Manga Discussion Edens Zero

As much as I am disappointed with the series overall, I quite like how both Rebecca and Shiki are important to the story, it gave me Haru and Elie vibes. In FT, it was always about dragon slayers, and Lucy didn't get as much time to shine as Natsu, which is a missed opportunity imo, I like smart characters, both Lucy and Gray had more interesting wins over the course of the series.
 
As much as I am disappointed with the series overall, I quite like how both Rebecca and Shiki are important to the story, it gave me Haru and Elie vibes. In FT, it was always about dragon slayers, and Lucy didn't get as much time to shine as Natsu, which is a missed opportunity imo, I like smart characters, both Lucy and Gray had more interesting wins over the course of the series.
I feel the same way, but damn Rebecca ether gear is an scary power, one that can destroy an universe if shiki wasn’t there to clam her down it’s goodbye universe zero.
 

Jaguark101

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"
‎‎
Welp Manga is over.
https://cubari.moe/read/gist/Z2lzdC...ZDA1MmRkMTNhL3Jhdy9FZGVuc1plcm8uanNvbg/293/1/

Edens zero is a manga which had ALOT of potential Infact I will even say that from the beginning all the way up to volume 25 this was actually peak, seriosuly Mashima's best work of the ones I have read imo.
And then the final arc happened... all the potential thrown aside for a no stakes and lack luster ending.
 
Welp Manga is over.
https://cubari.moe/read/gist/Z2lzdC...ZDA1MmRkMTNhL3Jhdy9FZGVuc1plcm8uanNvbg/293/1/

Edens zero is a manga which had ALOT of potential Infact I will even say that from the beginning all the way up to volume 25 this was actually peak, seriosuly Mashima's best work of the ones I have read imo.
And then the final arc happened... all the potential thrown aside for a no stakes and lack luster ending.
This.
I really liked EZ in the beginning, it felt different from other Mashima's works, and I know everyone likes a happy ending, but not when it becomes ridiculous from the storytelling perspective.
 

Jaguark101

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"
‎‎
The final chapter of Eden’s zero is amazing, so much as happened on Shiki’s and Rebecca journey. A lot of teasing in this chapter for pino being reborn as Rebecca and Shiki would have been nice though.
I personally thought it was rushed but to each their own. I am actually happy with pino chosing to love herself for who she is and stay an android.
 
Now that the manga has ended, here is my opinion on EZ.

I will start with the few good points in this manga.

- The art style was good.

- Many character designs were good too.

- the idea with the space concept was good (at least at the beginning of the manga)

- I liked it how every cosmos was differently designed, with cherry blossoms, snow, water or fish.

- I liked the adventure theme and the dark elements of the manga.

- The idea about the OSG and the OSI was good, sadly he never used the full potential of them, later more of it in the negative points.

- The story was good at the beginning but turned to a boring story, but I still liked the twists with Mother=Earth, Xiaomai= the Moon and the flashbacks and origin of the Shining Stars.

- Some abilities were nice too.

Well now the many negative points....



First of all, the manga had potential but Hiro did not use it. He changed a lot of things throughout the manga in a very bad or boring way.

Let us start with the lack of personalities and developments....

- Most of the cast, even the main cast have no personalities, most of them are really boring, you could change some of them with other characters and nothing would be different, the story would be the same.



- The characters who were interesting never got the chance to have enough screentime or character development, examples are the Rutherford sisters, Weisz, Sister, the OSI members or some of the OSG. Also charaters like Noah, Clarisse, Xiaomei, Mother etc.



- If even the main cast except Shiki who is the MC didn’t have the chance to develop or to shine, what is the point of them to exist or be part of the main crew?



-Next point the lack of battles.

- Again only Shiki could really shine, he is the only one who had many battles. Most of the main crew had never really the chance for great fights. Example is someone like Kleene, she had her last fight against the woman from the Oceans back during the Aoi War arc.



- Most of the battles were really, really short mostly we got one chapter battles. Even the few battles who were longer, were boring most of the time, why? Because either the characters were boring or no one showed something good in the battles, some good attack, ability, technology or so.



- One shots....I really hate it that most battles ended with one shots, even against the OSG, the strongest hyped villains in the whole manga. I really can’t say how disappointed I was most of the time, compared to that, the Alvarez arc and the S12 were a masterpiece, even Gold Owl got a better treatment than the OSG.....


The next point has still something to do with battles, it’s the abilties.

- Ether Gear the main force power of this manga, something that sounds good at the beginning...well rather it was good in the first few arcs....but later...not only were most of the EG really boring but also we never got named attacks of the EG. We not even got the full name or true names of some EG like that of Eraser as example. The OSI or rather the most of them, had so really boring and lame EG....I mean wtf. Most of the OSG never had EG, they were fucking lame robots....and as robots they weren’t even portrayed well...thats so bad.....



