Literature / The Familiar of Zero

Do NOT call her flat-chested. Or else.

In a World… where young witches and wizards train at the Tristain Academy of Magic. One of these students is Louise, who's so terrible at magic she's earned the nickname "Zero". When the time comes for students to summon their familiars, she ends up summoning Saito Hiraga, a normal teenager from modern Japan. Even though he's being treated like a dog and forced to do menial labor, Saito stays to protect his mistress. This means dealing with incoming advances from other women around him and getting involved in a war between Tristain's neighboring countries...

The Familiar of Zero (Zero no Tsukaima) is a series of Light Novels written by Noboru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Usatsuka, which began publication under the MF Bunko J label in 2004; tragically, Yamaguchi passed away from cancer on April 4, 2013, leaving the series unfinished until it was confirmed in the summer of 2015 that the books would continue under the pen of an author that would turn out to be Yu Shimizu. The 21st novel was published in February 2016, while the 22nd and final planned novel was published in late February 2017.

The series has an anime adaptation that ran for four seasons (titled The Familiar of Zero, Knight of the Twin Moons, The Princess' Rondo and The Familiar of Zero F) and aired from 2006 to 2012. The first season is the only season that has been dubbed in English. North Americans can watch season 4 of the anime, Familiar of Zero F, here legally on Crunchyroll. The novels also have a manga adaptation which was illustrated by Nana Mochizuki and serialized in Monthly Comic Alive from 2006 to 2009 (with a sequel Chevalier by Higa Yukari (serialized from 2010 to 2013)); both of them have been translated into English by Seven Seas Entertainment under the title Zero's Familiar. Two spin-offs (Zero no Tsukaima Gaiden: Tabatha no Bōken by Takuto Kon and Zero no Chukaima: Yōchien nano! by Takamura Masaya) and an official anthology manga were published in Japan, but not translated into English.

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Familiar of Tropes:

• Above the Influence: Saito persistently brushes off the advances of a Love Potion-afflicted Louise in the first season. He often acts this way towards the other women as well, despite the fact that they all insist they're okay with it. Though he has intentionally kissed some of them, he often ends up regretting it.
• Action Dress Rip: When Henrietta learns about Albion's invasion, she rips her wedding dress and takes off running to lead the army.
• Action Girl: Agnes is a musketeer and a royal bodyguard.
• A-Cup Angst: Louise is very insecure about her bust size, and believes this is why Saito keeps looking at other women. When Saito tries calming her by claiming to love flat chests Tabitha simply points out that hers are smaller. Louise just can't win.
• Aerith and Bob: There are names like Henrietta, Guiche, Tabitha, Agnes... all appropriate for the setting. Then there are names like Hiraga Saito and Siesta. People do notice Saito's fairly strange name, but it's justified. Seems to be played straight in Siesta's case—there's no Expy nation of Spain, her only named relatives have British-sounding names, and she's of Japanese descent.
• Alien Sky: The world the show takes place in has two moons, thus everyone assumes Saito's lying when he says his world has only one.
• All Women Are Lustful: Almost every woman Saito encounters ends up trying to seduce him.
• Alternate Universe: Saito's earth, due to a major reveal at the end of Volume 21. Brimir's ancestors were originally from Saito's earth and crossed over into what is now Halkegenia.
• Ambiguously Brown: Kirche is from "Germania" but her skin tone looks like she came from somewhere else.
• And Now You Must Marry Me:
  • Wardes tries to do this to Louise in Season 1, and since he's her arranged fiancé, he has a good chance of success.
  • Non-villainous example with Tabitha in Season 4. She tells Louise that if she ever gets in a bad argument with Saito again, the former will take Saito away and marry him.
• Animal Espionage:
  • Dirty Old Man Osmand uses his familiar, Mótsognir, a mouse, to determine what color underwear his secretary is wearing.
  • Malicorne uses his owl to deliver messages.
  • Guiche uses his mole for digging a hole in order to install a peephole in a basement wall.
• Asleep for Days: Saito sleeps for three days after his first duel with Guiche.
• Asshole Victim: Even though Louise suffers from an abusive family and is constantly bullied at school, the way she treats Saito throughout the entire series makes it hard to sympathize with her in the end.
• The Atoner:
  • Mr. Colbert detests violence because of the time he burned down a village on bogus orders.
  • King Joseph can be seen as a twisted example. It's hinted at that he truly regrets not feeling remorse over killing his brother and that all his actions up to this point have been an attempt to try and make himself feel remorseful.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning:
  • Saito is knighted by Henrietta and becomes a nobleman.
  • Louise is adopted as a sister by Henrietta, thus making her a princess.
• Ax-Crazy: King Joseph of Gallia. The previous king awarded the throne to him instead of his brother and his brother expresses happiness over Joseph having been made king instead of the seething jealousy Joseph had been hoping to see. This causes him to snap and murder his brother in a fit of rage during a hunting trip some time after.
• Baby-Doll Baby: Tabitha's mother drank a spiked drink meant for Tabitha, who is actually the next in line for the Galian throne. This resulted in her losing her mind and thinking that Tabitha's childhood doll was Tabitha herself, and that her daughter was an impostor sent to replace the doll. This leads to Tabitha leaving and adopting the name of her doll, Tabitha.
• Badass Bookworm: Tabitha can be seen reading a book when she's not kicking ass or savings someone else's.
• Bag of Kidnapping: In episode 21 Éléonore magically conjures up a sack to capture Louise with as she sleeps, she then locks her in a jail cell after untying the sack.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: A riding crop isn't sharp, but the execution is the same.
• Bathtub Bonding: Saito and Siesta, much to Louise's chagrin.
• Battle Couple: Saito and Louise just like with any Void user. As their partner fights and protects them as their incredibly powerful spells takes some time to chant.
• Beach Episode: The OVA. Octopus hijinks ensues. It helps that Headmaster Osmond is a Dirty Old Man who will make up whatever excuse he can to get the girls into swimsuits that have somehow appeared from our world (calling the costumes "traditional uniforms for the ritual for the spirit of water"). The girls change into one piece swimsuits, then bikinis, as they perform the "rituals" of splashing each other and smashing watermelon.
• Beauty Is Best: Guiche de Graumont believes in this. He is mostly seen as a male ojou and treated like beauty is everything. This is subverted during the series, thought, with Character Development.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Louise constantly refers to Saito as "baka-inu" (literally "stupid dog"), usually when she's about to beat him senseless. These moments usually come right after she feels a surge of jealousy. Saito, for his part, pushes her berserk buttons on a daily basis, but is loyal unto death to her.
• Beta Couple: Montmorency and Guiche are more dysfunctional than most examples, but nothing compared to the leads.
• Betty and Veronica: Siesta as Betty (nice commoner) and Louise as Veronica (harsh noblewoman).
• Betty and Veronica Switch: Thanks to the Anime's Flanderization the roles were switched; Siesta becomes more sadistic and seductive while Louise tames her temper and develops compassion.
• Big Bad:
  • King Joseph is this within the majority of the series. He is responsible for Tabitha's plight, the murder of his brother and the terrors that Reconquista has caused, due to him being responsible for their rise within the shadows.
  • The Ancient Dragon later becomes the main and final antagonist of the series during F's Episodes 10-12 after Joseph's death, posing a more serious threat to the main characters than many of the franchise's villains.
• Big Eater: In the Anime and Manga, Tabitha can put it away with the best of them and then eat their food, too.
• Bishie Sparkle: Guiche, as well as his familiar.
• Black Comedy Rape: Louise's mistreatment of Saito occasionally leans dangerously towards S&M...◊
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: While acting-wise the European Spanish dub is pretty good, the translation is sometimes too literal:
  • Louise's nickname Louise The Zero is translated literally in Spanish as Louise La Cero. Even if that makes sense as Louise is cataloged in her world as a Zero talent mage, it was turned into "Louise la Inútil" (Louise the useless) for the official translation, making the nickname to not go with the untranslated name of the cartoon, although, It goes more among the lines of Woolseyism as they are adapting the names like "Kirche the Ardent" became "Kirche la ardiente" (both a fire mage and a seductress) and "Guiche the Bronze" became "Guiche el chico de bronze" (an immature kid and also a master of metal creations) for the Latin America dub.
• Blow You Away: Wind mages.
• Blush Sticker: On Irukukuu/Sylphid and Malicorne.
• Body Double: Wales explains to Henrietta that he used one of these to avoid assassinations. It turns out to be a lie and his body has been reanimated instead.
• Bodyguard Crush: Familiars are summoned to protect their masters. Saito is a familiar and Louise is his master. Do the math.
