Review of The Familiar of Zero: Rondo of Princesses

Harem oriented anime have always been about a bunch of girls getting off on either one guy or few of them. The formula still remains same in Zero no Tsukaima series with also some action packed scenario. What I liked about Zero no Tsukaima is the light-hearted mood it took, lots of indecent jokes and just the hilarity of its own stupidity. However, the third season of the series went just too far ... with everything. [STORY] 4 - Probably the worst story in the series is really explained in only later 4-5 episodes whilst the others are mainly fillers or some pretty unnecessary stuff. Thething about the story is that ... it's plain ridiculous, predictable and pretty annoying at the times. I won't talk much about it in fear that I might spoil something, but regardless, if you're a guy/girl who wants at least a decent story in an anime, run away from here. Seriously, run.

[ART] 6

- Art is actually fairly solid; it's the same as in previous seasons, but it does the job. Being probably the best aspect of the series, the fights are decently animated, the characters are different from one another, there are some beautiful sceneries and stuff like that. All in all, fairly decent.

[SOUND] 5

- Even though the opening and ending songs aren't much of my taste, they were quite good actually. Aside from that, there are some great background music which sometimes hits the mood and ... well sometimes it just fails. However, I found that the voices of the characters were immensely annoying (especially the one from Louise). I don't know whether it's just me or not, but it's like that.

[CHARACTERS] 4

- I'm really not sure what kind of characters to expect when you embark yourself upon a journey for watching harem anime, but this show fails a lot in that aspect. The relationship between Saito and Louise was all cute in the season 1, bearable in season 3, but it's plain RETARDED in season 3. It's obvious that they're just dragging the series out to their maximum proportions, but that brings such failures to the light that you can't overlook them even if you want to. The characters might appear even worse than they are due to the story they're set in. Saito's harem keeps growing even though it shouldn't, he still likes big breasts, kissing every single girl he can, but, somehow, he still loves Louise. There's a silver lining called "sense" when creating a harem story and characters, but this Anime simply forgot that. Yes, most of the luvy-duvy situations are plain stupid and senseless. And those "cute moments" where we finally expect some kind of closure are just a waste of time for my eyes. They're on it like 2s and then someone comes knocking on without any apparent reason. I really wanted to like the characters, I really did, because in previous seasons they were quite fun to watch. However, all that “servant-master” thing had worn out even during the second season. It’s just plain stupid in this one …
Don’t get me wrong; there are some likeable characters. There are few great developments regarding other characters, but the focus of the show, Saito and Louise is just embarrassing (and not as in “embarrassing to watch because of the awkwardness” … just embarrassing).
I doubt I’ll force myself to go through the final season anytime soon because it’ll take some time to wash things out from this season.

[ENJOYMENT] 4

-You’d think that anyone could enjoy harem anime simply because it’s funny, right? Well, you’re wrong. Compared to the first 2 seasons, this season of the anime is simply stupid. I tried to enjoy it, I really did, but I failed at it – THERE’S ALMOST NOTHING TO GIVE YOU JOY. Maybe there are few moments with half-elf, later on with a dragon and its master, but that’s about it. It’s the same all over again – Louise and Saito seem to finally get things started, girl pops in, she leans her breasts on Saito, Saito blushes, Louise treats him like a dog – all through the 12 episodes. You can enjoy that, let’s say, in the first 2 episodes, but considering that that formula has been done in the past 24 episodes of the show, it’s really … bad. Up to this season, Zero no Tsukaima was one of my favorite (if not the favorite since I haven’t watched that much harem shows) harem anime and I deeply regret watching this season. I’ve read many reviews here that state that this is the worst seasons in the entire run, and I really have to agree. I can’t see how this show can get any worse … third season lost all of the anime’s charm, that goofiness and light-hearted story, and simply overdid the formula that was already overdone.

[OVERALL] 4

-I wanted to give it a higher grade, I really did because there were some really fun moments in the show, but it was impossible. Those few moments can’t make up for the rest of the show. There are only like 2-3 characters that I actually like now in the show (and one of them is the bad guy …), story is plain stupid, characters come back to life like in DBZ (again …) and the anime follows the same stupid formula that it had during the first 24 episodes of it. God damn it … it really makes me angry. The show could’ve been far greater if they only changed some things. Like, at the end of the second season, they could’ve emphasized the fact that Saito and Louse ARE MARRIED, they could’ve created a show where one fights for the one he loves without her harming him more than any of his foes. Bah … maybe those are just my expectations, but I really can’t understand why are there so many harem anime if they all use one formula. Cute or not, this season is by far the worst of the series. You can simply skip it and move onto the fourth one – I hear it’s a bit better than this crap. Hopefully, it is.