- Alien abilties, we know that some alien races can use their own special ability, like Daichi, Maria or Nero it did. But overall we got really rare special abilities to see....

- Overdrive: the most power full form of the EG and yet, the EZ crew are the only ones in the whole universe who could use it? And not even all of them used it, Hiro never showed us Sisters, she is the only one of the crew....poor Sister....and now the question, how can it be that they are the only ones who can use it?



Besides them we only know 4 other ones, who used it, Drakken Joe, Deadend Crow, Ziggy and the Chronophage. Ziggy= Shiki so it makes sense, Chronophage was the final villain, so it makes sense again. Then we have Drakken and Crow, two members of the OSG, the OSG are the strongest criminals in the universe, so it would make sense that they can use OD right? So can someone explain me why the other members never showed it? Or the OSI who were the counterparts of the OSG? That is something I will never understand...what was Hiro thinking when he wrote all of this shit?


- Overdrive forms: Why can some of the users use different kinds of OD? Shiki had 3 or 4 different overdrives across the manga. Ziggy had two different ones too. Was that ever explained? I don’t think so. Again something we will never know....



Now to another point, ALIENS!

- Where the hell were most of them? We barely got alien characters and the few of them got a bad treatment from Hiro. Like Poseidon Nero, he had the largest army, a sick design, cool abilities and still got a bad treatment and that although he can be counted as one of the overarching antagonists of this manga.

Let us come to the OSG/OSI
- the OSG: they are the strongest criminals in the universe...sounds great. Let us see what we got.


- Drakken Joe: the first of the OSG members, he had a cool design, cool personality and a cool ability, he even had OD. He was the main antagonist of the first saga. He gave us the hopes for the manga, he was one of the best written enemies and characters overall in the whole manga. Imo even one of the best ones Hiro ever has written. It’s really sad that he never had the chance to got more great moments later in the story, as an ally or enemy.

- Poseidon Nero: he was the second one of the OSG who appeared as a major antagonist in the manga. He ruled the Aoi Cosmos with his empire, he had the biggest army, had a great design, his personality was good too same with his abilities.

He remembered me of Davy Jones. In a way he is the main or overarching antagonist of the manga, why? Because of his actions, Ziggy, the Chronophage and Void were born. If he never created and used the Imperial bombs, Shiki and Rebecca would never jump to the future and become Ziggy and the Chronophage and with that Void also would never exists. So everything what happened, was because of Neros actions. But still he never got the chance to shine, his battle against Ziggy and Jaguar was short and boring. He only used his dices. Why he never used the true power of his alien ability, with that he can create water? Or his EG in a better way? What is with OD? Again something that Hiro ruined. Nero could easily be one of his best written characters and antagonists but Hiro didn’t try it. It‘ s really a shame, because Nero was a good character with potential plus he was the only alien among the OSG.

- Elsie Crimson: She was part of the OSG but was an ally. She had connections to Ziggy, Shiki, Acnoella and Justice and yet, we never got a real allout battle against one of them. We barely saw her abilities/power overall, we never got her OD. In U0 she never got the chance to battle Acnoella. At the beginning of the manga she was known as the dreaded "Armored Space Pirate" who conquered the Seven Cosmic Seas. We never got the explanation of it....

Deadend Crow/Cure: Another OSG who was ruined. Crow has a nice design, he was brutal and cruel but at the end, he was only a „servant“ of Ziggy.

A bot without EG, he could use OD, what looks cool but thats it. He never showed anything that makes him strong or something special. He was more like a fodder villain than an OSG. Cure, the traitor of the OSI, who was the true Crow, was a disappointment too. He lost in a really short battle against Holy. The mastermind behind Crow and Drakken Joe and that it what we got? I can’t believe it....

God Acnoella: The mother of Elsie, the former queen of Lendard and someone who was called the mother of dragons and what have we got? A robot (again) who served Ziggy and later Void. She doesn’t have EG, she doesn’t shown OD or special abilities/attacks. She was like Crow a fodder villain....

Saintfire Fox: That was the name of 2 peoples, Rachel and her mother, both had time abilities and we never got the names of this abilties or what they can do with it. Why were they members of the OSG? Why was one of them or both the scariest one of the OSG? Rachel was suspect and in the end, Hiro did nothing with it, she was the helping mother of Rebecca.....because of that she was a disappointment too. Imo she or her Mother should be the true masterminds behind the chronphages.

Ziggy: He was one of the new members of the OSG after the fall of DJ and Nero. He was together with Drakken the best written character and enemy in the whole manga and like DJ he is one of the best written characters of Hiros works overall. He was the main antagonist, he was cruel, badass, had a good backstory and good plottwists, examples like: he is still alive, was the main enemy, turned out to be Shiki from the future, etc. Until Hiro decided to let him fall for Void (the biggest disappointment in the manga). Still can’t forgive him for that.....Imo Ziggy should have been the main antagonist until the end and not Void. Void never should exist.

