History Literature / TheFamiliarOfZero

*** 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.

* BigEater: In both the anime and manga Tabitha can put it away with the best of them [[http://animearimasu.animeblogger.net/2006/08/12/zero-no-tsukaima-6// and then eat their food too.]]

** [[spoiler:King Joseph is to 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.]]

InAWorld where young witches and wizards train at the [[WizardingSchool 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....

* BellyDancer: During the last few episodes of the 3rd Season, Jessica and her father managed to give the "rescue party" of Tabitha, some disguises, which were circus costumes, and belly dancing outfits. The girls also perform a show to distract the soldiers.

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'', [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/familiar-of-zero-f here]] legally on Crunchyroll. The novels also have a manga adaptation which was illustrated by Nana Mochizuki and serialized in ''Magazine/MonthlyComicAlive'' 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 Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment under the title ''Zero's Familiar''. Two other 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.

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'', [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/familiar-of-zero-f here]] legally on Crunchyroll. The novels also have a manga adaptation which was illustrated by Nana Mochizuki and serialized in ''Magazine/MonthlyComicAlive'' from 2006 to 2009 and a spin-off ''Chevalier'' by Higa Yukari (serialized from 2010 to 2013); both of them have been translated into English by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment under the title ''Zero's Familiar''. Two other 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.

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'', [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/familiar-of-zero-f here]] legally on Crunchyroll. The novels also have a manga adaptation which was illustrated by Nana Mochizuki and serialized in ''Magazine/MonthlyComicAlive'' from 2006 to 2009; it has been translated into English by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment under the title ''Zero's Familiar''.

* CoolLoser: Kirche, Tabitha, Louise and Saito were all shunned by their peers at one point, but not after a few volumes of heroic deeds.

''The Familiar of Zero'' (''Zero no Tsukaima'') is a series of LightNovels written by Noboru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Usatsuka. It has since received four seasons of anime adaptations, namely ''The Familiar of Zero'', ''Knight of the Twin Moons'', ''The Princess' Rondo'' and ''The Familiar of Zero F'' that aired from 2006 to 2012. The first season is the only season that has been dubbed in English. The novels also have a manga adaptation which was illustrated by Nana Mochizuki and serialized in ''Magazine/MonthlyComicAlive'' from 2006 to 2009; it has been translated into English by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment under the title ''Zero's Familiar''.

The light novels began publication in 2004; tragically, Yamaguchi [[DiedDuringProduction 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 [[Literature/BladedanceOfElementalers Yu Shimizu]]. The 21st novel was published in February 2016, while the 22nd and final planned novel was published in late February 2017. North Americans can watch season 4 of the anime, ''Familiar of Zero F'', [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/familiar-of-zero-f here]] legally on Crunchyroll.

%%* ResetButtonEnding: At least, the second season. Considering that Volumes 7 and 8 had already been published, and gave a proper (and very good) development and resolution to the story arc of [[spoiler:Saito's death]], this is probably more a case of ExecutiveMeddling or [[WriterCopOut Producer Cop Out]].

* WeddingFinale: [[spoiler:Louise and Saito get married at the end 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.]]

* PervertAlliance: 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.

** [[spoiler:The Ancient Dragon later becomes the main and final antagonist of the series after Joseph's death and poses a more serious threat to the main characters including Louise and Tiffania.]]

** King Joseph Gaul is to 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.
** [[spoiler:The Ancient Dragon later becomes the main and final antagonist of the series after Joseph's death and poses a more serious threat to the main characters including Louise and Tiffannia.]]

** [[spoiler:The Ancient Dragon later becomes the final antagonist after Joseph's death and poses a more serious threat to the main characters including Louise and Tiffannia.]]

%%* BigBadWannabe: Cromwell.

* PoorCommunicationKills: 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.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: 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 character from the work ''Zero no Tsukaima'' draws a lot of its inspiration from, ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers''. So much so that it is definitely a case of ShownTheirWork:

*** The Kingdom of Gallia is [[UsefulNotes/LEtatCestMoi the Kingdom of France]], with some flavors of Spain in it (like the castle of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra Alhambra]] where Tabitha was imprisonned). The capital city is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutetia Lutèce]] (Paris), but the royale palace is in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles Versailles]], just like it was in RealLife under the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancien_R%C3%A9gime Ancient Régime]].

*** Interestingly, the thief Fouquet contains three reference: first, Fouquet is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Fouquet 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Genevi%C3%A8ve_de_Bourbon 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha House of Sachse-Coburg and Gotha]] (which had a British branch that changed their name due to anti-German sentiment during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, becoming UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor...the current [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily British royal family]]).

*** Maricorn isn't exactly historical, but has a rather... interesting... Spanish meaning.

* FoodAndBodyComparison: When [[HeroProtagonist Saito Hiraga]] met Tiffania Westwood and noticed the BustContrastDuo between her and [[TinyTyrannicalGirl Louise de la Valiere]], he conveniently [[TheNicknamer called them both]] as "Melon-chan" and "Lemon-chan" respectively for a while before both of them feel uncomfortable with the nicknames.
* ForgottenPhlebotinum: Saito's ability to see through Louise's eye 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 [[spoiler: Wardes turned traitor and tried to kill Louise.]] The second time was when [[spoiler: 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.

