Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest Chapter 65 and Eden's Zero Chapters 110 and 111 Review

 Written by Shiggins

One world in, another world out.

As Eden's Zero makes sure to resolve it's issues as quickly as possible to move on to the stuff it would rather talk about, Fairy Tail decides to take the exact opposite route and we're now going to enjoy something very surprising. More important than all that though is that the NaLu daughter is real and exists and must be protected forever! 

I'm so desperate for ship confirmation that I'm actually counting this as a step in the right direction.

Fairy Tail

WW has woken up! She's sweating and panicking, and can't use her powers on Max and Warren. (And if you can't use your power on them, you know it won't work on anyone!). WW wakes up Touka the cat, and tells her that something has happened to "Elentir", and the two have a connection involving this name. Not only is WW fixated on saving Elentir, she's bowing to Touka and begging for her help. Using a glass of water, WW creates a circle and disappears before their very eyes. 

Meanwhile, Lucy is trapped and still needing clothes after the situation from last chapter. She gets the idea from Natsu to use her Celestial Spirit magic to create a maid's outfit because Virgo is best spirit-girl? Anyway, this is when the trio and several other characters suddenly glow and disappear. Natsu, Gray, Erza, Happy, Lucy and Wendy arrive on some strange new land they've never been in. And as a hint of where they are, Lucy's magic-created clothes have disappeared!

Okay, theory time! Are we thinking it's something serious like she's become an alcoholic due to depression, or something hilarious like she become an anime fangirl, or something disturbing like she's now dating Sugarboy?

Once getting to wear Gray's coat, Lucy hears a voice. She turns round to see a young girl calling Lucy her mother. And this is when we're greeted with the surprising return of Edo-Lucy, mother of Nasha! Yes, we're actually in Edolas! And we're taken to the location of the other Fairy Tail guild hall, where Edo-Natsu is hanging out with everyone. Edo-Lucy is married to Edo-Natsu, Edo-Gray and Edo-Juvia share the same fate with their own son Greige. Mystogan is name-dropped as working in the capital, Erza is told to avoid Edo-Erza, and WW is shocked to discover she can't use her magic in Edolas.

FT Opinion: Is Edolas relevant again?!

Long-time readers will remember that I did enjoy the Edolas arc, but I struggle to care too much about it due to the world itself basically existing completely outside the main plot. With the exception of Lisanna and Pantherlily, nothing in Edolas made a significant impact on the world of Fairy Tail and it ended up feeling almost like one of the ten billion Naruto filler arcs. Again, I enjoyed it, but I wanted it to feel more important. So here we have that chance! Let's just hope Edolas isn't only a fun detour from the main plot.

Now I'm wondering what other pictures he's drawn are going to be canon...

On the bright side, even if this does result in being nothing more than a distraction, it looks like it's going to be a fun one. We've gotten to see the two kids that Mashima once posted on his Twitter account (let's face it, we were never going to see them in the Fiore world anyway), there's something going on with Erza Knightwalker, reporter Gajeel might be about to enter the manga for the first time ever, and if none of that entices you, then think of this.... We're probably going to see a Sugarboy timeskip-design. 

Not sure how I should comment on this one.

What did I not like about this chapter? WW's rapid heelturn that is so jarring that I got whiplash. Yes, we knew there was more to her than what we had seen, but this was a bit ridiculous. I guess her home country of Elentir is in danger from Selene and Touka has some sort of connection or title there, but now she's all meek and needing Natsu and co's help? That sucks. That really sucks.

Manga Rating: 4/5

Best Part: Edo-NaLu-kid!

Worst Part: Touka was good all along?

Eden's Zero

At Red Cave, the group wait for Witch to return and decide to ask Nadia about the robots outside. Nadia tells us about the history of the temple, how so many adventurers searched for the treasure, and that when it was taken 200 years ago, the ether it generated was no longer able to supply power to the androids. Nadia shared the same fate, until a human engineer named Andrew fixed her and attached the cable. 

Oh my god, why does EVERY old person need to be like this these days?!

