OP Sequence

OP: 「YOU’RE THE ONE」 by ICHIKO
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming

Summary:

With Saito having finally returned to Tristain Academy, Louise lets him kiss her, but she stops him when he starts to undress her by using the excuse that it’s still light outside. Their moment together is interrupted when Siesta bursts into the room to greet them, and Louise then notices that the rune on Saito’s hand is disappearing. Though worried about this, Louise has to go attend an assembly of all students where Osmond explains that, thanks to the intervention by Gallia, the war with Albion is over. Saito sits this one out and talks instead with Derflinger about the missing mark on the back of his hand – the sword thinks that it means Saito is free. Saito then sees Louise’s two sisters, but their conversations is cut short when a commotion develops from the assembly of students. Louise had told Kirche about the missing rune, and now the entire student body is talking about it. Eleanor, however, doesn’t care about Louise’s troubles and just wants Louise to come home, and she goes as far as to suggest that Louise summon a familiar that’s more appropriate for someone of the Vallière family. Luckily for Louise, Agnès then arrives with orders from Henrietta to bring Louise and Saito to the royal palace.

During the carriage ride, Louise tells Saito that he should just say so if he doesn’t want to be with her. She knows that he’s free now that the rune is gone and that he probably doesn’t want to be ordered around by someone like her. Saito gets pissed off over how she’s talking like this and suggests that nobles like her are cold-hearted, but Louise counters by saying that he doesn’t understand her and that she’s only thinking about him. When Agnès stops the carriage for a break, Louise stomps off into the nearby woods by herself and considers what Eleanor said about summoning another familiar. Her thoughts are interrupted by the appearance of a small armored creature armed with a sword, and a mysterious voice suddenly introduces herself as Sheffield. Louise realizes something is wrong and pulls out her wand, but Sheffield’s creature then threatens her with its sword. Sheffield is here to bring Louise to her master, but Louise refuses and lets loose a massive blast in the hopes that Saito will see it and come save her. In the meantime however, Sheffield explains that Louise isn’t the only bearer of the Void, and Sheffield reveals that she is also a familiar of the Void, the Mioznitnirn. Tired of talk, Sheffield then sends the demons under her control at Louise, and it is at this point that Saito saves her.

Despite not having his Gandalfr powers anymore, Saito does his best to protect Louise and manages to do so with some direction from Derflinger. The one time he’s caught off guard, Agnès appears and helps him out. Saito and Agnès are able to keep the demons at bay, and Sheffield then gets telepathic orders from her master Joseph to turn back temporarily. Shortly thereafter, Louise finishes casting a spell that unleashes a massive blast on the rest of Sheffield’s forces. In the aftermath of the battle, Louise yells at Saito for not being at her side, but she nevertheless thanks him for coming to save her. They then proceed with Agnès to the royal castle and find the place empty due to how Henrietta sold all the furniture to help with the country’s empty treasury after the war. Henrietta is still more concerned about Louise’s well-being though and wants to apologize for what she put Louise through. For Saito, she has a decree naming him as a Chevalier, and though this would make him a noble, Saito decides to turn it down because he’s powerless right now without the mark on his hand. Derflinger suggests that the reason is that Saito’s heart stopped during the previous battle, thus canceling the contract with Louise. He had been brought back to life by an elf-girl named Tiffania who had a magic ring, and Henrietta decides to send Agnès to find her.

That night, Louise has a nightmare of Saito leaving her and wakes up to find him gone from their room. She finds him again at the top of a tower and is so distraught over the thought of him leaving her that she starts crying. Louise is frustrated because she has so much to say, yet he’s always gone, whether it was on the boat back from Albion or in her bed moments ago. Because she had thought that he’d left by himself again, she now hugs him and tells him not to go anywhere. She doesn’t care if he’s not her familiar or if he doesn’t have his Gandalfr powers, and though Saito promises not to leave, he questions his worth if he’s not able to protect her. He proposes redoing their contract with another summon servant ritual, but Louise isn’t sure what will happen or what they’d do if another familiar appears. After Saito reassures her that it’d be okay since he originally came to this world to protect her, he changes the subject to how they love each other and to what they had started that morning. He starts to push Louise downstairs so that they can return to her bed, but Louise resists what he wants to do and eventually blows him up with her magic. She’s still pissed off in the morning and makes him run after their carriage.

ED Sequence

ED: 「ゴメンネ♥ 」 (Gomen ne) by 釘宮理恵 (Kugimiya Rie)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming
The OP is upbeat ICHIKO as usual, and the ED is Kugimiya Rie singing (aka. not that great, though this one better than the last). I have a hard time getting into either of them though because I’m still stuck on CODE GEASS R2’s new opening song.

