OP Sequence
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OP: 「First kiss」 by ICHIKO
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1 Mirror 1
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Summary:
In a world called Halkeginia, there exists a Tristein Magic Academy. In this academy is a new class of second-years. On this day, they are being instructed on alchemy, and the teacher calls on a pink-haired girl named Louise. Everyone else in the class doesn’t want Louise to use her magic because it’s dangerous. Louise goes ahead and casts the spell, causing the stones she’s supposed to transform to light up. An explosion covers the room, knocking out the instructor. The students explain that Louise has a success rate of zero, earning her the name Louise the Zero. The next day, the class is to participate in a summoning ceremony where each student is tasked with summoning a familiar spirit. Louise is the last one to summon something, and her spell causes another explosion. When the dust clears, there is a sleeping boy lying in front of her. Based on the boy’s appearance, the students realize that he’s a commoner. Louise wants to try again, but her teacher tells her that she can’t.
Unable to understand the language of Louise and her classmates, the boy tries to get away, but Louise catches him by the collar. Because she has no choice but to contract with him, Louise kisses him on the lips. The boy goes through great pain and faints as a special rune appears on his right hand. Sometime later, he wakes up in Louise’s room. He wants her to return him home, but she ignores him and starts changing clothes. She throws them at him, telling him to do the laundry. Of course, he still doesn’t understand her language and starts trying to ask questions about who she is. She wants him to shut up, so she casts a silence spell on him. But this is Louise the Zero, so the spell results in another explosion. It actually has another side effect: the two of them are now able to understand each other. The boy introduces himself as Hiraga Saito, and asks why he’s here. Louise explains that she summoned him, and Saito notices the rune on his hand. As Louise laments that she didn’t get a dragon or griffin, Saito runs away. He runs all the way outside, passing by Guiche and Kirche, two of Louise classmates. Louise and the others chase after him, and it’s Guiche who uses magic to pick him off the ground and fling him around in the air. It’s during this that Saito realizes that there are two moons in the sky, meaning he’s not on Earth anymore.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「ホントのキモチ」 (Honto no Kimochi) by 釘宮理恵 (Kugimiya Rie)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1 Mirror 2
So I really don’t like either the opening or the ending songs, mainly because neither of the singing voices really appeal to me. The opening sequence basically introduces the characters, but it left a smile on my face because I could tell how they interact with each other from just the opening. The ending animation was done in a cute paper-cutout style.
Watching this show is like watching Shakugan no Shana. It’s same production company (J.C. Staff), and it’s the same cast: Kugimiya Rie as Louise and Hino Satoshi as Hiraga Saito. In other words, Shana and Yuuji. I hadn’t realized this coming in, but it really struck me hard once the episode started. In fact, Kugimiya Rie even gets to say “Urusai!” several times throughout the episode. Yoshida Kazumi fans will love that Kawasumi Ayako is also in this, though not shown the first episode (she voices Henrietta).
Being a J.C. Staff production, there’s a lot of cuteness and tsundere, arguably more than Tsuyokiss which is supposed to be the tsundere animation lol. I’ve mentioned before that the character designer is Fujii Masahiro, the same guy who did Mahoraba.
I’m going to keep watching this for a number of reasons. For one, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face while watching this. Whether that was an effect of the Shana similarities or if it was because I really enjoyed the show, I’m not sure. I know I should look at this as a Shana replacement, but I’m hoping for at least a similar quality series. They hint at in the OP animation that Yuuji Saito has the potential to be quite powerful, and I’m interested in seeing how that develops. The overall magic theme turned out a bit better than I thought it’d be, mainly because Louise screws up so much (that joke could get old though). There’s also the hints in both the OP and ED of the abusive nature of Louise and Saito’s relationship, which we only see a small bit of in this first episode. Anyway, I’ll try this show out for at least two or three more episodes.