Information about Zero No Tsukaima

Zero no Tsukaima
Zero no Tsukaima logo
ゼロの使い? (The Familiar of Zero)
Demographic	Seinen
Genre	Adventure, Fantasy, Romantic comedy
Novel
Authored by	Noboru Yamaguchi
Artist	Eiji Usatsuka
Publisher	Media Factory
Other publishers: Sharp Point Press Seoul Media Group Seven Seas Entertainment
Publish date	June 25 2004
No. of volumes	12
TV anime
Directed by	Yoshiaki Iwasaki
Studio	J.C. Staff
Licensor	Geneon
Network	Kids Station
Original run	July 3 2006 – September 25 2006
No. of episodes	13
Manga
Authored by	Nana Mochizuki
Publisher	Media Factory
Serialized in	Monthly Comic Alive
Original run	July 27 2006 –
No. of volumes	2
Game: Zero no Tsukaima: Shōakuma to Shunpū Concerto
Developer	Marvelous Interactive
Publisher	Marvelous Interactive
Genre	Visual novel
Rating	Ages 12 and up
Platform	PlayStation 2
Released	February 15 2007
TV anime: 'Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi'
Directed by	Yoshiaki Iwasaki
Studio	J.C. Staff
Network	Chiba TV, TV Kanagawa
Original run	July 9 2007 – September 24 2007

Zero no Tsukaima (ゼロの使い魔, Zero no Tsukaima lit. The Familiar of Zero) is a fantasy and comedy-oriented series of Japanese light novels written by Noboru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Eiji Usatsuka. The story features several characters from the second year class of a magic academy in a fictional magical world with the main character being the inept mage Louise and her familiar from Earth, Saito Hiraga. The series has been adapted twice as an anime series. The first season aired in Japan in 2006 produced by the animation studio J.C. Staff,^[1] and the second season, entitled Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi (ゼロの使い魔 ～双月の騎士～, Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi lit. ''The Familiar of Zero: Knight of the Two Moons), began airing in Japan on July 9 2007. A manga version drawn by Nana Mochizuki began serialization in July 2006.

On April 21 2007, Geneon announced that they have picked up the English dubbing rights of the first season of the anime series and will be under the title The Familiar of Zero. The announcement was made at the 2007 Anime Boston convention.^[2]

Plot

Story

Zero no Tsukaima 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 dubbed the nickname "Louise the Zero" by her classmates, due to her success rate of casting spells of being almost always zero. 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 to a duel. Saito is beaten badly at first, but once a sword was put in Saito's hands, he gained amazing powers and wields the sword with great ability. 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 hidden power, and the secrets of the legendary "void" element.

Main characters

Main article: List of Zero no Tsukaima characters

Louise (ルイズ, Ruizu)

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière is the main female character. She is a second year student at the Tristain Academy of Magic. Louise is a terrible mage who is often scorned by her fellow classmates because every spell she casts fails, so she is nicknamed "Louise the Zero" after her zero success rate and zero attributes. This has led her to be very bitter and in the way she treats her future familiar Saito to an even cruel extent. The third daughter of the noble family La Vallière who owns the north-eastern territory of Tristain.

She initially treats Saito like a dog, making him lie on a straw bed, and even getting naked in front of him. She also makes him dress her and wash all of her clothes (including her underwear). As is typical of Rie Kugimiya's voice roles as tsundere type characters, Louise at first hates Saito, but because of various situations, grows fond of him, even falling in love with him. Even so, when he gets perverted thoughts about other girls and when she she is jealous of or mad at him, she beats him with a whip. In one instance she beat him for hours until he had wounds all over his body.

Later it is revealed that Louise's failure in performing magic of any of the four basic attributes is because in fact her magical affinity is with the rare and powerful Void element, hence being known as the Void Wizard since then. This relies at first on the cooperation of Saito's ability to trigger it even though they do not get along.

Saito Hiraga (平賀才人, Hiraga Saito)

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino

Saito Hiraga, the main male character, is from Earth (specifically Tokyo, Japan). At the time of the summoning, he had just picked up his laptop from getting repaired. A portal of some kind opened in front of him, and, Saito's curiosity getting the better of him, he touched it and was sucked through. At first, Saito had no idea where he was, and was thoroughly disoriented. In the anime, he also could not identify or understand the language the students were speaking, but after Louise attempts to cast a silence spell on him that fails, he can understand and communicate with others as though they were speaking Japanese.

There are Runes inscribed into Saito's hand as a result of his being bound to Louise. They read or Gandalfr (ガンダールヴ, Gandāruvu). These runes glow when his Gandalfr powers activate. As a Gandalfr, Saito has the ability to use any object that was made with the intent of being used as a weapon at an extremely high level of skill. He also becomes significantly stronger, faster and tougher. This physical augmentation fades more or less instantly when the he stops using the power, which can result in him falling unconscious if he'd been wounded previously. That he can only use items specifically crafted for the purpose of weapons was revealed by Derflinger after a failed attempt to use an ornamental sword. It has not been made clear whether Gandalfr powers could be used in conjunction with purely magical weaponry such as a wand or a staff. He is said to be the left hand of god and death cannot get to him for that reason.