Preview

Well I don’t know if it was because I had rock bottom expectations for this or what, but the first episode turned out better than I thought it’d be. It’s not amazingly good of course and is still butchering what happens in the novels (or so I’ve been told), but it adopts a pretty fast pace that managed to keep me interested the entire way through. The production quality was decent too (at least as good as the first two series), so the decision to follow this series or not mostly comes down to the direction of the story. Despite the fact that I was bothered by some of the gaps in the plot – mainly how Gallia just came in and stopped the war – I like the stuff about the legendary familiars and void mages and would like to see more about that.

I should mention though that it’s a little frustrating to see so much time in the episode spent on showing that Saito and Louise have made progress in their relationship, only to have it reset again when Louise gets pissed off and blows Saito up. Which is to say, business as usual. I admit that Louise wouldn’t be Louise with that aspect of personality, but at some point I’d just like to see something different to show that the characters have grown since we first met them. Maybe it’ll happen by the end of this series, though I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up. In any case, this first episode was good enough that I’ll probably keep watching this, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will turn out better than the second series.

61 Comments

  1. damn the bad french HURT my eyes >_<

    https://randomc.net/image/Zero%20no%20Tsukaima/Zero%20no%20Tsukaima%20~Princesses%20no%20Rondo~%20-%2001%20-%2025.jpg

    and I don’t expect much from the relation between Louise and Saito, after all we only need a few minutes of SiestaXSaito and Jealous Louise will come back again….either a SiestaXsaito or the big breasted blonde elve and Saito moment to get a full circling of season 2 *sigh*

    P.S: I already have some doubt with the plot got a feeling it wil be wasted just like S2…or maybe I’m just pessimistic -.-

    Nigredo
  2. “Which is to say, business as usual…”
    That perfectly describes this 1st episode of season 3. Not too bad but nothing exciting either.

    @Omni
    You write butchering the novels, what do you mean? That they do something which is completely in contrary to the original story in the novel? Please explain what you mean, would ya?^^

  3. @pudding
    Did Saito really do that in the novels? Than that’s one thing I don’t regret them changing xD
    Anyway.. season 2 really was a disappointment but I like the series as a whole too ^^

    jns2
  4. Just out of curiosity, if Saito lost the ruin on his hand, shouldn’t the sword also go back to sleep cause he isn’t the right hand of god anymore. Just a thought….o.o;

    Kurosaki Ichigo
  5. @Apalo
    Personally I couldn’t stand it 😛
    I’m not really crazy for seeing lolis flashing their panties
    But since you say it’s good I’ll give it a chance

    And this series is really repetitive..
    Like I can already predict it Louise will go tsundere and blow up Saito next episode

    Hei
  6. Well one thing im excited about is there seems to be that there will be more Tabitha screen time in future episodes if you pay attention to the opening. seems she might start getting serious with Saito. Siesta and Kirche had her time first season, and the princess/queen and Julio with louise had there time second season. this season seems more focused on the elf, the blue haired girl (you people who have read the novels probably know her), and tabitha. I always loved the Yuki (haruhi suzumiya) and tabitha like characters. its a jow to see the emotionless ones fall in love

    Lucky Channel
  7. Frankly speaking, I adored the first two seasons, apart from the sudden ending. After watching this episode, we can see the progress in their relationship as they start becoming more intimate.

    High hopes.

    Actar
  8. OMNI, that was exactly the reason u liked it.. SAAAAA-NORE ZZZZZzzzzz ZZZZZzzzzzz, “SAITO!!!! i need U!!!!!! *hug* *passonatly look into each others eyes* *THEN INTERRUPTED BY A FAIRY WITH TIG’OL’BITTIES” ….rinse and repeat.. BORING!!! my opinion of course

    BROOKLYN otaku
  9. @Samurai Pumpkin: first 5 volumes are almost 100% translated by a online translation group. the major difference between novels and anime would be targeted public. novels are for a more mature public, and therefor a greater focus on story and characters, not just tit-jokes.
    this first episode was quite allright. for the anime’s-standard. as i am myself a big-comedy fan , i really enjoyed it

    gngn
  10. hey… anyone who’s seen the opening… anyone notice that Saito has POINTED EARS in that shot with the lights? when the ruins are glowing and he’s kissing Louise?

    Amiena
  11. Amiena, you got that wrong, his ears just look pointed because of his hair. if you watch carefully you can see the hair move.

    I am more concerned about the scene where Saito walks in Tokyo ._.

    virox
  12. we might see a foursome relationship when this series continues. about time they release this last series(i hope). i think if u killed the rune holder u get his rune insignia. i hope this goes better than the previous series

    Rapist!
  13. I had better expectations for the third series, but yet again I’m disappointed. The first part was decent, Saito wanted to have sex with Louise lol but she didn’t let him. I thought they made that part too long, and they made it really clear in less than 10 seconds that their relationship had became better. Nevertheless, I was happy to see Siesta come in and ruin the party of SaitoxLuis. I found the impression in that act that she’s still fighting for Saito and that she does NOT want to let Saito and Luis be alone, though after watching the whole episode I’m not sure if that’s the impression the writers wanted to give.