• Bolivian Army Ending: Both Volume 2 and 7 end with a variation of this, though the ones at the receiving end are not the main characters. In Volume 2, the Albionian Royalists’ glorious last stand got most of the wind knocked out of it after Prince Wales’ assassination, so they ended up getting massacred. Volume 7 closes with Cromwell, up to then the main antagonist, cheerfully greeting the “reinforcements” from the Gallian airship armada… only to be bombarded and killed along the rest of the Reconquista army.
• Boob-Based Gag: Tiffania dubbed by Saito as "the big breasted fairy who saved my life". They are the source of many jokes such as people wondering if they are real.
  • In the Sleipnir Ball (in the anime), she masquerades as Saito; Louise thought the one she saw was Saito, but looking a bit down, she saw a huge chest, because the magic did not seem to remove Tiffania's chest size!
• Brainwashed Bride: When Louise refuses to marry Wardes in the anime, Mazarin uses magic to put her in a trance, and the wedding ceremony begins. However, just as Louise is almost compelled to say "I do," Saito arrives to rescue her and brings her back to her senses.
• Broken Bird: Tabitha has great personal angst because her Evil Uncle broke her wings, metaphorically speaking. The death of her father, the insanity of her mother, the missions he forced on her, etc.
• Broken Pedestal: Viscount Wardes is this towards Louise. She thought he was The Paragon when he was truly The Mole.
• Bust-Contrast Duo:
  • Louise is the Tiny Tyrannical Girl, a Tsundere, and the abusive Veronica to the buxom Siesta's Betty.
  • Also seen in the series with the Lovable Alpha Bitch Kirche, who has a big bust, and Rei Ayanami Expy Badass Bookworm Tabitha, who's so flat as Louise.
  • Later also seen by the cute (and bustier) half-elf Tiffania that even makes Siesta seems slender as Louise, as well becoming the Third-Option Love Interest for Saito Hiraga.
• Buxom Beauty Standard:
  • Several of the women, particularly Henrietta and Siesta, utilize this trope in an attempt to seduce Saito. Louise is none too happy about that.
  • Tiffania's breasts are often called to "debate" by many of the male characters in the series. And all like them.
• Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: Saito and Louise drive each other nuts but can't part from each other without feeling depressed or listless. It's taken to the Logical Extreme in Volume 8 of the novel. A depressed Louise is upset that even in a dream, she's unable to tell Saito she loves him. Deciding she can't leave him until she's said it at least once, she attempts suicide just to meet him again. Only to be stopped by Siesta. Only to fall either way. Don't worry, they get out safe and sound... at Guiche's expense...
• Can't Bathe Without a Weapon: During the Hot Springs Episode, the girls carried their magic wands to the hot spring to prevent the boys from peeping on them.
• The Casanova:
  • Guiche chases after girls (usually first years).
  • Possibly Julio, though he tends to have girls running after him instead.
• Cavalry Betrayal: The end of Volume 7, in which the Gallian navy show up to "greet" Cromwell shortly after the allied fleet leaves — said greeting taking the form of thousands of cannonballs fired at the base where Cromwell is.
• Censor Steam: In the anime and light novels such as during a Furo Scene.
• Chains of Love: The second season ending theme, in lyrics and imagery.
• Character Development: Less apparent in the anime, but virtually every recurring character becomes more rounded as the series progresses, mostly as a result of growing maturity as well as the stark realization of the looming threats of war.
  • Louise's development is one of the most obvious; starting off as a Jerkass with a Hidden Heart of Gold who frequently abuses Saito physically and verbally, she eventually becomes a Type B Tsundere towards Saito after realizing her own feelings to Saito and recognizing his exploits, effectively overcoming her noble upbringing which discriminates against commoners. The entire process took almost 20 volumes, spanning over a year in the series timeline.
  • Saito also becomes more mature, though not as dramatic as Louise; starting off as a happy-go-lucky Ordinary High-School Student who could not resist being physically attracted to every beautiful woman he meets and ends up becoming a Chivalrous Pervert with clear objectives in life and who recognises his own failings and constantly reminds himself to resist any temptations so as to remain faithful to Louise. This too also took over a dozen volumes.
  • The young nobles from the Tristain Academy of Magic such as Guiche and Malicorne became less Upper-Class Twit and more Knight in Shining Armor and thus more appreciative of commoners over time, especially after first-hand experiences with war and personally witnessing Saito's strength.
• Character Exaggeration: Every single named character gets this, with varying levels, in the anime; their quirks and personality traits are amplified for the sake of constant slapstick. Louise is more violent and mistrusts Saito more easily, resulting in more punishment and explosions for him; Saito himself is more of a willing pervert, the "accidental" part is less pronounced, resulting in him deserving some of the punishing; Siesta appears in situations she wasn't originally in, heavily exaggerating her clingy quirks and snark comments on her bigger bosom over Louise's.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Siesta who in the first anime season is a good-natured classy woman; seen as the complete opposite of Louise. Later seasons however, Siesta's character takes a complete 180 and acts more like a desperate slut trying to force her way into the relationship. You never see the same lovable Siesta from season one again after deciding to change her actions.
  • Saito went through an unexplained change between seasons. Season one, he always stayed calm whenever he ended up in embarrassing situations with the women. In season 2 and on he clearly shows a perverted side of himself anytime a woman tries to seduce him in some way or form.
• Chased Off into the Sunset: The 2nd opening and ending ends with Saito being chased by Louise.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: The Water Ruby, a ring which Henrietta passed to Louise as a good luck charm before assigning her to a mission in Albion. It was vital to convince Prince Wales of Albion that Louise is really Tristain's ambassador. It is more than just a Tristainian royal keepsake as it was later revealed to be essential in unlocking the secrets of Void magic.
• The Chess Master: Joseph, Tabitha's uncle, had Tabitha go on suicide missions after nearly poisoning her, started the Tristian-Germania war with Albion through a group he was manipulating, made small nuclear rocks, and caused another war to break out between his nation and Tristania.
• Collector of the Strange: Rukhsana, an elven researcher introduced in Volume 18 of the light novels, likes to collect human artifacts from Halkeginia. However, she tends to mistake the functions of those artifacts, leading her to use them in strange ways, such as hanging a bucket on a hat-stand, or using an upturned umbrella as a container.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Louise's treatment of Saito would be horrifying if it were not played for laughs ^note Some fans find it horrifying nonetheless.
• Cool Ship: The Ostland. In a world where flying sailing ships and flying chariots are the norm, a ship that is powered by both magic and technology^note steam technology, but still.... and packed with technologically-inspired magic weapons is simply awesome.
• Cool Teacher: Mr. Colbert. Also a Badass Teacher.
• Couch Gag: In the Season 3 of the anime, the ending credits start with Louise chasing a rabbit, and at the end the rabbit turns out to be a girl wearing rabbit costume after she removes the rabbit head. And in each episode, she was a different girl, who is relevant to the episode.
• Crushing Handshake: In "The Birth of Louise the Zero", Kirche offers Louise a handshake, but the handshake morphs into a hand-crushing contest that only ends when Montmorency interrupts.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Brimir, who has the cultural role of Jesus, historically looks like a mishmash of Abraham and Muhammad, and is named either after the primeval giant Ymir or an afterlife for the virtuous souls, both from Norse Mythology.
• Dance of Romance: When Louise is a guest of honour at the academy's ball, several nobles ask her to dance, but she turns them all down and asks Saito to dance with her. Saito later admits that this is the moment he fell for Louise.
• Death Faked for You: Kirche lied about Mr. Colbert's death when he is just severely injured to prevent Agnes from exacting revenge on him.
  • In the anime, it was Tabitha who did the faking, but in both cases, Mr. Colbert ended up recuperating in Kirche's family estate.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • Saito and Guiche become good friends after their duel in the first season. It didn't happen immediately afterward, but by the time they are fellows in the Undine Knights they are bosom buddies.
  • Episode ten of season two shows an enemy dragon-rider that Saito shoots down help him and Louise escape enemy territory.
• Denied Food as Punishment: Louise did that to Saito from time to time early in the series.
• Determinator: Saito. Even dying fails to slow him down for long.
• Dirty Old Man: Headmaster Osmond uses his mouse familiar to look up his assistant's skirt.
• Disciplines of Magic: Magic is divided into five schools of magic: Earth, Fire, Air, Water, and Void. Mages who know Void can learn no other discipline of magic, but those that specialize in others may be able to learn the other three non-Void disciplines.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Earth mages.