His partner, the talking sword Derflinger, was also the partner of the Gandalfr six-thousand years previously. Saito protects Louise with a passion, and it is later shown that he has feelings for her as well, saying that " All that he is good at is protecting her". He is revealed to be a Gandalfr, a familiar who exists to protect a Void Wizard as they cast their spells.

Tabitha (タバサ, Tabasa)

Voiced by: Yuka Inokuchi

Tabitha is a quiet girl who is a classmate and the best friend of Kirche and she is also Louise's classmate. Throughout the series she is almost always reading a book. The name Tabitha is an alias; she is in fact Charlotte, daughter of the King's murdered brother, and the rightful heir to the throne of Gallia. Her specialty is wind magic. She is also a chevalier knight, which is the lowest rank of knight. Her familiar is a wind dragon named Sylphid.

Kirche (キュルケ, Kyuruke)

Voiced by: Nanako Inoue

Louise's well-endowed classmate. Fire magic is her specialty — drawn from her strong passion for love. The territory she is from has long since had a dislike for the La Vallière family. She flirts and has dated (and heavily implied in the anime, slept with) many of the academy boys, but falls in love with Saito after seeing his ability. Often her schemes and aggressive invitations for him to sleep with her leads to him getting punished by his master Louise because of her overwhelming jealousy. Her familiar is a salamander called Flame.

Guiche (ギーシュ, Gīshu)

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai

Guiche is Louise's classmate, despite being in love with Montmorency, is a conceited playboy who cannot decide which girl he really wants. He always carries an artificial rose with him, the stem of which is his wand. He also likes to dote upon his familiar, a giant mole named Verdandi. As his familiar indicates, his specialty is earth magic.

Siesta (シエスタ, Shiesuta)

Voiced by: Yui Horie

A maid at the academy. She has a crush on Saito, and treats him very kindly. She cares for Saito only and doesn't think about anything else. She knows Saito and Louise are definitely in love with each other but is confident she will be able to steal him away after looking in the mirror and seeing how large her breasts are. She also seems to know how badly Louise treats Saito all the time. She increasingly becomes aggressive as time goes on in her pursuit of Saito, including malicious lying and aggressive sexual seduction. Her recent attempts, although somewhat less aggressive, seem to be working. It is revealed later that Siesta is actually descended from a World War II Japanese pilot, which explains why she has hair and eyes like Saito's.

Montmorency (モンモランシー, Monmoranshī)

Voiced by: Mikako Takahashi

Like most Tristain nobles, she has a great deal of pride. She is Louise's classmate. She also had made a contract with a Water spirit, and she has feelings for Guiche but she doesn't reveal it to him, she also can create various potions including a prohibited love potion.

Setting

Halkeginia

Halkeginia is the continent that the story of Zero no Tsukaima takes place on. It can be thought of as a sort of alternate Europe, with similar, although not entirely identical, geographical and political boundaries. During the course of the story, its history begins to parallel Europe's history as well, and is in a period of transition. Halkeginia's social structure is similar to the feudal class systems of Europe in the Middle Ages. Nobles hold great power in the royal courts, and only they are able to use magic. Commoners are generally treated poorly by the nobility.

Tristain

Tristain (トリステイン, Torisutein) is the nation in which the majority of the story takes place. It is a small monarchal country resembling the Kingdom of the Netherlands or modern Belgium. It is under threat from Albion, because of a rebellion there by the people against the royalty. Tristain is home to a magical academy which attracts students from nearby countries known as the Tristain Academy of Magic. The academy is a highly acclaimed school for magical studies, where students gather to study the mysteries of magic. It even attracts students from Germania and Gallia. The main courtyard of the school is known as Vestri^[3] Court.

Militarily, the country is weak, with only a small permanent force, which forces it to make marriage alliances with other countries. This mirrors the political state of the Low Countries on many occasions throughout history, in reality. The capital city is Tristania (トリスタニア, Torisutania) and is located in the northwest of Halkeginia.

Germania

Germania is the largest kingdom in Halkeginia, and is also regarded as the strongest in terms of military might. Although its name comes from the Roman word for Germany, its landmass is much larger than would be expected, and seems to also occupy where a lot of Eastern European States and Western Russia should be. It is regarded as a more barbaric and down-to-earth type of country, with its men considered to be brutish. This parallels the Roman view on the people of Germania in reality. Gemania is located to the northeast of Tristain.

Gallia

Gallia^[4] is another kingdom in Halkeginia, located to the southeast of Tristania. Germania is on its eastern border, in the Alden Forest. It is the second largest country in Halkeginia, and it most similar to France, although it also seems to occupy where Iberia should be as well. Within the Gallia Royal Family, murders and assassination attempts have lead to an unstable royalty. There is a city named La Rochelle^[5] in the mountains, which is also a major treeport.

Romalia

Romalia^[6] is a holy empire, located to the south of Gallia. It occupies a peninsula similar to Italy.

