I have a story for you all- and it doesn’t relate to today’s discussion topic at all. So I ordered some stuff from Amazon, right? Black Clover shirt; One Piece shirt; some new pants; long johns; the first 2 season of Yu Yu Hakushou; and volume 2 of Kaiju No 8. 1 package arrived, but the other one ended up being sent to the next house over- that’s still under construction. I almost had a f*ckin’ panic attack over that; I’m lucky I recognized the door step from when I go out on walks. But I was sure upset about it!
And then you have THIS. I saw the leaks- I always do. And I thought: “……… Well d@mn.” Like; I didn’t know what to make of it at first. HYPE AS F*CK, but……… kind of surprised that Mashima did this. And unfortunately, I don’t mean that in a good way. I came up with a theory as to what happened, but…….. he doesn’t seem to be sparring that “Kill Card” this arc- or even in this story. And with that comes some very questionable decisions. We’ll get to that in a little bit, but for now- just know that I’m kind of jaded by what’s going on. Edens Zero Chapter 213: “If We Don’t Have To Fight…” Let’s begin.
REVIEW
We pick up following the last chapter: Acnoella- being revealed as the former Queen of Lendard, Shaya Le Lendard- is slain by her own daughter, who wishes to claim the Mobius/ Perpetual Mecha-Soldier Birthing Machine responsible for Acnoella’s horde of Dragons for herself. She touches down, and begins to take command of the Planet itself. She removes command rights of Mobius from Shaya and takes them for herself. Justice- sensing some “hateful” ether emanating from her- fears the worst, and tries to stop her next move. But he’s a second too late, and she gives the Command: “Deactivate All Dragons.”
1 after another- the Dragons come crashing down. Ibuki and Shiro from Holy’s group confirms that all of the Dragons have been deactivated, making them aware that Acnoella has been defeated and allowing them to advance on the planet. While down below; Justice is confused- he can’t understand what Elsie was trying to do. She simply says: “I Don’t Want To Fight Anyone Anymore….” Elsie- having seen so much death- is tired of the ceaseless, bloody conflict; so tired that she begins to cry. Seeing her tears; Justice FINALLY understands that she’s not the “Villain” he thinks that she is. “He Finally Sees The Real Her……”
Back on the Edens Zero; Hermit finds the file she was looking for: Footage of Ziggy telling Elsie to take the Edens Zero until Shiki is ready to set off to find Mother. She overlooked it at the time, but something about it is ringing in her mind right now- something about that conversation that doesn’t make any sense. The Clip: Ziggy asks Elsie to take the ship with her until Shiki is ready to go into space. She says that she can do that, but asks why not leave it on Granbell until then. He says that Granbell gets “too many visitors” to keep the Zero docked for so long. Hermit realizes who the enemy is, and it’s not good………
We then jump over to Shiki’s conflict for the final part of the chapter. Ziggy begs for Shiki to put an end to his life; he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else anymore. Shiki thinks that they can fix him, but Ziggy says that he and the enemy are too “deeply connected.” And all at once- Evil Ziggy Returns. And he’s Not taking anymore chances with these 2. He captured Pino in a Gravity bubble. Shiki tries to get her out, but…….. Pino accepts what’s about to happen. She simply tells Shiki that she hopes to one day be reborn as a Human before- POOF. She’s Gone.
With the only one who could stop him out of commission, Ziggy is ready to face off with Shiki once again. Shiki, however- is FURIOUS. His ether reacts to that anger, and his body undergoes a change beyond his usual Overdrive. And with that power; he punches right through Ziggy with all his might. Edens Zero Chapter 213 END!! Cool. But……… somethin’ don’t feel right about this……….
Analysis
This is cool. That’s a fact. And I’m certainly we’ll be getting an explanation for this in either the next chapter, or the one after. And as far as how he attained it- It’s Anime. And Mashima is from the Original Generation of Dragon Ball fans. This Is What Happens. No, no. MY problem comes from Pino. She did not have to die. Okay, she did for the sake of the transformation. But what I mean is: This arc has been killing off character after character- characters critical to other storylines going on in the story(Jesse being among them). Even last chapter I had a problem with Acnoella just “being offed” the way she was. Hyoga and Gowen went out in such a lame way that just made them look……… DUMB. And Jesse……. okay, the only problem is that it happened so soon.
And now you have Pino- a character so important to the story that Mashima had admitted in his Volume 2 afterwords that she was going to appear in chapter 1 along with Shiki! A character that has been around since the series was still in the single digits; the Mascot of this story. And I didn’t even really feel it. I’m not “sad” because characters have just been dying 1 after another, so I’m just kind of “expecting” it at this point. Maybe not that much, but……… It’s just kind of boring seeing how she went out. Though…… if she’s not dead…………
I know how everyone is about “Fake Out” deaths- ESPECIALLY with Hiro Mashima products. But I think that this one wouldn’t be so bad. 1)Like I said; it just didn’t “hit” me like it’s supposed to. She’s not a “jobber” whose only purpose is to die to show the threat level- she is a MAIN CHARACTER. And the death of ANY character on that level NEEDS the level of detail and care that I KNOW that Mashima can deliver. Witch’s death took 3 CHAPTERS to fully process and I’m STILL feeling that sh!t. 2)The Sound Effect That Mashima chose. So glad that my brother doesn’t read my posts; he doesn’t like it when people use stuff like art style or- in this case- a sound effect to prove their point. Even I have to admit that this is a stretch. But I think I have an idea.
