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Edens Zero Chapter 153 Review/Recap

Last week might be one of my least favorite chapters of Edens Zero to date. Rebecca found herself fighting Lyra of the Ocean’s Six in a twisted game of cards. When they lost a round, they’d lose some of their clothes. If they lost them all, they’d lose a part of their body! Rebecca should’ve gotten the upper hand with her time powers, but Lyra, somehow, still got the upper hand. I strongly suspected that Lyra cheated to win the game, and as it turns out, I was right! 

Cue the smug Juvia Gif.

Recap

Rebecca remains at a loss as to how Lyra could still win despite her own powers. Then, the realization hits her: Lyra is cheating to win. Forced into a corner, Rebecca ultimately loses the next round, and her leotard. However, before Lyra can take her legs, Rebecca uses Reverse one last time. After briefly collapsing and making a scene, Rebecca openly accuses Lyra of cheating. And she’s right: Lyra’s Ether Gear lets her change the numbers on the cards. Thus, she always wins.

However, this time, Rebecca outsmarts her. When Rebecca collapsed, she hid the highest numbered card in her cleavage, tore up one card to look like two, and tricked Lyra into revealing herself. As a result, everyone knows that Lyra’s rigged the game to win.

Now enraged, Lyra drops all pretenses and just tries to kill Rebecca then and there. Fortunately, Shiki and Callum’s fight interrupts the attempted killing, and Shiki takes Rebecca to save Witch. When the two Oceans try to stop them, Jinn and Kleene show up and keep them at bay. Rebecca and Shiki are free to get back to the rescue mission and stop Shura with both Ocean’s now occupied.

Review

Either I’m good at figuring out what will happen next, or Hiro Mashima’s starting to become predictable with his manga. Because, as I said before, I was not surprised by the revelation in this chapter. Even before we learned how she did it, it was obvious that Lyra was rigging the game. Her calm attitude to her losses made it all too apparent. And while I’m well aware that Rebecca’s no better by cheating herself, I’d justify her use of Reverse, considering the circumstances. It was clever of her to sacrifice her last Reverse to expose Lyra, but if the latter figured out her Ether Gear, she could’ve turned the situation back around on her.

As for the warning about Rebecca potentially losing her legs in the future, I don’t think that Rebecca’s escape averted the worst future. Now, I fear that the fight with Shura will end up costing her her legs instead. Rebecca and Shiki will need to be extra careful around Shura to keep that from happening.

Despite focusing on the same card game as before, I think this chapter improved the last one. Firstly, we got to see how cunning Rebecca can be, and since this was live-streamed, that could boost her popularity in the long run. Secondly, it ended that dumb card game. Lastly, we’re going to see the Wind Siblings fight next episode. I hope they tear off Lyra’s clothes and humiliate her like she’s done to so many girls.

I Give “The False Five” A 3.5/5

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Edens Zero Chapter 152 Review/Recap

One of the first anime that I ever watched growing up was Yu-Gi-Oh!; and yes, it was the 4Kids dub. While time has made me realize just how much 4Kids censored, I still look back on it fondly. And considering how Edens Zero currently has Rebecca dealing with her own twisted card game, I’m glad that I watched Yu-Gi-Oh! It helped to teach me when people cheat at card games, and Rebecca’s being cheated!

Recap

As Homura’s stunned to have run into Creed, both quickly reveal their intentions to stop the All-Link. Given their mutual enemy, Creed suggests that they work together to stop the All-Link and take down Shura. However, Homura rightfully calls him out on what he did the last time they met, saying that she refuses to trust him. In response, Creed blurts this out:

Meanwhile, Happy, Pino, and Moscoy have snapped out of their hypnosis, but are now left all alone. However, when Moscoy tries watching some cartoons, they discover the livestream of Rebecca’s card game against Lyra, much to their horror.

In the arena, Lyra explains the rules, and thus the card game of lost card begins. Despite managing to get in some wins of her own, Rebecca continues to find herself on the losing end, until all that’s left is her leotard. Desperate, Rebecca uses Reverse to turn back time. However, to her utter horror, she discovers that she still managed to lose, despite knowing where each card would be. Lyra then boasts to her that she’s only lost this game once before to Emperor Nero.

Review

I know that it may be too soon to draw such conclusions, but I carefully observed Lyra’s behavior during the card game. Based on how uncaring she was about losing her clothes, I could come to only one conclusion: Lyra’s cheating somehow.

At the end of the chapter, Lyra boasted how she’s played Lost Card a hundred times, and only lost to Emperor Nero. That’s some pretty good odds for a card game that’s supposed to lack strategy. My guess is that she’s either rigged it so that she’ll inevitably win, and Nero just managed to beat her anyway. However, I’m willing to bet that it has more to do with her Ether Gear letting her counteract Rebecca’s. If Rebecca wants to win, then she’s going have to find a way to outsmart Lyra.

As a whole, I wasn’t that big of a fan of this chapter. There wasn’t that much going on beyond Rebecca starting to lose a potentially rigged card game. Now we have to wait a whole week to learn how she gets out of this. Maybe more due to the Olympics.

I Give “Lost Card” a 2/5

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Edens Zero Chapter 151 Review/Recap

Okay, I know that Hiro Mashima seems determined to make Edens Zero darker and edgier than his previous works. But now it seems like he’s just determined to put the heroes through the ringer as many times as possible. First, Rebecca jumped to the future to learn she’s in a coma and lost her legs. Then, she wakes up to find that Lyra of the Ocean’s 6 has her dressed like a bunny girl and forced to play a card game in front of a live audience. And now, we find out just how bad things will get for her if she loses. And they are bad! This is the most messed up game of strip poker I’ve ever heard of.

Granted, I’ve never seen strip poker before.

Recap

After getting the cybernetics beaten out of him by Weisz, Nasseh runs for the hills. However, Weisz can’t go after him due to Overdrive using up too much Ether. As a result, the Ocean’s 6 member gets away.

Back with Rebecca, she learns just what Lyra’s forcing her to go through in this card game, lost card. Whenever one of them loses, they lose part of their clothing. And to make sure that Rebecca cooperates with her sick strip poker game, Lyra put a bomb around her neck. And then, just to make the stakes even higher, once the loser’s out of clothes, they’ll lose a part of their body.

Just then, Shiki crashes the party, but since Rebecca’s being held hostage, she has no choice but to agree to play. As for Shiki, he’s confronted by another member of the Ocean’s 6, Callum, forcing the two into battle.

As all of this is going on, Homura managed to escape the mirror world in search of her friends. However, she instead runs into Creed from Oracion Seis Interstelar, much to her surprise.

Review

Like I said, this is the most sadistic game of strip poker I’ve ever seen. Firstly, it robs the loser of their dignity, and then it maims them for life. And given how Rebecca just had that vision of the worst possible future, she’s rightfully terrified. If she doesn’t win, Lyra may take her legs from her.

Or so it seems. This could end up being a bait-and-switch on Mashima’s part. He wants us to think that this is the moment where Rebecca could lose her legs, only for the real moment happen down the line. Either way, Rebecca’s going to have to use every trick in her book to win against Lyra. The silver lining to it is that if she wins, her channel will get a huge boost in popularity.

Besides explaining how Rebecca’s part of a sadistic game of strip poker, this chapter didn’t add much in the way of development. Weisz may be out of the fight for a while, and Creed may or may not help Homura because he’s got a crush on her. However, not that much stood out. How could it, considering the stakes Rebecca’s facing. I don’t think Elie or Lucy ever dealt with the stuff she’s gone through!

I Give “Handprints” a 3/5

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