wat u say

I admit, I was rather clueless as to the anime scene when I barged in unintentionally during the end of Code Geass R2. But instead of going back and visiting the past right away to try to get a feel for it, I decided to dive right in and jump into the Fall season with absolutely no point of reference to the last, oh, say 10 years of anime. That said, it was still rather enjoyable. When I first jumped in with Geass R2, I was frustrated at having to wait an entire week (oh dear me whatever will I do!). But the more I explored the aniblogosphere, the more enjoyable the wait became. So, after that rather positive experience, I figured, what the hell, I’d keep going along with the crowd. If I got bored and ran out of interesting stuff to watch, or if episodes just left me plain disappointed, I’d find some random series to marathon.

What does this have to do with Zero no Tsukaima you ask? Well, since I had absolutely no history in anime, when people talked about the upcoming (at that time, Fall) season and started to compare series that would be coming out to those in the past few years, I had absolutely no clue what to expect. Therefore, I bit off a rather huge chunk of Fall shows to devour, so that I could really get a taste for everything. Helping me along the way was the Clannad and Gundam 00 series. I’d seen Gundam Wing ages and ages ago when it was on American TV, so I had a point of reference for a mecha show like that, plus I got to marathon the first season to get a feel for what was coming. Speaking of Gundam 00 and my lack of a point of reference, when I read posts on Geass R2, many people compared what Lelouch was doing at the end to the way Celestial Being operated and tried to get everyone to hate them. As such, I was somewhat spoiled for Gundam 00, but at the time of Geass, I had no idea what the hell they meant, and had to resort to Wikipedia to give me a very shallow explanation.

As for Clannad, it was the very first slice of life series that I watched. I’m not sure you can totally call it slice of life, I’m not sure really what to call it at all, but it was the first series I watched which wasn’t either in a fantasy setting or a futuristic/mecha setting. It also made me realize how emotional I could get over anime. But both of these series, since they had first seasons that I was able to watch, allowed me to get a better feel for the anime world around me, which I was diving into headfirst.

To get back to the topic at hand, when I saw references in reviews about Toradora to characters named Louise and Shana, I had fuck all to go on. I actually don’t think I even bothered to look up their specific characters, but I did look up the word tsundere, because it was one of the first times I had ever heard it. I suppose I’ve always really had a soft spot for a more general tsundere character type, but I never really knew how to classify it. That said though, I hate the spineless, brainless, ecchi but scared to act male protagonist. This was really the reason Code Geass hooked me from the very start. Lelouch was a fucking badass. He wasn’t your usual spineless main character who gets dragged into a fight, he starts the fight and finishes it with style.

Anyway, I feel like I’m straying way off the topic. The point is, I went into the Fall season with no background, which I think helped and hurt at the same time. It certainly helped that I had no point of reference for any of the voice actors or previous characters they played. I think this really helped with Toradora, as I was able to really come to like all the characters on their own, rather than getting random bits of their own characters mixed up with those in past shows. In a lot of the first few reviews of Toradora, I saw a lot of flak thrown at Taiga for being exactly like other typical Kugimiya Rie roles. And really, I honestly don’t blame them, Kugimiya Rie has an incredibly low range of voices she seems to be able to pull off, so they all sound pretty similar (I had a somewhat similar reaction when I watched the first episode of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and heard Kotomi loud and clear when Haruka first spoke). But as I still hadn’t delved back into the past, as I was just trying to find a way to manage to get all the episodes of the shows I wanted to watch, I was able to watch these shows without those concerns.

However, all this talk of other Kugimiya Rie roles, as well as the fact that she was apparently very busy this season (I think she was in something like 6 different shows to varying degrees of importance), made me very interested to see what all the commotion was. I certainly did like her as Taiga, she fits Taiga very well, but I was curious about these other tsundere roles that she had played in the past that caused such a commotion. Unfortunately, it took me a while to finally get around to downloading Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima, due to various things like current shows being actually interesting, coupled with the piling up of our midterm exams.

So, finally, I got around to downloading Shakugan no Shana. I knew going in to expect a tsundere Kugimiya Rie as the leading lady, but other than that, I had no idea what Shakugan no Shana was about. My experience to date with Kugimiya Rie as a lead was in Toradora and Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka, so I was expecting a slice of life with a good bit of comedy. Imagine my shock when I found out that Shana turned out to be a badass sword wielding Flame Haze. I was excited beyond belief. Here was a Kugimiya Rie role from a genre that I really loved and grew up watching, what could be better?

If you’ve been following my blog, you know what my overall reaction was to Shakugan no Shana. While I really loved Kugimiya Rie as Shana, I got tired of all the love triangle drama. Overall, Shakugan no Shana left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, wishing that I had just stopped watching the series after episode 13, or even better, after episode 8. I’m still putting off Shakugan no Shana Season 2 due to that bitter taste.

