Eden's Zero Chapter 1 Review - In a Sakura-Filled Sky

Written by Shiggins

I missed you, Mashima-senpai!

After the end of Fairy Tail, I tried writing some My Hero Academia reviews but I lacked the heart and motivation to keep them going. Thankfully, Hiro Mashima isn't done writing and now we have his next big project, Eden Zero! However, does it manage to live up to the legacy he has created so far, with Fairy Tail and Rave Master? And more importantly, what about Plue?!

So many mixed feelings in this one image!

In this extra-long debut chapter, we start our story with a young boy named Shiki who is being told by his robot grandfather about making friends and leaving this place one day. Skip ahead to years later, and we see a woman named Rebecca travelling to an island called the Granbell Kingdom with... Happy?!.. by her side. The reason? Well, she wants to reach one million subscribers on her "Blue Cat Channel."

I think I last saw these guys singing for Lord Farquaad.

A robot knight comes up to her and, upon realising she's their first customer in a hundred years, he summons all the other robots and they give an entire presentation for the theme park/kingdom. And so Rebecca begins her tour around the island, eventually end up in a jungle and smiling happily at a cat-faced dinosaur robot. The cat-dino-bot is suddenly destroyed by a new face, which makes him the only other human in the theme park.

This thing would be so badass if it didn't remind me of Happy.

Immediately, he tries to identify her as a person through the act of touch and feel, and then he tries to eat Happy. He offers to be friends with Rebecca, but his manner is so awkward and antisocial that it just annoys her and she heads off. She returns to the village but is stalked by the newcomer in every other panel, who is finally introduced as Shiki by one of the robots.

Shiki tells her about all the robots, revealing he's friends with them all, and Rebecca is able to enjoy the island some more. As she does, a spy goes underground to a robotic king who is aware of Rebecca and that "the time has come". Shiki and Rebecca talk at night, with Shiki revealing he just spends his time fixing the robots as best he can, and he's never left the island because he has to keep fixing them. Then he sleeps, and yes it is that abrupt.

Oh Mashima. Never change.

The robots tell Rebecca that he was brought here by a demon king, which is just a robot who played that role, and nobody knows his true origin. Rebecca goes to get some sleep, but not after making sure to give Shiki a haircut. The next morning, Shiki is confused with his new haircut, and can't find any of the robots. Meanwhile, Rebecca and Happy are shocked to find themselves outside and restrained to poles, about to be burned like witches.

The king of the island, not the demon king but a more traditional designed robot, appears and says he is planning to take Rebecca's ship to leave the island, so the robots will no longer need to entertain humans. Shiki is shocked to see that every robot, even Michael from the first pages, have turned against the humans. The king reveals that a virus infected them, giving them self-awareness, and Shiki was never actually repairing them because the island did it for them.

Damn. He's much cooler than the monarchy I have.

The king ignores Shiki's plea that they are friends and reveals his form, prepared to battle. The robots then run to attack Shiki, but the cries of Rebecca enable him to launch himself back up and fight back. The king and Shiki engage in a battle, and Happy tells the audience that Shiki is using "Ether Gear", a tool that allows him to use his inner ether/mana/magic/ki/chi. Shiki then defeats the king.

Shiki's EG is one of gravity, which allows him to grab Rebecca and literally change his gravity to "fall" far away to the ship. Rebecca and Happy make sure Shiki joins them and they fly away into the sky.... into space?!

My jaw dropped so hard there. Ow.

Yes, it turns out that this series is actually a sci-fi and Rebecca is from the planet Blue Garden. A colossal robot ship flies over them, with Rebecca telling her that those are called "Dragons". As the ship flies away, we look back at the robots who are full of relief that they finally managed to convince Shiki to leave this place. Yes, the demon king robot wanted Shiki to leave so he didn't end up alone on this planet, since all the robots were doomed to run out of power eventually. Happy to say goodbye to Shiki and hoping he changes the universe, the robots all settle down and officially run out of power. To put it simply, they died.

As Shiki looks back on the planet he grew up on, he sheds tears and chooses to remember the good times he had with the robots instead of the bad, thanking them for his life. Adopting the name Shiki Granbell, his journey into the cosmos begins.

