The game begins now.
Many years into the future, the Zenonzard card game has become the most popular hobby all over the world. Zenonzard players, aided by sophisticated AI units called "Codemen", tirelessly compete against each other to earn the right to enter the Zenon, a special dimension that hosts battles between the best players in the world. Sota Azuma dreamed of entering the Zenon and becoming a champion, but that dream faded after enduring a friendless childhood. Fortunately, the arrival of a special Codeman called Eilietta Lash gives Sota the chance to fulfill his dream once again.Zenonzard: The Animation is an anime series produced by Studio 8-bit. It is part of the overall Zenonzard media franchise and adapts the Zenonzard card game by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Episode 0 of the series premiered in September 10, 2019, on Zenonzard's official YouTube channel, with television channels broadcasting Episode 0 in September 13 of that same year. The full series premiered on January 2020, with episodes getting released on a monthly basis.
Zenonzard contains examples of:
- The Ace: Shion Saionji, nicknamed "the Queen", is considered the best Zenonzard player of her generation, having achieved 22 consecutive victories.
- Artificial Intelligence: Codemen are special AI units more advanced and sophisticated than any other electronic system on Earth. Having at least one Codeman gives a Zenonzard player a huge advantage in the game and Shion accepts a match with Sota if it means gaining ownership of Eilietta.
- A Magic Contract Comes with a Kiss: Subverted: Sota thinks Eilietta will kiss him. In reality, she just needs to scan his retinae.
- Breather Episode: After the previous two episodes were filled with action and drama, episode 2 focuses on Sota's school life and his reputation among his classmates. Also in Episode 7 where it showcases a theme park that has a attraction where uniquely designed robots try to entertain guests. Leites Wondercall apparently is the operator and mechanic of the park's robots.
- Burn the Witch!: Alice's teacher, Rimel, was burned at the stake for being a witch.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: Sota's victory over Shion in Episode 0 puts an end to her consecutive streak of 22 victories.
- Chick Magnet: Sota's skills in the Zenonzard game make him in instant celebrity amongst his schoolmates, especially girls. One of the girls even want him to autograph her shirt, while she's wearing it. Needless to say, Sota's friend Ruri is displeased with the attention Sota is getting and realizes that she may have feelings for him. Eilietta may have come that same conclusion, as well.
- A Day in the Limelight: With each passing episode, the series focuses on different characters.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Losing her teacher and living during the witch trials affected Alice badly.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: A downplayed example. After Sota gets knocked unconscious during gym class, Eilietta attempts to scan his retina while he is still out cold. He wakes up just in time to see her getting uncomfortably close to his face, and predictably flees from her.
- Experienced Protagonist: Sota is already a skilled Zenonzard player by the time the story begins. His struggle is to get back into game after downplaying his skills for years.
- Forgot to Pay the Bill: Upon reading Alice's story, Hinaria finds her home's power supply has been cut off. Is the holder of the information Hinaria stumbled upon targeting her? Nope, she just forgot to pay the electric bill.
- Gamer Chick: Hinaria spends every penny she has on video games.
- Girl Next Door: Ruri complains that Sota won't walk her home because he is tired after a long way, thinking that something could happen to her, even though she lives in the apartment right next to his own.
- I Let You Win: After losing several friends as a child because he kept defeating them at Zenonzard, Sota decided to simply throw his games from that point on, reasoning that it would make his opponents happy. However, this left him dissatisfied with the game itself and drove him to quit playing. It takes Eilietta setting him up in a match against Shion to snap him out of this mindset.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Alice uses magic to save an injured man, who later rats her out to a local church.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Codemen need to scan their partners' retinae in order to register them as their users. To complete this process Eilietta needs to get really close to Sota, which makes him uncomfortable.
- Open-Minded Parent: Sota's parents are perfectly okay with their son sharing a room with a Robot Girl.
- Playful Hacker: Hinara attempts to hack into a confidential server with highly sensitive data... just to play a video game.
- Robot Girl: Any female Codeman counts as this, most prominently Sota's partner Eilietta, as they are AI designed to aid players of Zenonzard at the game.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: Back when Sota was a child, many of his friends abandoned him because they always lost to him at Zenonzard and thought he was lording his superior skills over them.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: All the people Rimel helped turn against her when she is accused of witchcraft, disgusting Alice and causing her to lose faith in mankind.
- The Watson: Sota's friend, Ruri, doesn't know much about Zenonzard, so Mr. Maniac explains the game's rules to her.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Even after spending her whole life helping people, Alice completely loses faith in humanity and sacrifices her life to cast a spell that would ultimately destroy humanity.
