Okay, Take 2. I had to start over on this one because I’m getting that “restless” feeling, ya know what I mean? Ugh, now I’m just thinking about that F*ckin’ Weirdo I met in my last few weeks of working at Dollar General. I couldn’t tell if he was gay and trying to come on to me or if he was like- trying to harvest my organs; I just remember he talked like he was on drugs. It was a weird interaction. Better than the one’s I had on my last night shift, but that’s just typical with Saturdays. Weird though because they’d mostly take my Saturday mornings. I told my manager I could no longer work Sunday’s because I had Church in the morning, so maybe she was continuing to be petty and tried to scr#w me over. Wouldn’t be the FIRST time she had me working night to morning; made me work 1 night and come in the very next morning only to find out I’m getting written up for not cleaning the whole store. She was just……………… AWFUL. But venting some has helped me feel less “restless,” so I guess it was good for SOMETHING.
As for why I was feeling so restless, it might be due to the fact that I…………….. just COULD NOT decide on a title. In fact just talking about it is bringing that feeling back. I should stop then before it comes back with a vengeance, but I think it’s a fun little anecdote. In short: I only realized trying to come up with a title for this review that I realized– it has been a VERY LONG TIME since the last Full Review I did for a chapter of this series. I think I actually forgot how to title reviews. I decided to try and title it in the same way I’ve been doing with Boruto, but I couldn’t get the wording quite right and decided against it. I don’t know if the title I have now is the one I’ll go with when the post comes it, so I’ll just write a few possible titles I came up with:
- “The Birth Of The Chronophage!”
- “The Wrath Of Etherion Rebecca.”
- “The Tragic Life Of Etherion Rebecca.”
- “Etherion Rebecca’s Revenge- Birth Of The Chronophage!”
- “Give Back My Time! Etherion Rebecca Strikes Back!”
- “The Rise Of Chrono Rebecca.”
- “The Rise Of Etherion Rebecca.”
- “The Hunger Of A Woman Who’s Lost Her Time.”
- “Time Heals All Wounds.”
That’s all I could think up. And yeah; I say “Etherion Rebecca” because- for anyone still questioning– YES: The Time Priestess Is Ziggy’s Rebecca– the one with him when he was blasted 20,000 years into the future. This confirms it. So now that we know what became of her- let’s see how she got here. Edens Zero Chapter 290: “The Girl Who Ate Through Time.” One of the last times I’ll be saying that in the context of “Edens Zero.” Part of why I’m so determined to do a full review…………………..
Overview
The Earth is back to normal, but Shiki and the Chronophage has both disappeared. Rebecca, Ziggy, and the Mascot Duo all think the worst, until Rebecca starts to overflow with a Strange Ether emanating from her legs. Her Starfighter breaks, and Ziggy catches Pino and Happy(who should be about to f*cking DIE since he’s no longer a machine that can survive in space), as we Flash Forward 20,000 years to see Ziggy’s origin from another point of view: Rebecca’s. You see: while she had no vital signs to speak of- she WAS in fact conscious for the most part, content with life so long as Shiki(Ziggy) would continue to see her. Then he was assigned his Mission, and Rebecca……………. just couldn’t take it. So when Ziggy set off in the Edens Zero- her Ether Ran Wild, and began attacking the Edens Zero, trying to bring him back. The Rest We Know: Ziggy ended up in Universe 1 and building Granbell’s Theme Park, while Rebecca- forgot who she was altogether, taking the form of the Chronophage we’ve come to know. All she knows it that she’s Hungry, and thus decides to EAT- a planet. In hopes of remembering something about herself.
