Louise is antsy because it’s almost time for the Evaluation Fair, where 2nd years show off their familiars and compete for the Palace Gift. Even more importantly, Princess Henrietta will be observing this year’s competition. It’s revealed that Louise was the childhood playmate of Henrietta, and they share a close bond, in spite of her status (since the King has recently passed away). However, Saito seems unable to reproduce his sword skills, even when wielding “Der-kou”. As an alternative, Saito suggests he show off his newfound skill at washing frilly panties.
At the contest, Louise has given up hope of impressing the audience with Saito’s clumsy swings; but when everyone laughs at Louise, Saito tries to stand up for her. As the two stomp away arguing, they happen upon Fuuke trying to break into the tower to steal the Staff of Destruction. The strong seal on the tower blocks up to Triangle-class magic, and is resistant to physical damage. Saito pushes Louise away, and gets nabbed by Fuuke’s golem, but Louise refuses to run away. Unfortunately, her attempt at a Fireball completely misses… strangely, it is able to badly damage the tower. Fuuke thanks Louise for the helping hand, and leaps in to steal the Staff of Destruction.
Ah, an episode of “surprises” that really wouldn’t surprise anyone. Tabitha’s Sylphid wins the competition of course, and Louise has mad connections that give her political carte blanche. Of course, as I suspected, Louise also possesses amazing, but unfocused, magical power. Her raw power is clearly above Triangle-class, so it will be cool to see what she’s capable of once she learns how to harness her Bijū chakra.
However, Saito continues to underperform in the offensive category. What is the secret to unleashing his shounen swordsman skill? This time he was wielding a magical sword, and trying to protect Louise, but nothing special happened. I was impressed with his defensive moves, however, while he was dodging Louise’s whip strikes. He even did a bare-handed block!
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Kabitzin – who has written 1940 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought they should have just demonstrated saito dodging her whips when i saw the two go at it, but then i suppose a normal human can do that too so…
I heard saito couldn’t activate his sword skills at this point in the novel and the guiche thing totally threw the story off balance so that might be why he can’t use der-kou
I think Saito’s sword skills are like a super move that require his rage meter to be filled. The golem pretty much one-shotted him, so he didn’t get a chance to build up aggression.
On a random note, I spent half the episode expecting the mage thief to reveal her identity as the headmaster’s assistant. She seems suspicious, that woman.
>On a random note, I spent half the episode expecting the mage thief to reveal her identity as the headmaster’s assistant.
Their hair colors are different shades of green, though. That’s like definitive proof against your theory. Plus you know Osman is probably tailing after her 24/7. And by tailing I mean sexually harassing.
As for Saito’s sword skills, or lack thereof, it is definitely perplexing. Maybe he has to input a secret code to activate the rune.
Saito’s regular whipping by Louise reminds me of Neocron ( an MMORPG)… where it is regular practice for low-level characters to let high-level characters repeatedly punch them( they pay people to punch them…) in order to raise their defensive ratings( punches, because the skill-levelling works on a per-damage/hit basis, punches deal very little damage but since they are being dealt by a high-level character, the XP is still quite substantial, and considerably a lot safer than actual combat).
It is… surreal to enter a room and see a guy being punched by several others, as though it was some sort of freakish S&M foreplay. The other surreal part being the frequent ‘attempted suicides’ by low-level characters who jump off from high places in order to raise their constitution( if they survive). In no other MMORPGs have I have ever regularly witness, within a city, a liternal rain of men and women either landing or splatting onto the ground from above…
So yeah, maybe there is a benefit to be had in Saito’s constant punishment by Louise. If there is one thing ‘Shounen Fighters’ need to have besides a ‘Deus ex Machina’ power-up, it is to have incredible constitution and endurance( and Blood-Pool( think of Hammer-Space)).
“Ha! You call that a punch? My frilly-pantsu-wearing Master hits me harder than that!”
Oh, and Siesta is well on her way to becoming the first Meido character I will fanboy over( although I attribute it more to the lack of fanboyable girls in the series).
Cheers.
So what does Saito really need to unlock his Gandolfr Overdrive Last Arc? Lotsa adrenalin and a very good reason to fight. I mean, he really can’t just use it just by swinging Derflinger around, right?
I am really starting to wonder whether what conditions must be met before Saito can release Derflinger or any dumb sword. From a wild guess at a very strange part of my mind, it goes.
1. He must have Louise worry sick about him.
2. He must have deep convictions on the fight, like personally insulting him or him being emo so that he has rage.
3. No pantsu distractions…(ermm.)
For some reason, i think it is not about the sword that matters but probably his mentality. Also, we really need more hendrietta now. Sigh, it’s too little of her since her appearance was so cute! I bet it is a really welcome need for all fanboys who watch anime to have a character to actually go like “OMG, xxx IS SO CUTE!”. Ermm, yea.
A so so episode though, i really hope to see better stuff of Zero no Tsukaima because it is currently just a very average anime series. I hope Zero makes me eat my words.
Only reason I am watching it is due to the fact that i LOVE shakugan no shana so much, which is why I am still willing to give this series a few more chances.
Did anyone else notice the Rozen Maiden eyecatch music extended version when Henrietta was making her entrance? I was like, “yay, time for doll mortal kombat!” But then I snapped out of it once the song stopped.
Shinkichi Mitsumune was behind the music of Rozen Maiden as well as Zero no Tsukaima, so I guess he is allowed to reuse his own material.