If this had been the first anime I'd ever seen, I might have rated it lower, but the perspective of seeing many of them gives one a better view. I waited until I saw all four offerings of the "Familiar of Zero" series before rating it, since the first three are a bit more helter- skelter. Stories with magic in them always will be since the creators can make anything happen, which removes a lot of the drama, since no situation is so dire that a little more magic can't change it for the better (or worse); but they managed to keep most of the pie-in-the-sky magic under wraps and provided some kind of rules - although, admittedly, not many - in place for the magic that they do employ. You know, like real life, where nothing is limitless! The storyline of a girl - Louise - who loves but keeps beating up on her lover, Saito, while constantly denying it really gets old, really after a few episodes; so when the author keep on putting that in there, it's tiresome and even gets to be distracting, since they actually manage to come up with pretty fair plot lines and dramas, enough to keep the thing interesting. Plus, it does strain credibility that a guy would continue to love and respect a girl, no matter how cute and sexy she is, when she keeps denying her feelings about him and blowing him up with her magic powers! Especially when there are other beautiful, bustier, and sexier females around him who care about him, but, that's part of their story; it just could have been done much better so that it's not disappointingly goofy. But, they do have some decent story arcs in the series which are interesting to watch, and enough pretty female eye candy to make any male happy, and they don't let the magic get in the way of the actual story. So, altogether, it works and is an entertaining series to experience.
