Shippers Rejoice! Edens Zero Chapter 176 BREAKDOWN

In my review for My Hero Academia Chapter 341(that I am still diligently working on); I talk for a minute about this generations female characters- how well written they all seem to be and how powerful they are without being Super “In Your Face” about it. This chapter furthers that sentiment- in a manor of speaking. Because this chapter shows that the women of Hiro Mashima’s “Edens Zero” are BALLSY. I legitimately DID NOT see that coming. I gotta give it to Rebecca: She knows what she wants, and she. Will. GO For It. You’ll know what I mean in- AH You already know: Rebecca Kisses Shiki!! Edens Zero Chapter 176: “The Planet Dahlia.” Let’s begin………

REVIEW

The chapter begins with narration from our dear Xiao Mei- in a bikini no less!! Why? I didn’t question it– but she says that she just wanted to this time. She reminds us of the events of the last 2 chapters between picking up Connor, going to Blue Garden, and leaving with a new “Captain” to steer the ship. They had wanted to get some maintenance done on the ship’s Ether Drive, but…….. Feather. So they decide to go to the Planet “Dahlia” in the Kaede Cosmos- home to a place to get that done, and to Ryuzetsu Land(which is a “Fairy Tail” reference). Thus the swimsuit.

You know how these kinds of chapters go: People doing their own things; one of the girls loses their bikini for a minute; and just a relaxing, fun time all around. Kleene is a MENACE, by the way, as she and “Lagurino” cause……… a Tsunami, effectively. Hermit likes doing her coding by the pool; Sister…………..; Connor checks out Rebecca(much like the rest of us); Homura’s training makes her lose her whole swimsuit; and………. pretty much that. Very simple pool chapter until……….

Rebecca wants to take pictures to “always remember their visit.” She and Shiki end up taking a few under a waterfall. Normal Friend stuff. Then she gives him a “peck” on the cheek. Shiki didn’t see that one coming(neither did most of the fandom), and Rebecca says it was for “always being so helpful to her.” But Shiki says that she’s also help him out just as much(looking rather flushed), so Rebecca says they’ll just mark their relationship as “Mutually Beneficial.” Whatever that means.

Their little “Turning Point” is interrupted by a congregation of guys huddled around……. LABILLA. She came here on Vacation, but some @$$wipes recognized her and started messing with her; they think she’s doing a bikini vid to get more views. So they begin to “help” her by forcing her to strip. Needless to say; Shiki makes that sh!t stop instantaneously. They don’t get the memo, so they begin to attack Rebecca. But before Shiki can end them; we get an appearance from Holy of the Oracion Seis Interstelar. She threatens to arrest the @$$hole’s if they don’t get lost, and they scurry off.

Shiki and Rebecca get ready for an Intense Battle, but she hasn’t come to apprehend them- she instead wants to Help them. In fact; she asks if they can be Friends. Meanwhile; Labilla just sits quietly in the background like she should have the entire series. Thus; Edens Zero Chapter 176 comes to an Interesting END!! You’re up, Granbell………

Analysis

This is not my first attempt at writing this section, I’ll be honest; the first draft didn’t “get across” what I meant as well as I would have liked. It’ll be a miracle if this post comes out the way I want it too– the images of Holy above keep going down every time I come back to work on this post. I think it’s because I didn’t edit them, so I went ahead and did that. But if they aren’t up after that then I don’t know what to do.

But on to the chapter- There’s a LOT that I want to say about this one in particular. He says like 1 or 2 chapters haven’t come out by the time he gets out this review. I’ll try to keep it “un-influenced” by the events of the next chapters when doing speculations. The first thing that I want to talk about in regards to this chapter would be the ever infamous Labilia. I’ve……. been saying her name wrong the whole time. Don’t Care, but Mashima’s gonna try to make me…….