Albion

Albion^[7] is a floating island nation nicknamed the white country, which is similar to Britain, and is in a period of political strife. According to the storyline, the people initiated a coup d'etat against the royalty, and all but one of the Albion Royal Family had been killed. The last royal left alive, is named Prince Tudor, which also parallels real history to a certain extent, although his counterpart in reality, Charles I, was more a Dane and a Scot than an Englishman. The rebellion in the story, mirrors the English Civil War, when the parliament elected by the people, rebelled against the Royal family, in a brutal power struggle. The name of the leader of the Parliament forces was Oliver Cromwell, and the leader of the Albion rebellion is also aptly named Cromwell. Cromwell seeks to spread his power elsewhere, and begins with Tristain.

Magic

The nobles of Halkeginia are magi, otherwise known as wizards or magicians, and must use a wand or a staff to cast spells. Some of the wands are uniquely shaped and made, such as Guiche's, which was made from the stem of a rose. Not all magi are nobles as some have given up their nobility to use their magic for thievery or to work as mercenaries. No commoners are magi and thus are not nobles.

There are four magic elements: fire, water, wind, and earth. Magi have an affinity to one of those elements. There is a fifth element, the legendary lost branch of element, known as void. The only known user of this power is Louise. The five elements referenced in the story are not the classical Greek elements or the Chinese elements, but the five classical Japanese elements, also known as the Godai. According to this system, they are Chi (Earth), Sui (Water), Ka (Fire), Fū (Wind), and Kū (Void). In the story, Kū has been changed to Kyomu but remains the same in concept.^[8]

Magi can combine different magical elements or even stack the same element on top of itself to make spells more powerful. The power of a mage is determined by how many elements he or she can combine. There are four ranks of magician based upon this factor. Those who cannot combine any element together have the first rank, which is symbolized as a dot. Most magic students are in this class. Those who can combine two together are called line magi, the second rank; some of the better students are capable of this. The third rank, triangle mage, is for those who can combine three elements together. If one reaches the rank of triangle, one is worthy of being an instructor of magic as an elite class mage. The fourth rank, the square mage, is rare. Those who reach it are worthy to be called legends. In myths, there is even a fifth rank called pentagram mage. Magi are also able to combine their skills to boost their level past the pentagram level. This happened when the undead Wales and Princess Henrietta did this to perform "Hexagon Magic".

One of the major themes is that humans and technology from Earth displaced into the world of Halkeginia are considered to be highly magical. A magical item called the "Staff of Destruction" is in reality a human-made Vietnam-era M72 LAW rocket launcher. Another item called the "Dragon's Mantle" is a World War II-era A6M Zero fighter plane. These also spawn many myths about them. The name of the "Staff of Destruction" came about when the war veteran who brought it into Halkeginia killed a dragon with it. The "Dragon's Mantle" yielded what is known as "Dragon's blood", which in reality is gasoline.

Novels and adaptations

Light novels

Zero no Tsukaima began as a series of light novels written by Noboru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Eiji Usatsuka. The first volume was published in Japan on June 25 2004, and as of August 2007, twelve bound volumes have been published by Media Factory. The first light novel volume of a side story written and illustrated by the same people as with Zero no Tsukaima known as Tabatha no Bōken was released on October 25 2006. Seven Seas Entertainment has announced the licensing rights to the Zero no Tsukaima light novel series under the title Zero's Familiar.^[9]

Anime

See also:

Zero no Tsukaima has been adapted twice into an anime series by the animation studio J.C. Staff. The first season aired in Japan between July 3 2006 and September 25 2006, and contained thirteen episodes. Geneon has licensed the rights to release the English language edition of the first season under the title The Familiar of Zero. The second season under the extended title Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi began airing in Japan on July 9 2007, and is set to contain twelve episodes. The first season's opening theme was "First kiss" by Ichiko, and the ending theme was "My True Feelings" (ホントノキモチ, Honto no Kimochi) by Rie Kugimiya. The second season's opening theme was "I Say Yes" by Ichiko, and the ending theme was "Suki!? Kirai!? Suki!!!" (スキ!? キライ!? スキ!!!, lit. Love?! Hate?! Love!!!) by Rie Kugimiya.

Manga

A manga series illustrated by Nana Mochizuki began serialization in the Japanese manga magazine Monthly Comic Alive on July 27 2006. As of July 2007, two bound volumes have been published by Media Factory.

Visual novel

A visual novel under the title Zero no Tsukaima: Shōakuma to Shunpū Concerto (ゼロの使い魔 小悪魔と春風の協奏曲, Zero no Tsukaima: Shōakuma to Shunpū Concerto) was developed by Marvelous Interactive playable on the PlayStation 2. The game was released in limited and regular editions on February 15 2007 in Japan.

Notes and references

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• J.C. Staff's Zero no Tsukaima website (Japanese)
• Official PS2 game website (Japanese)
• Official Seven Seas Entertainment Zero's Familiar novel page
• Zero no Tsukaima (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia