First Impressions / Zero no Tsukaima

Summary:

With Henrietta having signed the declaration of war against Albion, news soon reaches town of a naval victory by the Tristain and Germania alliance. Saito, however, doesn’t seem to care much and points out to Louise that Henrietta was supposed to be opposed to war, but Louise feels that they had to do it. In any case, what Saito does care about is the sailor uniform he notices being sold by one of the merchants, and he immediately buys it. When the two of them return to academy, they get called to Agnès’ office and are informed about the presence of a secret archives under the school. Agnès has permission from Henrietta to inspect the documents, but Osman is refusing to open the entrance for her because it’s dangerous down there. This angers Agnès because she feels that she isn’t afraid of any danger, though she also admits that the documents she’s looking for are connected to her revenge. Julio then asks Louise about her magic being able to open locks, but when Saito points out that Louise’s magic just makes things blow up, she gets so angry at him that she uses her magic and blows up the room. They end up going to Éléonore for help, and the five of them head through a secret passageway to the locked entrance.

After Éléonore opens the door, Agnès declares that she’ll go the rest of the way alone, but the others refuse to let her do that. Although the group is discovered by Colbert before they can head in, Agnès goes through the door anyway, and everyone follows, including Colbert as he tries to stop them. As they proceed through the passageway, Agnès explains that she wants to settle this matter before going to the front lines with Henrietta. She then suddenly stops them because she hears someone coming, but this turns out to be none other than Siesta who had followed them down here after having put on the sailor uniform that Saito gave her. Saito likes what he sees, but unfortunately, Siesta accidentally reveals that he had wanted her to wear it instead of Louise because Louise didn’t have the chest for it. This gets Louise angry once again and she again lets loose her destructive magic, this time causing a cave-in. It prevents the group from going back since they don’t have a mage who uses earth magic, leaving them no choice but to move further down the tunnel. Along the way, Julio asks Saito about young women fighting in wars in Saito’s home country since Siesta is wearing what he thinks is a military uniform, so Saito explains that it’s just a school uniform.

On this topic, Colbert says that he envies Saito’s country for not having wars because he hates it when young people sacrifice their lives for a war. Scoffing at this statement, Agnès reveals that she thinks the educator’s role is to teach fighting for the sake of the kingdom, but Colbert protests because Agnès doesn’t know the truth about war. Agnès, however, says that she has seen a battlefield and recalls how her hometown was burned down. Although some man had saved Agnès, a lot of innocent people died back then, and while she’s already taken care of Richemont, she’s still looking for those people who carried out the attack. The group then reaches the archives building which is located across a deep ravine crossable only by a single bridge. As they cross it, Colbert questions Agnès about what she intends to do after she kills her enemies, and he’s disappointed to learn that she plans to fight and die for Henrietta. Colbert then asks her about falling in love and it being something more important than fighting, but Agnès dismisses this as stupid and says that she doesn’t have time to discuss it with him. Having overheard what was said, Siesta tells Louise about the rumor that Agnès likes girls, causing Louise to remember their kiss.

Once the group gets across the bridge, they realize that there’s a notice written in stone above the entryway saying that the use of magic is forbidden inside. After entering the archives, everyone helps Agnès look for the book about the D’Angleterre, and it’s Louise who ends up finding it. As Agnès starts reading it, Siesta accidentally trips and drops some other books on the floor, and Éléonore uses her magic to return them to the shelves. Siesta points out too late what Éléonore did, and when the entire archives soon starts shaking, everyone tries to escape except for Agnès who is still searching for the information that she needs. The records show that D’Angleterre was burned to prevent the spread of an epidemic, but Agnès is dismayed to find that the page with the name of the leader back then has been torn from the book. Even in this bad situation, she still wants to look for another book, but two shelves then collide, and one of the heavy falling books hurts Agnès’ foot. Saito and Colbert help her outside, but the bridge across the ravine is starting to crumble with all this shaking, so Colbert tells her to get on his back. He and Saito then make a run for the other side, and it is in the middle of this that Agnès is reminded of the man from her past carrying her on his back the same way that Colbert is now doing. After Saito and Colbert barely make it, Agnès expresses her gratitude, and the group starts making their way back. Agnès now thinks that the slaughter was ordered 20 years ago under the pretense of countering an epidemic, so the people who carried out the orders didn’t know the truth, but she still wants to know who the leader was. The group then reaches the spot where the cave-in was, and in order to clear them a path, Julio suggests that Saito flirt with Siesta. This succeeds in getting Louise angry yet again, leading her to use her magic and thus freeing them.

Preview:

After last week’s episode, this was a little disappointing because, as interesting as Agnès’ story is, this episode didn’t develop as much as it could have. We didn’t learn much from the underground excursion other than the fact that Colbert could be the one who saved Agnès 20 years ago and that the name she’s looking for was torn out of the book. I wouldn’t be complaining if this were a longer series, but it’s hard not to worry that all this is taking away time that could be spent instead on the war with Albion and Sheffield. At this point, I’m really hoping that they wrap this part up soon, but Agnès still has to find that person and we probably still have to learn about Colbert’s past (those two things might very well be connected). The preview for next week says that the school will be attacked, so maybe we’re in store for a bit more action too.

30 Comments

  9. I really liked watching the first season of this show, but for some reason this season doesn’t give me the kind of enjoyment I had of the first. Wow we’re on episode 7 and still I mostly see Saito getting into situations which pisses off Louise, I hope this season gets better….anyway Siesta dose look cute in that sailor outfit ^_^

    AL
    Reply

  10. the series supposed to be 12 episodes if this is episode 7 then it’s almost finished and nothing happen that really interest me.just kissing and meeting the valiel sisters that’s pretty much it

    am@zem3
    Reply

  12. I wonder whether they shouldn’t rename the series as Henrietta no Yojimbo? There are now three episodes, and next week there’ll be a fourth, which deal mainly with Anies story, while Saito and Louise take a backseat and are being reduced to comic relief.

    bearzerger
    Reply

  21. “Every week we ended with Loiuse blowing Saito with magic… kinda getting boring”

    I know…I’m actually starting to feel bad for her, given all of those things Saito said in episode 4.

    asdffdsa
    Reply

  30. It will take some time from now before louise n saito try anything really *serious* if you what I mean, bsd on the novel. I don’t understand with this 12 episodes per season. They should make it longer. There seems to be much more to tell from the novel than what they have shown.

    Hmmm, the nekomimi…

    ramiel_salbazier
    Reply

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