Edens Zero

After watching the current 12 episodes of Fairy Tail's successor. Time for a temporary review:

The show has potential. I didn't get bored all at (I will give it that). and it could get better in the coming up episodes. I hope it does, however; I have a couple of issues which I will explain mixed with the things I did like:

1 - Character designs: I don't like to see the FT designs all over again. Shiki is literally Natsu and Rebecca is literally Lucy. And we have even worse cases like Elcy/Elsa. Pino and the sister's design are fine.

2 - Characters over all: I don't ... particularly hate them but I still don't care about most of them. Shiki is fine for now, the 2 sisters we've seen up to now are okeyish. Pino is everything right about this show (love her design, her voice, her dialogues, everything). I hate Happy like I did in FT.

3 - Plot: For now it is okeyish I guess. Let's see how it develops. Although I don't like how they solved the issue on planet Guilst (it had a dark theme but ended up being solved in a very very convienent way). For now it is not boring and I didn't feel friendship power like in FT (for now, we'll see). Most of the villains are mediocre/clowns but to be fair (this just started so I will wait).

4 - Fanservice: Although I like fanservice to certain extent, I don't enjoy it when it is being shoved in my face. FT had an issue with this and Edens Zero doubled down on this resource. I didn't like Lucy's scenes and I don't like Rebecca's either Mashima :V get a grip & focus on the other plot.

5 - Action/Animation: The drawing style is consistent but I have an issue with the action scenes where instead of having a fluid fight they just show the semi-slideshow kind of animation where you are shown the final move of every attack instead of the motion that produced such attack (you know what I mean). I don't mean to disrespect the animators but to me this is a little bit lazy and FT had the same issue. But at least it is not a NNT type of thing.

6 - Comedy: Most comedic situations are...not funny.

7 - Other stuff: The word FRIEND/S. PLEASE, if Shiki or anybody in the show keep saying the word "friend" every five minutes, my head will explode. We understood in the first episode so stop.

To sum it all up, I don't hate the show, kinda liking it. It has its issues but it's still early so I am giving it a 6/10 temporarily with the potential to go up.

It’s an okay anime. The story is decent, but the aggressive fan service and use of nudity and perversion really takes away from the plot and main character. The female characters seem to be all sex appeal and lack development or real personality. The time aspects of it are a bit confusing to me, but is lessens as you continue to watch. It really does feel like a show created to appeal to Fairy Tail and ecchi fans. It definitely isn’t anything special. I don’t think it’s an anime I’d recommend it to anyone first, maybe if they wanted something they didn’t to think about ... while watching or something they didn’t really have to pay attention to. 6/10

There are many people who compare FT and EZ. and well it makes sense to do so, since both works are by the same mangaka. one of which was a hit. So one would expect EZ to have better things than FT right?

Well in the following review I will give my opinion on some things:

Story: I have to be honest, I love FT but EZ has a stronger story and a better plot. Although comparing EZ with FT in history does not make sense, since, what work is not better than FT in this regard? but you still have to give EZ an extra point. ... since in quality, Mashima improved a lot.

7/10

Art: I think it is the most conflictive point among the fans. Since EZ looks like a copy paste of FT. but of course later you see that both series are from the same creator and it makes sense that they have similarities. but it is one thing that they have similarities and another is that you only change the color of their hair or put a patch on the characters. In one of the volumes of EZ. Mashima showed some of the sketches that he had for the characters in the series. And if you look at it, you say "Fuck, you already had such a cool design for Rebecca or Shiki. Why the hell did you make them so similar to Natsu and Lucy?" That there are so many characters similar (equal) to FT, it was intentional. maybe to retain FT fans. But even so, I think that if you wanted to do a different story than FT, then the design also changes, right?

3/10

Sound: I'm not saying the EZ soundtrack is bad. it's just that it falls short compared to FT. it doesn't have an OST that you say. "Damn, that is good." or that it really complements the battles.