She realizes that what she ate from that planet was its Time. And IT. WAS. TASTY. And it helped her remember something: Her Time Was Stolen From Her. And she wants it back. Thus leading us to Present Day where she’s possessing the current Rebecca. THIS is what she’s been looking for this entire time; THIS is the body that she’s been chasing down for so long!! And now she has it. So now the Universe can die. She starts charging the same blast from before in hopes of annihilating everything. And just like before- Shiki comes to stop it. Having realized that it was a version of Rebecca behind the mask, he apologizes for not realizing sooner how much pain she was in. He’s diving in to save her, screaming “We’re Friends, Aren’t We?!” Edens Zero Chapter 290 END!! We’ve got 2 chapters to finish this, Mashima- as much as I would LOVE to see another fight; I don’t think we have time for all this.
REVIEW
And I’m being genuine when I say that: I WANT To See What “Chrono Rebecca” is capable of(beyond destroying the Universe); to see how she fights and how she feels having to fight the person she’s been looking for all this time- how she feels about him leaving her– how she fights now and all of that; we have only 2 chapters left to wrap this up. I don’t expect this to be a particularly long fight, or heck, since it’s Rebecca and Shiki- probably not even a fight. Shiki might just latch on to her and try to pull Rebecca out of there, while yelling at Etherion Rebecca to come to her senses. Something simple like that, followed by a quick wrap up of Shiki’s plan. But………………. I think even THAT would take more time than we have with this series- at least if you want “closure” for these characters and figure out how everything will work out as far as the Earth supplying Ether to the entire Universe. Really, it’s just the closure for the Shining Stars learning about their origins, which could be a chapter unto itself. Earth becoming an Ether factory, too. Then a chapter about pairings– Shiki and Rebecca; Weisz and Hermit; and whatever other ships Mashima has in mind. People ship Homura and Kleene, Kris and Laguna, and a few others. But those first 2 are REAL. That’s another chapter. Honestly; this could have been the same length as Rave Master with how much content we still have left.
That’s the other thing: Mashima said that- in his mind– this series would be “somewhere between Rave Master and Fairy Tail” in terms of length- longer than Rave but not as long as Fairy Tail. It’s falling 4 chapters shy of Rave’s total length. And even with the idea’s I’ve brought up; it would still probably only come up to 295. It’s not that it’s not longer than Rave Master; it’s that there’s so much more that he can do in this story right now, and yet he’s deciding to………………. rush it. He mentioned that writing this series also fell somewhere between Rave and Fairy Tail in terms of planning, choosing to have “rough ideas” of what he was doing, while making up most of everything in between as he went. As such, I think the quality of the series is a BIT…………. Inconsistent. Belial Goer– PLANNED MASHIMA. Kaede War– Not his best work, of ANYTHING he’s worked on. Really, it felt like most of Post Time Skip was unplanned. Considering the fact that everyone was de-aged everyone almost immediately after the Big Arc it was building to ended– I feel justified in saying that.
I bring all this up to say: I think THIS was planned- Rebecca being possessed by the Chronophage and fighting with Shiki as the Final Bout of the story. THAT he planned. But not the aftermath of it, so rather than think of something real quick just to pad out the story; he’s deciding to pull the plug while we’re at our Highest Moment. And you wanna know what? I can live with that choice. Many a times has a post gone by that were initially shorter than I had anticipated, only to decide to arbitrarily elongate it with something stupid like “Quirk Synchronization” or something just as dumb. I still regret that one to this day. So if Mashima wants to quit while he’s ahead instead of ruining this ending, then- whether I like it or not– this is what we’ll be closing on. It leaves me wondering what the pacing of these last 2 chapters is gonna look like, but I’m just gonna have to live with it.