    Anyway, after that we see Saito and Luis that continue to fight and discuss after the whole school knows about it (why didn’t the headmaster say something about it? >_>) and the princess calls for them. I found that the paper naming Saito a noble could have been better developed, I was thinking that Saito becoming a noble could help with his relationship with the rest of Louise’s family, yet it wasn’t mentioned at all. That makes me doubt that the fact we saw Louise’s sisters was nothing but pure filler to fill with in the first episode.

    And another thing I didn’t like, was the battle. Honestly, did I miss something or when the heck did Louise start using Void magic at will? Oh, and Saito kicking monster’s asses was HORRIBLE, in my opinion they should have made Saito look the consequences of getting into a fight without his ruins. Something like Saito getting hitted twice and him being very tired after the fight, something like that. Thanks god Agnes appeared, she made my day. (indeed, I’ve have had a boring day today)

    Anyway, one last thing. The end was brilliant, and that’s why I don’t hate this episode. When Saito continues to say that it’s still night and that Louise had told him about bed later…well, that was VERY funny. And then we see Louise treating Saito like she always does. Instead of Omni’s feeling, I find the endless cycle of Louise attacking Saito very funny and something very characteristic of this anime.

    ~Sacchi~The guy who wanted more fanservice from Siesta and the Princess.

    sacchi
  14. you guyz just suck ..really… y is evryone sayin’ that they don’t want more of this anime, that they hope it’s the last season!! by the way it’s really popular here in japan… and they already said that the 3rd season gonna end in a way of havin a continuation… so most probably there’s going to be a fourth season too…

    julie
  15. **********

    no puedoo ver las imagenes, solo veo las del ultimo post de Vampire Knight 13

    **********

    I do not see the pictures, I see only the last of post Vampire Knight 13

    Pachi
  16. The second season was a mess and hat plot holes so huge to let trains go through them XD
    Thr 3rd Season started better and resolved that the main plot of S2 (the war with Albion) with a cheap plot device. Some never heard before nation joins the war and makes the day. K, nice <_<”

    At least the rival void familiar, who started the war in Albion and disappered without any reason at the end of the former season, popped up and granted some action. Well, they didn’t yet explain what happened in the S2, but nevermind… who does remember it after a whole year? 😛

    This serie starts pretty well and promises some “good romance” between Saito and Louise. Every fan was so happy i guess, only to be disappointed once again by the sudden turn of Louise at the end of the episode. So no more serious love relatioship (btw weren’t the two just married or something?) and back to the whacky usual commedy…
    I only hope they won’t just base the serie on the usual fanservice, Saito flirting and subsequent Louise beating up. That would be boring, but lucky enough the fanservice wasn’t present in this very first episode (or at least i didn’t notice it so much)

    Another weird consideration: But wasn’t Louise unable to cast magic, expecially the void one? Am i mistaking or she failed casting void spell in an important episode last season? Well, she must have studied a lot in this year, preparing herself for this third season 😛 Now Luoise magic is no more a Zero!

    Solaris
  17. lol =)

    Here’s hoping Saito finally gets laid…with a maiden of Tristain or not…

    Again with all the plot talk…I might be missing something, but since when has anime been known for deep meaningful plots? And besides everyone’s missing the REAL plotline here: Saito’s quest to find a maiden that meets his fancy.

    And let’s be nice. Saito’s simply just has a healthy libido.

  18. To the people who think Saito is getting horny:

    What else did you expected lol? Any man that dies and is brought back to life by a beautiful elf is more horny than ever before in his life.

    sacchi
  19. I don’t know… I’m quite sure that from now till the ending of series those two will go a bite longer on their relationship… And just think about it: if the first episode was like this, imagine the final ones… XD

    Sakura
  20. @tmoo
    offcourse its cliche anime pairings… the moment i saw a pink-haired chick.. u know its coming….

    btw… im suprised no subgroup has decided to pick it up yet O_O

    ZeeVee
  21. <___< there are groups picking up the anime, check tokyo toshokan.

    Is the blue haired chick like Tabitha’s sister or something? She better get some screentime soon, since big-cannon-elf chick is becoming annoying to me, for some reason.

    AND WHERE THE HELL IS ZHnY!! I can’t believe they rather make this crap than Season 2 of SHnY… -_____-

  22. has anyone else noticed that their writing is in french or is it just me…

    i think the romance between saito and louise is just budding and i think the plot has a little of dokuro chan sneaking into it… dokuro and louise both like the other person but keep on beating them up…
    strange isnt it…

    cant wait till season 4 hoping it will be as good as all the others…
    i also think that saito is begining to get a relationship with charlotte (tabatha) because it seems like tabatha is willing to give him her life…

    i am thinking of writing a fanfic of zero no tsukaima, if anyone has any ideas for me then please tell me!!

    Arigato
    Louise

    Louise francoise

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