1/ 10


Character: The characters are missing something. like they are very flat. except for Hermit and Homura. I think all the others are rubbish. Shiki, you have nothing interesting to show. He really is not a character that is memorable. Rebecca, it falls into a cliche from the start. She has nothing to offer as FMC.
Weiz, I'm not a fan of perverted characters. I do not understand what is the point of putting a character who sees his "daughter" (Rebecca) with lustful eyes.Homura, there isn't much to say. she is the best waifu of the series

4/10


Enjoyment: EZ in epicity, battles, moments, OST, is far from catching up with FT. I think if you are a person who has not seen FT before. surely, you will enjoy the series for its fanservice, some battles / moments,but I think EZ is far from FT at this point

5/10


Overall: EZ is a story that is narratively superior to FT. but it is far from being able to achieve many things that made FT one of the most popular series in Kondansha and Japan.

If you expect to see something epic, comedy or some emotional moment, EZ is not for you. If you want to see a series where its story is entertaining and solid, where it has some "Dark" touch or if you want to see a lot of fanservice (from my point of view EZ has more fanservice than FT), then EZ is for you

The biggest hot topic with Edens Zero is just how similar it is to Mashima's previous works, and since that's been done to death I won't bother to beat the dead horse. Suffice to say I also reckon it's a ripoff.

But what pisses me off more than anything else is the world. This world is not science fiction. It's fantasy in space. And that is just so bland, lazy, and uninspired considering all the fantasy drivel being pumped with isekai and its ilk. Ether is quite honestly the most disgusting BS power system that I've ever seen in a sci-fi world. Magic is not illegal ... in sci-fi, but basing your entire power system on it without quantifying what it does makes things completely confusing. Ether just does whatever the plot wants it to do. There's no consistency and as a result the world building suffers. This show has no love for science or science fiction. It's always minimised to the greatest extent to make way for more fantasy-style generic bs.

And let's talk about the plot. It's so full of convenience and contrivance that seeing a character push the plot forwards is a rare occasion. Anything can happen to anyone, but no matter what there will always be a happy ending and the entire main cast will make it out unaffected even if the plot has set it up an inescapable situation. People die and then come back to life whenever convenient. The morality of this show is confused and childish. Some of the logic that these characters espouse (especially Shiki) is so nonsensical that a 5 year old could probably write more logical dialogue. Whenever you see an emotional climax, you just know the show is going to shove more twisted moral BS on you.

If you want to watch this show, just rewatch fairy tail, instead. If you want to have standards, don't ever watch either of those shows. It's up to you

After finally getting a taste of Fairy Tail's much anticipated successor, I will say that it is indeed familiar. I'm currently undecided as to whether this is laziness on the mangaka's part or if he is just intentionally leaving easter eggs for fans. With that said, here's where things sit 6 episodes in.

The story: the premise and themes are very similar to Fairy Tail, though they are executed differently. This still feels light hearted, but at the same time it's a bit darker and more mature right off the bat. It doesn't try to be as funny, though it fails when it does, which also ... contributes to the more serious tone. And we get some back story almost immediately. There's just enough information to get a sense of who the main trio are without giving everything away. The setting also helps differentiate the two series, and magic has been exchanged with technology. The incorporation of robots also makes for an interesting plot element and the pacing is also decent thus far. Surprisingly, I'm enjoying this more than Fairy Tail. Things aren't off to a bad start.

And then there are the characters, the point of contention for many right now. The mangaka's style is consistent with the one used in Fairy Tail(hello Same Face Syndrome). I also acknowledge that Mashima has a history of reusing his own character designs, which is fine. However, I understand why people are upset. It's fairly egregious. However I find them much less obnoxious than previous iterations and they do have different personalities, which is a welcome change. Shiki in particular is much more sympathetic and likable than Natsu ever was, though his goal is much more shallow. It makes Eden's Zero a lot easier to watch, and I will give Mashima props for toning it down a bit.

Art: Aside from the copy/paste characters, the art and animation are fairly well done. It isn't choppy and we get some cool stuff to look at in regards to the tech incorporated. Overall, I'm not mad at it.

