RJ Writing Ink

When we last left off in Edens Zero, the gang met with the all-knowing, fourth wall breaking fortuneteller Xiaomei to find Homura’s mentor, Valkyrie. Xiaomei’s happy to tell them where she is, but first they have to fight through her champions.

She has a fighting fetish. Shiki makes short work of the first guy, but now the rest of the crew has to step up.

Recap

After Xiaomei gets down from her high, she tells the heroes that they have three more people to fight. To make things fair, she’s making each of them fight, one on one, anything goes aside from killing.

First up is everybody’s favorite blonde B-Cuber, Rebecca, and her best friend Happy! Against the Space SBA champ and B-Cuber Flanker Yotch!

It’s a gunslinging showdown as Yotch uses special bullets that spew… clothes eating slime?

Big mistake on his part, because Rebecca beats the snot out of him.

Next up is Weisz against Highway Yana, who reminds me a little of Dyspo from Dragon Ball Super. Weisz uses Pino’s EMP to shut down his speed, then curb stomps the poor guy. Another one bites the dust.

Yet Xiaomei gets even more excited, because she knows what’s coming in the final round. For the Edens Zero, Homura steps up to fight. To her shock, though, she sees her opponent is a duplicate of her teacher, Valkyrie of the Demon King’s Starshines!

Review

I would have preferred it if Mashima had decided to draw out this tournament thing over a few chapters so that we could see the heroes really cut loose. It feels like he’s rushing things at this point. That said, I found Rebecca and Weisz’s fights, while short, to be a good way to show off their skills. We also learned to never make Rebecca mad, because she will beat you senseless.

The one thing I am curious about is how Xiaomei created a replica of Valkyrie in the first place. I know that she’s up to something, but I can’t figure out what.

This chapter was short, but it seems the point was to get the fodder out of the way for the big guns. Next chapter will see Homura stack up against a copy of her mentor, and that makes for some good character development and backstory. I’m look forward to it!

I Give “Valkyrie’s Footsteps” a 2.5/5. Could have been better, could have been worse.

Also, we need to address how much fanservice Mashima’s putting into his work now. The slime thing was crossing into ecchi territory.

Edens Zero Chapter 45 Review/Recap

In the last chapter of Edens Zero, the crew of the Edens Zero traveled to the the planet of Milidan to seek out a fortune teller to learn the whereabouts of Valkyrie. Then we discovered that the fortune teller was actually Xiaomei. This is gonna get weird.

Recap

Xiaomei confirms that she is the fortune teller that they are seeking, and that (since she’s the narrator), she knows who they all are. On a side note, she reveals why her planet is considered frozen in time. It’s actually the other way around: the moment they set foot on her planet, time everywhere else stopped. They can spend years there, but when they leave, they’ll go right back to when they came.

It’s like if the Hyberbolic Time Chamber but powered by DIO’s Stand, The World. Don’t think too hard about it.

At any rate, she’s happy to tell the gang what they need to know, but she doesn’t want money or information. What she wants is… entertainment.

She wants them to fight against her champions in gladitorial combat. Why? Because she can’t see the exact future, just the potential futures, like that which can occur because of battles. And as it turns out, she has a fetish for battles. A big fetish.

Shiki’s the first to step up to fight, his opponent being an armored Zorg Warrior named Metal Bogey.

It lasted less than a second. And Xiaomei was very turned on by that. But that was just round one! The rest has yet to come!

Recap

Well, none of this turned out the way I thought it would. I could have guessed that this was going to lead to a tournament style event, as that’s common in Shonen manga. What I didn’t expect was the truth about Mildian. Or that the normally stoic and calm Xiaomei would end up looking like this!

After she’s finished drooling over Shiki (or the fight), she thought to herself about his relation to Mother. Shiki did say that he felt like he met Mother before, and Mother seems to know who he is. There’s so much about Shiki’s past that we know nothing of, and finding the truth is the big mystery behind the manga. Whatever Xiaomei seems to know, though, she’s not saying.