From how Nadia describes Andrew, it becomes fairly obvious that she was in love with him. Although sadly, he has been away for 200 years to find the treasure. Nadia says she still has faith he's alive and coming back, before moving on to say the treasure might be gone but the beacon remains, hence how Ziggy and many other adventurers have it. Finally, Witch returns with Laguna by her side. 

This better not be a ship. I don't need that in my life.

Laguna has a secret condition for joining the group, but that is irrelevant right now. Instead, Laguna gets strangely defensive about how Drakken Joe wasn't at his strongest when defeated by Shiki and then everyone talks to him to catch up on who he is and what the situation is. It's honestly not that interesting, but we do finally enter the fire cave and Laguna comes in handy, using his powers to make a teary-eyed Shiki become water, followed by Witch coating Shiki in ether to make him keep a physical form. 

With the trio's powers combined, Shiki makes his way through the trap and ends up in a large chamber where a voice speaks to him, from the ether in the room. And that voice is revealed to be Mother herself.  

I might make this my next running gag. All these talking asses in manga...

The second chapter starts with Shiki showing his lacrima, that allows him to breathe underwater, to the rest of his group. Apparently, Mother's ether uses the temple's treasure as a vessel, and the remains of it is using the lacrima now. Nadia says that using this lacrima, they can find these other "relics" that also have Mother's ether. To put it simply, find enough relics to get a certain amount of Mother's ether. Use that ether to find Mother. It sounds complicated but it isn't.

And if two people hold them at the same time, they must settle this issue through the ancient ritual known as a Xiaolin Showdown.

Before the group take their leave, Witch decides to drop the news that Andrew is dead, despite Rebecca wanting to let her live in ignorant hope. Thanks to Pino, they are able to see his final transmission of how he was on his way back with a relic, before something happened. Witch calculated that he was knocked off-course for 200 years before crash-landing in that pod we saw a few chapters ago. Horrified at this reveal, Nadia literally tears her own cable off and rushes to the skeleton. 

As Nadia starts to question herself and her love for Andrew, Witch comes in with her own wisdom to reassure her she was not wrong. And this is when Andrew's relic is revealed, a candleabra, which then lets out an explosion of ether. Not only does this reactivate the robots, it also causes the water to sink. Finally, the Eden's Zero leaves the planet as they are waved goodbye by Nadia, the robots and... the octopus? What?

EZ Opinion: Well, the emotional side was good at least.

And that's very true, the stuff involving Nadia and her lover Andrew was quite enjoyable. Definitely the highlight. Like a lot of manga, it came across as a tad rushed but the backstory hit the right beats and there was no happy ending where Andrew miraculously downloaded his brain into a robot or something. He's dead, Nadia has to heal and move on, and the group head off to their next adventure. Again, Eden's Zero is really going for some tough but effective endings here.

That being said, was this arc cut short? I mentioned Nadia's backstory feeling somewhat rushed for me, but that's just a personal feeling. What really stands out to me though, and why I have this theory, is that octopus. In my last review, I mentioned how I didn't like it because it took up so much chapter space that could have been used for something better, and now the last page of this chapter ends with him being an ally and guardian? No, I'm pretty sure this arc was meant to be longer. Maybe another villain was meant to arrive and the octopus would fight them? I don't know, this is all a guess, but I'm convinced this arc was meant to last a few more chapters and have the octopus play a more significant role before Mashima cut it short. Either the editor said to do so, or he got bored of it and wanted to move on. Whatever happened though, I still say fuck that octopus.

Oh? Could we be actually seeing a romance develop like in Rave Master, rather than the tiny teases of Fairy Tail?

The new addition to the overall quest is a great idea, honestly. The explanation for how it was all found was painful to write out, but it makes sense in the end and promises to provide plenty of opportunities for the future. They could end up needing to go to dangerous locations, piss off powerful people who adore these relics, crossing the path of those they wish to avoid. There's a lot to do here. I don't want to compare Eden's Zero to One Piece again, but I'm probably not the only one who thought of the Log Poses when reading all this.

Manga Rating: 3.5/5

Best Part: Nadia and Andrew.

Worst Part: Octopus' reason to exist is revealed in the final page.

 

Cats, rabbits... is there any animal she can't be? (I'm not a furry. I'm just asking. Innocently. For science.)