I agree with almost everything in Kabitzin’s excellent review of this series so this post will just make random remarks rather than attempt a systematic review. Firstly, where got love dilemma? It’s obvious that Siesta is the superior choice! Shaking Fists of Basket Grasping Fury FTW! Sudden Stop FTW!
Louise is my least favourite Rie Kugimiya role thus far. I found Shana’s brattiness to fit her chibi-ko looks, permanent sulk and actually consider her to be fairly well socialized given that her life experience came from a shiny brooch and an emotionless de arimasu meido. Nagi works well too because she’s dere often enough to balance out her tsun. Louise’s heavy physical attacks were a big minus for me too - I really dislike these types of characters who employ plenty of physical violence against their objects of affection e.g. Ranma 1/2 Akane Tendou’s huge inter-dimensional hammer, Love Hina’s Naru Narusegawa’s Hit Keitaro Through the Roof punch, pre-Fumoffu Kaname Chidori’s paper fan etc etc etc. It may just be a cartoon but this type of thing turns me off like the way some anime fans just hate yaoi or lolipedofiend stuff.
The villains like Fouquet and Ward were soooo obvious and the ominous foreshadowing was anything but subtle. Cromwell was also pretty much damp squib - stick power 4TW. The whole Reconquista thing wasn’t really well integrated and the conclusion felt a bit sudden with Louise’s power suddenly manifesting and pwning all the baddies, which emphasized to me how much a side show everything was in comparison to the whole Louise x Saito thing.
On the other hand, the side characters were really quite interesting. The Princess was sweet yet steely, especially her No Surrender, I Will Lead From the Front decision. She had it pretty rough too - with Wales being shish-kebabed and all that. Early-to-Mid GSD Cagalli really needed some mentoring from this lady. The battle ‘armour’ wasn’t bad either. LOL
Speaking of side characters, (1) needs MOAR Tabitha. (Why do I always think of cats when I hear that name?) After all, she is descended from the royal line of Ayanami and Nagato. (2) needs MOAR Kirche x Tabitha HAWT love-love. Kirche may be the Academy Bicycle but she only seems to give true tenderness for her silent blue-haired friend.
The gimmick of importing Earth stuff into the ZnT world was fun. I LOL’ed at the Staff of Destruction as well as the Kirche family treasure book. Though the latter needed light coming out of its pages a la Mahoromatic. The Zero Fighter was kinda orz for me though. Louise the Zero. Void sorcery. Her familiar flies a Zero-sen to the rescue! Stop hitting me with the GEDDIT!? GEDDIT!? stick already! X_X The bullets from this Zero can also be set on STUN. Or the Armour Class of the Dragons and their Knight Riders are really good. Was half expecting that little dude from Hayate no Gotoku to pop out with his ‘We can’t show you blood and gore’ sign.
In all, ZnT was still a pretty fun ride and its appeal was probably enhanced by its general lack of powerful competition when it first aired. Not for keepers though.
It’s amazing what lack of competition will do. ZnT definitely had some fun moments, though. My favorite is still when the jet shot down the dragons, because Reconquista didn’t tech up enough in the early stages. Siesta is so much a better choice for Saito, but no doubt Louise will win out. And while I am in COMPLETE agreement with you about generally hating girls who only know how to beat up their love interests, I make exceptions for girls whose designs I like. Louise still constantly annoyed me, but I like her in wallpapers and fanart.
Kirche was actually my favorite girl, and there is no indication she ever went all the way I tell you!
Looks like you’re all ready for ZnT 2 bro! Like Kabitzin, a tsundere, lolicious pinked haired character design with thigh-highs can do no wrong in my eyes. :) And like yourself, I hate violent anime girls too but I made an exception for Louise because she viewed Saito as an animal for a great part of the series (my excuse for our little noble cutie XD).
I thought Tabitha’s seiyuu needs more work actually. Hoping she lose that megane. :P Looking fwd to seeing Henrietta hit on Saito in ZnT2.
Henrietta is going to have to downgrade to a regular horse if she ever discovers men.
Haha, that unicorn will castrate Saito if he gets too close to Henrietta.
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/27/unicorn_power_tshirt.html
Unicorns are complicated. I imagine most versions would indeed happily maul milquetoast harem-shounen heroes though.
In which case we need more of them around.
If Henrietta-sama discovers yuri, she won’t have to downgrade to horses, right? ;)
Obviously. Could create minor issues with inheritance at some point mind you, but royal lines rarely had shortages of distant second cousins and whatnots that the gig could be dumped on in a pinch.
Or they could just go an elect a new monarch. That was the norm in a few realms actually.
Of course, it ultimately depends on how picky the local ‘corns are about definitions. Hopefully it’s written down somewhere so that unicorn-riders don’t run into rude surprises. -_-;