• Disney Death: In the second season finale of the anime, Saito dies after facing an army of 70,000, but he miraculously comes back to life thanks to a fairy. The novels give a proper development and resolution to the story arc of Saito's death.
• Dispel Magic: Louise's first controlled void spell. Earlier on, she also accidentally damages the defense wards on a storeroom for magical artifacts. In the third season, Louise's void spell is the only reason the heroes are able to defeat the square golem.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Louise can go overboard with her abuse towards Saito for something like discussing a benign topic with a girl other than her.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Take for example: in episode 2 of the fourth season you get the feeling that Joseph was about to rape Louise for a second when he said she was gonna "lose her honor", then you see his robe lowering and how he kneels in front of her while she's tied up on the ground and touches her face...
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Louise can get frighteningly violent towards Saito, and he's the only one that has a problem with it.
• Drum Bathing: Saito makes his outdoor bath using an old kitchen cauldron.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: In the light novels, Julio is mistaken for a girl by Saito.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: In the second novel, Saito tried to undress Louise in her sleep, with Derflinger egging him on.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: To list some of Saito's accomplishments:
  • Fought and stalled an army of seventy thousand.
  • Saved Tabitha, a princess of the neighboring country, from her Evil Uncle in his own castle.
  • Showed nobles that, yes, commoners can kick their asses.
  • Gained the admiration of several nobles in the academy.
  • Used modern weapons—that is, a M72 LAW rocket launcher that has fallen into the country.
  • Fought an elf and survived. This is one of his biggest ones, really, as elves in the novel are practically demigods.
  • Refused a chance to abandon Halkegenia and return to his homeland Japan (although he was lined up to be shot by the Pope's Windalfr, if he stepped into the portal), got a tank, and defeated an entire platoon of magitek weapon-wielding medieval mecha designed specifically to ward all medieval weaponry and magic, by himself, with ammunition support from Tabitha and steering from Colbert, both guided by Saito. His victory was then claimed by Vittoro's Crusaders faction to be entirely their job and their success. Twice. This time all of the Undine Knights were upset by that.
    • All of this happened after Saito had an important and complex part of his bond with Louise broken by a brute force Amnesia spell, specifically the part designed to make Saito ignore everything but Louise's positive qualities and block out anything that doesn't make him subservient to her. Yet he still soldiered on for her, regardless. Yet Louise still shows him no respect, even calling him a dog and continuing to whip him. She also refuses to accept his being a noble (When she was a Chevalier, he later became the same. When she became a Court Lady, he later became a Lieutenant of the Imperial Army. When she became in line to the throne, he later became a Duke.) meaning similar or equal grounds to her. When this was mentioned to her in the Light Novel, she yelled at him loudly, mocking the thought of them ever being equal using her last name as her entire argument, and lastly called him a dog some more for good measure.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Even though Louise enslaves and abuses Saito, he still is remarkably dedicated to protecting her and helping her complete her missions, despite not really having any legitimate motivation to do so.
• Easily Forgiven: Louise essentially kidnaps Saito from his old life by force, enslaves him, forces him to do her chores, beats him whenever she gets upset, and denies him food as punishment when she's unsatisfied with his work. But despite all this, Saito still ends up falling in love with her.
• Elemental Hair Colors: On the Played Straight side, we've got Fiery Redhead Kirche (fire affinity), Rei Ayanami Expy Tabitha (wind), Mme. Chevreuse (brown / Earth), and Miss Longueville (green / Earth). On the other hand, Louise, Cattleya, and their mother Karin all have pink hair, but all have a different affinity (Void, Earth, and Wind, respectively). It's notable that the main characters who are not magic users of some kind (Seito, Siesta, Marteau, Scarron, and Jessica) all have very dark brown or black hair.
• Elemental Powers: Magic is divided into the classical elements of earth, fire, wind, water and the not-so-lost element of void Louise can use it, but that is the only of the 5 elemental magic types she can use, that means, she can only destroy... Blow thing or people (mostly her familiar) up..
• Element No. 5: Void is the legendary fifth element. The reason a mage's rank doesn't go beyond "Square" is because everyone thought it was just a legend. While never outright stated, it seems to be heavily implied that void type mages can't use any other type of magic. That would mean that no mage above square rank is even possible.
• Emotionless Girl: Tabitha has a VERY good reason to be emotionless. After all the family trauma she's taken, it's likely Heroic Safe Mode.
• Enemy Mine: Whenever the love triangle expands, Louise and Siesta team up to try and take down the other girls to eliminate the competition.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • Louise has been kissed more than once by ladies, and is often victim to Marshmallow Hell as well.
  • Tiffania in the anime; if they are a character, they have stared at her breasts at least once.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Saito. Both Marteau and Julio act suspiciously around him, and Scarron, the Macho Camp inn manager, said that Saito's just his type as well.
• Excalibur in the Rust: Saito's sword, Derflinger, is introduced as a rusty piece of junk in a commoner's bargain bin. It is truly a talking weapon that can absorb spells.
• Expy:
  • Louise and Saito strongly resemble Shana and Yuuji from Shakugan no Shana and have the same voice actors to boot.
  • Tabitha is an expy of Rei.
• Eye Catch: Usually of a female character(s) in the show with a tiny animation of Saito and Louise on the bottom part of the screen.
• Evolving Credits: This happens in both the first and second season's opening. During most of the two first seasons, it relatively remains the same, with just the bgm playing in the background, but when the final episodes of season one and two occurs, the opening seems to proceed as normally... only to have additional sounds during certain parts, such as the Zero Fighter fly-by and the magical explosion near the end of season one's opening.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: Used by two different pairs in one episode. Louise x Agnes being the more entertaining of the two — Agnes eavesdrops on a conversation between conspirators, Louise comes up behind her and gasps when she overhears part of the plot. When one of the men goes to investigate, Agnes quickly kisses Louise until the man walks off. Agnes looks disgusted (or, at least, very embarrassed) afterwards, but for some odd reason, someone happens to mention a rumor to Louise later on that Agnes might like women...
  • In that exact same episode/chapter of the light novel, there's a really steamy, passionate scene where Princess Henrietta practically rapes Saito to avoid arrest by government officials looking for her.
  • Also on the subject of Agnes, she is androgynous/masculine in appearance ^note  As long as she's wearing something loose enough to hide her figure, which is definitely NOT masculine , so her and Louise kissing wouldn't necessarily look like a lesbian makeout session to unknowing observers.
  • Then there's another moment where the Queen and Saito do this, only using something more... racy.
• Face Doodling: Saito engages in some of this on Louise a few days after becoming her familiar, giving her a classic moustache and glasses.
• Familiar: "Summon Servant" is a rite of passage for young mages. It determines their future education and is a measure of their potential.
• Fan Boy: In the novels, Saito has several of them to go along with all of the shiny new fan girls.
• Fangirl: Saito and his male friends get a few after the Albion wars, hell even a girl support group formed from the schoolgirls in first and second year to help them.
  • After his exploits in Romalia and Gallia, Saito comes back to Tristain and finds that a play his been written about him. It plays him up as a hero of the plebeians. His fan base has been extended to all the commoner woman who now want a piece of him.
  • This was actually downplayed in the anime, believe it or not. In the book, one of the first things one of his fans asks of him is to name her unborn child.
• Fanservice:
  • It's troweled on in very thick amounts, especially in the later seasons, to the point where it can be distracting to the actual plot.
  • The Ova (see Beach Episode) only serves to show the female characters in skimpy swimsuit and put them in sexy situations.
• Fantastic Measurement System: Mages are ranked as either "Dots", "Lines", "Triangles" or "Squares" in terms of how powerful they are, which references the four elements of magic. Higher ranked mages can combine more elements into a single spell (dots only one, lines two, and triangles and squares three and four respectively), and in addition require less willpower to cast spells of the same level as lower ranked mages.
• Fantastic Racism: References in the light novels indicate the elves hold the "Holy Land," and are resented for this as well as being feared for having unusually powerful magic. Montmorency said at one point that even a Square Mage is at a disadvantage against an elf. This is because Tiffania hides her pointy ears.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Most if not all the kingdoms and countries have seventeenth century Europe counterparts and most of the characters are named after either actual historical figures or fictional characters from the work Zero no Tsukaima draws a lot of its inspiration from, The Three Musketeers. So much so that it is definitely a case of Shown Their Work:
  • Halkeginia (Zero No Tsukaima's Europe counterpart) is loosely based on seventeenth century Europe, with the countries, excepted Tristain, having the old Roman or Classical names of existing countries:
    • The Kingdom of Gallia is the Kingdom of France, with some flavors of Spain in it (like the castle of Alhambra where Tabitha was imprisoned). The capital city is Lutèce (Paris), but the royale palace is in Versailles, just like it was in Real Life under the Ancient Régime.