Opinion: I've read far worse opening chapters.

Let's get through the biggest problem with Eden Zero first, since it was what initially got to me; The artwork.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I love Mashima-senpai's art. A bright, colourful style that you can instantly recognise was drawn by him and his assistants. When you see a Fairy Tail character, you know it's a Fairy Tail character. It isn't too sharp or too rounded, and the pages are always clear and simple to read, without a load of hubbub and mess making things difficult. (like in some modern One Piece chapters).

However... Look at these characters! Rebecca is clearly Lucy. Shiki is clearly Natsu with Gray's hair. Even the demon king looks like a nicer version of Keyes from the Tartarus arc! And to bring my point across more, let's look at the initial picture and label who looks like Fairy Tail characters.

I'm not being childish! You are!

What's even more bizarre however is the appearance of Happy! Yes, Happy the cat from Fairy Tail is here! Why?! How?! And dear god WHY?! Is he the same Happy from Fairy Tail, making this a sequel set in the far future and implying Happy is actually an immortal vampire like Negima's Evangeline, that has suffered the loss of Natsu and friends? Or is he a brand new character, but with the exact same name, face and personality? Either option fills me with dread, and annoys the hell out of me. I don't know what's going on! Plue is Mashima's iconic mascot, and that's fine because Plue is a simple mute who was only ever relevant in Rave Master. Happy on the other hand has tons of personality, and having him here is completely distracting! Couldn't they just have made a new mascot? Or even a different cat? Call him Pappy, and give him an eyepatch!

Besides "Happy", how are the rest of the characters? Well, pretty fun to be honest. I like how Shiki is the antisocial caveman-type who is a fish out of water, with no idea how to interact with other worlds and people, although I dislike him having a relation to a demon, false or not, if only because we dealt with all of that with Natsu. And I like that Rebecca is trying to get famous, but unfortunately that's where my fondness of her stops since she is essentially Lucy but without the power of keys to summon awesome spirits, so she's essentially useless in battles except as a hostage. I will admit to being slightly turned off by her speech of friendship as well. I know that manga, especially a Mashima one, love to talk about it, but this much already?

One thing I did love however was the surprisingly dark ending to the robot kingdom. Not only did they realistically play the role of the villains to make Shiki leave to greener pastures (or bluer, if the name of the planet is anything to go by), but they died! And I love that, because Fairy Tail ended with far too many survivors. This chapter literally ended with me feeling bad for a robot I barely knew about! Except the Demon King robot. I bet he's still alive somewhere. I hope he is too because he tickled me perfectly.

Trolling Robot Demon King is Bae!

Lastly, it's set in space! SPACE! I adore space! Space is the best setting of all time, with the only potential exception being Pansexual Anthropomorphised-Dinosaurs Island! The amount of possibilities that have opened up from the reveal that we're going from planet to planet is insane. A whole universe of story-telling options has just fallen into our laps, and I am gleeful at the idea that we're going to have a Ratchet and Clank-like structure, but with more boobs and less guns.

Speaking of guns, let's move on to the violence. The actual combat was adequate, but the "Ether Gear" has me curious. I love when gravity is used as a weapon in fantasy, so I am ready to see if the next few chapters explain it to us better and show us what exactly it is and what others use for combat, since the Ether Gear is apparently from "the dark ages".

Well, I'm in tears now. Thanks for that.

Will I keep reviewing this series? For now, let's say yes. We're currently in the trial period, so I will keep reviewing for 5 to 10 chapters and see if I get grabbed. I like to think that's a fair time to see if the series is worth it, since many manga and anime start off far worse than this but end up amazing. Remember how Naruto started with diarrhoea? Never quit a manga early on! Because Naruto had diarrhoea!

Until then, let us dream of the death of Happy. Yet again.

Manga Rating: 3.5/5

Character of the Week: Shiki for his awkwardness.

Best Part: Robots die as we see the stars.

Worst Part: Happy makes me angry!

I can't tell if this is stupidly contrived or stupidly awesome.

Shiggins:[Admin]
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Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/