Edens Zero Chapters 41 & 42 Review/Recap

Hello and welcome to another week’s installment of my Edens Zero review/recap. This week, we’re in for a real treat, because we got not one, but two chapters!! And they are good ones. Plus, they each come with their own handy charts and maps to help clarify about what’s happening in the manga.

Now then, let’s dive right in!

Recap

“Fireworks”

At the end of the last chapter, we saw how Hermit was tricked into building a giant ether gun to destroy a planet full of machines. Then those scientists captured her and started experimenting on her.

They broke her into pieces, rebuilt her, and then broke her already broken spirit even more. It was hell, until the day that the Star Federation Army put a stop to their vile research. But the damage was already done, and Hermit retreated into Digitalis

Back in the present, Hermit refuses to help the crew fend off Spider due to her hatred of humans. None of them can understand why she hates them so much, but Rebecca and Shiki do everything they can to get her to open her heart back up. All the emotions she had bottled up start pouring out, and she finally, tearfully, admits that she still wants to be friends with humans.

With her resolve rekindled, Hermit gets to work and shows everyone her true power.

Not only is she able to force Spider out like it’s nothing, but then she taunts him by finding his location and preparing to use the ship’s long-range weapons to blast him from the cosmos.

Turns out it was just fireworks, though. But Spider freaked out so badly that he passed out and wet himself.

As the crew celebrates and Hermit finally joins them, Weisz and Witch stand in the distance, with Witch remarking about how much it suits Hermit to smile.

“Pino’s Dream”

With Hermit now aboard as a member, she gives Rebecca and Happy a tour of the ship; or at least the parts of the ship that can be shown. And the Eden’s Zero is amazing!

Too bad the ship will take some time to fix after Spider almost wrecked it. Something that Sister is keen to remind Hermit that she could have prevented. Apparently, they teased each other a lot back in the day.

With Sister, Witch, and Hermit accounted for, the only one left to find is Valkyrie. According to Homura, her master up and vanished one day about five years ago. She’s been searching for her ever since then. As she tells Rebecca in the baths, she wants to show her how much stronger she’s gotten since then.

Meanwhile, Shiki, Weisz, and Pino are hanging out in the Eden’s Kitchen on the ship, eating burgers that make me want to drool.

Pino, meanwhile, hasn’t forgotten how she became human in Digitalis, and so she has developed a goal for herself in the future.

Shiki thinks she can do it, but Weisz is convinced its impossible, but doesn’t say anything.

On another planet made of desserts, that agent from the Galactic Intelligence hasn’t given up on her mission to infiltrate Drakken Joe’s group, while revealing to the readers how she got into the Eden’s Zero network: One of Elsie’s crew members handed her the info on the ship and used it to hack into their network.

Elsewhere, Spider’s left humiliated and fuming at Shiki and his friends, and tries to get Drakken Joe to do something about it. Joe’s… not in the mood to be talked to.

Review

I will admit, I thought that Hermit’s heel-face turn in “Fireworks” seemed a little bit rushed. I get that they want to move the plot forward and that the situation meant that time was limited, but I didn’t expect her to change her mind so quickly. Sometimes it takes several chapters for a Shonen hero to do that.

My concerns were shoved to one side as soon as I saw how amazing Hermit was, and how she made Spider wet himself.

The next chapter, though, was amazing. I never even considered looking at a map of the ship, but now that I’ve seen it, I’m glad! The best part is that there’s going to be even more of the ship that has yet to be revealed as it gets back to full strength.

I also enjoyed the crew dynamics in “Pino’s Dream” as well. Sister and Hermit may tease each other a lot, but I can tell that they really care about each other, even though they’d deny it. I found Homura’s bathside chats with Rebecca and Happy as nice as always; I can’t believe she asked Rebecca to fight her in the middle of the bath. And I loved Pino’s dream to be a real girl.

I don’t know why I didn’t see it at first, but that statement made me realize that Pino’s nickname is short for Pinocchio. If you guys figured it out before me, give yourself a pat on the back. I don’t care what Weisz says, though: she’ll find a way to become human.

There’s still trouble brewing though. Ever since Guilst was rewound by the Chronophage, Drakken Joe has been on the loose, and it looks like Shiki and him are on a collision course in the future. Plus that psychopathic spy girl is going to be a recurring problem. In short, they need to find Valkyrie fast if they want to be ready.

