, or maybe Negima?!?!?!?!?!!?@#*&!@#*(&!@*(#& and a partridge in a pear tree] in reverse. Sort of.
Our Hero is a regular Japanese dude who is summoned to a magical kingdom by a mage who wants to use him as her familiar. They're the obvious canon couple even though she treats him like crap - half of the time she coos at him in that cloying anime-heroine squeal, and half of the time she beats him up for crossing the path of the other half-dozen women on the show. So that's three or four fetishes right there. OH seems to be the sort to bounce back perkily rather than mope around spinelessly, which is probably how he's lasted through whatever series is this series' prequel. (Zero no Tsukaima: No Subtitle That Time, I'm guessing.)
There's also a plot about the line of succession of the throne of Trysting. Yes, that seems to be the name of the kingdom. "Trysting." English sounds so kewl, doesn't it? Kawaii!
And next in line for the throne is Shiori's non-evil twin:
The hijinks in the first episode revolve around a gift that the mage bequeaths on Our Hero: a pair of glasses (actually more like a carnival mask) that flash when he looks at another girl. Seriously, fanboys, if your girlfriend acts like this, get another damn girlfriend. Anime lies to you. They aren't all like this. Only the insecure ones.
Sorry, the Super Bowl commercials this year have my obnoxious-stereotype rageometer in the yellow zone already. Cough.
Now, it's not badly made, necessarily. There are worse scripts out there, and it looks like a reasonably budgeted series. It's just cheesy, a retread of half a dozen other things, down to the Harry-Potter-meets-anime costumes and Pokemon-esque dragons.
Initial impression: ZOMG, girls are scary and jealous and dragons are cool and so are boobs. (Note: there are dragons in a lot of the flashbacks, but not in this first episode. We're being robbed.)
Would I watch more? No.
Has this damaged my faith in humanity? Only a bit, because the whole "tsundere" thing annoys me (i.e. women are all psychotic bitches, but it's driven by jealousy, see, and that means that she doesn't trust me and sees me as her property, and that means she LOVES me!) This reminds me of the way people claim children act - being cruel to the ones they like - and enshrines it as the way grown adults should act. Personally, I never saw that in real life, but it must have gotten to be an old saw somehow.
Burning question: Why on earth do fanboys eat this stuff up on one hand, then complain about how mean girls are to them in real life? I can only hope that they're different groups of fanboys. Maybe the "orz", wah-girls-are-so-meeeeeeean fanboys can hook up the tsundere fanboys with the abusive she-jerks of their dreams. See, we can all work together for peace and harmony.
That was far too close a reading for a series with dragon fighting and magic glasses that light up when in range of boobs. Whew.
Week 7: Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi
Fansubber: Static-Subs & Ayu
We've kinda got Ah! My Goddess in reverse here, or maybe Negima?!?!?!?!?!!?@#*&!@#*(&!@*(#& and a partridge in a pear tree] in reverse. Sort of.
Our Hero is a regular Japanese dude who is summoned to a magical kingdom by a mage who wants to use him as her familiar. They're the obvious canon couple even though she treats him like crap - half of the time she coos at him in that cloying anime-heroine squeal, and half of the time she beats him up for crossing the path of the other half-dozen women on the show. So that's three or four fetishes right there. OH seems to be the sort to bounce back perkily rather than mope around spinelessly, which is probably how he's lasted through whatever series is this series' prequel. (Zero no Tsukaima: No Subtitle That Time, I'm guessing.)
There's also a plot about the line of succession of the throne of Trysting. Yes, that seems to be the name of the kingdom. "Trysting." English sounds so kewl, doesn't it? Kawaii!
And next in line for the throne is Shiori's non-evil twin:
The hijinks in the first episode revolve around a gift that the mage bequeaths on Our Hero: a pair of glasses (actually more like a carnival mask) that flash when he looks at another girl. Seriously, fanboys, if your girlfriend acts like this, get another damn girlfriend. Anime lies to you. They aren't all like this. Only the insecure ones.
Sorry, the Super Bowl commercials this year have my obnoxious-stereotype rageometer in the yellow zone already. Cough.
Now, it's not badly made, necessarily. There are worse scripts out there, and it looks like a reasonably budgeted series. It's just cheesy, a retread of half a dozen other things, down to the Harry-Potter-meets-anime costumes and Pokemon-esque dragons.
Initial impression: ZOMG, girls are scary and jealous and dragons are cool and so are boobs. (Note: there are dragons in a lot of the flashbacks, but not in this first episode. We're being robbed.)
Would I watch more? No.
Has this damaged my faith in humanity? Only a bit, because the whole "tsundere" thing annoys me (i.e. women are all psychotic bitches, but it's driven by jealousy, see, and that means that she doesn't trust me and sees me as her property, and that means she LOVES me!) This reminds me of the way people claim children act - being cruel to the ones they like - and enshrines it as the way grown adults should act. Personally, I never saw that in real life, but it must have gotten to be an old saw somehow.
Burning question: Why on earth do fanboys eat this stuff up on one hand, then complain about how mean girls are to them in real life? I can only hope that they're different groups of fanboys. Maybe the "orz", wah-girls-are-so-meeeeeeean fanboys can hook up the tsundere fanboys with the abusive she-jerks of their dreams. See, we can all work together for peace and harmony.
That was far too close a reading for a series with dragon fighting and magic glasses that light up when in range of boobs. Whew.