I want to start off by saying that- even thought I HATE her for what she’s done to Rebecca and how she’s acted- No one deserves to be harassed and touched in this manor. It’s just plain wrong. I’m glad that she’s been “knocked down a peg” and is facing the consequences of being such Mean B!tch, but these @$$holes are just wastes of life. Going to ignore the latest chapter at the time of me writing this(Thursday February 2, 2022, 7:53pm)- I was hoping Shiki would lift ’em all up and toss ’em into orbit.

But to focus on her bad karma finally coming for her; she’s broke. As Couchpo told us in chapter 85; malicious B Cubers such as Labilia lose their ads, and thus their revenue. And that was 3 Years ago. Whatever money she’s had saved up is likely already gone, and she doesn’t seem like the type to have done some “smart investing decisions” in the past(may have received some options but probably didn’t listen). And I can’t image many companies wanting a Bully as the “Face” of their brand. Her brand is effectively dead, and she’s up a creak without a paddle at the moment. So I want to ask you guys a question: How did she get to the Kaede Cosmos?

She has no money- and even if she scrounged up what little she had left to treat herself and take her mind off it; it’s not like she can go anywhere without people messing with her. Her re-introduction is the Extreme end of that, but I can image people pouring food on her the same way she did to Rebecca, or calling her the B word everywhere that she went. And now; she doesn’t even have people around to protect her. So……… How’d she get from Sakura to Kaede? is she here with someone who just isn’t around right now? That’s just something I find curious……..

Next: Holy. 1)Holy F*CK she’s hot. 2) How the H#ll did she know Shiki’s weak spot? Has it just become “common knowledge” now that Shiki’s a “Big Name,” or did Amira have something to do with it? There is NO WAY her wording is a coincidence; this woman is Conniving. She had to have known that she had the particular character quirk when it came to the word “friends.” In chapter 106; Justice pointed out that it was most likely someone on the Edens Zero that defeated Drakken- something that he probably brought up when it came to not only that first on-screen “Prayer Council,” but also when it came to naming Shiki as one of the Oracion Seis Galactica. And I image that that gathered up as much information on Shiki and his crew as possible– which is where the GIA would come in.

Amira explained to Homura in chapter 36 that her ability allowed her to copy peoples appearances, personalities, and memories. So most of their information on Homura would come from her- including Shiki’s biggest weakness. Or rather- FORMER weakness. As he showed in his first bout with Shura; he knows when people are trying to trick him-or at least can see through CLEAR bullsh!t, which Shura displayed. He might not be as quick to accept Holy like he did Amira, keeping this experience in mind.

That said; I can’t make heads or tails of Holy. She may well just be trying to trick him and manipulate him into getting into a conflict with this “Deadend Crow” character, or……. she may be Genuinely extending a hand to him. Because she- like her fellow Interstelar members minus Justice- realize how much more of a threat Ziggy is than Shiki or Elsie. And they’re getting ready to team up on him. If she brings the backing of a fleet of her own and adds it to the Edens Zero’s forces and Elsie’s crew- maybe no one has to die. It’s hard to make heads or tails of this woman because she’s so………. “Coy.“

She’s the type of girl that has “a face for every situation;” it’s hard to figure out if she’s just f*cking with you or flirting. And even then; is there an ulterior motive behind what she’s doing, or is she just doing it “for the H#ll of it.” She certainly strikes me as the “Agent Of Chaos” type of character- she gets her “hands” in a bunch of different “soups” based on her own personal enjoyment. But I don’t think she’s doing this just for sh!ts and giggles. She wants something from Shiki, and I don’t think that she’s used to hearing the word “No……….” To make as many Innuendos as possible- ’cause she’s RIDICULOUSLY Attractive. Maybe her “charm” is part of her Ether Gear?

