Eden's Zero Review - Chapters 21 to 36

Written by Shiggins

Okay, here we go...

Finally, caught up on Eden's Zero! Hiro Mashima's newest series has now been fully captured by my eyes, and here is my supremely brief summary of the chapters, as well as my own thoughts on how its doing and what could be next. Let's not waste time, and get right in!

Review of Chapters 1 to 20 (CLICK HERE)

Anyone else noticed how much better this series is doing when Happy is broken or quiet?

• Shiki and Homura fight the Rogue Out guild, with Homura using Ether Gear in the form of a sword, which once belonged to Valkyrie. Homura wishes to defeat the Demon King.
• "Sister" is angry at Illeegla for not paying any money, because they failed to capture 30 B-Cubers (Shiki interrupted Jinn, if you'll recall)
• The naked B-Cubers realise that the bubbles that destroyed their clothes and build a naked human pyramid to climb up to the high window and break through. Only Rebecca manages to escape the room.
• Rebecca runs into Illeegla, but he is defeated by Shiki ex Machina.
• Pino's EMP saves the B-Cubers, who put on cosplay, while Jinn reappears so he can fight Shiki.
• Weisz tries to interrogate Homura, and easily defeats the Nightmare Fuel Mosco robot when he appears. 
• As Happy awakes, Witch discovers that the Time-Eater/Chronophage is approaching Guilst. 
• Sister interrupts the fight between Shiki and Jinn, while Rebecca stays behind during the evacuation because a B-Cuber has fallen behind.
• Weisz and Homura discover the real Sister, Ivry, is underneath the church.
• Shiki battles the Fake Sister, and is horrified at how she uses her allies like bullet shields and heals them to get back up. Seems like a fair deal to me.
• Illeegla has captured a B-Cuber, but Rebecca beats him at the same time Shiki defeats Fake Sister. 
• Sister Ivry returns to the surface and confronts Fake Sister, annoyed she was having her powers drained by the machine, and her identity used by the robot. 
• Ivry uses her special power to turn all the statues in the building back into real girls, while Jinn crushes Fake Sister for using him. 
• Everyone leaves, except for Rebecca who has to wait for Shiki and co.
• The group escape the planet as it starts to transform to what it was like 1200 years ago, and everyone on the planet who wasn't around 1200 years ago DIES!
• Big happy reunion on the Eden's Zero.
• Homura reveals she is the student of Valkyrie, which is why she has that special sword.
• Mosco joins too, confirming that nobody on that ship should ever sleep again from fear of being murdered by it.
• Justice and his colonel Jaguar discuss Guilst, and they worry about a villain called Drakken Joe, who has escaped Guilst.
• Homura and Rebecca have a bath-talk.
• Clarisse calls to confirm the Guildmaster got off Guilst in time, and Rebecca gets some fame.
• The crew see humongous statues of 12 heavenly knights, also known as the Guardians of Blue Garden.
• They find the android and Shining Star herself, Hermit, sitting atop one of the statues, but she has become comatose.
• To wake her up and find the problem with her heart, they head to the virtual planet Digitalis to enter the Digital World and meet her.
• Digitalis is a planet where the NPCs of a video game became sentient, and now lead normal lives.
• The narrator makes an appearance to confirm this particular arc will be quite sadistic.
• Everyone chooses avatars. Rebecca is too boring to change, Homura becomes a boy, Weisz becomes a girl, Pino is human, and Shiki gets his far superior form with long hair.
• Due to being on a digital world, Weisz is told not to use his Ether Gear ability to rewrite the data, and Pino cannot use her EMP.
• Some exploration of the town.
• They run into a monster who warns them about a player called Jamiroff, who murders and destroys everything. 
• At the city of Krysta, they run into Jamiroff, who has killed player and NPC alike. He explains he is friends with Drakken Joe, describing him as one of the 6 Galactic Demon Generals (a new Oracion Seis?) and Shiki attacks. 
• They fight until Jamiroff needs to go because he has a job from Drakken Joe. He leaves. 
• Shiki and everyone, minus Homura, go to talk to Hermit, who is alone. Hermit's hatred of humans leads her to tell them to piss off.
• Homura meets an ally, revealing she has deceived Shiki.
• That night, an army arrives to destroy the city, who work for a chicken man called Giron, who works for Jamiroff who works for Drakken Joe.
• Everyone attacks, with Shiki launching off to find Hermit and Homura gone to do her own deceptive thing.
• Hermit is about to be killed, accepting her fate, but is saved by Shiki. 
• Homura meets up with Jamiroff, who is requesting to join him. 
• Shiki and Hermit talk for a bit, with Hermit refusing to acknowledge him as Ziggy's kid or as a friend.
• As it looks like the NPCs are about to be killed, the monster from before who wants to protect the town, who is given the name Shino-chan by a girl he protected. He then gets arrowed to fuck, although not dead since still solid, and Shiki is hit too. Homura hit him?!
• After some angry chat, Homura fires arrows to kill Shiki, but they are destroyed by... Homura?
• Real Homura reveals she was imprisoned upon arriving, and Jamiroff gets so bored he kills other monsters to make his scythe stronger.
• Homura chases after Fake Homura, while Shiki battles Jamiroff. 
• Unable to take on Jamiroff, Hermit suggests using cheat codes, which hopefully includes Big Head Mode.
• Homura discovers Fake Homura is actually a woman named Amira, who works for the Galactic Intelligence Agency. 

