Review for Familiar Of Zero - Season 2 Collection

Introduction

MVM were the first distributor in the English speaking world last year to announce that they had licensed the whole of the Familiar of Zero series, four seasons worth. Fans of the show got understandably excited when Season 1 was released with the dub that it originally got from Geneon before that company closed up shop in America, only to be rescued by Sentai and re-released in the US, and released by Hanabee in the Australia. But Hanabee hadn’t announced any more, and while Sentai had licensed the fourth season, they had no mention of the second or third at that time. So putting a slight damper on the party last year, I had to mention in my review that MVM’s release of the subsequent seasons would rely on licence announcements and releases by both Sentai and Hanabee, the latter for the PAL conversion for the DVD masters. My conservative estimate was that we wouldn’t see any more Familiar of Zero for at least 12 months. I guess I was a little too conservative, as it’s only been nine months, and we have Familiar of Zero: Season 2 – Knight of the Twin Moons to enjoy, while Season 3 will be with us next month. We’ll have to wait a tad longer for Season 4, as the US release is only due in July, and judging by the previous seasons, we should get it around August time. Alas, for these latter three seasons, the dub has fallen by the wayside, although after some 8 years, it would have been a big ask for Sentai to get the original Geneon sourced cast back together again.


The Institute of Magic in the Kingdom of Tristain attracts the highest calibre of nobles to its classrooms. It’s a world where social standing is determined by one’s faculty with magic; mages are the nobility, everyone else is peasantry. And the proudest noble student of them all is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere, despite her inability to successfully cast a magic spell. The record of destruction and explosions have earned her the nickname Louise the Zero, which makes the Familiar Summoning Ritual as she starts her second year of magic school all the more important. It’s when the students call forth the magical animal that will be their trusted companion for the rest of their lives. Some summon dragons, other summon salamanders, or owls, or moles... When it comes to Louise, she summons forth a human!


Saito Hiraga was just happily minding his own business in everyday Tokyo, when all of a sudden a portal opened up and sucked him in, depositing him in a fantasy magical world with two moons, where no one speaks his language, where people cast magic spells, and where he’s expected to be the servant of an obnoxious girl who’s a little too loose and free with the riding crop, and who wants him to wash her underwear! But it’s too late. He’s a familiar now, and bonded to Louise. She’s sealed the contract, and the runes marking him as hers have appeared on his hand. Only they’re not the usual familiar marking runes. And it turns out that this isn’t the first portal that’s opened between the two worlds. If Saito can figure out how this world works, maybe he can find a way home. As for Louise, she’s got her hands full training her new familiar. Everyone else got magical animals. All she got was an obnoxious peasant.


At the end of the previous season, with Louise having discovered her Void magic abilities, Saito got into his Zero fighter and flew back through the portal into his own world of Japan, Tokyo, Akihabara... Only that’s a recurring nightmare he has at the thought of being separated from his master. In reality he chose to stay behind with Louise in her world, except his idle fantasies of being with Louise still don’t match up to the reality of the beatings he receives when his affections momentarily stray. But Louise is going to need her Familiar more than ever, as while they may have delivered a setback to the forces of Albion at the end of the previous season, war is still imminent for the nation of Tristain, and Louise and Saito are going to be in the thick of it.

Twelve episodes of Familiar of Zero: Season 2 subtitled Knight of the Twin Moons, are presented across two discs from MVM. MVM are also releasing the series on Blu-ray at the same time.


Disc 1
1. Her Majesty the Queen’s Zero
2. The Vow of Wind and Water
3. The Priest’s Sword
4. The Three Valliere Sisters
5. The Spy’s Seal
6. The Queen’s Holiday

Disc 2
7. The Underground Secret Document
8. Crisis at the Institute of Magic
9. The Atonement of Flames
10. Enemy on the Snowy Alps
11. The Silver Pentecost
12. The Farewell Wedding Ceremony

Picture

Familiar of Zero: Season 2 gets a 1.78:1 native PAL anamorphic transfer on this disc. It’s a transfer on a par with the first season; the image is clear and sharp throughout, pleasantly detailed, with simple but effective character designs, and a bright and bold colour scheme to its comic fantasy world design. The animation is fluid and effective, if not overtly extravagant. The show does what it needs to tell its story in an entertaining and engaging way. It also scales up to an HD display without any issue. I have to wonder, given its simpler aesthetic, just what the Blu-ray will add to the presentation beyond just a deeper colour depth and the original frame rate and audio pitch.

Sound

No choice this time, just a DD 2.0 Japanese track, with optional translated (white) subtitles. The Japanese audio is fine, especially in a show that reunites Shakugan no Shana’s lead actors, Rie Kugimiya and Satoshi Hino as the main characters here. The two shows have absolutely nothing else in common, but there’s still a degree of familiarity in hearing Rie Kugimiya beating up on a hapless Satoshi Hino. The rest of the cast create similarly engaging characters, and the dialogue is clear throughout, the music quite likeable. It’s a shame that the English dub cast couldn’t be reunited for the franchise though, as what I sampled from Season 1 was a pretty decent dub.

