One of my friends gave me a list of recommendations selected from my manga library, so I'm using that in the meantime to pick out what to read. BACKGROUND:
This one caught my eye because it's written and drawn by the man behind Fairy Tail, and I noticed that Happy (Natsu's talking cat friend) is also present in this universe somehow. I found myself wondering if there was some sort of overlap between the two universes, or if it's just a fun artistic choice (based on what I've read, it seems to be the latter). SUMMARY: EDENS ZERO starts out somewhat similarly to Fairy Tail, as it follows the female lead (in this case, it's Rebecca Bluegarden, accompanied by this universe's Happy) as she meets the male lead. Rebecca is a B-Cuber (the sci-fi equivalent of a content creator) looking to film videos, and her journey takes her to the seemingly abandoned planet of Granbell (the entirety of which is a theme park run by machines). The pair have a fun if bizarre time being catered to by the mechanized caretakers of the planet until they run into Shiki, the lone human tasked with repairing all the machines. We get a very brief snippet of Shiki's past, which reveals that the robots have been taking care of him since he was a child, and there are only hints of how he ended up on Granbell in the first place. In any case, Shiki demonstrates off the bat that he has something called the Ether Gear, a power that allows him to manipulate gravity. He uses this to deal with a malfunctioning robot, after which he and Rebecca get acquainted. Shit hits the fan shortly after, as the robots (weary of being abandoned for about a century) revolt and attempt to use Rebecca's ship to escape. The new friends fight their way out, and Rebecca agrees to take Shiki to the planet Bluegarden to become an adventurer. There's a bit of a twist as to why exactly Granbell's robots become hostile, and I don't think it's an exaggeration when I say it's one of my favorite twists I've encountered in recent memory. Our newly formed trio make their way to Bluegarden, where Shiki is given a bit of exposition as to what's going on. He gets an adventurer's license not long after arriving, and during this, he figures out what his goal is: he intends to find Mother, a godlike being somewhere in the cosmos. Rebecca and Happy are more than glad to tag along (if only to make their content), and they suggest reaching out to an old professor friend of theirs to request a space-worthy vessel. The book then ends of a bit of a cliffhanger as the professor doesn't seem to recognize Rebecca or Happy. All the main characters have a bit of a sad backstory, though Shiki at least had the fortune of being surrounded by robots who cared for him in his youth. In the later chapters, it's revealed that both Rebecca and Happy were orphans, and for a very long time, they only had each other. There's a fair bit of tragedy there, but they clearly came out of their ordeal friends for life. Outside of all that, the main characters are pretty funny. Shiki's eagerness to make friends (and his overall ignorance to human customs) is amusing, while Rebecca's stereotypical content creator behavior is hilarious. There's not much going on beyond the events I described, but the main adventure is set up quite nicely. Mother herself is quite the mystery, but it seems a crew of space pirates have also caught wind of Shiki's escape from Granbell (meaning Shiki's a bigger deal than most realize). Lastly, there's a bombshell of a time skip at the end that hints at where the adventure is going, but I'm not really sure what it means yet. I've already seen Hiro Mashima's art style in Fairy Tail (which I enjoyed), so I won't repeat what I said in that blog entry. I will note that Shiki's gravity powers look awesome in this style. VERDICT: EDENS ZERO is an interesting sci-fi contrast to Fairy Tail's fantasy adventure. While it felt like Fairy Tail was set up to be more of an episodic affair (which has its own appeal), I am quite intrigued by the mystery surrounding the main goal, as well as the brewing subplots. Whereas I wanted to read more of Fairy Tail to see more of the "guild solving magical problems" formula, my desire to read later volumes is rooted in seeing Shiki and Rebecca's journey resolve. Either way, I have two series I can see myself continuing for different reasons. - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
Derryck
|