Zero no Tsukaima

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At the Tristain Magic Academy, her classmates call bumbling witch-in-training Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere “Louise the Zero.” During an important coming-of-age ritual, when each student must summon their own witch’s familiar, Louise confirms her classmates’ opinion by accidentally conjuring up a normal teenage boy from Japan. Whether the two of them like it or not, the laws of magic bind them as master and servant forever! A hilarious novel with romance interwined.

Associated Names
One entry per line
The Familiar of Zero
ゼロの使い魔
零之使魔 (小说)
제로의 사역마
Related Series
Zero no Tsukaima SS: Tabitha’s Adventure (Side Story)
Kaze no Kishihime (Side Story)
Recommendations
N/A
Recommendation Lists
  1. Enjoyable read
  2. FANTASY GREAT LIGHT NOVEL
  3. Trollo Recommendation List - Isekai Comedy
  4. przeczytane
  5. Fantasy / Isekai

Latest Release

Date Group Release
04/08/19 Baka-Tsuki v22 epilogue
04/08/19 Baka-Tsuki v22c14
03/18/19 Baka-Tsuki v22c13
03/05/19 Baka-Tsuki c22c12
02/21/19 Baka-Tsuki v22c11
01/31/19 Baka-Tsuki v22c10
11/10/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c9
09/23/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c8
08/22/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c7
07/28/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c6
05/19/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c5
04/16/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c4
03/29/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c3
03/14/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c2
02/22/18 Baka-Tsuki v22c1
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13 Reviews sorted by


RarestProGamer
RarestProGamer rated it
January 17, 2017
Status: Completed
The only reason why I even bothered with the novels because people said that novels are much better than the anime as it diverts from the canon story so much and Louise is much less of an abusive bit*h compare to her anime counterpart. Surprisingly, the light novels end up becoming a deconstruction of having a relationship with a hardcore extreme Tsundere till volume 11 unlike the anime where in between each season, the personality and character of Louise automatically resets, but that doesn't mean she is any less abusive... more>> in the novels either. She will practically beat the sh*t out of Saito for petty reasons, since the novels are in more depth you will only feel pity, sad and bad for the MC that is just pathetic. There are even situations where it is Louise's fault for misunderstanding, but she will still beat the living life out of Saito, and to make the matters even worse after MC still loves her for some reason because.....?

-The only reason why I would recommend it and gave it 2 scores because it is true for better or worse the novels are far better than the coma inducing anime. It perfectly portrays Saito's character and his longing for Earth, his home. You will see him depressed, crying and sad because he has no one in this strange world and on top of that Louise's abuses and her failure of a character to understand his Love which for some pride reasons she keeps on misunderstanding it as a "s*ave" showing affection to his "Owner" even though many times he has directly confessed to her. The only saving grace would be a harem ending for me, but from the looks of it I highly doubt that is gonna happen!

Spoiler

and like I guessed, it ended up having a monogamy ending too just like how it was in the anime. I am regretting why I even bothered reading it, I should have just asked for spoilers in some thread. It is just damn painful, when a story has a harem element through out the entire plot, but doesn't have a polygamy ending, then don't make a harem story in the first place. On top of that, our naive MC goes out with one of the worst female character. Why it couldn't be maid or princess? They were much more kinder than that bit*h who would treat MC like sh*t the entire time or at least even an open ending, then I could have at least made my own conclusion.

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Okabe_rintarou
Okabe_rintarou rated it
June 20, 2018
Status: --
This novel had a great potential the way it started.. A normal human being summoned into a world where magic determines social hierarchy when he was out shopping, and the summon is accidental.... It was funny..

But everything was ruined because the author made the story something that is only good for the trend that Japan was following at the time of release, yes, the tsundere, twin-tail, loli-petta thingie....

So much potential wasted for the sake of pe*verted readers!!!!

You'll see that the jokes in this story are always repetitive. They are about... more>> the MC trying to be a pe*vert, MC's lackluster jokes making the violent woman more violent, Jokes about her non existent breasts, jokes about how she tries to seduce him but never accepts it, jokes about how the MC gets kicked on his balls when he ogles at another woman's breasts.. Yup there's nothing more than this..

The annoying parts are more, the MC is a wimp.. He never puts the woman in her place when she's overbearing.... Seriously... She's too s*upid that even after the MC and others clarifies that it is because he loves her and not because of some contract that he stays with her, she still goes for emotional breakdowns that too at critical times making the whole damn thing even more annoying that it already is...

The author passed away before he completed the novel and the ending was written by someone else, who's probably another pe*ophile because he ends up with the flat-chested violent loli.. Yea it's not a harem ending.... I don't want to add this to spoilers because it's not different from the anime ending anyway...

Almost every single character is annoying except for maybe Mr. Colbert.. Anyway, if you have read a typical Japanese novel with twin-tail pettanko loli heroine who's violent and Tsundere, you really don't need to read this to know what will happen.. You can just take a guess and it's gonna happen....'

