Zero no Tsukaima (Zero’s Familiar) is another one of those series that, along with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When the Cicadas Cry), sounds a lot less dopey when you use Japanese. This series, along with Inukami, holds a position of the guilty pleasure.

Meet Louise. She is the daughter of a Duke, heir to a grand and storied lineage of magicians, and a total failure. Her classmates call her “Zero” due to her utter lack of success in spellcasting and her flat chest. The two things she seems to have going for her are pride and spunk, which any anime fan knows tend to be a bad combination. As a second-year student at he magic academy, she is expected to summon a tsukaima (familiar).

Meet Saito. He is a typical modern-day Japanese high school student, caught unawares while picking up his laptop from the repair shop by Louise’s summoning spell. Next thing he knows, he’s in a world of swords and sorcery, with an unruly pink-haired girl bossing him around and treating him like a slave. He doesn’t fit in terribly well, being totally unfamiliar with the customs, history, geography, politics, or just about anything about his new environment. One thing he has going for him is a somewhat unreliable knack for swordsmanship (sometimes he’s got it, sometimes he doesn’t).

And here we have Siesta. She is a commoner, working as a maid at Louise’s academy. She acts as the primary foil to Louise. Siesta is demure, Louise is bossy. Siesta is a commoner, Louise is a noble. Siesta has a job, Louise is a student. Siesta has short hair, Louise has long hair. Siesta is a shapely lass, Louise is an ironing board. Siesta looks up to Saito, Louise looks down on him.

Seven episodes in, this series is a well executed piece of entertainment fluff. It’s emply calories, hitting the various clichés necessary to please the fanbase without ever venturing into any substance. There’s a love triangle. There’s a pretty-boy. There’s a perverted old man. There’s a quiet bookworm. The main character has an untapped reservoir of tremendous power. Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before.

If you’re looking for anything groundbreaking,or thought-provoking, leave this title alone. If you have 23 minutes to spare and don’t mind your intelligence being insulted a little bit, give it a look. Excellent production quality, lame premise, C+.