For the sake of this next part; I’ll refer to the Good Ziggy as “Future Shiki,” and the evil one is just “Ziggy.” I think that Future Shiki was fighting back in that moment. Because he was able to give Pino the key to bringing his personality back to the surface in chapter 209. If he’s able to resist that much- to have left the key to defeating him while also spying– then it’s possible that he used Nero’s “Wormhole” Ether gear to transport Pino elsewhere before she was actually destroyed. There’s something about that “Poof” that doesn’t sit right with me. If anything; the sound of her being crushed by Gravity should have resulted in a “crack.” But that in ITSELF proves my point; she wasn’t “crushed-” she simply vanished.
It’s possible that the Gravity was so strong that it “left not a atom of her uncrushed” or something scientifically cool sounding as that. But then wouldn’t it at that point become something like a Black Hole? He says like he or Mashima have a clue how that sh!t works. Look, I’m just trying to think of something that would explain the lack luster death. Because if she really is dead, then this arc will EASILY be the worst in “Edens Zero.” I’m sure it won’t be the worst in Mashima’s career- at least if you ask his fans. But for me personally; this arc will be the series at its worst- regardless of what it sets up for the story.
Shiki’s New Form. What is it? What does it mean for he as a character? And what is its relation to ether? All of these are questions. I saw a theory on line that Shiki is starting to tap into “Dark Gravity,” evident by his artificial eye going red like with other Evil characters. Likely. It might tie back to his training with Xenolith, where he was warned about the dangers of falling to this unexplained power. On the one hand; we could see Shiki struggle with controlling it, seeing him go ape-sh!t on Ziggy and beat him to death. And the story going forward would be that he doesn’t ever want to do that again, thus keeping this “Dark Gravity” tucked away until such time as he needs it- when there is absolutely no way out.
And on the thematic level; you have him struggling to “give into his rage,” but learning to “control it” and use it to protect his friends. Something typical like that. On the other; you have the cover of volume 22 and chapter 187 that show his artifical eye glowing when he’s in Overdrive. Not sure what that’s about; it might be his own Ether kind of “overloading” the eye and thus forcing it to “change” into something a little more Etherial. And come to think of it, we still don’t have any explanation as to why Shiki’s Overdrive takes on a different color between now and 3 years ago. That’s something personal I’m still thinking about.
I’m not opposed to the idea; it’s not a bad one. And it provides a lot of narrative and story potential. And I will also say that Shiki’s looking more and more Demonic every time he transforms. The hair is starting to merge with the horns from what I see, and just look at his torso. HOW MANY ABBS DOES THIS MAN HAVE NOW PAUSE????!!!?!?!! I just in general like the design.
Other things going on: Justice and Elsie’s relationship, and the “True Enemy” plot. Justice’s head is starting to come out of his @$$, and he’s starting to see Elsie for who she is: A Little Girl Forced To Make A Tough Decision. She might have been more affected by what happened all those years ago than Justice was. And now that he’s finally starting to see that, I’m willing to bet that he’s feeling pretty darn bad about his behavior. What will come of that? Will he choose to leave Interstelar of his own volition as punishment? Okay, that’s honestly more me forcing my personal theory at this point. But there’s still Jaguar and Cure’s spot open, should Interstelar choose to bring Shiki and Elsie in. Don’t know what’s gonna happen with Nox at this point.
The last thing that I kind of wanted to address was a theory circulating right now: The “Etherion Rebecca” Theory. It’s the idea that the “True Enemy” that they should be fighting right now is the Rebecca that’s powering the Edens Zero’s Etherion- that she’s still alive and is evil. The “Why” is uncertain right now. But I’d say that it’s a pretty good idea. Mashima has done some art for Evil Rebecca before, and Future Shiki said that he and the enemy are “too deeply connected.” Shiki and Rebecca are RIDICULOUSLY connected; Rebecca’s powers respond to Shiki- it’s how Etherion Becky and Future Shiki ended up the way they did. So it’s not like it’s a horrible idea.
It might also explain the dots that Hermit is trying to connect. Like; I was confused as to why she’d find it weird that Future Shiki would give Elsie the ship. On the one hand, F-Shiki was right; Granbell could have gotten visitors long before Shiki was ever ready to go into space. If they had stolen the ship, then they would have been f*cked. Or WORSE- if Shiki ended up going into space before he was ready. But when you think about how Shiki and Rebecca’s powers work; you have the off chance of Shiki accidentally blasting himself and the ship through time. Thinking about it, it’s not a bad idea to keep this Shiki and the ship separate until he was ready.
I’m not exactly sure how she was able to mess with F-Shiki like this; how she’s able to “override his mind.” It might have something to do with “Dark Gravity” in conjunction with Etherion Rebecca’s powers- “pulling an evil version from another timeline and making that personality ‘fall into him.'” Something like that, yeah? I’m willing to believe the idea; it’s just the one that makes the most sense out of all the characters present. We already had the “Evil Elsie” fake out- I don’t think the next one is gonna be a trick!! If he does a “Double Fake Out,” then this will be the worst arc of Edens Zero- Pino be d@mned!!
Conclusion
……………… Yeah, that’s about all. Let me know your own thoughts in the comments. “Okay” Chapter I’d say; I didn’t really like how Pino went out. But I don’t think she’s dead yet. I like the “Evil Becca” idea; it’s not like there’s anything else to go on at this point. Hope this arc wraps okay, if nothing else. Until the next time, everyone- Have A Magically Wonderful Day. By~~~e!!