Anyway, I wrote this review to vent my frustration of having my time wasted on this piece of 'art'.......

I have no idea how Japanese novels like this became popular just because of the tsundere element... I just can't stand it how shonen genre has deteriorated just because of this..... <<less
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nin
nin rated it
August 25, 2017
Status: v21
First, the LN is significantly better than the anime. It's not better to the point where you'll like the LN if you abhor the anime, but if you think the anime is mediocre, the LN doesn't have some of the anime's more glaring issues. There are less deus ex machinas and the relationship doesn't seem to reset every season for example. As a result, Saito and Louis are more likable, but that may just be me.

It's somewhat obvious that this inspired future isekai stories significantly especially with the harem antics... more>> and the focus on a technical magic system rather than vague magic. Other than the lack of RPG statistics though, one important thing that this LN does not have that a lot of future isekai stories have is an overpowered protagonist. He can do some crazy things, but he's not remotely god-tier.

The world building is surprisingly good with a significant amount of politics if that intrigues you. The world and magic system overall are better elaborated in the LNs than the anime. The characters also end up being surprisingly well rounded as time goes on, especially Saito, Louise, and their classmates. The character development is probably the strongest point of the LN, even if it's occasionally done through annoying harem antics and even if Louise may be considered an unlikable love interest. Interestingly, the novel has a bunch of side characters the anime skips over. They aren't overly important, but they help to flesh out the world.

Honestly speaking, even with harem antics interfering, the relationship between Saito and Louise is probably one of the best written ones I've seen. At the very least, it's my favorite romance involving a tsundere in a light novel. That could be just nostalgia talking, but if you like tsunderes at all, you should give this a try just for that.

Even if you don't like tsunderes though, I would say give the first few novels a try. If you can somehow warm up to Louise, you'll probably be able to enjoy the rest of the series. <<less
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dailang
dailang rated it
July 13, 2020
Status: Completed
Is among the earliest novel of the Isekai genre. Got some bonus point for being the pioneer.

To be honest, I stay at it for the MC Hiraga Saito. He confess his love, propose and stay loyal for the entire novel from the Volume 2 until the end. His power is also the generic kind of power and not the OP kind most Isekai go for making it not only one of the original but also a unique.

The end of Volume 8 is the greatest part of this novel. The pure... more>> romance and action in this alone put this novel on at least 4 star.

Then the latter part from Volume 13-16with the war and conspiracies is lower in quality compare to the earlier Volume but start to pick up at the end.

The 17-20s Volume is pure hype for the climatic ending, but sadly the author passed before the real end can be make.

The end that come after so many year of waiting is lower than expectation to be honest, but is still a good ending for a great novel. But the arupt end make me wish for that memorial book. Even the note the author make look incredibly greater than the novel ending.

Overall 4/5. I put in 5/5 for the part that we could not read since the author for sure would make a better final Volume. <<less
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roughroadface_51
roughroadface_51 rated it
February 9, 2021
Status: --
A descent opinion who read way back it wasnt completed by BT.

The anime wasn't half way and the LNs goes beyond (afair... Oasis in the desert?), re-read a couple of times, didnt finished it.

One of the strong LN titles during everything wasnt doing well before.

Wish this was licensed before like Haruhi and Toradora.

Respect to the author RIP
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marine1corps
marine1corps rated it
August 23, 2016
Status: v17 epiloque
Welp this will be a place holder for a later and more extensive review. But from what I remember was that the main heroine was an abusive bit*h (basically template for all abusive tsunderes) and the main character was an idiot half the time (not the dense type of idiot but he is still quite dense). Its redeeming points was the fact that the hero was able to use any weapon like an expert and half the time he was able obtain modern weaponry to turn the tide in any... more>> situation. (Wooo guns for the win) One of the first novels I read that brought the concepts of modern weapons beating down on magic. Character wise they were enjoyable (tabitha ftw). And story wise seemed to make sense as well. But I can't make a final verdict until I have reread the entire since its been so long. So for now I'll have to trudge through chapters that have louise being a tsundere. <<less
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jubayar
jubayar rated it
July 19, 2022
Status: v1 illustration
I love (zero no tsukaima) manga, anime, novel. But I will never see it's new story in my life. Its my most favorites.

Those who waiting for it's novel or manga new story stop waiting for it because this novel and manga author YAMAGUCHI NOBORU DIED IN 2013.😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭.I was waiting for it's new story but in 2021 I searched for this novel author then I found my one of the novel and manga hero died in 2013.
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AnotherNEET
AnotherNEET rated it
September 17, 2018
Status: Completed
Not gonna say much about this, cuz the good points are already listed by those above, and about the bad points, I say the story is not perfectly fleshed out, and the tsundere thing is quite annoying, but if you can bear with those 2, it's going to be a really great read. It doesn't have any bullsh*t or inflated tropes that trigger people, and again, world building, character building, story,... They're dammed good. That's the early isekai LN for you, and it doesn't get 4 ss of anime and... more>> has 22 vol for no reason. As for the guys who voted 1 and 2 stars, apparently they only read novels for harem and also the 1 star guy probably didn't read the whole novel to see the different yet consistent personality of Satou as well as not now that being small is pretty darn normal for a teenager :v <<less
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Fuuyan
Fuuyan rated it
July 1, 2017
Status: v21c3
It is a really good one to read. To be honest, it far surpasses the majority of what I have read. At least higher than the upper quartile.

tsundere elements are indeed annoying, but the love they have is something that can't be built up by some self-conceited upstart writers, the refinement in the love so far put most of the tales I have known to shame, to be honest.