    • The Kingdom of Albion and the Holy Republic of Albion are respectively the Kingdom of England and the Commonwealth Republic (with some Germany in it). The capital city is Londinium (London), and the court took refuge in Newcastle during the civil war.
    • The Holy Empire of Romania is The Papal States, and is descended from Halkeginia's version of The Roman Empire.
    • The Empire of Germania is north-eastern Europe: a combination of the Holy Roman Empire, seventeenth century Austria and seventeenth century Poland (modern Poland and western Russia). The capital city is Vindobona (Vienne).
    • The Kingdom of Tristain is the Austrian Netherlands (combination of modern Belgium and modern Netherlands), but only geographically speaking. Thematically and politically, it has more numerous similarities to France.
    • The Grand Duchy of Grudenholf is the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and, as seventeenth century Luxembourg was under Austrian Netherlands rule, is under Tristain rule.
    • Outside of Halkeginia, there are also elven states like Sahara (the Ottoman Empire) or Rub Al'khali (probably the Emirate of Diriyah).
  • Characters:
    • Queen Henrietta of Tristain is Henriette Anne Stuart of England, cousin (and mistress) of Louis XIV, and wife of his brother, Philippe of France (who was ''busy'' with Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche). Her maidservant was Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchesse de la Valière (also King Louis' mistress; the real Guiche was, prior to this, trying to get into her pants too, but Louis was more... persuasive). In the same vein, Louise de la Vallière is also one of the main characters in Alexandre Dumas's novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne, which makes central to the plot her affair with Louis XIV, while she is the fiancée of Raoul, who is the son of musketeer Athos and the titular Vicomte.
    • Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche, is, of course, Guiche de Gramond, and was just as a playboy as Guiche, although better at it. He is also in The Vicomte de Bragelonne, where he is portrayed as the closest friend of Raoul.
    • Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst's name comes from Sophia Augusta Fredericka von Anhalt-Zerbst, also known as Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.
    • Montmorency Margarita La Fère de Montmorency is probably a reference to both Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency and the musketeer Athos, whose noble title is "Count de la Fère".
    • Among the teachers of Tristain Academy, there is Jean Colbert, named after Jean-Baptiste Colbert the finance minister of Louis XIV, and Professor Chevreuse is probably named after Marie de Rohan, Duchesse de Chevreuse, a French noblewoman so infamous for being at the center of many the intrigues and conspiracies that she featured in The Three Musketeers as the lover of musketeer Aramis, then musketeer Athos, giving him a son, Raoul.
    • Interestingly, the thief Fouquet contains three reference: first, Fouquet is the name of a corrupt French government official under Cardinal Mazarin and an underage Louis XIV; second, her alias as Ms. Longueville most likely references the French noblewoman and important member of the Fronde civil war against the Sun King; finally, her real name, Matilda de Saxe-Gotha (as well as Tiffania's family name), has for real-world equivalent the House of Sachse-Coburg and Gotha (which had a British branch that changed their name due to anti-German sentiment during World War I, becoming The House of Windsor...the current British royal family).
    • Viscount Wardes, Louise's fiancee, is named after the Comte de Wardes, a character and antagonist from The Three Musketeers, who tries to stop d'Artagnan from traveling to England.
    • The novel mentions that Cattleya, Louise's eldest sister, inherited a title from her father, out of compassion for her lifelong sickness, and of which she is the only member. Said title, Cattleya Yvette La Baume Le Blanc de La Fontaine, is a reference to famous French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine.
    • Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of Holy Republic of Albion, is, well, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of Commonwealth Republic. The civil war he leads is against James I of Albion, counterpart of James the First (father of Charles I against whom the real Cromwell led his rebellion). On the other hand, Prince Wales Tudor of Albion is a generic Prince of Wales.
    • Giulio named himself after the Fantasy Counterpart of Julius Caesar, who apparently lived centuries ago in the history of the setting. So he's not actually a fantasy counterpart of a historical figure, just a fanboy of the fantasy counterpart of a historical figure.
    • The fourteenth novel introduces a Gallian warrior named Batz Castlemorre. In real life, Charles de Batz-Castelmore was more commonly known as d'Artagnan (yes, he really existed).
    • Albrecht III, Emperor of Germania, is maybe Albert VII, Archduke of Austria.
    • Cardinal Mazarin, the chancellor of Tristain, is named after Cardinal Jules Mazarin, Italian cardinal and French politician under Louis XIV.
    • Madame Molière, the chancellor of Gallia under Joseph's reign and his mistress, sports the stage name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, a.k.a. Molière, the famous French playwright.
    • The campy Scarron is named after Paul Scarron, a novelist, playwright, and poet who lived during the time of Louis XIV.
    • It is mentioned in passing that the grandfather of King Joseph of Gallia and his brother Charles of Orléans, as well as builder of Versailles, was named Robespierre III, most likely after Maximilien Robespierre.
    • Maricorne isn't exactly historical, but has a rather... interesting... Spanish meaning.
• Fat Best Friend: Malicorne
• First Girl Wins: Mostly played straight, but mildly toyed with as well. Louise was the first girl we're introduced to, she wasn't the first girl to whom Saito showed an overt attraction, but she was the first girl he shared an intimate moment with, and she's the one he's ultimately fallen in love with to the point of marrying her at the end of the light novel and F.
• Fish out of Water: Saito. He's a guy from early 21st century Japan who got pulled into a fantasy version of Medieval Europe.
• Floating Continent: Albion's called "the White Country" because of the clouds that gather around its underside.
• Food and Body Comparison: When Saito Hiraga met Tiffania Westwood and noticed the Bust-Contrast Duo between her and Louise de la Valiere, he conveniently called them both as "Melon-chan" and "Lemon-chan" respectively for a while before both of them feel uncomfortable with the nicknames.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: Saito's ability to see through Louise's eyes is only used a couple times. It's used once in Volume 2, then once in Volume 11 and again in Volume 14. The purpose of the ability is to notify Gandalfr whenever his master is in danger he wouldn't otherwise know about. The first time it was used was when Wardes turned traitor and tried to kill Louise. The second time was when the golem Jörmungand ambushed Louise and his fellow Knights of Ondine on their way out of Albion. Both times it notified Saito of his master's peril so he could come to the rescue. Unfortunately there are a whole bunch of other times where it would have come in handy but is just never mentioned, so this trope is usually in effect.
• For the Evulz: After Joseph steals Louise's void magic ability in episode 3 of Season 4, he uses it to set off some magical bombs. His reasoning for all the evil deeds he's doing is because he wants to feel some kind of emotion, such as Louise does when she begins to shed tears after he starts blowing up his fleet along with Romalia's fleet. He doesn't seem to care that his actions are hurting or killing lots of people. His stated goal is to destroy the world, causing atrocity after atrocity until he is finally capable of showing remorse over the acts he has committed.
• Funbag Airbag: In the first episode of season four, Saito battle two people on the roof. At the same time Colbert is teaching Tiffania the familiar spell as the gate opens to bring forth her familiar. Saito falls off the roof and flies through the top and out the bottom of the gate having to be stop by Colbert's levitation spell in order to be safe from the impact. Saito is stopped with his head in Tiffania breasts.
• Gecko Ending: The entire Ancient Dragon arc in F is anime-original. Zigzagged five years later after it's ending becomes meta-Foreshadowing to the light novel's ending.
• Genki Girl: Sylphid in human form.
• Give Me a Sword: Saito's first combat experience is a duel with a student mage (and noble) who forges him a sword on the spot. After beating Saito to a pulp.
• The Glomp: In the last episode of the second season, where Saito returns from the dead to Louise, who flies through the air into his arms.
• Gratuitous English: Rather oddly considering they're supposed to be French-speaking, Queen Henrietta at least once clearly addresses Colbert as "Mister Colbert." Sheffield also uses the term "Miss" at one point to address Louise, although Sheffield is an English name, so she's got an excuse.
  • They seem to use the Greek alphabet, at least in the manga.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Literally. Triggering Louise's insecurities over Saito is the quickest way to recharge her willpower—willpower that allows Louise to unleash the apocalypse and manipulate the logic of reality.
• Gunship Rescue: End of season 1.
  • Happens again at the end of Season 4, this time with a Mitsubishi F-2A fighter jet.
• Hadaka Apron: Under the influence of her uncle and cousin, Siesta serves this to Saito along with the dinner in season 3 episode 6.
