Ether Therapy is the Wave of the Future

Edens Zero Chapter 273 Review/Recap

The Edens Zero manga is finally giving its readers some answers about Mother and Shiki. As the story hinted at and what some fans picked up on, Mother is the Overdrive form of the Planet Earth. Furthermore, as Mother shows Shiki, Rebecca, Happy, and Pino, she came into being as an attempt to save the dying Earth. As the flashbacks have shown, though, things didn’t go as planned. For now, though, the group gets to see how Ether was first used to help people 20,000 years ago.

Recap

In the past, Cooper explains to Ivry how Ether is a stream of energy flowing through all things in existence. Its existence was thought impossible to prove at the time, until (Dr.) Yuna wrote a thesis that showed it did exist. Who just so happens to show up with Regret and Mio in tow. Between the three of them and Cooper’s help, they use this new Ether therapy to cure Ivry’s illness. With proof that Ether can self-purify something, their next step is to make Earth itself go into Overdrive. 

As Shiki and the others look at the past, they can’t help but wonder where Shiki and the promise he made with Mother come into play. Thus, Mother fast-forwards several months, to the birth of Regret and Leonard’s child, which Mother confirms is Shiki. However, by that point, Mother says that things were already too late: the countdown to Earth’s destruction had already begun.

Review

This chapter managed to do a fair bit of filling in the blanks for us regarding the past, and, in an unexpected surprise, it demonstrated how Ether was discovered. With the way Cooper describes it, Ether sounds many other metaphysical concepts found in fiction, though. Ki, chakra, magic, and the Force all follow the same basic or similar concept. Edens Zero isn’t breaking any new ground regarding that, but it doesn’t need to, in my opinion. 

As for the rest of the chapter, it was interesting to see how the Shining Stars were connected in their past lives like they were. I never could’ve imagined that Regret, Yuna, and Ivry were friends from college, but it’s nice to know that they’ve always seemed meant to be friends.

That being said, though, this still didn’t answer the big question on everyone’s mind about Shiki. If he was born 20,000 years ago, then how is he still alive in the present? What sort of promise did he make with Mother? We still need to know the truth about everything, and if there’s a way to save everyone. That said, maybe hearing the backstory will give Shiki an idea.

Also, I just realized that we haven’t seen any signs of Deadend Cure or Freyja yet. There’s no way that Mashima is going to end the story without bringing them into play.

I Give “Purification” a 3/5

Click here to see more animanga stuff