I Give “Fireworks” and “Pino’s Dream” a 3/5 and 4/5, respectively

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Edens Zero Chapter 39 Review/Recap

What’s worse than a troll/griefer that abuses the power of technology to make other people’s lives miserable? One that doesn’t give up on anything. It would seem that the Digitalis Arc has not quite wrapped up, and since I am a week behind on this due to working on my Game of Thrones stuff, I will doing this back to back with the new chapter.

Recap

Years ago, Ziggy told the Four Shining stars that he was retiring to his hometown of Granbell to raise Shiki, and that they were free to decide their lives from then on. While Hermit initially wanted to join Ziggy, she decided that she wanted to become friends with people.

In the present, the crew of Eden’s Zero was able to bring back Hermit, but she’s still in her state of depression. Also, for some reason, being in those suits in stasis made them all really, really sweaty.

As Sister and Witch explain, she may be back physically, but she’s still not back to the cheerful self that she was in the past. Just as Shiki decides to go talk to her, alarms start blaring like crazy.

As it stands, they need Hermit and her computer skills to protect the Eden’s Zero from within cyberspace. Without it, it’s easy prey to hackers like this ugly mug.

According to Rebecca, he’s one of the top five hackers in the Sakura Cosmos. In Digitalis, he was Jamilov. Now he has hacked into the ship as payback for them ruining his plans. As a result, the ship is tearing itself apart. The only one who can stop Jamilov is Hermit, but she still refuses to do anything while being locked in the Clothes Factory

The chapter then ends with another flashback where it’s revealed that a group of scientists asked for her help in creating a device that can help machines. Hermit happily agreed to help at the time.

Review

I have been wondering since we first met her how Hermit got to be so sad and hate humanity so much. Now I’m starting to get a clearer picture. Whatever those scientists promised her turned out to be a lie that hurt a lot of machines. That’s why she hates humans so much.

This is just a theory, though. Until the next chapter comes out this week, I can’t be sure of anything. Given that this is a Shonen manga, though, Shiki will end up making her realize that some humans are worth trusting. I’ve read this “tragic backstory” scenario long enough to become genre-savvy at it. That said, I’m still looking forward to seeing what it has in store for us.

I Give “The Genius Spider Hacker” a 3/5

Some Stray Observations

• Anyone notice how bummed Pino was to be back in her robot body?

• BABY SHIKI!

• 

Eden’s Zero Chapter 38 Review/Recap

I didn’t think that the Digitalis Arc would rap up so quickly, but it looks like Hiro Mashima is steaming forward at full speed. Hermit shows off the true extent of her power in this new chapter of Eden’s Zero

Recap

Furious that someone is able to manipulate Digitalis on the same level as him, Jamilov does everything in his power to keep Hermit from helping Shiki. What follows is a battle of speed as Hermit equips armor onto Shiki while Jamilov tries to get rid of it.

And then, for some reason, Jamilov puts Rebecca in a bikini.

Realizing that he can’t beat Hermit, Jamilov decides to resort to:

Basically, he’s pressing ctrl+alt+delete on the entire town and everything in it.

I do mean everything, include the NPC’s. Worse, Hermit says that there’s no way for her to stop; in 3 minutes, everything will be destroyed.

Shiki then solves it like any other Shonen protagonist would: by beating the crap out of Jamilov. It works, despite Jamilov being overpowered in Digitalis because Hermit says Shiki is just that strong. Every hit he dishes out takes away 4,500 of his health points. Meaning, Shiki beats him out of the game in just 22 hits

And in true Shonen logic, this fixes everything. The town goes back to normal. As for Weisz, he ends up being banned from Digitalis since Hermit had to use his account to beat Jamilov. Not that he minds, though.

Meanwhile, Homura manages to return to her friends after beating that GIA woman. As for the monster, it turns out he’s alright, too. With the villain defeated, Shiki then asks Hermit once more to come back with him, to Eden’s Zero.

Review

I have to say, this is the first time that I have been flat-out disappointed by Eden’s Zero. The way they resolved the fight was too quick, and Shiki’s logic has been used by too many other heroes to stick anymore. What’s more, the terror of the Final Code is negated by how quick Shiki was able to beat Jamilov. Everyone was having such a hard time fighting him, and then Shiki just beats him so easily. He had Hermit’s help, but it still seemed to fast.