• Hair Color Dissonance: In the novels, Louise's hair is described as strawberry-blonde, but already drawn as pink on the covers.
• Hair Color Spoiler: On multiple counts: anyone with Louise's hair color is in her immediate family, black-haired folk are visitors from our world or descendants thereof, and the villain from season three is Tabitha's uncle.
• Happily Ever After: Louise and Saito get married with everyone's blessing in F. The show ends with Louise using World Door to honeymoon on Earth with Saito to announce their marriage to his parents.
  • The light novel's ending plays similarly to F's finale with the addition of Louise and Saito having a "wedding night".
• Happiness in Slavery: Even after all the whipping and explosions Saito has suffered under Louise, he still loves her and steadfastly remains loyal and protective. Quite possibly best exemplified in the last episode of season one, where instead of going home to his world, Saito throws away his only chance to help/save/stay with Louise, and the first episode of season three, when the runes disappear from Saito's hand, meaning he is no longer Louise's familiar. Despite this, he promises to never leave, suggesting they can now live as a regular couple. Of course, Louise, being the tsundere she is, promptly blows him up.
• Harem Series: While Louise is the female lead and obvious winner, most of the women in the show have expressed interest in Saito at one time or another.
• Hegemonic Empire: Romalia also utilizes a different sort of hegemony over Halkagenia, a continent that consists of five independent nations (Albion, Gallia, Germania, Romalia, and Tristain). Romalia is relatively weak militarily, and it often remains neutral (such as when Albion declared war on Tristain), but the Romalian Emperor, by exerting control over the church, can nonetheless override the other rulers' decisions.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Saito's quite fine with expressing his love for Louise, while she gets into a blushing fit in the same situation. Even after they get "married" in the last episode of the second season, she's still embarrassed to even think of such things.
• Heroic Resolve: In the last episode of season two, even as Saito's worn out and nearing his limit, he thinks of Louise and regains the will to fight an army of 70,000 die hard soldiers.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Last episode of season two. Not that it improves his standing with Louise.
• Hopeless Suitor: Any of the women who are interested in Saito. Louise will make sure to either confront them about it, or else beat up Saito out of jealousy.
• Hot Springs Episode: When a hot spring erupts on Saito and Louise's land, Saito quickly converts it into a onsen and invites everybody to use it. Several characters had never heard of a hot spring, but agree to come when it is explained, and the girls like how it is good for the skin. They agree to have the boys and girls take turns, but the boys (except for Saito) predictably try to peep, only to be blasted away. Tiffania faints from the heat and has to be carried out. Later that night, Saito and Louise use the onsen together.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Subverted. Princess Henrietta offers Saito her hand to kiss in recognition of his achievements, but Saito — being from modern Japan — misunderstands what is meant by "kiss" and instead sweeps the princess off her feet in a deep embrace and kiss that leaves her stunned.
  • Played straight in Volume 9, when Henrietta calls Saito from amongst the Ondine Knights.
• Inconsistent Dub: The European Spanish dub suffers of this regarding the use of the word Familiar (Tsukaima in Japanese). Everybody refers their familiars as such in Spanish, despise in Spanish (in all dialects) the word Familiar normally reffers to both a member of a family and also when something is familiar for someone.^note See "Blind Idiot" Translation for more details. The problem here is in the same episode the dub use Familiar and also the Spanish word Sirviente (Spanish for Servant who is the equivalent for Familiar in that language). On the other hand this is avoided with the Spanish title: In both Spain and Latin America it was renamed as La Magia de Zero (The Magic of Zero) for the already explained reason.
  • The Mexican Spanish dub avoids this entirely: It's now translated consistely as Guardian Mistico (Mystical Guardian) or simply as Guardian. Oddly enough, in the pilot dub used during the Official Fan-Submitted Content, Sirviente was used just like the European Spanish one.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Louise sees her familiar/servant/friend/love interest/(It's complicated!), Saito in a hot bath (heavily improvised, late at night, and out in school grounds) she angrily stormed off (all the while making herself even angrier by insisting to herself she had no reason to be angry) and grabbed a drink about to be ingested by another student. Through a long series of events (irrelevant to this example), the drink was spiked with a love potion (that also seriously altered her personality, apparently...) and only made the issue worse... for everyone.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Montmorency wears the sailor uniform to class, Saito evades Louise's questioning by claiming that he has to feed the pigeons.
• Instant Expert: Saito temporarily gains mastery of any weapon he holds, though there's actually a reason for this.
  • Julio and Sheffield/Myoznitnirn have similar commands of magical creatures and items, respectively. There's a reason for that too.
• Intimate Healing: It was done by Louise who opposed it in the first place, to Saito. But when Derf the talking sword tried to tell Saito what happened, she buried the sword.
• Introductory Opening Credits: The opening credits for Zero's Familiar has each of the main characters displayed with a color-coded bar on the bottom with their name on it, Saito's in kanji while the rest are in English.
• Ironic Name: Kirche means Church in German, and she doesn't act anywhere near holy.
• It Gets Easier: Lampshaded by Colbert, who desperately wish his students to not turn out that way.
• It Works Better with Bullets: The Staff of Destruction works better with a rocket inside.
  • The Zero Fighter also falls victim to this in the anime.
• Jerkass: So far it's shown nobles of Louise's world are pretty much this, including our pink haired main character, although there are exceptions of course but too few.
• Joshikousei: In one of the light novels, Saito has a seifuku made and persuades Siesta to wear it. Guiche and Malicorn loudly express outrage at how "indecent" it looks, but they're clearly fascinated - and then Guiche asks where he can get one, to give to Montmorency. She wears it to class the next day, drawing everyone's attention, including Louise's.
  • In the anime, Saito sees the seifuku at a shop (how the shop obtained it is anybody's guess) and buys it for Siesta. Later in the episode when the main cast is trapped in a cave, Siesta comes running to them (complete with very audiable bouncing) wearing the seifuku, much to the party's amusement.
  • The second PS2 game is based around Saito dreaming about attending school in Japan with many of the female characters. Louise is the only one wearing a sailor uniform due to apparently being a transfer student, whereas the others wear a blazer uniform.
• Kick the Dog: Louise regularly calls Saito a dog. She treats him much, much worse.
• Kill It with Fire: How the religious dissenters of D'Angleterre were dealt with. Agnes, the only survivor of the massacre, made uncovering the people responsible for the massacre her lifelong quest.
• Kissing Cousins: Wales and Henrietta are cousins. Perhaps that's why they couldn't marry.
• Lady and Knight: Louise is a noblewoman and Saito is officially her familiar, causing her to see him as a pet/slave at first, but his job is to protect her and he learns to wield a sword for it.
• Last Stand: Saito does one during the end of Season 2, combined with One-Man Army. As to be expected of such lopsided odds, it doesn't go well for him, although he does buy the Tristan army the time they needed to evacuate. It's also subverted because although he technically dies, he's brought back to life almost right away shortly afterwards.
• Law of Inverse Recoil: Surprisingly done correctly: Saito fires off a rocket launcher with no recoil.
• Left-Justified Fantasy Map: The political geography is a blatant magical analog of Medieval Europe, so this is naturally the case.
• Lighter and Softer: If you read the novels after having watched the anime, you'll be outright startled at how much the violence was toned down. For example, when Saito beat Wardes for the first time, rather than just swinging his sword at Wardes and making him collapse, Saito hacked his arm off. And during their final confrontation, rather than Wardes vanishing in the explosion of light created by Louise's void magic, he is ventilated by high-caliber machine gun rounds (only for it to later be revealed that he survived).
  • Additionally the 4th season of the anime is far lighter and softer than the equivalent parts in the novel (dealing with Romalia and the elves), which has far more intrigue and a very real crisis to deal with.
• Limp and Livid: Guaranteed with Louise every time her and Saito's relationship gets rocky.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Kirche. Starts off the series as a bully towards Louise, but becomes nicer as the series continue. By this time, she doesn't act rude anymore and often ends up being the gang's big damn hero along with either Tabitha or Mr. Colbert.
• Love Makes You Crazy:
  • This is a reoccurring theme in the franchise as a whole. It's easier to count the number of relationships where the partners aren't completely out of their minds then it is to count the number of relationships where people are.
  • Louise's obsession with Saito will cause her to beat him if he so much as looks at another woman. And when he (occasionally) gets angry and leaves she ends up hardly able to leave her bed.
• Love Martyr: Sometimes Saito borders on this. Louise can be an utter bitch at times.
• Love Potion: Not that it doesn't work as intended. In fact, it works TOO well.