Other Things I Thought About Reading This Chapter: Shiki and Rebecca. Actually, this is something I’ve been thinking about since I put out that other “Edens Zero” post. Because I’m looking at it, and finding some similarities and stark differences between they and Haru, Elie, and Lucia. Natsu and Lucy seem to be “outliers” in Mashima’s weekly series: We see Haru and Elie come together over the course of the story, meet their kid in the volume extras, and even see them getting married in the Final Chapter. With Shiki and Rebecca; we have it CONFIRMED that they- at 15 and 16 years old respectively(I see Rebecca as a little older than Shiki)– got “busy” and had a kid. There’s even this “special chapter” Mashima drew in which……………… just go check it out. Let’s just say things probably went differently in Ziggy’s timeline. Which actually puts how close these 2 are in perspective; Ziggy is the Shiki who made a different choice during Aoi War– not that long after they met. For them to have gone that far so soon……………….. Is probably a highly political topic that I’d rather stray away from now that I think about. But then you have Natsu and Lucy who aren’t even in a full “Relationship” yet. Meanwhile, Rebecca “bumped” theirs up to “Mutually Beneficial-” starting it off with a kiss on the cheek.
I think that that’s something that sets them apart from either predecessor; the fact that Rebecca’s a little more “open” in how she feels about Shiki, vs Haru and Elie who are honest with themselves– unable to hide it from each other and those around them- and everyone knows but don’t say anything until it looks like the “end.” And Natsu and Lucy……………… have all but “consummated” their relationship. Like; Lucy has fallen everything below the belt and boob first into Natsu’s face- on multiple occasions. They have seen each other naked multiple times. They’ve basically done everything but actually had sex. One took their time and let things happen naturally; one isn’t even together and already seen more of each other than anyone in their lives ever has; and these 2 are……………. somewhere in between. Now that has a lot to do with Mashima’s writing changing over the years; Elie was a little more……………… she wasn’t like Lucy and Rebecca. It’s kind of hard to explain, but there’s this scene in which Elie gets a little “insecure” about her breast size, and starts comparing them to a statue. Lucy and Rebecca would never; they’d be too embarrassed to do something like that. There’s other things, but I seem to have lost my train of thought.
My “Grand Point” was that Shiki and Rebecca- go through a lot in this story. But despite it all– they’ve always had each other. I think it goes back to what Noah told Drakken during Belial Goer: “Shiki Is The Key To Unlocking The Cat’s Power.” He’s referring to Shiki’sGravity; no matter what timeline Rebecca finds herself in- she’ll always come back to Shiki. Even in the timelines that end badly for the Edens Zero, Shiki and Rebecca are always together. And somewhere down the line she realized this. So seeing Shiki leave her like that- seeing Shiki unable to remember her; not able to stay with her; them not being together for the first time in the Multiverse– she just………….. snapped. And she tried her d@mnedest to get back to that- consuming planet after planet in search of her Time Ether so she could go to a Universe where she was still with Shiki. But she was always just behind the activation of “Cat Leaper,” never able to reclaim her Time Ether. And in fighting Shiki– having the person who meant the most to her in all of Reality there trying to stop her from reaching that “Happy Ending” with him; she……………. gave up, and decided to just…………….. end it all. “If This Universe Would Let Me Be With You, Shiki- Then I Don’t Need The Universe.” The thing that separates Heroes and Villains is the mentality in facing tragedy; Etherion Rebecca decided “The World Hurt Me, So I’ll Hurt It Back.” Shiki decided “The World May Have Hurt Me– But It Won’t Hurt Anyone Else.”
Conclusion
Not HOW I meant to say it- but that’s what I meant. That counts for something, I guess. Man………….. I like talking this series, but I’m honestly not always as good at it as I think. Hopefully the Final Chapter Review will be something for the history books. Heck, I hope the Final Chapter is one for the History books!! Because this series- needs eyes on it. Now more than ever, with the way anime are starting around Final Arc Territory- like Demon Slayer, The Promised Neverland, or Undead Unluck. Maybe now that its over and people don’t have to worry about “playing catch up” or leaks for new chapters; more people will come to see it, and see how wonderful this world is. I meant to include something about Shiki and “The Spirit Of Humanity,” but I guess I’m saving that one for the Retrospective. I mean, why else would I not have been able to say it here? ‘Cause I don’t know what the h#ll I’m talking about? Yeah Right!! Ah……… That’s all I got for this week, everyone; I’m off to work on the Dead Rock review for this month. Til then, guys.