Opinion: I AM CAUGHT UP! PRAISE ME!

As I said last time, I'm really enjoying that Eden's Zero is building up an actual story now, while also managing to keep itself apart from Hiro Mashima's previous works. There are some obvious similarities, but the differences are growing and, by the end of this, I'm sure we'll see a completely unique beast of a series.

The Guilst arc was basic, but fun. I remember going in with absolute fear over Rebecca getting the typical damsel-in-distress role, but she got to kick ass for around half of it and that's a good step forward. Rebecca is too fun to get such a stereotypical treatment. And the Guilst arc gets bonus points for having such a dark edge to it, with a surprisingly dark ending! Countless lives were wiped from existence. You can say "they're just a bunch of criminals" but that's not a credible excuse! The body count in this series is already insane!

All three are better than Shiki's usual design.

The new characters, Sister Ivry and Mosco, are interesting additions. Ivry is loud, crass and quite a laugh, but Mosco is going to haunt my nightmares. I'm genuinely scared that he'll have an even more terrifying transformation when he pushes that button, but I'm sure it will provide some good laughs when he does. Or it will be a completely convenient form that allows him to destroy a random villain.

Speaking of villains, we've already started on Mashima's third incarnation of the Oracion Seis with Drakken Joe! It's always smart to have a major villain for our heroes to aim for, and the sooner the better! Illegla and Jamiroff are monstrous and scary, but they aren't exactly big-hitters. As for Jinn, while he is an antagonist, it's clear he's not necessarily evil, and he will be an interesting recurring rival for Shiki in the near future. Maybe after this Hermit plot?

What's this? An interesting development about the future of Pino?

Speaking of Hermit, I cringed at the idea of another manga bringing in a "real people in the virtual world" story, but Eden's Zero seems to have a knack for presenting their stories in, not unique, but fun ways that makes me want to pay attention. Mashima-senpai's writing has certainly improved over the years, and I'm looking forward to this narrator's warning of sadism that this arc will supposedly follow up on.

The biggest weak link so far seems to be Homura's purpose. While she is a fun character, nearly hilarious, she is also... just there. When I thought she was evil and infiltrated the crew, it nearly made sense to me because her appearance was so coincidental and fortunate for them. Instead, the Force or destiny or whatever brought them together. I guess we'll have to accept it for now, but damn is it convenient.

Lastly, let's talk about GIA, who have already made an impression by trying to kill Shiki and being sexy as hell! Are they related to Justice, Jaguar and the rest of the Interstellar Union Army, or the Oracion Seis, or a completely new side, or least likely of all, Crimson's pirates? Either way, this is getting to be quite a busy cast, and is only going to get bigger.

Well, that just looks impractical.

Some good laughs, over-the-top action, and fun characters are keeping Eden's Zero strong, if overly-familiar for some veteran readers out there. If you enjoyed his other works, Mashima-senpai's Eden's Zero is definitely worth it. Don't expect the world, and you'll have fun like I have. Especially now that I've finished these catch-up reviews!

Theory: Is the narrator "Mother"?

An image that no words can accurately describe.

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/