Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho (Grimoire of Zero) is quite obvious from the start. You just need to take a single look at any promotional artwork to understand what this is about. If you ever wasted any time watching medieval fantasy shows these last few years, or any show in general, the simple character templates you can identify in a poster have all the information necessary to tell you even some fuck*n details of this one.
Yeah, this is about a young overpowerful loli, who turns out to be a witch and calls herself Zero, and a nameless beast guy who ends up being her bodyguard as she searches for her grimoire across the land. They are joined by a shota apprentice witch in their adventure and are faced with some hidden knowledge about the magic in the world and the conflict between church and witches.
- Oh, the cast
Zero is perhaps the most annoying and disturbing element of the show. Her mere presence, her mere existence in fact, is something not only flooding modern day shows, but exactly what turns most of them on simple fanservice for sick perverted pedophiles around. She looks ten year old, acts with some degree of maturity as common to the "immortal loli" template, yet is the tsundere we all are damn tired of watching. She is an overpowerful witch who could've easily been replace by any different kind of artwork and personality for the show to be a LOT better than it is.She is joined by the nameless bodyguard, a beastman with a friendly behavior, which sadly never conflicts with his background of being a cold mercenary and witch hunter. Did he really killed witches before? Did he murder anyone at all? Nah, he looks the average big dumb buy who is the best friend possible and would only harm monsters and evil masterminds.
It gets even worse when Algus, a shota (with a twist) joins the party. Another child. Yep. If you ever watched Guin Saga where a leopard-faced guy babysits two teenagers as war unfolds behind him, well, think of Grimoire of Zero as the modern day version of that, with all the jokes about bland romance, tsundere behaviors, and the usual light presentation of a world where witches are burned alive.
Speaking of which
Yeah. A church pursuing witches, burning them, and everything else. We know that, it is about the dark ages of our very own real world, but here it is treated as a background that barely feels as heavy as it tries to be. When witches are cute lolis or shota boys and the beastman have bishounen eyes or stupid behavior it gets hard to feel any pressure coming from the setting where supposedly innocent people are being killed for the sake of God. God, in particular, is absent from the church factor in this show. The Church, in fact, is only mentioned twice or thrice over the course of the adventure so in general people are burned just for the sake of giving the false impression there is danger around the corner for our two loli witches and our beast guy.It has interesting points though
Zero is not simply an overpowerful witch. She is the creator of the school of magic the witches in the kingdom are using. Her quest is to recover her grimoire from people using it in ways she did not expect. Add that to a villain who is smartly not simply a mindless villain, but a passionate guy who lacks understanding and we have two elements that makes Grimoire of Zero a enjoyable show from time to time.And it has quality despite its generic template
White Fox studio is getting a bit better in their job. After a blandly animated shounen as Akame ga Kill! they made a better produced Re:Zero and even got the cute lolis really cute with the hot-springs-based sequel of Utawareromono. Grimoire of Zero looks fuck*n generic, yes, but it definetely not ugly. It has consistency, the colors are there, and the background shots are better than other medieval fantasy piles of sh&t.
Yup. Another damn generic medieval fantasy show. At first I was happy to see a boost on this genre around 2015, with Shingeki no Bahamut, Chaika, and a few others interesting-although-far-from-great shows dominating the industry. Sadly, it seems whatever good ideas they had were all spent. Grimoire of Zero invokes feelings of Zero no Tsukaima, Guin Saga, Toradora, and every other show with a protagonist as generic as Zero is.
For its short amount of episodes and the fact it does have an end, however, Grimoire of Zero can be more tolerable than a few others of its kind, only if just as a mindless fun medieval shounen. The idea of the villain and throwing a protagonist that was some sort of creator instead of just a weak-willed damsel trying to save the world makes for the enjoyable moments of this show, although the comedy it tries falls flat as any could expect from a show as generic looking as this is.