  • Love Potions return again in the third season. Siesta plans to use one on Saito, but by Finagle's Law, it ends up spreading to a good amount of the women at the academy.
  • Also, in the first case, at least, it seems to have the effect of severely altering the drinker's personality. Louise goes from regularly beating Saito to being ridiculously submissive. This is probably because if all it did was make her fall in love with Saito, the effect probably would have been unnoticeable, as her (denied) love for him was what led her to drink the potion in the first place. Incidentally it ONLY alters their personality, nothing else. Saito found this out the hard way when Louise reverted back to normal, complete with all her memories of everything that had happened. In Detail. She was not happy
• Luminescent Blush: Louise. and it comes with the whole "tsundere" package.
• Macguffin Delivery Service: Louise and Prince Wales play this part in episode eleven alowing Waldo to get ahold of Henrietta's letter to Wales and thus stopping Henrietta's marriage to the prince of Germania and leaving Tristain without allies before Albion's invasion
• Macho Camp: Inn manager Scarron.
• Magical Girlfriend: Inverted. A normal, human male (Saito) is transported to a magical world where he meets/is enslaved by/falls in love with Louise. It's complicated.
• A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss - The familar ritual involves the mage kissing the familiar.
  • Saito becomes Louise's familiar through a kiss.
  • Saito becomes Tiffania's familiar this way too.
  • Joseph & Sheffield have stated that they underwent this ritual in Season 4. In the anime, at least.
• Magic Contract Romance: The romance between Louise and her familiar Saito.
• Magic Wand: Most of the mages use these, while some, like Tabitha and the headmaster, use staves instead.
• Magical Incantation: All elemental spells require incantations, which are composed of a random chain of actual names of runes from the various runic alphabets, especially the Elder Futhark.
• Magical Land: Halkeginia is this naturally.
• The Magocracy: Magical power and nobility are (officially) inseparable; in fact, mages are called Nobles. Of course, that attitude becomes inconvenient when a noble is, say, cast out from their family or the child of two mages is born without magic.
• Making a Splash: Water mages.
• Male Gaze: Tons in the anime. Not surprising considering the amount of Fanservice. In the season 4(F) opening they introduce the non-lead female cast with a picture of them and their names in the foreground while in the background the camera starts at chest level and pans upward. With Tabitha the girl in the background is... Slyphid's human form. Probably for obvious reasons.
• Marshmallow Hell: Kirche is fond of using this to seduce Saito.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Saito and Louise.
• Meaningful Echo: As the True Companions makes their way toward rescuing Tabitha, she's reading a story about a girl being rescued from a dragon. Saito admits to Louise (in the light novel, at least) that he's trembling with fear of the elf they have to fight; the story Tabitha's reading mentions that the hero who rescues the girl trembles with fear of the dragon. And the overcoming of the elf's shields parallels the dragon's defeat as, both times, the sword suddenly glows (in Derflinger's case, with Louise's Void "Dispel") before striking the final blow.
• Meaningful Name: A mage's "runic name" is chosen to reflect his or her elemental affinity and abilities. For example, Tabitha's runic name is "Blizzard", implying she's skilled with wind and water spells, while Guiche's is "Bronze" because he prefers to summon bronze golems that fight for him.
  • If you think about it, Louise's unwanted nickname "zero" fits her very well, since it turns out she can cast void magic to nullify magic effects.
• Meido:
  • Siesta regalrly sports this look since she works as a maid at the academy.
  • Most of episode 7 involves an inn with waitresses in revealing meido outfits and a Macho Camp manager.
• Mind Rape / More than Mind Control: Louise spends most of volumes 10 and 11 angsting over the possibility that Saito’s then-newfound courage and determination could be the result of the Familiar contract brainwashing him into servility, and wondering if his feelings for her could be a fabrication as well. This gets solved in two parts:
  • In volume 10, Louise confronts Saito on his (perceived) fearlessness, prompting him to explain somewhat angrily that he’s actually scared out of his wits yet trying his best to retain composure. Fittingly, a normal person persevering in the face of danger and his own fear is precisely the theme of "The Hero of Ivaldi", the book Tabitha spends most of the volume reading.
    Saito: "I actually don’t have any such courage. I am ashamed to say it, but to be frank, I’ve been trembling fearfully for a while now. Trembling with excitement? Quit joking. I am shivering in fear."
  • Still unconvinced, in volume 11, Louise has Tiffania use her Oblivion spell to erase any possible thought-alteration that the contract could have caused, with somewhat unexpected results. For a while, Saito had noticed that he’d get severe bouts of homesickness whenever he was far from Louise, and it’s then revealed that the Familiar contract acts as a suppressant for those emotions whenever the Master is close. While Louise’s other fears turn out to be unfounded, Saito is hit with a year’s worth of homesickness all at once and suffers a temporary Heroic BSoD. In the end, he gets over it and returns to Louise all the same, but not before voicing his annoyance at her continuing to distrust his feelings.
    Saito: "Listen you! How long can I keep telling ‘I love you’ to a girl who does not return my feelings?! I should be getting a medal for this!"
• Mistaken for Object of Affection: In the anime Louise gets into the bed that she, Saito, and Siesta share. The problem? Well, she ends up being kissed by Siesta, who had mistaken her for Saito.
• Mistress and Servant Boy: Louise takes the "Mistress" bit just a bit farther than most, treating Saito more like a slave (to the point of having a whip) but over time she becomes less Tsun and more Dere towards him.
• The Mole: Ms. Longueville Foquet Matilda
  • Not Belldandy, then?
• Moment Killer:
  • This happens often in the anime. Whever a moment could happen, any other character walks into the situation and everything is ruined. Cue Explosion. If they don't walk in, it is at the very least witnessed by someone else and consequences will be had later. Basically, nobody in this show has a sense of privacy and everyone has impeccable timing.
  • If no one else can kill the "Moment" Saito will find a way to say something stupid, usually about events involving another girl or Louise's breast size, out loud in front of Louise.
• Mood Whiplash: Again, the last episode of season two where Saito comes back alive, embracing a tearful Louise, but ruining the moment by telling he was saved by an elf. He makes this worse by talking about her breasts and staring at Siesta's. My god, Saito, just shut your mouth for once.
• Mons: All familiars besides Saito are magical beasts.
• Muggle in Mage Custody: Saito, who is an ordinary teenager, becomes a familiar (and basically a slave) of the magic student Louise. Over time, she mellows out to him.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Happens to Saito after he was knighted.
• My Hero, Zero: Louise's nickname.
• New Transfer Student: Julio in the second season, Tiffania in the third.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Louise constantly administers these to Saito with such brutality that it qualifies as torture. At one point in the anime, Saito can be seen heavily wounded from Louise's whippings and crying in pain.
• "Not So Different" Remark: While the elves and humans both display Fantastic Racism, in episode 9 of Season 4, after Lukshana goes off on her own to explore Tabitha's castle, Guiche and Ari both go looking for her. Montmorency later sees Guiche talking to a maid and immediately assumes that he's cheating on her (again). She refuses to listen to an explanation and storms off, after which Ari mentions that when it comes to women, they both have the same issues. Both of them are later seen eating together and angrily agreeing with each other with supposedly how badly their women treat them.
• Not What It Looks Like: Often followed by magical explosions, whips or a combination of both.
  • And whips were involved in at least one Not What It Looks Like.
  • One morning, Agnes bursts into Louise's room to deliver some news. Louise is straddling Saito on the floor. Her shirt's undone, her stocking is torn, and she's out of breath. Saito's only wearing his shorts. Not what it looks like, or exactly what it looks like? (Never mind the question of if she had started whipping the poor boy that morning, or perhaps had simply not stopped beating him since the night before.)
• Not Worth Killing: Tabitha finally has the chance to kill her uncle, Joseph in episode 3 of Season 4, and nearly goes through with it, but then stops herself. Luckily for her, his familiar does the job for her by setting off the last magical bomb.
• Nuke 'em: The holy land revealed that this is a possible event, with the discovery of a Soviet submarine with nuclear missiles in them. And Saito's Gandalfr runes are meant to work with them.
• Ojou Ringlets: Montmorency.
• One-Man Army: Saito in the climax of the second season.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Saito was one before he was summoned.
• Our Elves Are Different: Tiffania Westwood in the third season has all the traits of a Wood Elf (while technically a Half-Elf), along with another set of "traits".
• Overly Long Name: Long names, given the medieval setting, are common:
  • Montmorency's full name is Montmorency Margarita la Fère de Montmorency.
  • Louise's full name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, named after a real-life French courtesan.