TLDR: It isn't half bad. Not ground breaking, but a certainly not boring. I'll update this when this season finishes. Until then, I'd say that people should at least give it a chance, whether they did or didn't like Fairy Tail.

I'm think the story needs to be taken more seriously. Mainly in the last arcs, I saw great potential to deal with those more "dark" stories with sadic villains, but there are some things that bother me and probably will cause troubles to the storytelling. When I said the story can be taken more seriously i meant that I think this can be done the same way as another Hiro Mashima manga, Fairy Tail. I remember the start is very simillar in terms of pacing, simpler arcs with little development and uncharismatic villains and characters, but when the anime start to introduce more misterious and ... deep characters like when the Laxus arc begins, more good stories and fights starts to happen. I hope the same will be done with Edens Zero in the second season. Also i didn't like the comedy, most of the comedy moments are based on the ecchi, which is normal for Mashima, but, here in Edens Zero, it got far more exaggerated, and personally, I think that when Mashima tries to do another types of comedy, he do it very well, hope he tries to do those jokes with pants a little less on the progress of the story. Edens Zero has potential, but nothing more than this.

This show was definitely missed potential. It had a great setting, good music, endearing characters and themes, and incredible animation. However, the overall narrative was weak and failed to take advantage of its characters and settings.
Edens Zero had a great cast with excellent potential, but they were not explored enough at all. The series jumped from location to location to host a bunch of good versus evil fights, and it often felt like this was the primary function of the narrative. These fights are entertaining with their awesome animation, but the characters were often poorly utilized and the show lacked thematic depth. Homura and Hermit ... were standout characters who the story utilized very well, but otherwise these endearing characters were left without proper exploration. The settings were compelling at a surface level, but thematically were very basic. Sun Jewel as a setting could have been analyzed with much more drive to explore themes of oppression, but instead it was basic good versus evil fluff. Additionally, Edens Zero's fan service often felt overbearing and inappropriate, though it was also pretty easy to ignore.
Edens Zero was very basic. Even so, it was still an enjoyable watch, as disappointed as this review may seem. The characters and settings were great, even as the story seldom explored them. The cast was awesome to journey with, and the anime had an excellent presentation. It is just unfortunate that the narrative was so weak and simple outside of some standout moments. Honestly, I still enjoyed the show quite a bit, but more objectively speaking, it was just okay.

Best Part about the show: Has One Piece vibes. Gather a crew, a ship, finding the One Piece, and a lot of small and big Bad guys.
Do not judge the show by its first few episodes. I watched the first 2 episodes and left the series, when the second season was released I decided to give this series another try as I was looking for any shonen to watch. The show gradually gets better and more enjoyable, there are some cringe moments and fanservice is there but ignoring all that the show is good. I would suggest watching this when bored and cannot find anything ... top-rated.
I know people are tired of hearing the comparison but as both shows are from the same Mangaka this has to happen. If you like Fairy Tale then you will like this show. FT starts strong and goes down a bit near the middle, this show starts slow but gradually becomes good.
Story 8/10
Animation 6.5/10
Music 7/10 Love the second ending.

Too much fanservice. The characters are beautiful!! I lovr the voice acting as well but Rebecca is used as a sex tool most of the time. Her character could be developed deeply but half of the episode's time is wasted on friendship talk and weird body distorcions. I usually ignore thay sort of stuff but this is just too much to handle!
Either way I really enjoyed the storylines. They're silly, sure, but that's the genre's concept. Besides, the characters are enjoyable and when they fall into a cliche they have more than that to themselves. Nice show.
I love how Homura was developed. I hope the ... others are as well because even though they are steriotypical (and according to other reviews recycled) I really enjoy seeing them grow and become friends.
The overuse of the word friends seems to be an issue to other commenters as well but I expected that since ghe genre needs this trope to keep going. Didnt mind. Very enjoyable and accessible anime, for being on Netflix.
Ah, another complain I have is the existance of a narrator. It makes the writer look insecure since he's always putting someone in to say HEY! DID YOU GET IT? THIS IS HAPPENING! like your cousin making you watch canine patrol yk so that's a weak narrative resource that I didn't really like.