Zero no tsukaima

Zero no Tsukaima, or The Familiar of Zero as it is popularly known in the west, is a fantasy comedy-romance anime that tells the story of a young female mage named Louise Françoise de la Baume le Blanc de la Vallière, the protagonist. Louise is the third daughter of a aristocrat family (La Vallière) and attends to the magics school of her kingdom, Tristania. As the first exam of her second year of her magics studying, she is supposed to summon a familiar, a creature that will be loyal to her and accompany her for the rest of her life, protecting and guarding her, but Louise is not very bright when it comes to magic casting, from where she gets her nick name: Zero Louise, as in zero accuracy Louise. A series of events unfold as she casts her familiar, being Hiraga Saito, a human that came from the "real world", Japan. Other students summon creatures like: a dragon, a firespitting salamander, a beholder etc, agravating poor Louise's situation and popularity in school.

The society in Tristania and the neighboring kingdoms is organized in a simple way: whoever comes from a rich family and is able to cast magic is called an "Aristocrat", the rest are called plebeians, after the antient/medieval times society in Europe.

Doesn't take long for Louise to realise that Saito, her plebeian familiar, is special in many ways for her as he starts becoming popular in school and learn to master his newly aquired abilities, which will be very valuable for the upcoming dangers and war plots that they will face.

The Family Valliere

anime

   Zero no Tsukaima 














        Louise

Louise is a noble girl who is terrible at magic, as her attempts usually result in an explosion. She is nicknamed "Louise the Zero" by her classmates, due to the inability to use any of the four magic elements. Early in the school year at the Tristain Academy of Magic, the second year students perform a special ritual where they summon their familiar, which serves as their eternal protector and partner, and is usually some sort of magical creature. But Louise summons Saito Hiraga, an ordinary teenage boy from Japan, leaving her totally humiliated.

Due to the sacredness of the ritual, Louise reluctantly accepts Saito as her familiar, but proceeds to treat Saito as any other familiar, only worse, making him wash her clothes, sleep on a bed of hay, and whipping him with a riding crop for little or no reason. The Familiar of Zero follows the adventures of Louise and Saito as they help their classmates and friends, while occasionally blundering into situations where they risk their lives to save one another. Saito tries to find a way to get back to Japan, but he also has a mysterious power that allows him to wield swords and other weapons to perform heroic feats. They also eventually learn the truth behind Louise's magic inabilities.