Review for The Familiar Of Zero: Series 4 Collection

Introduction

It’s been a bit of a wait for the final instalment of The Familiar of Zero. We got seasons 2 and 3 last summer in close order, but we’ve had to wait almost a year for the final (at this time) series, Familiar of Zero F. Perhaps that is appropriate, as fans had an even longer wait for the show to be made in the first place. The first three seasons were produced between 2006 and 2008, but Familiar of Zero F wasn’t made until 2012. Not that the date of production has much to do with it, as The Familiar of Zero is in my view very much an old school harem comedy, of the sort that drew me to anime in the first place. Its tale of a perverted teen male and his pint-sized tsundere love interest lacks the character nuance and blatant fan-service of modern harem comedies, but it’s more spontaneous as a result, feels more original than clichéd. I’ve been looking forward to this fourth series, and I hope that the extended production hiatus hasn’t dampened its entertainment value.


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.


Saito isn’t much of a peasant any more at the start of the fourth series, although Louise can still find him obnoxious on occasion, resulting in explosive chastisement. At the end of season 3, we had learned of the existence of other Void Magic users, and one of them turned out to be King Joseph of Galia, Tabitha’s uncle, and completely off the edge of the psychopath scale. Louise, Saito and their friends had to venture into Galia to rescue Tabitha from her uncle. At the start of this fourth season, Saito, Louise and the half-elf Tiffania get a mission from Princess Henrietta to go to Romalia and meet the pope, where Louise and Tiffania will become honorary priestesses. But there is more to this mission than meets the eye, which will see them caught up in greater danger than ever before. But something even more terrifying awaits Saito should they succeed; domestic bliss with Louise in a home of their own...


Familiar of Zero F, the fourth season is presented across two discs by MVM, 12 episodes in total. The series is also being released on Blu-ray on the same day as this DVD release.

Disc 1
1. Louise of the Holy Land
2. Priestess in Aquileia
3. The Incompetent King Gone Mad
4. The Queen’s Reward
5. The Maidens of De Ornierés
6. Trouble at the Outdoor Bath

Disc 2
7. Elves from the Desert
8. Escape Through the Sewer
9. Tabitha’s Coronation
10. Awakening of Calamity
11. Louise’s Choice
12. The Familiar of Zero

Picture

Familiar of Zero F: Season 4 gets a 1.78:1 native PAL anamorphic transfer on this disc. Once again, 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. Despite the four year gap between season 3 and 4, the look of the animation remains consistent, although given its more recent vintage, I suspect that it’s animated at a higher resolution, and will look better on Blu.

Sound

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. I did notice the telltale wobbliness of pitch correction this time around, which was disappointing. Naturally that won’t be an issue with Blu-ray.

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 (although in an error, both OP and ED have the end theme song playing over them) and trailers for Hakkenden – Eight Dogs of the East, Super Sonico, and Captain Earth.

Conclusion

Fans of the Familiar of Zero franchise will be happy to learn that the fourth series offers more of the same magical adventure, and saucy hijinks for its characters. Even all the way in 2012, when this series was made, it was still offering the perverted teen male and pint-sized tsundere antics that was a staple of anime fifteen to twenty years previously, but doing so in a way that appeals to modern audiences as well. By the fourth season, it looks as if Saito is accumulating a significant harem, but this series changes things up by actually moving his relationship forward again, and having him actually come to a decision about settling down. Of course settling isn’t easy, even when he and Louise get a mansion of their own to live in, as all the other girls insist on coming along as well.


Familiar of Zero F still offers the same mix of magical adventure and action, alongside saucy comedy and light naughtiness. Female nudity may happen, but it’s either obscured by a sunbeam or the camera focuses on Saito’s reaction shot, only to discretely cut away for the sounds of his punishment, or a distant shot of an explosion. This fourth series actually manages to contrive a hot springs episode as well, in a magical land where no one has ever heard of communal bathing, where girls can grope each other’s boobs, and men try and fail to peep.


The fourth series does fall down in my estimation, in that it isn’t quite so cohesive a whole when it comes to a story arc. It seems that the first half of the series is more devoted to tying up loose ends from season 3 rather than getting straight into the fourth season storyline, although elements such as the Pope in Romalia and the prophecy about the Void users are introduced early on. The first three episodes are devoted to closing up the King Joseph of Galia storyline, which sees him and his familiar Sheffield bring his particular brand of lunacy to Romalia with a large scale attack that Louise, Saito and the others go to Romalia to defend against.


The most disappointing aspect for me in this season is Tabitha’s arc, or princess Charlotte of Galia as was revealed in Season 3, who here has to go through some soul-searching and hard decision making as she has to choose between her destiny and her feelings for Saito. But in terms of storytelling, writing and character, it’s all done in an unrewarding desultory fashion that fails to satisfy. It’s just another thing to check off the list before the show gets to the actual storyline, that of the Ancient Dragon that threatens the world, the prophecy of the Void Users coming together to defeat it, the price that Saito will be called upon to pay, and Louise’s conflict between her duty and her feelings for Saito. There’s also the introduction of a new bunch of characters, the Elves who at one point kidnap Saito and Tiffania (the half elf from season 3). The problem is that this story should have had the whole 12 episodes to play out, but instead it’s crammed into the final six, which along with all the saucy antics, means that it feels a little rushed. It is still entertaining though, and in keeping with the rest of the Familiar of Zero series.


Familiar of Zero F, the fourth season is fun, and if you’ve bought into the series so far, you will no doubt have already pre-ordered this release. You won’t be disappointed. Unfortunately the series author, Noboru Yamaguchi passed away in 2013, after the release of this series, but before he could complete the light novels. He did relate the outline of the story conclusion to his publishers, and they intend to complete the series with a different author, although if that conclusion is animated, it will be after a longer hiatus than that between series 3 and 4. Having said that, series 4 does end in a way that offers an appropriate and fitting conclusion; one that will satisfy fans of the franchise even if no more Familiar of Zero is ever animated.