Yea. The tsundere bit was so irritating at first... And the flirting farce they had was... well... ugh.. I feel as if... more>> I have become a certain fatso...

either way... this is just good. Good romance... The whole conspiracy throughout is nothing but a stepping stone, a mere ivy decoration of the truth in the colour of red...

dear... It is just legendary whenever Louise feels depressed because love, <<less
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ad_chiat
ad_chiat rated it
December 6, 2019
Status: v21 afterword
Complete tr*sh. The plot was ridiculously overstretched to get what, one of the most unsatisfying endings I have ever read.

... more>>
Spoiler

All the villains, the pope, his right hand guy, the fake queen, the elves get away and the author tries to shoehorn in their "redemption" which feels so unnatural, like he was fed up with writing the novel and just wanted to end it somehow. I'm sorry but I cannot see Josette and Julio as anyone other than evil people who deserve death, no matter how much the story forces you to make them some sort of "tragic villains who are actually good". To rub salt in the wound all the heroines other than Louise get ignored, as if they never had any feelings for Saito.

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touchoflemon
touchoflemon
June 9, 2019
Status: --
This is not so much a review but a reply to some of the other reviews regarding the ending and a little character analysis.

Now, I'll start by saying I'm up to volume 3 and then read the epilogue cause I'm a little bored with the series. Sure it is one of the originals of the isekai genre but, as far as shounen romance/adventure/fantasy it is not that special.

I'm gonna say MMC is kinda boring, the normal sorta everyday blank slate type of guy, just a bit more adaptive. This plays... more>> into allowing the reader to imagine themselves as the MC as many other series catered to a younger impressionable audience does. RPG in reading form essentially.

I'm not gonna try to explain the master/s*ave relation of the FMC/MMC I think that just has to do with the nature of having a Tsundere love interest, albeit this one seems to have more physical abuse than normal. As a character I think Tsunderes are terrible depending on the way the author develops them. FMC is of the classical type. But I think the science behind the attraction of course is her and most tsunderes' hardheadedness. You kinda want to break them down, in this and basically all cases this calls for making them fall for you. When they hit the dere, they really hit the dere, especially the classic tsunderes. It strokes male ego.

Some of you seem angry that it didn't end as a harem. Well the harem aspect is also only there as a way to stroke the male ego, but essentially this is a shounen ln. For the younger demographic, authors and artists tend to stick to: wish fulfillment and pre-destiny. What I mean by that of course is that you are meant to be with someone, so for that and the fact that the FMC is a classic tsundere, strong contender for why it ended that way. From what I've read and wikied this was the most likely outcome even with harem elements. But who knows, after all it was picked up after the original author passed away so it may not have been his intention. <<less
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izelan83
izelan83 rated it
December 20, 2023
Status: v1
I forced myself to read to nearly the end of volume 1 before checking out some reviews on this site and immediately giving up on the novel. I guess there are people out there who find toxic and abusive relationships with a doormat male main character to be enjoyable, but that's not me especially when it's this drastic. I wish this wasn't so common in Japanese LN's, so many LN's where the basic plot is fine but I have to give up due to horrible characters and relationships between them.
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Master10K
Master10K rated it
June 5, 2021
Status: Completed
Hopping on the "Wayback Machine" to finish off this classic Summoning Isekai, where our world (i.e. Japan) actually impacts this world directly; beyond just the average Japanese boy being summoned. A fairly well-built magical fantasy world, set in a prestigious Magic Academy, steeped in an annoying aristocratic culture & backed by religion. But with an author relying on countless conveniences & contrivances to force events, even at the detriment of its characters decision making skills.

So the MC Saito becomes little more than a doormat, when paired with the classic tsundere... more>> Louise, who exudes an exhausting amount of "Tsun". Floundering about in a toxic relationship, constantly breaking up (temporarily) to perform foolish feats of self-sacrifice. There's a swath of other important characters like: Colbert the teacher, friends Tabitha, Henrietta, Tifania, etc. Fully decked out in tempered plot armour, to survive the relentless amount of gags & plot contrivances they are forced into. Honestly the only justifiable reason the story is as long as it is, is because the main villains always lacked weapons that could bypass plot armour. And likely this author wanted to drag this story out till retirement, which sadly came much sooner than anyone expected. RIP. <<less
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