First Impressions / Zero no Tsukaima

Summary:

Kirche and Colbert have returned to Tristain Academy on the expedition ship Ostland and have invited everyone onboard for a reception. Colbert designed this ship and explains that his research was completed after Kirche invested in it. As for how Colbert survived, Kirche reveals that back then, Tabitha had secretly cast a suspended animation spell on him that made it seem like his heart had stopped. He’s been staying at Kirche’s house in Germania ever since, and Kirche simply never had a chance to tell everyone else about it. Saito is happy with Colbert’s return, but he’s still bothered by the fight with Tabitha and hasn’t told Louise about it yet. Louise meanwhile remains caught up over Saito’s relationship with Henrietta, and it doesn’t help that he avoids talking with her about it and blushes while in Henrietta’s presence. When Siesta figures out that there’s something going on between Saito and Henrietta, she gets carried away with fantasizing about what this could lead to. Tiffania learns about what happened as well, but unlike Louise and Siesta, she doesn’t overreact and instead gives Louise a magic crystal that will let her see what Saito was doing last night.

Louise has trouble aiming the magic item at Saito though, and when he realizes what she’s trying to do, he runs away. Tiffania manages to catch him at one point, but he gets away and isn’t caught again until he interrupts Kirche and Colbert in the Ostland’s cockpit. Seeing the two of them together surprises Saito, and as he turns to leave, he gets tackled by Louise. This gives her the opportunity to use the magic crystal on him, and she’s surprised to discover that he had been fighting Tabitha the previous night. Since Louise doesn’t understand why Tabitha would be following Sheffield’s orders, Kirche explains that Tabitha is a member of Gallia’s royal family. Her father is the younger brother of the current king and was killed during the fight for the throne. Tabitha herself was targeted for poisoning, but her mother took her place, and because of that, her mother is now mentally sick and is shut in her room. Afterwards, Tabitha was made a Chevalier and was forced to fulfill dangerous and unreasonable demands, and Kirche suspects last night what Tabitha did last night was ordered by the King of Gallia. Since Tabitha technically failed though, Kirche isn’t sure what’ll happen to her.

During all this, Tabitha is off at her old home to pay a visit to her mother. When she arrives at her mother’s room though, she finds her mother gone, and there’s a mysterious elf waiting there instead. The elf claims not to know where the Gallia forces took her mother, and when Tabitha attacks him with her magic, he uses a magic barrier to protect himself. He then introduces himself as Bidashal of Neftes and talks of taking her to Joseph. Tabitha attempts to resist, but he reflects her attack back at her and even stops Sylphid’s attack. Back at Tristain Academy, Louise and Saito go to Henrietta with what they now know about Tabitha and the Gallia royal family. Saito wants to head to Gallia, but Henrietta instead asks them to leave everything to her and makes Saito promise not to do anything dangerous. Henrietta then departs from the school, leaving Louise to think about her trust in Saito.

Preview

After how good last week was, this episode was a bit of a letdown. I thought Colbert’s return would mark the beginning of something big involving him, but he doesn’t really play a significant role in this episode at all. Come to think of it, they might have given more screen-time here to the chase scene than they did to Colbert. I suspect though that he’s critical to some part of the story later on because they wouldn’t have bothered bringing him back with such a weak explanation for how he surived – Tabitha secretly made him look dead with magic – unless it was absolutely necessary. What I wish is that the writers/director had planned better back in the second season when they were working out Colbert’s death so that his return would have been more feasible.

What’s also frustrating is that it felt like most of this episode was spent reacting to stuff that happened last week, as opposed to having the characters going forward with new developments. The saving grace was the Tabitha stuff in the last five or so minutes, but aside from that, the only new things this week are that Louise now knows about Tabitha and that Henrietta has decided to burden herself with it (which I bet will lead to more Henrietta angst). I’m hoping next week will be better about moving the plot forward, and the preview points to the introduction of a new character – Tabitha’s little sister.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention: there was more censoring this week. In fact, a shot of Louise and Siesta grabbing Tiffania’s (clothed) chest was almost completely blacked out.

24 Comments

  18. Colbert is just a liiittle too old for this to acceptable but ok I guess he was handsome in his youth

    I must admit I was happy to see him, but the explanation seemed very contrived. I can see why Tabitha did that, but the anime hadn’t shown any indication that there was anything of the sort happening there so it seems like an excuse, especially since Tabitha apparently let them go as far as putting him in a coffin…and how could Kirche not have found the time to tell them? I don’t understand..

    machan
    Reply

  23. I`m commenting this like Hister:

    Sensurointi tässä jaksossa vaikutta todellakin perusteellisemmalta kuin aikaisemmin. Syynä voi olla, että
    peitetyt näkymät ovat myös rohkeampia
    kuin aiemmin. Odotetaan DVD-versiota.
    Oops, that was Finnish…
    Anyway, here it comes translated to English:
    Censoring is this episode seems really
    to be heavier than before. Reason for this
    can be that visuals in this ep. are bolder than in earlier episodes.
    Let`s wait for DVD release to confirm that.

    Please do this you too, Hister!

    Savofenno
    Reply

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