Product Details

• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese, English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Geneon / Funimation Productions
• DVD Release Date: November 4, 2008
• Run Time: 312 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001F2U6XI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,927 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Louise la Vallière the heroine of the supernatural comedy Familiar of Zero (2006) is a sort of Harriet Potter, studying sorcery at a wizard's academy on another planet. Her classmates refer to her as "Louise Zero" because she can't get a single spell to work properly. Second year students are required to summon a familiar that will serve them for the rest of their careers as mages: Instead of a mythical animal, Louise calls up Saito, a teen-age boy from Japan. Although she insults him, beats him, and makes him do endless chores--especially washing her inexhaustible supply of frilly undies--Saito soon falls for Louise (and vice versa, although she's loath to admit it). Somewhere in the background lurks an underdeveloped plot involving a princess, a revolt, evil courtiers, a ring stolen from a lake spirit, and lot of other supernatural trappings that don't add up to much. To take up the slack, the filmmakers fill the screen with jokes about Louise's flat chest, panty shots, jiggle shots of her overendowed classmate Kirche, and bath scenes. Not a weighty series by any means, but Familiar of Zero delivers plenty of fan service for those who crave it. (Rated 13 and older: violence, risqué humor, brief nudity, tobacco use, stereotypical characters) --Charles Solomon

(1. Zero Louise, 2. Commoner Familiar, 3. Feverish Temptation, 4. A Maid's Crisis, 5. Tristein's Princess, 6. A Thief's Identity, 7. Louise's Part-Time Job, 8. Tabitha's Secret, 9. Louise's Change Of Heart, 10. A Princess's Request, 11. Louise's Marriage, 12. Zero Treasure, 13. Louise The Void)

Product Description

Studio: Funimation Prod Inc Release Date: 11/04/2008

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE This anime!, November 18, 2008

By 

Alanna Evans - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Familiar of Zero: Box Set (DVD)

This is such a refreshing, fun series! I loved everything about it. Louise reminds me of Lina Inverse from Slayers but where Lina would blow everything up on purpose, poor Louise just blows things up on accident. Everything seems to go wrong that she touches. Every magic student has to summon a familiar in their second year. It's a huge thing, and the students are so proud when they finally get their familiar, only Louise screws this up too and in all the history of the school, she is the only one who has ever summoned... a human.

The Japanese boy is quite bewildered to be in a new world with two moons and having a girl claim to be his master (of sorts). She starts out treating him like a pet/slave (as other familiars are) but it quickly branches out into more than just that.

Great music, a fun plot, solid animation and nice character designs make for a very cute and entertaining anime. There's plenty of comedy and action and its just a great series overall. HIGHLY recommended!

This box includes the entire season in three full size cases housed inside a collector's box.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but forgettable, February 5, 2009

By 

guy incognito (OC, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Familiar of Zero: Box Set (DVD)

The Familiar of Zero is an anime about a girl's experiences, and her classmates, at a magic academy. The plot revolves around her and her helper's day to day lives in the academy sprinkled in with various missions where students (apparently the most qualified despite being novices) go on tasks to root out problems facing them and their friends/school/country.

While the plot itself is dry and not treated very serious, hence it is hard to get drawn into, the bright spot of this anime is the humor. The aim is to throw as many jokes as they can at you in an episode. Be warned that there is a lot of crude humor, whether it be a woman's bust size, misunderstandings of awkward situations, or clothing malfunctions. If this is up your alley, jackpot as this is fanservice 101. But even aside from that, characters, even if 1 or 2 dimensional, are still enjoyable.

In addition to humor, there is some romance sprinkled in, but this is one of my biggest problems with these kinds of anime. Its the kind of romance where the intended couple briefly hooks up, breaks up, loves each other, than hates, there is very little progression in their relationship, and usually its romance followed by humor, not giving the romance a real chance to grow.

Recap, after you watch it you may forget the plot and some of the characters, but you'll have a lotta laughs in the process.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not so Zero!!!, March 2, 2009

By 

M. Sharpless "NERV" (4621 Kathi Drive APT C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Familiar of Zero: Box Set (DVD)

Well, some people has given this a low score and for the life of me I can't understand why. For starters the show is fun, lighthearted, and good. It starts off well and it ends well. If you like Anime, than you need to pick this one up.
The rights to this show were first given to Geneon, but they dropped it and Funimation picked it up, and delivered this 3 disked box set. This is not a slim pack, what you get are three full case DVD's with a box that holds all three DVD cases. The box has good art work, and the DVDs them self's have reversible covers. The special features are not really worthy to be mentioned. As with all Anime almost, you get the standard special features. Clean Opening, Clean ending, previews, and some art work, also some promo stuff, but not much.
The video and art of the show is really good, not too flashy, but not dull. The audio is top notch, and the dubbing is superb. As with all Anime there is going to be people that hate the English voice acting, but in this Anime the English dub is really good.
After this season of Zero there is two more seasons, which each has 12 new episodes. Buy this box set, it is a great deal for 13 episodes of a great, and fun Anime.

Update:

Just got a letter from Fanimation (I wrote them), they have said that they do not plan to release the other two seasons. :-( I guess not enough people bought this. They probably downloaded this season, stupid so called fans (Pirates) ruin for everyone else.