The runes that bind Louise and Saito as Master and Familiar dissolve, throwing their relationship into turmoil.

Episode Summary

Saito tries to make a move on Louise, when they both realize that the runes on his hand marking him as her familiar are beginning to disappear. This causes both of them some stress that day, though there are those who dislike the fact that Saito is a commoner and think it’s a fortuitous change. The two of them are summoned to the castle, and while in the carriage Louise seems concerned about whether he’d like to stay with her or not. On a break in their trip, she wanders off and is attacked by someone named Shefield who wants to kidnap her. Louise’s explosive response gets Saito’s attention.

Saito appears in the nick of time to defend Louise so that she can chant the void spell and save them both. They arrive to see the princess, who sacrificed much of her own wealth during the recently-ended war. She awards Saito the title of Knight, but he doesn’t accept since he’s just a normal human with no real power. They suspect that the disappearance of his runes might have something to do with his being killed and resurrected by an elf. Later that night Louise voices her feelings of abandonment to him and begs him to stay by her side. They decide to try and figure out how to renew their contract together, and Saito tries to make a move that gets him in the doghouse.

Thoughts

You know, my first thoughts when hearing that even more of this story was being animated was to roll my eyes and ask “why?” because it seemed so unnecessary. But I have to say that what really truly put me off this episode is what happened near the end. Saito, having been shot down earlier in the episode, literally and physically attempts to coerce Louise into having sex with him against her will. This is played for comedy, but I didn’t find it funny in the least. This gives this series an automatic fail as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen boobs a-plenty in tons of other fanservice shows, but at the very least I can say that in most of those shows, the girls are willingly throwing themselves at a weak and nerdy male protagonist. This show just hits below the belt and no, I don’t think it’s okay or funny or cute.

That said I think I’m going to have a difficult time saying anything constructive about the rest of the show. It has its share of characters with huge boobs, an encounter with some mysterious enemy that I don’t care about, all hardly made up for by the fairly nice animation. It’s not that I would have given it high compliments in the first place, but any of its positive aspects have been overshadowed by the writers’ complete disrespect towards the main female character.

In any case, if you happened to have enjoyed the first two seasons of this show, then this third installment should be right up your alley. If you haven’t been keeping up with it or you feel like you’d be insulted by the way that the characters are treated, then I’d steer clear if I were you.

Pros

• Nice animation

Cons

• If you haven’t been watching to this point you won’t know – or care – what’s going on
• Sexual harassment isn’t funny

By Jessi – 08/30/08