* FunbagAirbag: 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 stop with his head in Tiffania breasts.
* GeckoEnding: The entire Ancient Dragon arc in ''F'' is anime-original. [[spoiler: Zigzagged five years later after it's ending becomes a meta {{Foreshadowing}} to the light novel's ending.]]

* GrailInTheGarbage: Saito's talking sword.

%%* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Kirche.

* InconsistentDub: The European Spanish dub suffers of this regarding the use of the word ''Familiar'' (Tsukaima in Japanese). Everybody reffers 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 BlindIdiotTranslation for more details.[[/note]] 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 [[CompletelyDifferentTitle it was renamed as]] ''La Magia de Zero'' (The Magic of Zero) for the already explained reason.

''The Familiar of Zero'' (''Zero no Tsukaima'') is a series of LightNovels written by Noboru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Usatsuka. It has since received four seasons of anime adaptations, namely ''The Familiar of Zero'', ''Knight of the Twin Moons'', ''The Princess' Rondo'' and ''The Familiar of Zero F'' that aired from 2006 to 2012. The first season is the only season that has been dubbed in English. The novels also have a manga adaptation which was illustrated by Nana Mochizuki and serialized in ''Magazine/MonthlyComicAlive'' from 2006 to 2006; it has been translated into English by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment under the title ''Zero's Familiar''.

''The Familiar of Zero'' (''Zero no Tsukaima'') is a series of LightNovels written by Noboru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Usatsuka. It has since received four seasons of anime adaptations, namely ''The Familiar of Zero'', ''Knight of the Twin Moons'', ''The Princess' Rondo'' and ''The Familiar of Zero F'' that aired from 2006 to 2012. The first season is the only season that has been dubbed in English. A 7-volume manga by Media Factory has also been translated into English by Creator/SevenSeasEntertainment under the title ''Zero's Familiar''.

* CouchGag: In the Season 3 of the anime, the ending credit starts 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.

The light novels began publication in 2004; tragically, Yamaguchi [[DiedDuringProduction 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 Creator/YuShimizu. The 21st novel was published in February 2016, while the 22nd and final planned novel was published in late February 2017. North Americans can watch season 4 of the anime, ''Familiar of Zero F'', [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/familiar-of-zero-f here]] legally on Crunchyroll.

* WhipItGood: Louise and her sister Eleonore. Dealing pain must run in the family. Their mom doesn't use a whip for her punishments, oh no she casts a ''Tornado Spell'' with ''RazorWind'' as punishment.

* HaremSeries: While [[spoiler:Louise is the obvious [[FirstGirlWins winner]]]], most of the women in the show have expressed interest in Saito at one time or another, [[spoiler:including newcomer {{the quiet one}} Tabitha, who seals his lips with a kiss.]]

%%* LadyAndKnight: Louise and Saito.

* PinkGirlBlueBoy: Louise and Saito, at least with eye colors.

* SkinshipGrope: Tiffania in Season 3 is often victim of this by Louise.

%%* {{Stripperiffic}}: Last quarter of season 3.
* SubordinateExcuse: Used ineffectually by Louise and Saito.

* SummonEverymanHero: Averted. Louise was going for a pet magical creature, not a human or a hero.

* SupportingHarem: Louise is a title character, and the story starts with their magical contract sealed by a FirstKiss, but this doesn't stop other girls from trying.

* SwordAndSorcerer: Saito with the sword and Louise with the magic.
* TalkingWeapon: Derflinger, Saito sword.

* TooDumbToLive: An aversion. [[spoiler: Tabitha's mother and Tabitha herself were at a formal event (a ball?) and Tabitha was offered a drink. Being a noble, protocol meant that refusing the drink was an act of rudeness, and the assassin was taking advantage of it. Tabitha's mother managed to get wind of it and took the drink herself, so it's actually a case of HeroicSacrifice. Perhaps she could have averted it by say knocking the drink over and spilling it, making it look like an accident, but possibly tarnishing their image in the process.]]

* TrappedInAnotherWorld (Isekai) - Saito is trapped in Louise's world. In the novels, one of his main motivations is getting back to his own world. [[spoiler: 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.]]

* {{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. Compare the endings of the first and last season.
** While happy that he stayed with her, she berates him for not taking his possibly only chance of going home. Then she kisses him but insists that it was to re-establish their contract since she "fired" him earlier so he would leave.
** [[spoiler: Thinking him dead, she bawls her eyes out over him and in general is in a HowDareYouDieOnMe kind of state while others watch. When he comes to and proposes, she accepts, with everyone as a witness.]]

* UnrequitedLove: All the women not named Louise towards Saito. It doesn't seem to stop them from trying.

* UnSorcerer: Louise, of course.

* UptownGirl: Louise (noble) and Saito (commoner).

** GroinAttack: And when Louise doesn't have a whip, this is her alternative method.