天下制覇

Watch some yaoi ninja/loli mage.

Impressions:

Well, I have to admit that having Rie voice a demure boy ninja into other men back to back with a tsundere feisty mage isn’t as confusing as when Horie Yui was voice a trap and a tomboy at the same time, but it still feels weird.

I’m not sure what people were really expecting as I can already see the cries of "zomg, the source… THE SOURCE" going up around the internetron. Frankly, I’m happier with things different. I flipped open one of the novels once, and Saito was making out with Louise. Flipped to another spot, and Saito was making out with Siesta, to a third and he was thinking about making out with Siesta. So really, I’m happy just to have some fantasy adventure instead of Saito’s eternal softcore stay at first base. Production values are the same as ever for ZnT, OP and ED are as irritating as usual. Ichiko really just needs to disappear already, and Rie should never ever be allowed to sing in her cutesy voice.

At any rate, it’s more of the same. Saito will apparently have to make do without his power for a little while, but he’s happy to jump into the fray anyway, so the change so far has been approximately nothing. A little more existential angst about being useless, but that’s about it. Louise’s new foe, at least for now, is an evil clown, and Henrietta feels the need to track down Tiffania for some bra tips. It did seem like the plot was dialed up quite a bit and fanservice was dialed down slightly for the start of this one, which isn’t to say that there wasn’t any fanservice, but just not to the same level of Louise… slowly dressing herself as we watch her pull the panties all the way up her legs in slow motion from the first season or her mounting Saito and whipping for the start of the second. As for the plot, we got a quest, angst, make-up hugging and a villain all in one episode. It took most of the second season to put all of those together.

All in all though, exactly what Zero no Tsukaima has pretty much always been. Salud.

ZnT3 OP