Having completed its 13-episode run, what can I say about Zero no Tsukaima?
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It has been a little while since I’ve posted about an episode of Ergo Proxy, but this one deserves a little special attention. On one level, it continues the chain of “Vincent and Lil wander into the reach of some random Proxy, conflict ensues, Vincent triumphs” episodes, but the tone really stands out. I was about to write a comment on a review at Star Crossed, but it started growing out of hand, so I’ve opted to put one here instead.
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Every season or so, we watchers of anime (they’re just Japanese cartoons; get over it) are exposed to a new glut of titles. Many are derivatives of past manga (they’re just Japanese comic books; get over it) or visual books / eroge / dating sims. Alas, I haven’t been very good at keeping up with the broad variety of manga available, and just can’t bring myself to play video games whose interfaces tend to revolve around staring at a slide show, clicking my mouse to get the next snippet of dialog. The summer is winding down, with shows like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni winding down and Zero no Tsukaima hitting the midway point, so it is just about time for a new crop to rise up and take their places.

Other, more focused sites like BasuGasuBakuhatsu and Makenai desuwayo have gone to the effort of researching and giving preview opinions of the literally dozens of shows set to air soon, but for some reason I just can’t do it. My reasons for dismissing some of these titles are so petty, so trivial as to be almost embarrassing. Additionally, I’ve been so very wrong about titles in the past (G-On Riders looked so promising for a couple episodes, really it did!) that such predictions based on a handful of promotional drawings are just bound to fall on their face and reveal me as the untalented hack that I may well be.

That said, a couple of titles will definitely get a viewing from me, for at least a couple of episodes.
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