  • Kirche's full name is Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst.
  • By the end Saito's is Saito Chevalier de Hiraga des Ornières.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In the first season's opening Forquet wears a hood that doesn't cover her hair and since she's the only one with green hair at the time, it's pretty easy to tell who's the next villain.
• The Peeping Tom: In Season 3 some of the male students have dug a tunnel so they can peep on the girls in the bath. They then try to cheer up Saito by inviting him along, but have to actually drag him there since he's reluctant to get into more trouble with Louise. Predictably they get caught and everyone ends up in trouble.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • Louise, when her willpower's not exhausted, is a pretty good candidate for this trope's poster girl.
  • Saito also qualifies, considering he takes on an army of 70,000.
• Pervert Alliance: Some of the male students have dug a tunnel so they can peep on the girls in the bath. They then try to cheer up Saito by inviting him along but have to actually drag him there since he's reluctant to get into more trouble with Louise. Sure enough, they get caught and everyone ends up in trouble.
• Pet the Dog: Kirche comforting Tabitha was a very tender moment for her.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Louise's hair and eyes are pink, while her love interest Saito has blue eyes and wears a blue jacket.
• Playing with Fire: Fire mages.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Louise and Saito have both made lots of progress in their relationship. Their problem is complete obliviousness on both ends. Saito probably wouldn't be blasted to hell and back so often if those two knew how to talk to (or simply cold read) each other. As it is, the fact Louise hasn't killed him yet is astonishing.
  • A specific and hilarious early case happens when Saito is introduced to Henrietta for the first time. The Queen extends her hand to a clueless Saito, who asks Louise what he should do, and Louise carelessly tells him he should kiss her. So Saito takes Henrietta's hand... pulls her into an embrace, dips her down low and lays a passionate one on her mouth. He got a savage beating from Louise for that one.
• P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: Crossed with Summon Everyman Hero.
• Power of Love: The light novels make it very clear that Saito's powers as a Gandalfr increase when feeling strong emotions. Anger, sadness, happiness, any will do, but Saito most frequently fuels his powers via his love for Louise. In a reciprocal twist, the quickest way to recharge Louise's willpower is apparently to trigger any of her myriad feelings for Saito.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The arcs and deeper details surrounding them are compressed in the anime, or some are outright ignored; case in point being Tiffania's introduction and eventually joining Saito's party, in the novels she took some time to gather courage to leave the forest, that and she was taking care of lost children, the anime glosses this over and make her join right in.
• Property of Love: Louise always treats Saito as her possession and she can't stand when anyone tries to take her "dog" away from her. Kinda justified since he is her Familiar.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Elemental Brotherhood. They oppose the heroes early in Season 4, but later are hired by Tabitha to help.
• Pyromaniac: Menvil... He just loves to burn humans to death. He said it himself.
  • His men are also real bad mofos... They were ordered to cross the Tristain border to burn down the school, thus killing all the students... When they hear, that only the female students were left there, they consider to let them live for their personal use... Although, after they'd be finished with them, some of the girls probably would've wished for the first option. Menvil liked the suggestion, but he enjoys obviously murder more than sex. But then the actual plan is revealed: To take them as hostages because of the war Menvil's employers are.
• Quadratic Wizards Linear Warriors: In-story example. The lack of any sort of Charles Atlas Superpower means that warriors and primitive muskets aren’t much of a match against people who can conjure giant fireballs and massive tornadoes, thus Halkeginia’s class gap between muggle commoners and noble mages.
• Rags to Royalty: Depending on how you look at it, Tabitha might qualify as either a Snow White or Goose Girl style version as she's actually Charlotte Helene Orleans, the rightful heir to the Gallian throne but was denied her position after her father got murdered during a duel with his own brother and her mother became mad after drinking a potent poison actually meant for Tabitha. She was then sent to Tristain to keep her out of the way and adopted the alias Tabitha, the name of a doll given to her by her mother. The conspirators then arranged for her to become a knight so they could use her magical talent as an excuse to send her on dangerous missions.
• Ramming Always Works: Saito crashes his F-2A jet into the dragon at the end of Season 4. It exposes the dragon's weakness long enough for Louise to hit it with a supercharged Explosion spell using Saito's Lifdrasil ability.
• Ready for Lovemaking:
  • Louise did this for Saito when she was under the influence of a Love Potion, wearing a rather transparent nightgown.
  • She did it again with a cat girl outfit when not under control of a Love Potion... only for Saito (not knowing about any of her plans) to invite all their friends back to the hotel room. Awkward.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Most of them, in fact. Mr. Colbert could even be said to go to unreasonable lengths in his reasonableness, agreeing to be complicit in treason in order to help one of his students.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Derf gives a minor one to Louise on her relationship with Saito. It's basically how quite a few fans see the relationship.
  Derf: "I see. You acted coldly to him again didn't you? And then Partner went away with a bitter face... He says he loves you. Partner gave up on going home and joined the war to follow you, though he doesn't want to get involved in it. Why do you think that is? Because he loves you. Have you ever responded to his feelings, even once? While he devotes himself to you, isn't whipping the only thing you do to him?"
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Kirche and Tabitha. Kirche has high energy, is talkative and flirty while Tabitha is quiet and cautious.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess/Queen Henrietta.
• Runic Magic: Void familiars, as part of the Magic Kiss of familiarization, get runes with the name of their power on some part of their body. Left Hand for Gandalfr. Right Hand for Vindalfr, Forehead for Mjöðvitnir, and Chest for Lífþrasir. Though it's also implied that other familiar get them too.
• Schizo Tech: Magic is the norm, but occasionally technology from our world crosses the border by fluke.
• Screw You, Elves!: In Louise's world, elves are feared due to their magical talents, such as unbreakable barriers. ... Unless you cast Dispel on the barrier and let Saito beat on them.
• Sealed with a Kiss: Most of the anime seasons have Louise and Saito kiss in finales, except for season 2. In the fourth and final season finale, Louise and Saito kiss at their wedding before the credits roll.
• Second Year Protagonist: Louise and the other members of her class are second year students and are summoning familiars because of it. Her familiar, Saito, might have been a second year high school student himself.
• Secret Government Warehouse: Romalia has one located in the catacombs underneath its capital and is filled with assorted weaponry from Earth that are secretly collected by its agents around the Holy Land. The weapons range from AK-47 rifles to a Tiger II tank.
• Separated at Birth: Tabitha and her twin sister. Said twin sister was left at a monastery by their mother, who was supposed to kill her to avoid a Succession Crisis between the two girls. The twin sister takes the throne after revealing she became Gallia's void user after Joseph's death.
• She Cleans Up Nicely:
  • Derflinger makes a remark to this effect when Louise dresses up for a ball.
  • Derflinger as well, as when they first got him he was just some rusted junk but now has a clean and polished blade.
• Shout-Out:
  • Hard to say if it's this or Theme Naming, but Guiche's giant mole-critter familiar is named Verthandi, the original (Norse) spelling of Belldandy's name from Ah! My Goddess.
    • Take a look at Belldandy (the mole). It has a blue triangle on its forehead. Belldandy from Ah My Goddess has a blue gem in her forehead.
    • And some of the translations actually render the familiar's name as Belldandy — which may just mean the translator didn't realize that's not the Norn's original name.
  • The reason for Princess Charlotte's mother insanity (and the insanity itself) is identical to the fate of Princess Kushana's mother from the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga, only with a happy ending.
  • One episode features the cast investigating a secret chamber in the school, the entrance of which happens to be in a girl's bathroom. Yes.
  • Also, the series features a character named Louise Valliere, a Cardinal Mazarin, a teacher named Chevreuse, a quest to retrieve an embarrassing item from a royal's lover, a port named La Rochelle, and references to the Siege of Amiens. And that's just for starters.
  • Louise's outfit in Season 4, Episode 2 screams of A Certain Magical Index.
  • This line from Season 4, Episode 6:
    Henrietta (to Louise): I find your lack of faith disturbing.
  • A very local one was added in the Mexican Spanish dub in Season 1, first episode: While Saito trying to escape from the castle, he compares Louise and the nobles with some kind of "cult" or freaks. While it could be a coincidence, it could be a reference from the infamous case of the Cuban-American Voodoo cult leader Adolfo Constanzo, who murdered many people in human sacrifices for some drug cartels and used his body parts for supposed spells.^note Needless to say, that case still shocks Mexican society to this date.
• Something Else Also Rises: The bathing scene with Saito and Siesta in episode eight of the anime has a subtle instance. After Siesta joins in, the flames heating the bath cause the one of the pieces of firewood to jolt upward from one end.