Shiki: Well he is the MC. He was neither really good nor really bad written, he was average.

Dr. Müller: A joke character, but he still was better written than Acnoella, Crow , Void, Freya or Law.

Freya/Void/Law: They never should have exist. All of them disappointed me too.

OSI: the counteraparts of the OSG. Another disaster of Hiro....

Jaguar: He was once an OSG members, he was the strongest one of the OSI. His only few battle panels were against Nero and Ziggy, where he was killed. He had an EG with that he could transform himself to a Jaguar. We never got the name of his EG, we never got his OD form, we never got a name attack or special ability of this power, we never got the informations why he was an OSG or how he became a member of the OSI and we also never got a backstory of him. Nice Hiro, thanks for that....

Justice: He only searched for Elsie, everything who had connections with her, was in his eyes evil like her, what a great personality, thanks again Hiro. Well, he had the same power like Elsie, but we never got shown his true power and also not his OD form. He died with her without to do anything great. Wasted potential like most of the cast.

Holy: She had a great deisgn, her personality was nice, her motives were allright but Hiro wasted her too. Her power is boring, she can melt things....wow....lame....instead of that, she should have the power of magic, elements or enchantments or something like that, a real witch. She never got an allout fight, her OD never was shown and she never joined the crew, a great mistake imo. Wasted again.

Eraser: Like most, wasted potential. He called Rachel or her mother the scariest one of the OSG, and we never got the information why. We will never know what connections they had, why he was focused on her, what the name of his EG is. We also never got shown a battle from him. One of the most wasted ones.

Feather: almost the same like Eraser. We barely know anything about her. Why is she one of the OSI, which one of the OSG was her goal? Is her eye power the only power she has? With that lame thing, she was a member of the OSI? Sorry but what? Again a real wasted character.


Noah: Well he never was a member of the OSI but still part of the IUA like them. He was suspect, had a broken ability and Hiro never had done something with him. Ne never played a big role, neither as an ally nor as an enemy. Wasted potential like most things in the manga.

IUA: When was this organization created? What was the reason? Who is the leader? Where is the HQ of them? Etc, questions we never will know.

World Building, Cosmos, Story, Dark Age, 12 Guardians, etc.
- At the beginning of the manga it was good. But later it was wasted. What are the seven cosmic seas? Whats with the Kaede cosmos? Why looks this cosmos like a chessboard? What is with the great Shiki Cosmos that Holy mentioned? Why we never got an arc with a moon instead of a planet? What is with suns, we never saw a sun in the space, we never saw asteroids, etc.

What is with the Dark Age? When happened it? What happened in the dark age? What kind of conflict was it? What was the role of the 12 Guardians? Xenolith was part of them, he looked like Drakken, why? He was the founder of the gravity eg, who were the other gurdians? Who was the one who make a photo of Mother, what is shown in the guild hall? So much of mysteries and we never got the answers and will never get them. A really big of wasted potential again.


Well, because of all that this manga is his worst work imo. The first saga was great, the second one with the Aoi Cosmos and Nero was good until the last fights against the Oceans and Nero. The time skip was cool, the designs after the time skip were great, the events with Ziggy and his flashback was great too. But his battle and downfall were terrible. The idea of U0 was good, but terrible potrayed. Still had a few good moments, with the flashback of the Shining Stars, the twists with Mother and her origin. But overall this manga was a great disappointment.

My rates
Sakura Cosmos Saga: 8.5/10
Aoi Cosmos Saga: 7.0/10
Kaede Cosmos Saga: 4.0/10
U0 Saga: 1.5-2.0/10.

Overall: 4-5/10.


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The final chapter could be decent... well, in a timeline where we actually got to see a proper time-skip and how things got to lead to that point at all.

I started reading right away when chapter 1 released and kept weekly until Belial Gore and the manga till Shiki's death.
I remember everyone freaking out while I pretty much gave up on the manga as it was just a repeat of Gray's death so I gave it a break at that time.
I got back to the manga after a while around chapter 120 and kept checking new chapters as the series was still somewhat fun.

The manga kept going on as I found myself no longer invested + I really forgot details and I no longer bothered checking again.
To make it clear, that was a case of "didn't get me interested enough" instead of "this is trash".

Anyway, such a shame EZ fell off so hard even for the major fans who kept highly invested.
 
It's always the same with Mashima, he first has interesting ideas and world building concepts and the first few arcs are interesting and then he completely rushes story, character interactions and even the battles against hyped villains to the point the only threatening ones in Edens Zero were either Future Shikis or a future Rebecca and somewhere midway already starts preparing his new Manga where the same cycle happens.

Idk why he even keeps continuing doing battle shonen mangas when they are apparently such a chore for him that he lets his main cast constantly one shot antagonists in increasingly boring ways.
 
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