Edens Zero Chapter 276 Review/Recap
Have you ever looked at a fictional character making a hard decision and wondered, “Are they making the right choice?” What if their choice, no matter how much you understand it, might be the wrong decision? Especially if it could lead to disaster for everyone. Because Shiki just did that with his decision about Mother. And while I have a feeling things will work out, I can’t stop feeling like Shiki messed up.
Recap
Fifteen years ago, after finding Mother and Shiki and creating the Shining Stars, Ziggy returned to Granbell. However, he feels immense guilt over giving them false memories and modeling them after the deceased humans. It becomes too much for him, thus leading him to let them go and live their own lives. He also orders the Edens One AI to stop constructing its ship and the Dark Stars…or so he thinks.
Now, Ziggy realizes he should’ve stopped the One himself. Void retorts that it has already become self-aware and comes to a conclusion to wipe out humanity by killing Mother.
Meanwhile, Mother asks for Shiki’s answer. Rebecca calls her out for putting that decision in the hands of a baby who couldn’t agree. However, Shiki simply asks Mother if she’ll let him choose, which she affirms. Saying he’ll make his future and not let his friends die, Shiki decides to let Mother disappear. Mother says that Shiki could’ve been a hero or Demon King. As she fades away and space distorts, she says he chose to be the Demon King.
Review
I am immensely torn on Shiki’s ultimate decision. My emotional half understands why he made it, and I might make the same decision if it came down to it. On the other hand, the logical half thinks Shiki might have doomed the cosmos to a slow death. Worse, it seems he played into Void’s hands; we still don’t know why Void wanted Mother and humanity dead so badly! Part of me still wants to call Shiki’s choice selfish for that alone. Or I’m biased because it means that Earth is gone and may never return.
While Shiki might have made the wrong decision, that might not be the case. This isn’t the first time Mashima has pushed his characters into a no-win scenario only for them to find a third option. Fairy Tail is full of them, and Edens Zero has seen its fair share. This series has a knack for pulling its cast out of impossible scenarios, and I don’t think Mashima will stop that now. Either he’s willing to leave the future uncertain (which would suck), will let things end on a downer, or he’s got some insane plan in store. And I’m willing to bet it’s the last one.
Regardless of how Mashima ends this, until he does, this chapter will divide a lot of fans. Should Shiki have saved Mother and let his friends die again? Or did he make the right choice? Was Ziggy right to lie to the Shining Stars about their origin, let alone make them? I don’t know, and the uncertainty both frustrates and excites me.
I have loved this series from the start because of how Shiki is written; he’s never written in a way where he’s the outright “Good Guy” in the situation- though not quite “Lesser Of 2 Evils,” either.
He told us way back when that he’s NOT some “Hero of Justice,” and that he’d show everyone the kind of “Demon King” he could be if you threaten his friends- which he chose to do with Mother.
I think it also shows some his growth from Aoi War and Kaede War- how quickly he was able to come to the decision after getting all of the facts. He is- first and foremost- a Leader; the head of a Family. And he has to think what’s in the best interest of them- not everyone else. So if it means that Humanities population has to go down a bit, then so be it- he made the choice, so he’ll deal with it.
Shiki is such an well thought out character, and I think another example of how different Mashima’s written his main characters since he started making manga. I think Haru might be the only genuine “Hero” type he’s written in terms of a Full Series; Natsu and Shiki have both made clear that they’ll destroy everything in sight if they make enemies of their family, and YAKUTO- don’t even get me started!
I’ll say that my ranking for Mashima series has changed a bit since I really started following his work, but Edens Zero is still a solid 2nd for me, with Fairy Tail coming up the more I read it. Maybe that’ll change the next time I read Rave Master, but I’ll still rank that in 3rd.
The Final Villain’s gotten his wish now, so where do we go from here? I have to admit, I thought meeting Mother and fightign Void would be where we end things, but now it feels like this is where things are just getting started! Shiki still has to deal with his “Family Drama” between Wizard, Witch, Void, and Ziggy. And now he has to figure out how to keep Humanity from dying out. Though, I think I thought of a way for that to happen.
Remember at the start of Universe 0, when we learned about the differences on Granbell compared to other Universes? Here, Ziggy built them an Ether recycling Machine that would work for a thousand years or more. And we just learned that it’s possible for even a PLANET to go into Overdrive. What if the goal is now to built an Ether recycler the size of a planet, and put IT into Overdrive, utilizing the specs of the Mobius and the ships Ether drive to learn how to keep it by itself going forever, and putting it in Overdrive as a precaution! Something like that, I guess.