Wednesday, March 28, 2012

[Ended] Zero Tsukaima Final: Light, with Mood Swings


The first series is pretty good, the second one was alright due to the shift to its tone, the third series, in my opinion just spiraled downwards made me wish it didn't exist. This final series, however, managed to redeem itself just so enough to end entire story on a good note.

While the mood swing is not nearly as extreme as the third installment, there are a few ups and down through out the series. For the most part, the early part of the series is a lot more lighthearted than the final arc which in my opinion makes the grand finale much more memorable because of the polar opposite moods contrast to each other. To be honest, the mood swing actually got me a little bit: I actually felt sad towards the end of episode 11 even deep down below I know there's no way they're going to let the series end like that.

While the series ended in a rather good note (in my opinion, too good), the last step that got everybody there, is a bit laughable, almost comparable to the conclusion of Battlefield Earth. On top of that, I don't think I'm the only person here that saw it coming miles away about how "well" they are going "package" up the end of the series--having seen how lighthearted the rest of the series has been, even with the somewhat heavy toned arcs scattered around, it's more or less impossible for the entire series to come to an tragic conclusion. If I have to mark any points off this final installment of Zero Tsukaima, that's probably among the biggest ones.

p.s. I said the same thing during season 3, didn't they already officially get married at the end of season 2?!

Final scoreboard:


Drama: 86 (Ups and downs)
Comedy: 82 (Acceptable)
Action: 85 (For what it has)
Art/Animation: 81 (Not bad, nothing amazing either)
Sound/Music: 87 (Rather fond of its music)
Character: 90 (Interesting)
Plot: 80 (good, only to certain extend)
Ending: 76 (Too predictable)

Re-watch value: 70 (Loses some mystery, but still interesting)

Overall: 82 - Good Enough Conclusion

Recommendation: The way they concluded the series, if the author wants to write more sequels in the future, there's really nothing from the plot stand point prevent him to do so. However, there'll be a lot less tension between the major characters and it'll be a lot less interesting to watch. So in my opinion, this series IS OVER. If you actually like the first two series (even if you hated the third one), I'd recommend you to watch this series just so you could see the grand conclusion. But if you decide to skip, I'm not going to try to convince you to watch it, either.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

This is a great blog!

You should check out Manga UK if you don't already read it too!