This chapter was a letdown for me, and I honestly hope that we do not see anymore like that in the future of this series. It still has a lot of potential, but I don’t want this to be a full repeat of Fairy Tail.

I Give Chapter 38 a 2/5

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Edens Zero Chapter 36 Review/Recap

I want to apologize for how late this came out. I had a hard time trying to find a place that had the images I needed for this post. But here it is, the new chapter of Edens Zero. And honestly, I have mixed feelings about it.

Recap

Picking up where we left off, Shiki is still shocked that Homura’s betrayed them, or her disregard for the NPC’s being sentient. When Shiki refuses to stand out of her way, Homura and the mosnters proceed to shoot at him directly. Only, the arrows are blocked by…Homura?

Unlike the other one, this new Homura in fact looks like the real one. According to her, she woke up in Digitalis in a jail cell. It took her two days to bust out and then track everyone down. And her tendency to blurt out what she’s thinking confirms it’s her. Which means the other one is an impostor.

Jamilov, though, doesn’t give two cents and just starts killing everything in sight.

As the impostor tries to escape with Homura in pursuit, Shiki and the others stay to deal with Jamilov. Easier said than done.

Thanks to him hacking into Digitalis’ data, he’s stronger than the game can hope to control. The only way to beat him is to fight fire with fire. Or, as a suddenly talking Hermit says, cheats with cheats.

Meanwhile, Homura is chasing the fake down, who proves to be hard to catch. The impostor then transforms into her true form, Amira of the Galactic Intelligence Agency. She can copy someone not only in appearance, but right down to their memories and personality, hence why she’s even blabbing about that. She was trying to get in with Jamilov to get to Drakken Joe, but now that that plan’s gone south, she’s just going to be make Homura disappear.

Review

I knew it. I knew that Mashima was going to pull this plot-twist on us from the beginning. Have to admit, though, he did have me fooled about Homura turning traitor for a while. While some might think of this impostor as a cop-out, and it is, it also serves a greater purpose.

I don’t know who this GIA is, but judging by their name, they are affiliated with the main governing body in Edens Zero. My guess is, this was part of a plan to capture or eliminate Drakken Joe. Even so, being willing to let innocent people die to do so is wrong, and Shiki has made it clear that he won’t abide by it.

No matter how the Digitalis arc turns out, it appears that the crew of Edens Zero has made two new enemies in the GIA and Drakken Joe. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

I Give “Chapter 36: The GIA” a 3/5

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Eden’s Zero Chapter 35 Review/Recap

My readers, I will be blunt about this: I don’t know what’s going on right now. By all intents, it looks like Homura’s turned on the crew of the Edens Zero, and we still don’t know why. At the same time, I have seen Mashima do this kind of thing before, so until I see actual proof, I won’t believe this to be an actual betrayal. For now, though, the recap

Recap

As the Edens Zero crew is fighting the monsters, Homura goes to the forest to speak with Jamiroff. He’s waiting for his army to kill the townsfolk and bring him the players so he can kill them, and begs to let her work with him.

Meanwhile, Shiki takes the unwilling Hermit back to the town, using is Gravity Ether Gear to fend off the monsters. Hermit’s convinced that Shiki somehow stole Ziggy’s powers, because she doesn’t trust humans. She even goes so far as to say they don’t have a soul. Shiki says that while some may not (i.e. heartless monsters), since Hermit was Ziggy’s friend, she’s his friend.

As for everyone else, they’re holding their own. Rebecca’s doing her Elie-gunslinger thing, but Pino and Weisz are at a major disadvantage since they can’t use their powers. There’s just too many monsters for them to deal with, though, and they start to move on the NPC’s.

That’s when a monster boss, the Shinobi Troll, that the crew met earlier jumps in to protect the people, saying its his job as an NPC. Shiki then returns, and then trounces the mosnters.

Jamiroff finally shows up on the battlefield, and orders his army to slaughter everyone. The Shinobi Troll (nicknamed Shino-Chan) uses himself as a living shield, but is filled full of arrows and falls unconcsious. Or dead. I can’t tell really.

