Hiro Mashima, known for his previous works such as Rave Master and Fairy Tail, returns for his third soon-to-be long running manga series, Edens Zero. In this story, Mashima decided to stray away from his all too familiar fantasy setting in favor of a space adventure. Yet,this change in setting, with a whole new cast of characters, has yet to show that Mashima has improved in his writing at all. In fact, Mashima already begins to fall into the same writing mistakes that were all too common in Fairy Tail and Rave Master. Unspecific power scaling,surface-level characters, and abysmal pacing are issues that are present chapter fucking one, and only continues to further sink this series into mediocrity with each passing chapter.
The story is not much to ride home about either, and comes off as another generic space adventure that doesn't provide anything interesting,such as non traditional character motivations or an ever looming conflict, that would make it stand out among the rest.
On another note, the amount of recycled material taken from it's predecessor is unacceptable. Whole character designs, such as Erza Scarlet (now known as Elcy Crimson), Lucy Heartfilia (Rebecca), Wendy Marvell (Lavilla Christi), and Happy (No change), are shamelessly reused not only in order to appeal to Fairy Tail's lingering fanbase, but for Mashima to either have an excuse to bring back characters he can't let go of, or to not be bothered to make actual new character designs. But the similarities don't stop there. The theme of friendship is also ever present, and will surely play a large role in its central narrative, much like Fairy Tail. And though the manga's in-universe source of power has been changed to "Ether", by Chapter 4 it's blatantly called magic when Shiki states, "In unscientific terms, one could call it magic. MAGIC.."
The only thing that you could really complement this manga for would be its art, which admittedly has its own certain charm. However, compared to its current contemporaries in the shonen genre (One Piece, My Hero Academia, The Promised Neverland), Edens Zero falls short due to its lack luster and bland paneling, and lack of significant stylization that would set it apart from Fairy Tail.
The fact of the matter is that Edens Zero is lazy. Some people try defending the fact that the reused character designs are not a problem, without realizing the lack of creativity this manga, as well as Mashima, displays as a result of these designs. Its biggest flaw as a series is its failure to set itself apart from Fairy Tail by falling into the same narrative mistakes and not learning from them. Evidently,Hiro Mashima does not really give a shit about making a good manga at this point. He knows fans of his previous work will support him, and by sticking to the same formula that Fairy Tail had will lead to eventual success. This mentality of his, as shown through his work, will never allow him to improve, and as a result he will never make a series worth significant merit.
However, despite my grievances, I will continue to read Edens Zero. Not because I genuinely enjoy reading it, but to masochistically (and sadistically) watch Mashima commit the same errors all over again.
(An up-to-date follow up to this review is pending......eventually.--)