Extras

The discs present their content with static menus. The sole extras are on disc 2, and boil down to the usual of textless credits, and trailers for Hakkenden – Eight Dogs of the East, Humanity Has Declined, and Little Busters ~Refrain~

Conclusion

Familiar of Zero’s first season was a lot of fun, especially for someone like me with a touch of nostalgia for older anime. This show harks back to a more innocent age of hapless teen males and tsundere firecracker females in harem setups. These days the character stereotypes have multiplied, there’s an anime girl to fit every otaku fetish now, and the shows appear to come off a production line. It may be the rose tinted spectacles, but there was more room for character and story development when the character types were fewer, and simpler. The problem for season one was that it pretty much wrapped up its story with a bow, done and delivered. That’s great for a one off series, but not so much a series popular enough to demand a sequel, even a franchise. So Season 2 of Familiar of Zero, called Knight of the Twin Moons, begins with the equivalent of a Bobby Ewing out of the shower moment. It turns out that Saito’s successful return home to his world was all a dream, indeed a bad dream as in reality he’s decided to stay in the magical world with the girl he’s sweet on, in the hope that she will someday see him not as a dog to be chastised, but the kind of guy a short-tempered, flat-chested, failure of a mage girl could be sweet on.


Season 2 offer more of the same in many respects when it comes to the central relationship between Saito and Louise. It inches ever closer to the two falling in love, only to be hamstrung by Saito’s straying eye alighting on any voluptuous bosom in the vicinity, and Louise responding by beating her familiar into submission through explosive use of her failed magic rather than actually sharing what she feels. If you like this sort of thing, and I have to admit that I love it, then Familiar of Zero Season 2’s comedy is on a par with the first season.


Fortunately there’s a lot more to Familiar of Zero than just the saucy relationship hi-jinks, and if you’re into the narrative of the show, the story really goes in an interesting direction, one that reveals a more serious side to the central characters beyond just lust and retribution. As this season begins the ramifications of the events of the end of season 1 become clear, as Tristain declares war on Albion, and all the male nobles get drafted into the military to head across the sea and do battle. Of course the girls of the magic institute are nobility as well, and they also want to do their bit, especially Louise. Louise is a particular favourite of Tristain’s regent, Princess Henrietta, and as the season begins, she and Saito are personally recruited by Henrietta, and we are also introduced to the Musketeers, led by Agnes. Agnes is fiercely loyal to Henrietta, but she also has her own agenda, finding those responsible for the massacre and destruction of her village of Angleterre. That’s a search that will strike close to home for Saito and Louise.


We also meet another new character in the form of priest and knight Julio Chesare from Romalia who shows up at the Institute to provide a source of annoyance and rivalry for Saito, when all the other male mages have been drafted, but who also serves Henrietta in secret. So it is that Saito, Louise, Agnes and Julio become Henrietta’s secret weapon while she herself is being manipulated and pushed by her government and nobility to pursue the war. Behind the comedy and action, there is a fair bit of politicking going on, and there is a fair bit of philosophy too, especially between Louise and Saito that makes things a little more complex and certainly more interesting. Louise as a member of the nobility feels that it is her duty and right to fight and if necessary die for the crown. Saito, the peasant can’t understand this, and he values the sanctity of life above all, especially his own. He’d much rather not fight if he didn’t have to, and he can’t understand why Louise seems so eager to die. This friction between them grows and amplifies over the season, to the point where it looks like their relationship is irreparable, but as you would expect, by the end of the show, Saito realises that he has something to fight and even die for, and Louise understands that there’s something worth living for as well.


There are a nice bunch of stories in this season, leading on from the events of the previous one, in particular the kidnapping of Henrietta by Prince Wales of Albion. If you recall, Wales was Henrietta’s betrothed, but he died at the end of season one, which raises a few questions about his appearance here. As the inevitability of war becomes clear, and Louise determined to serve, her family shows up to talk some sense into her by dragging her home. We meet her sisters, the scolding Eleonore, and the kindly Cattleya, both with the kind of cleavage that gives Saito hope for the eventual bloom of genetics.


Back at the Institute of Magic, there turns out to be a spy on the loose, one who can be recognised by a magical seal on her breast, and Saito’s happy to investigate. But there’s a more serious arc that begins here, when Agnes discovers the first clues to those responsible for the massacre of her village, a story arc that unfolds over the next few episodes, and culminates when Albion sends a secret force to attack Tristain’s Institute of Magic. The final three episodes sees the action transfer to Albion, with the war in full flow, and Saito, Louise and the others joining Henrietta on the front lines. Despite their overwhelming superiority and strength, the war doesn’t go the way Tristain’s forces expect, leading to a very emotional conclusion to the season, and leaving more than a few loose ends for Season 3, not least of which is the fact that Louise and Saito’s relationship has advanced to more than that of just a master and her familiar.


I really do like Familiar of Zero, especially as it’s one of the few anime romantic comedies of recent years where the male lead isn’t just a wet lettuce. Saito at his best channels the lecherous Ataru Moroboshi of Urusei Yatsura, and that hits me right in the sense of humour. But season 2 also reveals depth and thought in its writing and story that is even more impressive than the first season. Lecherous comedy aside there is some meat to Familiar of Zero, which makes it worth your attention.