Hello, boys and girls! Miraculously; I was able to find the translations for this week’s chapter of “Edens Zero.” The site I had been using this far doesn’t update this series and Four Knights Of The Apocalypse, which is fine for Four Knights ’cause I get those out later in the week. But I try to at least get out “Edens Zero” if nothing else. He said like he didn’t do back-to-back “Black Clover” chapter reviews(THAT YOU SHOULD TOTALLY READ HERE AND HERE). And with my job having me come in Wednesday if no other day- can’t do much for the review. Sometimes I’ll put it out SUPER DUPER late; sometimes it just feels a little too late- even for me.
I say all this because I’m happy that I have a moment to cover “Edens Zero” again. I pre-order the English copy of Volume 16- it should be here on the 26th of April! I can’t wait to see it all! In any case; we’ve got this week’s chapter to deal with. A startling revelation from Shiki may have just shifted the tide in the Duel Against The Dark Stars in Edens Zero Chapter 188: “One Tenth.” So that’s what we’re doing………. Let’s begin.
REVIEW
Picking up where the last chapter left off: Shiki unintentionally “pulled” Wizard’s memories into himself, and finds an odd scene going on; Witch and Wizard- as Humans of all things- seemed to have been Lawyers of some manor, and even friends. He asks how Wizard knows Witch, to which the Spear of Edens responds that he was made to surpass Witch- he would obviously have all data and information relating to her. But that memory is something he doesn’t recall. So Shiki theorizes that Ziggy erased the Dark Star’s memories in the same way he did for the Shining Stars. And he and Witch knew each other prior to the memory wipe.
He questions why Ziggy would do something like that, but Wizard is unconcerned with the matter; his mission is to Kill Shiki, and that’s exactly what he’s going to do. He attacks Shiki with Lightning Ether- powered by the Ether he stole from Shiki in the previous chapter. It looks like he’s got Shiki on the ropes, but the boy gets up, proclaiming that if he and Witch were once friends, then maybe– They can be, too.
We then cut over to Rebecca’s battle against the “Death of Edens-” Clown. She tries to balance on the tight rope, but Clown starts doing a dance to shake her off again. So she activates her Overdrive, and latches on with her tail- much to her embarrassment. Back with Weisz; the “Brain Of Edens” Killer puts his Assassination skills to work, cloaking himself and taunting Weisz to find him. He tries activating his scanner, but the unique environments set up by the Dark Stars obey the rules that they set up- Weisz won’t be able to track him with the scanner.
And with Homura and the “Armor Of Edens,” Brigadine; she finds his armor to tough to cut through. And his strength to much to block. And then; we cut back to Shiki and Wizard for the last part of the chapter. Wizard rebukes the idea of their potential “Friendship,” and tries to put an end to Shiki with “Cosmic Lightning.” But Shiki reveals a little secret to Wizard. You see; that Ether that Wizard took from Shiki- was only 1/10 of his total power. And with the power he has left; Shiki delivers the finishing blow on Wizard, ending the fight and shocking the h#ll out of Mr Spear over there!!
As Wizard gets word out to his fellow Dark Stars to be wary of the crew; Shiki begins to ponder something: Ziggy erased the Stars- both Shining and Dark’s- memories prior to all this “Human Extinction” cr@p. That much he knows. But WHY did he do it? Could it be that………. Ziggy knew this would happen? He knew he’d become like this? This startling idea brings Edens Zero Chapter 188 to an Eerie END!! Nice deductive work, Granbell.
Analysis
Oh there are SO MANY things that I want to discuss with you all. Mashima sensei has graced us with an interesting chapter this time around; one that will play into the overarching story in a major way- should Ziggy continue to be an antagonist going forward. This arc could end in his defeat, or he may pull a fast one and escape to continue in his Evil Ambition. Or they could restore him to normal; that’s always a possibility(My Hero Academia). But I don’t think that this will end in any way that has Ziggy just “not in play” in the story; his influence as a villain and as Shiki’s grandfather will be important going onwards. Especially when leaving the Grand Shiki Cosmos………..
But getting into the Main Point of this chapter: Ziggy’s Actions In The Past. Firstly; I’d like to praise Shiki’s development- he’s not the same character he was 3 years ago. That Shiki wouldn’t have been the one to make this type of deduction; he’d bring up the Dark Star’s memory lapse to Hermit and she’d be the one to put all the pieces together. It goes to show that Shiki is a little more intelligent than what we’d expect from a typical protagonist. It’s like he’s Superman; not as smart as Batman, but not a Dumb@$$ Chad either- he’s perfectly capable of solving a mystery of his own(I’ve been getting into Superman a lot more lately).
Secondly; WHAT? I mean; we knew that he had erased the Shining Star’s memories for SOME reason, but the running assumption(at least for me) was that it had something to do with Shiki’s origins and his Destiny to “Change The Universe.” And even then I couldn’t imagine why he did it!! But THIS? This story just became more and more mysterious. I’m a little worried about how Mashima plans to explain all of this, but I haven’t been super disappointed with any of the reveals thus far. So I’ll let Mashima do what he wants for the time being.
That said; it’s not like the Memory wipe didn’t have something to do with Shiki- at least for Witch and the others. But what of the Dark Stars? What could he have wanted to hide from them? That they were once Human beings he turned into Machines? And if so; was the process consensual, or did “Evil Ziggy” rear his ugly head and force it on them? You get the point; I could ask a whole bunch of questions all day long and just never give you any answers. So let’s try and narrow it down to 5:
- What Is The True Connection Between Shiki and Ziggy? Come on, now; you knew this would be one of em.
- Who were the Shining Stars and Dark Stars before they became machines?
- Why did they become Machines?
- How much does Ziggy know about Shiki’s future?
- Why is he acting this way?
………………..That felt kinda short, huh? I definitely feel like there’s more that I can say about this chapter. I guess that I’m interested in seeing how far the others have come in the last 3 years? We know that Rebecca is capable of Overdrive, and the other 2 got theirs 3 years ago. I think we’ll see some of the new stuff Homura can do next week, but after that……… SPECTACULARLY wrong prediction I made a few weeks ago; I don’t think I’ll be right. Good Lord was that off……
Conclusion
…………. I’ve got nothing left to say. Not that this chapter is “boring” or “has nothing to it(That CERTAINLY isn’t the case);” I just don’t think there’s much more that I can speculate or talk about. We’re doing 1v1’s- seemingly 1 chapter each- for the next little bit, with a few cuts between the fights, the mysteries in the story, and the battle against Crow that’s going on right now. So instead of dragging this out and missing a self-imposed deadline; I’ll end it here, and leave you on an Epic Moment from the chapter.
Until the next post, duckies- Have A Magically Wonderful Day. Laters!!!
