You know, I didn’t watch Shakugan no Shana, but watching Zero no Tsukaima kind of makes me wish I had watched Shakugan no Shana. Because, if it’s anywhere near as much fun as Harry Potter and the Harem of Tristain…
In the immortal words of Hiraga Saito, “Horse whips turn me on…”
Or perhaps it’s the pink hair.
I’m surprised at ZnT too, it’s tons more quality than Shakugan in a way of the harem fun factor and I like it that they don’t take themselves too seriously.
Of course, I’ve been spoiled to the novels so the mood is obviously not according to the original work, but I’m hoping for a more serious second season :).
Zero no Tsukaima isn’t that good of a show, but it’s so much better than Shakugan no Shana that it’s not even funny. Shana is an intolerable lead and Saito’s somewhat more interesting (yet similar at the same time) than Yuuji. The characters make all the difference.
Besides that, ZnT is much funnier than Shana is. You definitely won’t have the same fun with Shana, that’s for sure.
ZnT is a lot more fun than Shakugan no Shana, although SnS does ramp up pretty nicely towards the end. However, unlike ZnT, SnS starts out sloooooowly.
ZnT is only 13ep compared to SnS’s 24, so they don’t really have a lot of choice in plot development speed.
word up. Almost every character in ZnT beats their respective character in SnS in every way. The only possible exceptions would be the leads themselves, Shana and Louise, just cuz Shana was so awesome. It’s a tight race tho.
I disagree with kei-done’s last part: imo Louise is heads and shoulders above Shana. Saito’s attitude/guts/stupidity is also better than 90% of the harem male leads out there.
The show’s romance/comedy chemistry is definitely the highlight. I hope the genre in general learns from it.
LOL, and don’t forget he has more of a passing interest in other girls, you know. The way he stays away from Kirche, the “more mature body” one, is as hilarious as Louise whipping Saito’s ass for his wandering eyes.
Yuuji wasn’t anything like Saito, which meant he was a doormat for most of the series, and didn’t doa thing until towards the end… not even standing up to her. Also, watching Yoshida be ‘a good girl’ got kinda boring, especially since Kirche here does a better job (and interacts with others more, as Ep 8 indicates) of playing the ‘rival’.
Besides, Saito actually breaks enough of the harem lead rules (be completely spineless, show no interest in any girls, if you do show interest do not touch the girls) to make him unlike most of the others.. and thus enjoyable, since there’s now great justification for Louise to make him into a punching bag, as he actually DOES things which may deserve it (like kissing Henrietta in Ep 7).
Despite similarities between the main characters of the two shows, Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima really aren’t THAT similar.
The most glaring difference is that SnS is about SHANA, as seen through Yuuji’s eyes, while ZnT is about SAITO, as seen through his own eyes.