So I guess you could say I went into Zero no Tsukaima with very low expectations. By now, I had heard more rumors about the infamous Louise. Most importantly, that she treated Saito like a dog. Really, I can’t blame people for getting tired of it, because it happened in Shakugan no Shana and even in Toradora. Looking back, I can tell how many people must’ve groaned audibly when Taiga tells Ryuuji to obey her like a dog. Still, for whatever reason, I love Kugimiya Rie as a tsundere, so I just decided to watch Zero no Tsukaima and just relax and enjoy what happens.

I suppose this might be a good time for a slightly relevant side story. When I saw Zero no Tsukaima on Eclipse’s archives one day when I was doing my usual procrastination, I grabbed it all as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that it was the third season. So I watched the first part of the first episode and was rather puzzled. So I did some research and found out that not only did Zero no Tsukaima have more than one season, it had three. And I just happened to find the third season. So, naturally, I went searching for the first and then second seasons. Unfortunately, the first season aired so long ago that the box set was out on DVD and most torrents were long since dead. The second season I happened to find in a batch, so I grabbed that while I waited for my box set of season one to come. I just couldn’t help myself from watching the start of the second season though, at the very least so I could see the opening, so I saw that Saito and Louise were on good terms, so I think it was this more than anything that allowed me to take a rather relaxed approach to the second season.

So, when I started to see the love triangle develop between Saito, Louise, and Siesta, I was able to just shake it off and comfort myself by knowing that at the start of the second season, they were sleeping in the same bed, so things had to be going well between the two. That said, it’s really stupid for me to think that the male lead and the female lead won’t end up together, but then again, look at what happened with Akane Iro.

I feel like this is becoming a rather large wall of tl;dr just to explain my feelings and situation concerning Zero no Tsukaima, but I suppose that’s because I don’t have a whole lot to say about the series itself. Objectively, it’s nothing particularly superb, but all the same, that’s what I like about it. I’ve said it many times before, but I love watching anime for those “FUCK YEAH” moments, and the one pictured above was one that gave me tons of goosebumps. I think it’s because of these moments that I’m able to put up with less than stellar anime, because if it gives me that amazing feeling even once, I feel fulfilled.

However, I consider Zero no Tsukaima’s first season to be better than just a less than stellar anime, because it gave me more than just one moment of goosebumps, it gave me tons in the last few episodes. After the disappointment I experienced from Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima was a breath of fresh air and new hope for me. Here was a Kugimiya Rie tsundere in a series I could actually leave feeling fulfilled. Shakugan no Shana’s open end, coupled with the lame ass ‘reset’ in the second season left me in a rut, Akane Iro ended hilariously (but not exactly well), and Toradora still has a long way to go, so Zero no Tsukaima was really something I thoroughly enjoyed.

This is definitely one of those times when watching anime in the ‘wrong’ order helped me out greatly. If I had watched Zero no Tsukaima back when it first aired, I’m not sure I can say I would’ve enjoyed it as thoroughly as I enjoyed it today. Still, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it enough on its own to want to watch the sequels. If I had seen Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima before seeing Toradora, I can’t say I would’ve really been all that interested in Toradora. Honestly, I tend to prefer fantasy/futuristic anime over slice of life, so going from two fantasy type roles to a slice of life role for Kugimiya Rie might’ve been too boring for me to want to bother.

My goodness this has turned into a giant wall of tl;dr by now. If you’ve made it this far and you’re actually still reading, congrats and thanks. Anyway, I’m not sure there’s a lot more I can say. The ending to the series was very typical, but all the same still got me worked up quite nicely and got me a bit misty at the end.

I was a bit worried when Louise’s eyes went all blank like this again, though. The last time it happened, she nearly married that pedobeard, so I was a bit concerned something weird was going to happen.

Slightly off topic, but speaking of different anime blending into each other and affecting the experience, I’m rather glad that the Louise in Gundam 00 is becoming much more likable. In the first season of Gundam 00, she was rather boring and eventually went all emo in season 2. But as of this most recent episode, she’s easily the one person in the show who is the most level-headed. Instead of going even more emo or flipping out or crying and running away, she comes to the conclusion that Saji and Jihad-kun were in on it since the beginning and swears to avenge her parents, while also telling off Andrei, the Pedo Bear of Russia, son of the Wild Bear of Russia. How fitting. Anyway, because of this, I could hear the name Louise and not be perturbed by frustrating flashbacks to Louise in Gundam, thanks to this rather timely change in her character.

d’aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw :3

Well, I think that’s all I had to say about a lot of recent and not so recent things. If I can’t fall asleep relatively soon, you’ll probably see my pick for my #2 moment in anime tonight~