Just then, another arrow’s aimed at the girl that Shino-Chan was protecting, and Shiki takes the shot into this arm. To everyone’s shock, it’s revealed that the person who shot him was Homura herself, who coldly declares that they aren’t friends.

Review

Okay, what the heck is going on here? What is Homura really after by betraying everyone? I know that it has something to do with wanting to meet Drakken Joe, but what could her motivation be?

We know that Homura has Valkyrie’s Ether Sword, so she either wasn’t lying about being her student, or she stole it from Valkyrie somehow. Either way, we still know too little about who Homura is.

As for her betrayal, the reason I’m not convinced it’s genuine is because Mashima pulled this stunt before in Fairy Tail. In one of the arcs near the end of its run, it looked one of the main heroes, Gray Fullbuster, had gone over to the dark side by joining a Dark Guild and severing his ties with his friends. Turns out, he was working undercover in order to stop said guild’s plot to slaugther an entire city.

Working on that logic, and considering how Mashima seems to be reusing a lot of his old material, he could be doing the same thing with Homura. Or it could be genuine. But if she ends up joining them for real because Shiki gives her some “power of friendship” speech, I will be so mad. It’s an overused trope!

What I did like about this chapter is Hermit’s remark about humans not having any souls. It’s both a reversal on the statement that robots don’t have souls or hearts, and a very real represenation of how some people can act. I’m not joking, humanity has done some pretty nasty stuff throughout recorded history. And there are jerks that act like they have no soul. But there are also plenty of people who care about each other and are good and kind.

I don’t know what Hermit went through, but I am very eager to learn about it. That could take a while, though! Something tells me that next chapter is about explaining Homura’s betrayal.

I Give This Chapter 3/5

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Eden’s Zero Chapter 34 Review/Recap

Well, things just keep getting crazier and crazier in this chapter of Eden’s Zero. Hermit doesn’t trust humans, for reasons that’ll be revealed later, and now I’m not sure if we can trust Homura.

On top of that, remembering what Hermit said about humans triggers Shiki’s memories of the robots of Granbell and how they said they hate humans.

As the readers, we know that the robots were lying in order to get Shiki to leave Granbell before they went offline for good. Otherwise, he’d be stuck there forever. It was necessary, but I still feel bad about it. I hope Shiki learns the truth one day.

At the moment, though, the crew of Edens Zero seems to have much bigger problems. At that moment, an army of monsters appears outside the village!

And they’re being led by… a talking bird man? What the heck?

This Giron says that he’s working on behalf of that psychotic monster Jaimoff and he’s going to kill every last NPC in town and take it over. Then, Jamioff will kill the monsters so he can level up and gain experience.

Shiki, however, is having none of that.

For a few moments, it looked like Shiki was going to curb-stomp the monster army, but then Happy points out that some of the flying monsters are headed towards the hill where Hermit’s sulking. So Shiki runs off to save her, whether she wants it or not.

As for the rest of the group, they have to face the monster army by themselves. To make things worse, Homura ran off again. According to her conversation with Jesse, she has nothing against the crew of Edens Zero, but they’ve “done their part”.

Strange Development

I still cannot figure what Homura’s real motives. I know that she has some ulterior motive for helping out Shiki back on Guilst, and since she has Valkyrie’s sword, I can assume her connection to Valkyrie of Edens Zero is genuine.

Regardless, the crew of Edens Zero is at a disadvantage. Pino can’t use her EMP generation inside Digitalis or it will wreck everything, and Weisz can’t use his Machina Maker. Right now, Rebecca and Happy are the only line of defense.

Most people would say it seems hopeless, but this is a shonen manga. They’ll pull out some trump card somehow; that’s how shonen’s like to work. And I think I know what it could be. Maybe this fight will be what lets Rebecca master her dormant Ether Gear.

Back at Hermit’s hill, Hermit was about to just let herself be killed by the monsters, but Shiki jumps in and saves her at the last second. The chapter ends at that moment, but I hope that this will be the start of Hermit growing to trust Shiki. At the least, we’ll learn what made Hermit hate humans so much in the first place.

This chapter didn’t seem quite as interesting as last week’s, in my honest opinon. To be fair, though, the previous chapter had a lot of twists, so maybe I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. What happens next is your guess as much as it is mine, guys! I hope to see you guys next week for another episode of Edens Zero!