So, I can’t help but wonder what’s gonna happen next chapter. Odds are, each of the crew is going to get their turn in the spotlight and fight someone. I mean, that’s what normally happens.

This chapter got weird fast, but I think I liked that about it. I wasn’t expecting the change in character from Xiaomei, but this is kind of what Hiro Mashima does in his stories. Even the most stoic character has their moment of silliness.

I Give “Mildian Battle Colosseum” A 4/5

Edens Zero Chapter 44 Review/Recap

You know, I have seen Hiro Mashima do a lot of unexpected things before, but this may be one of the better surprises that he’s done. As we transition out of the Digitalis Arc, we make a surprise discovery about a character!

Recap

We open up with Xiaomei, the fourth-wall breaking narrator of the story, as she asks for our opinion on the Digitalis Arc. Personally, I thought it was sadistic, but I have seen worse on Game of Thrones. She reminds us of where the Edens Zero is headed, but then has to go, because she has guests.

Cut back to the ship and the clothes factory, Weisz is having Homura own up to the deal they made in the Guilst Arc. Which was… to have her dress up in a sexy outfit of her choosing.

Yeah, Weisz is Sanji 2.0, only not as cool and even less likely to get a girlfriend. Cue the fanservice that Mashima seems to love.

In no time at all, the clothes factory manages to give Homura the perfect Bunny Girl outfit. Pretty soon, the entire crew is joining in on the fun and cosplaying.

Even Witch and Sister decide to get in on the fun.

So cool. By the time they’re done messing around, they’re already at Mildian, where they go to meet the legendary fortune teller. Once they get inside her home, though, they’re in a familiar space setting, where a familiar figure appears to speak to them. Familiar to us, because the fortuneteller is Xiaomei!

Review

This chapter was short and brief, as chapters that transition between arcs often are. Once we saw who Xiamei really is, though, I was surprised! I did not see this coming. Of course, this does explain how she’s able to know everything has happened or will happen. She can look through time to see everything at her leisure. Just how she can break the fourth wall, though, is beyond me.

I would end this with some prediction, but to be honest, I have no idea where the story will be going from here. All I know is that things are going to get weird.

I Give “The Temple of Knowledge” a 3/5

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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Eden’s Zero Chapter 32 Review/Recap

The following chapter contains disturbing images of people being tortured inside the confines of a virtual world. Viewer discretion is advised.

…………. holy cow, Xiaomei wasn’t kidding about this story being sadistic.

Recap

Picking up the morning after the last chapter, Rebecca has learned a valuable lesson: never let the other crewmembers sleep in the same room.

In Mashima’s last series, Fairy Tail, there was a running gag involving the main heroine, Lucy. Her guildmates would continually show up at her apartment uninvited, something that drove her nuts. I got the same, comedic vibe from this scene. Remember, though: breaking into a friend’s house is a serious crime. Mashima’s only did it for Lucy’s hilarious reactions.

Now, *gulp*, picking up in the real world, Sister informs Witch that there’s an abnormal data stream running through the Edens Zero. They’ve been hacked.

It drives the point home that Hermit is needed to provide digital security for the ship.

Back in Digitalis, the gang continues admiring how lifelike the digital world is, to the point where it can replicate the five senses. If we have VRMMO’s in the future like SAO and Ready Player One speculate, I really hope they meet our expectations. But then Shiki had to wish for something to fight!

That’s when a giant monster shows up.

It’s not actually an evil monster, it’s an event boss for a quest in a nearby cave, but that doesn’t make it evil by default. It’s not there to fight, though: it ‘s running away from a psychotic player who just leveled the nearby town of Krysta. Yet despite breaking the rules, said player’s not banned.

Since the boss monster says that Hermit was spotted outside of Krysta, that’s where Shiki and the others are headed. Knowing Shiki, he’d head to Krysta anyway just to beat up this player.

Jamiroff the Monster

When they get there, though…. just see for yourself.

I’m lucky that this is taking place inside a digital world. If it was in reality, the blood and gore would be too much for a shonen manga.