I’d also like to take a moment to talk about Weisz’ development. Bet you were thinking it I was gonna talk about Shiki first, weren’t you? I’ll touch on him in a minute; I wanted to talk about Weisz for a minute because it was just a nice character moment for him to not have shut off the water on Homura. The Old Weisz Steiner(pre-time skip X442 Weisz- NOT the Professor) I know would have shut off the water the moment her top came off. This Weisz Steiner; he helped Homura with her “training” without a dirty thought in his mind; kept the water running because her clothes came off; and even jumped down Connor’s throat about him leering at Rebecca- whereas before he would have leered right along with him, and THEN got on his about it. He can do it– old men cannot!!

NOW we can talk about Shiki’s development! I don’t think he’ll accept Holy’s offer. I definitely think that this needs to be a Group decision- a discussion held by the crew to determine if this is really something the believe in. Because I can see a few of them(Rebecca, Happy, Pino, Kleene, and maybe Connor ’cause Look at her d@mmit) playing “Devil Advocate” and thinking that she- at the very LEAST– wants to defeat Ziggy because he’s CLEARLY a bigger threat than Shiki or Elsie. On the other hand; you have the more “Pragmatic” characters like Kris, Laguna, Weisz, and Hermit telling Shiki the danger of teaming up with an Interstelar- she could help fight Ziggy, only to try and take out Shiki and Elsie when they’re exhausted from the fight. Obvious stuff, but given who they’re about to go up against and how hard they’ll have to try- Effective.

I also think that Elsie is going to want a say in this decision, considering how close she and the Crew of Edens have been working over the last 3 years. She’s certainly proven to be one of the more “level headed” characters in the story- she didn’t even really seem to be mad at Jesse for betraying her. And didn’t even change her policies on who joins her crew. She’s………. logical. And she’ll likely agree to Holy’s help. But with a Condition. I don’t know what that “condition” would be, but I feel like it’ll have something to do with Elsie “watching” her- making sure that she stays where she can watch her and AWAY from her little brother. Logical– but still protective of Shiki.

The very last thing that I feel that I should mention before I end this post- the “Main Event” of this chapter: The Kiss. What the FLAGNARD did she mean by “Mutually Beneficial Relationship?” You could see the moment after it happened that she was kind of embarrassed that she did that- but that she knows what she did; it wasn’t a case of “Did I just do what I think I did?” She was well aware or what happened. Which would mean that she knew the ensuing conversation was coming. I GUESS this means that she has been thinking about their relationship over the last 3 years?

I think that what Mashima is trying to convey is that………….. It’s “Complicated.” Like; they’re still in the “Friend Zone,” but……… Rebecca is starting to either catch some feels, or learning she already had them. And while she doesn’t want to “muddy things up” with all of that stuff; she’s not just gonna ignore these feelings. She’s experimenting with their relationship; seeing if Shiki’s into her at all before she actually “makes a move.” This was the test. And since Shiki didn’t dwell on it very long; that means……….. “Hard To Say.” So now they’re moving from “Friend Zone” to……… whatever a “Mutuallly Beneficial Relationship” is. Not quite “Hanging Out,” but “a little more.” This here is why I’m single.

Conclusion

Messed up that explanation of the relationship– I know that I did. But I also know that you can’t put this moment into words. When the anime does this scene; I wonder how the Anime-Only’s will react to it. Based on the Manga Readers reaction- The series should TREND for DA~YS. Or at least I would HOPE it would; the anime isn’t as popular as your Jujutsu Kaisen‘s or your Attack On Titans– I wasn’t really expecting it to. Hoping certainly, but never expected it to. It being a “Netfli Original” kind of limited it’s “reach” if you know what I mean. Here’s to hoping it can get a bigger audience. Oh yeah, did you here? SEASON 2 CONFIRMED!!

To quote a certain mouthy merc: “This sh!ts gonna have NUTS in it.” Still haven’t had the time to watch season 1, but I get the feeling that’s getting ready to change. That’s all I got for the lot of ya today, boys and girls. Until next we meet; Have Magically Wonderful Day. Later, gators!!