I may not have seen or been the biggest fan of Rave Master nor Fairy Tail (the latter being a lot more referenced), but it's clear that what Hiro Mashima is doing, he's doing it well. And Edens Zero may just be the culmination of the best of the best of his works, that say whatever you want about it being a Fairy Tail rip-off (which is true). In hindsight, Edens Zero's lore overall is much more interesting than the cluster-eff of botched executions that was Fairy Tail, and I'm glad I gave it a chance because while I'm not so much a Shonen fan, ... since Yuki Tabata's Black Clover made me think otherwise, I guess I've gotta go for it, and came out pleasantly surprised. BTW, it's not a perfect "10" score like any fandom giving scores of that just to prove their point (I know I did for Black Clover, which is purely justified), but it's best said that you judge it for yourself.
Where Edens Zero set apart itself from the predecessors of both Rave Master and Fairy Tail, it falls heavily on the story and plot (which is pretty much a character case study more than anything), which I feel is much more consumer-friendly and more grounded that puts it in line with most Shonen shows out there (other than starting out really badly because of the easily contrived plots similar to Fairy Tail). Where Fairy Tail took off with a fantasy-cum-adventure style, Edens Zero is more of the same, except now with the famous/infamous moniker of "Edens Zero is basically Fairy Tail in space". Believe me, try to convince anyone that they've seen the character designs of Fairy Tail from the likes of B-Cuber Rebecca Bluegarden (which is just Lucy Heartfilia in a sci-fi spin of a shell) and Happy (which of course the character design hasn't changed), and they'll just reek with a "EWWW" kind of magnifique facial expression. It's pure fantasy hilariousness if you ask me. Nonetheless, as you would expect of Hiro Mashima, the infamous "Power of Friendship" trope is still here, and despise it all you want, but it has worked for this prolific mangaka circa. 1999 with Rave Master, and it continues to be the driving force of his written story in all 3 works with variable execution fails or success.
Similar to legendary managaka Eiichiro Oda's plot of One Piece where Monkey D. Luffy goes on a pirate adventure with the many now iconic mercenaries, Edens Zero copies that blatantly, but gives it a sci-fi spin of a mystery to find the coveted One Piece, er *ahem* sorry, the elusive goddess Mother in the space universe realm of the Sakura Cosmos. But that story starts with the character foundations, and this I feel is where Edens Zero really shines at its best. From Shiki Granbell, the boy who was left on a planet full of robots that were disposed to become a total scrapyard, to Rebecca and her companion Happy, whom the latter is an amateur but growing B-Cuber and the latter providing comic relief as usual, it really starts out being the conventional wisdom of the Average Joe that Edens Zero does nothing to change the viewer's mindset, since basically they're rehashed straight out from Fairy Tail. It's only the overtime effect that really changes how one sees Edens Zero at least trying to be something different from the accursed predecessors of a love-hate relationship, and the payoff is with the same tried-and-true in-heart talk bickering of "just one more episode" that only applies to the more persevering and persistent ones (like myself). And when I say that Hiro Mashina truly goes deep with the characters and their backstories, he's not joking that it evokes happiness that turns into sadness and anger, as replicated from the diverse character cast like the Demon King's Four Shining Stars (that pilot the Edens Zero ship with Ether) to the crew of Shiki, Rebecca, Happy, Weisz Steiner, E.M. Pino and Homura Kogetsu. Every character backstory is just as important to gear the story to its intended place, and for the most part, it really resonated with me the same way when I've watched Black Clover before (because it's the same goddamn thing). It makes you want to feel for the characters who bore their side of the grunt in their own way through the pain and suffering, and that might easily come as a plot device, but it always works in the Shonen space, whether you like it or not.
If there was a director that I could feel that he/she could do no wrong, it's Shinji Ishihira, whom more than his veteran experience of directing the OG Fairy Tail along with a few others (few notables being Heybot, Log Horizon, Munou na Nana and this season's Tsukimichi), he's a proven veteran taskmaster at what he does to keep the original source material fully adapted, with nothing left cut out (save for those that are mostly due to time constraints). This director knows what he's doing and doesn't beat around the bush in order to appease the audience with as much of the source material as possible so to judge shows based on the authors' writing calibres. Another wonderful job done Ishihira-san with J.C.Staff, which really doesn't feel like crap quality and mimics the old 2-cour style consistency from years past.
The music aspect, the VAs have done a good job voicing their respective characters, especially Shiki's VA Takuma Terashima and Homura's transgender VA Shiki Aoki, just to list a few because they provide color to the characters. No complaints about the OST when you have the awesome artistes like TNNK (Takanori Nishikawa) himself, CHiCO with HoneyWorks, L'Arc-en-Ciel and Sayuri performing their OPs and EDs. I would've pretty much preferred TNNK and CHiCO's 1st Cour set over L'Arc-en-Ciel and Sayuri's 2nd Cour set because of the change in the tonal change of the story stratosphere, but they're good songs nonetheless.
To enjoy Edens Zero is to have an open mind about not thinking that it's gonna be like Fairy Tail. Because as much as the resemblances are uncanny, it's the journey of the characters that make up the story that'd make or break the experience of watching a standard tropey Shonen (that you'd wish to unsee one too much). It's very Hiro Mashima-like, but finally in a good way to break the mould of the reputation he had for the predecessors with the narrative change. Quite enjoyed this one a bit, and you'd be doing a disservice to pass this up like said series.
Alternative Titles Japanese: EDENS ZERO Information Type: TV Episodes: 25 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Apr 11, 2021 to Oct 3, 2021 Premiered: Spring 2021 Broadcast: Sundays at 00:55 (JST) Licensors: None found, add some Studios: J.C.Staff Source: Manga Theme: Space Demographic: Shounen Duration: 23 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 7.291 (scored by 95,026 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #31532 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #962 Members: 254,556 Favorites: 1,939 Available AtResources |
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