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Edens Zero Chapter 33 Review/Recap

Well, this story certainly took a twist. The Digitalis Arc is shaping up to be a momentous one for Eden’s Zero as Shiki faces unexpected opposition, and may be betrayed by someone he thought he could trust.

Picking up where the last chapter left off, the players that Jamilov had impaled glitch out like the characters from Tron. Actually, this is exactly like Tron or Sword Art Online. Death in Digitalis will kill a player in real life.

I’m going to ignore how unoriginal this concept is and hope that Mashima doesn’t lean on other people’s concepts. The bigger issue is Jamilov’s weapon, Maria.

The only other weapon I can think of that can do that kind of thing is Samehada from the Naruto Franchise. That could only absorb Chakra, though, while Maria seems to eat everything. Very creative, and deadly! It doesn’t change the fact that Shiki manages to kick Jamilov’s butt by dropping a tower on him.

Before the fight can go any further, Jamilov is suddenly called away by Drakken Joe, and hightails it out of Digitalis. As fate would have it, he didn’t get everyone in the village

The villagers are grateful enough to the crew that they tell them where Hermit is: she’s sitting on a hill to the north of the town.

This is the first thing that Shiki says as soon as he finds her:

Really skipped a lot of key details, Shiki. I guess that being overeager is a recurring theme in Mashima’s heroes. After explaining everything in detail, it doesn’t matter: Hermit’s not going anywhere.

Yeah, she really does not like humans. Hermit hates them with every fiber of her being

I can only guess why Hermit hates humans right now, but it may have something to do with Ziggy disbanding the original crew of the Eden’s Zero. So, now they have to deal with this mess for the time being.

There’s a bigger problem, though: Homura ran off on her own to explore the city. That’s what she said, but it turns out, she’s meeting someone.

“Undercover stuff”? What could that possibly mean, and what does Homura have planned for Shiki? I have so many questions right now, and sadly, I don’t have enough info to start making theories! All I know is that I did not see this twist coming.

What do you guys think about what’s happening? Leave your thoughts down below in the comments!

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Eden’s Zero Chapter 31 Review/Recap

Before we get back to the story, there’s someone I may or may not have mentioned in my recap: Xiaomei

Our Narrator

Introduced back when Rebecca, Happy, and Shiki went to Norma, and she explained that time had little meaning in this story. She also has a fourth-wall breaking awareness of what is going on, hence why she’s the narrator. Xiaomei hasn’t shown up since that time, though, so I almost forgot about her.

That makes me dread what may happen or where Mashima is taking this story. But let’s get back to the action!

The Eden’s Zero crew’s dive into Digitalis continues right where we left off: with the appearance of that horse thing from Rave.

In-Game Avatars

One by one, the crew meets up after choosing their avatars. To be honest, I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Homura chose to play as a guy.

In online games, it’s not unheard of for people to create characters opposite of their gender. MMO’s are a fun way of reinventing oneself, so they may want to try playing an idealized version of themselves, opposite gender included. So I wasn’t too surprised to see Homura’s choice.

Next, we see Weisz’s avatar, and it becomes clear that he’s one of those players.

Yeah, Weisz is playing as a girl just so he can oogle himself. Sad to say, but people also do this stuff, too. They either want to oogle at themselves or like making people that they’re the opposite gender and mess with people.

I’m getting why Weisz has so much trouble with girls.

At least Pino’s avatar looks like her.

When I saw Shiki’s chosen avatar, I found it hard not to laugh.

They get Shiki to settle on how he looked when he first met Rebecca and Happy, and they head out.

RPG World

They arrive at this town populated by the former NPC’s. Since they’re all sentient now, though, they are capable of properly expressing their thoughts and feelings. They are no longer restricted to saying the same dialogue over and over again.

That is a nightmare! The gang then splits up to look for Hermit, but all they can find is that she was spotted heading north. They decide to stay logged in overnight, but that might be a big mistake. Why? Because of this guy, that’s why.

His name’s Jamilov, and I think it’s safe to say that he’s going to be one of the sadistic things that Xiaomei warned us about. He’s also part of a group of MMO players that a lot of people don’t like: the kind who try to break the game and do whatever they want, regardless of the rules. Whoever he is, I can tell he is going to be bad news. I’m looking forward to seeing where this story goes, though!

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