• Squishy Wizard: Most nobles turn out can't really fight well without their magic, subverted later on as military nobles know how to use weapons alongside their magic.
• Status Quo Is God: No matter what happens to Louise and Saito you can rest assured that she'll be right back to blowing him up by the end of the episode.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Tabitha and Tiffania does this a couple of times in Season 4, usually by being in Saito's bed. Cue a Not What It Looks Like moment before Louise blows him up.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Saito is kidnapped from his world and treated so badly that PETA would be up in arms if it was happening to a genuine dog. But in time he falls in love with the woman who practically enslaved him.
• Suck My Rose: Guiche uses a rose as his wand and has the right personality to wield it.
• Summon Binding: For mages in training, summoning and binding familiars is a rite of passage that determines their future education and is a measure of their potential. The plot is kicked off when Louise, Inept Mage that she is, summons a normal human boy named Saito from another world and binds him as her servant. It's implied that the familiar runes Mind Rape Saito and make him forget the bonds he has with his family and old world and, over time, replace them with a desire to serve and protect his master. This is confirmed in the light novels, as the Mind Rape from the contract is undone and Saito gets all the feelings of homesickness back in a large burst and complicates his relationship with Louise.
• Summoning Ritual: The Tristain Academy of Magic has their their second-year students summon familiars with familiar-summoning rituals.
• Superpowerful Genetics: The ability to use void magic is a trait limited to those with Royal Blood of the founders of Tristan, Romalia, Albion and Gallia. Not only that, there can be only one void user at a time for each bloodline, and each void user can only call a specific human familiar depending on the bloodline.
• Super-Speed: Saito's secondary power besides being a weaponsmaster.
• Supporting Harem: Louise is the female protagonist and Saito's indisputable love interest, but this doesn't stop other girls from pursuing him. At the end of the series, the supporting haremettes give up when Saito and Louise get married.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: Saito steals a jet fighter from a Japanese Air Force base, apparently with no trouble at all. The scene just cuts from him approaching the base to him flying away in the plane.
• Sword and Gun: Agnes' armaments of choice are a pair of pistols and a longsword.
  • Saito eventually acquires an AK rifle. Combine an AK with the Gandalfr powers, and that guy just got scary.
• Sword and Sorcerer: Louise is the wizard and Saito is her human familiar who fights with a sword while she casts her spells.
• Tank Goodness: Later in the novel, Saito acquires a King Tiger II from WWII.
• The Magic Versus Technology War: A bit. An actual war with this trope didn't happen in this story, but magic being impractical and slow, the fact that Saito had firearms and vehicles from Earth gave him an incredible advantage when fighting enemies in that magical world. Saito mentions that if an all-out war occurs between the two worlds, the battle would be one-sided in favor of Earth.
• Thanks for the Mammaries: Saito's done this few times with different girls that often tease him. He's also tried doing it to Louise, who's often not happy with it. With the introduction of Tiffania, it becomes a recurring gag. One example of this is when she asks Saito to check if her chest is real by touching them.
• Theme Naming:
  • Many of the Halkeginian names and terms derive from Norse Mythology, particularly Norse dwarves. Just to name a few from the Academy of Magic alone: '''Alviss Dining Hall, Fenrir's Library Austri Plaza and Vestri Court. Hell, even the Void familiars follow this theme: Gandálfr, Vindálfr, and Mjöðvitnir are all Norse dwarves, while Lífþrasir is one of the two humans who are destined to survive Ragnarok and repopulate the world.
  • Saito's talking sword is Derflinger while the display sword was said to have been made by a Count Spee. Derflinger was a WWI German Battlecruiser (named for a 30 Years War General), while Graf (Count) Spee would be a WWI German Admiral or the WWII pocket battleship named for him..
• This Is My Boomstick: The M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon is probably a play on this.
  • While not exactly weapons, 2 famous Mitsubishi fighter planes, the WWII A6M Zero and the modern F-2A Viper Zero are also examples.
  • During the last episode they use a Flak 88, the biggest Boom Stick of the whole series.
• Tongue Suicide: In episode 2 of the final season, Louise tells her captors that if they plan to torture her she'll commit suicide by biting her tongue.
• Took a Level in Badass: Saito from ordinary person to powerful familar. Also Louise, as her magical ability is explained.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Tabitha is fond of hashibami leaf salad which according to other characters has a bitter and awful taste.
• Training the Gift of Magic: Who's competent at magic, and what sort, is important to the story — but all the types tend to need training.
• Translator Microbes: The Halkeginian language is magically translated into Japanese and vice-versa for the benefit of Saito and his interlocuters. The limitations of this form of translation became apparent in later volumes when Saito tried to learn the Halkeginian script and realised that he was reading the words as if they were translated idiomatically, which is not a problem if he just want to understand the overall meaning of the text but becomes a problem if he wanted to understand it literally.
• Trapped in Another World: Saito is trapped in Louise's world. In the novels, one of his main motivations is getting back to his own world. He managed to find a possible way back to Earth, via a Void-based portal spell. By then however, he became too attached to Halkeginia and decided not to leave. At least for now.
  • Trope Codifier and Genre Popularizer: It codified and popularized the isekai genre, along with the website Shosetsuka ni Naro ("Let's Become Novelists"), known as Naro for short. Zero no Tsukaima fan fiction became popular on Naro during the late 2000s, eventually spawning a genre of isekai novels on the site, which became known as Naro novels. Zero no Tsukaima fan fiction writers eventually began writing original isekai novels, many of which were adapted into anime shows, popularizing the isekai genre.
• Tsundere: Louise often acts haughty and demanding to Saito, physically abuses him and has trouble expressing how much she cares about him. Her jealousy when she sees him with other girls is quickly and easily expressed. As the series continues, she's more comfortable showing him affection in front of others.
• Twirl of Love: In the Season 2 finale, Saito returns from the battlefield after being presumed by Louise to be dead. Louise runs to him and jumps into his arms to give him a hug as he twirls her around.
• Undressing the Unconscious: When Luctiana kidnaps Saito and Tiffania and holds them prisoner in a house to study elf and human interaction. When the pair awakens, Saito's outfit is untouched but Tiffania is now dressed in a traditional Elvin garb.
• Unfriendly Fire: Proposed by one of the recruits in Volume 6 as a way to deal with a captured Albionian officer who had joined their side.
• The Unreveal: As the final two volumes were completed posthumously using Yamaguchi's notes as a basis, there are some very interesting plot threads introduced in both Volumes 20 and 21 that ultimately go unexplored. Due to their nature however, all examples are spoilers.
  • See that snippet up at Alternate Universe? We ultimately learn little, if anything, about either the Markey people that Brimir descended from, how they even got to Halkegenia in the first place, or about the people on Earth that were pursuing them in the first place, the Varyag. The fact that Saito finds the Varyag's origin story, or at least as told to him, to be extremely suspect (Their soldiers were described as wearing armor reminiscent of Greek heavy infantry......despite allegedly having existed during the Stone Age), is also not followed up on.
• Unusual Ears: Tiffania's very nervous about her ears, and wears something to cover them most of the time.
• Upper-Class Twit: Every student and many of the adult nobles seen throughout the series, including the good guys. However, those whose position requires more diplomacy like the faculty or the princess tend to have a more balanced outlook.
• Uptown Girl: The main couple is Louise (noble) and Saito (commoner).
• War Is Hell: Invoked by a number of characters, including the protagonists, and is contrasted with the general sentiments of the populace, especially the nobility, that War Is Glorious.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": In volume 9 after Saito becomes a Chevalier, he buys a horse and names it Louise. Naturally, she doesn't take it well and he is forced to change its name.
• Wedding Finale: Louise and Saito get married at the end of the final volume of the light novel and the final anime season. It is hinted that their wedding takes place in the same chapel where they eloped in Season 2's finale.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Louise reasons that since Saito was summoned through her familiar-summoning ritual, he's a familiar, despite being a human being. She subsequently decides this means she doesn't have to treat him like a human.
• Whip of Dominance: Both Louise and her sister Eleonore wield whips for "discipline" reasons. Mostly they whip Saito for Clingy Jealous Girl & Pervert Revenge Mode & Unprovoked Pervert Payback gags, and often the whip scenes come with Dominatrix allusions.
• Wizarding School: The Tristain Academy of Magic is the prominent one and the main setting for most of the series. Others exist, like the Germanian Vindobona Magical Academy Kirche was kicked out of and Tabitha has one of her missions take place in the Lutèce School of Magic in Gallia.

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