As I predicted, the man we saw at the end of the last chapter is Jamiroff, a man who lives to kill other people. If what he did to the NPC’s wasn’t bad enough, look at what he did to a group of players.

Dude, that is messed up. This Jamiroff is Joker level sadistic: doing these horrible things just because he can. That, and he gives this flimsy excuse:

That’s the name of the man that was released when the Chronophage turned back the clock on Guilst. I had hoped that we would wait a little longer to get involved with this “Drakken Joe”, but it would seem that that’s not happening. As for Shiki, he’s not letting Jamiroff get away with his atrocities.

Elsewhere, we finally get a glimpse at Hermit’s digital form. Mirroring the way that the crew of the Eden’s Zero found her body, she’s just sitting on a hill, looking depressed and declaring that human beings have no souls.

Review

I don’t know what is going on, but if I had to guess, then I would say that sometime between Ziggy and the original crew of Eden’s Zero splitting up, she went through or saw some traumatic event that led her to abandon all faith in humanity. Having read a lot of history books in the past and seen plenty of stories, I can attest that mankind is capable of great good or great evil. Hermit seems to have seen too much of humanity’s dark side, though, leaving her like this.

I wonder, does her current state have anything to do with Jamioff and his actions? I know it can’t be a coincidence that he shows up right when Hermit turns out like this. Hopefully, the next chapter will shed some light on this subject for us, and sees Shiki kick Jamiroff’s butt

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Eden’s Zero Chapter 30 Review/Recap

Good news is, that little girl the crew of Eden’s Zero saw at that monument is Hermit.

The bad news is…

Wait a second, why does this seem really familiar? Like a certain popular video game series that I like?

So, Hermit is in a coma, and won’t wake up until they heal her heart and mind. And Shiki proposes an idea so crazy that it just might work.

Yep. He wants to go insider and fix her somehow. But Witch thinks he’s on to something and says that there is one place her heart may be.

A virtual reality, huh? According to Rebecca, it was this popular MMORPG called Rogue Fantasia. Somehow, the NPC’s gained sentience and developed their own society in the digital world. But it’s still capable of being accessed from the outside. So all they have to do is dive into the game and fin- wait a second. Something about this seems really familiar. Ahh, it doesn’t matter. Clothes change!

So they put on full body suits to go inside the planet and find Hermit.

Shiki messes with the Avatar controls…

And Rebecca and Happy end up inside Digitalis, and then they meet this guy.

Hiro Mashima is really laying it on thick with the references to Rave and Fairy Tail this chapter, huh. Also, the Virtual World gained sentience feels a lot like Sword Art Online: Alicization. Well, it’s not like the VR World concept is new, so it could be a coincidence.

If they are going to be going in this direction for the time being, I think it’s pretty creative of them to do so. Looking forward to seeing what goes on next chapter.

That said, I don’t think Mashima should be so heavy on the references to his past works. Use them too much and it will feel like he’s just rehashing everything. He needs to try and make Edens Zero it’s own thing that can stand apart from his past work. Only time will tell, I suppose.

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Edens Zero Chapter 28 Review/Recap

Don’t you just love it when a theory about a work of fiction you like turns out to be right? You get that smug feeling of satisfaction, that look on your face that says “called it.”

At any rate, let’s get on with the next chapter of Edens Zero.

Recap

In the aftermath of the Guilst Arc, it’s confirmed by Witch and others that 1,200 years were taken off of Guilst. As for the number of people who escaped: a whopping 10%. Wow. That’s horrible. As long as Jinn, the B-Cubers, and Ilega’s girls escaped, then I’m happy. As for Ilega and fake Sister, I guess we’ll wait and see.

Speaking of Ilega, Rebecca went through a pretty harrowing experience. She was kidnapped, tortured, stripped naked, and threatened to be turned into a “toy” by Ilega. Not to mention narrowly escaping the planet before the Chronophage came..

Now that she’s finally safe, all that fear that Rebecca had been keeping bottled up to survive comes out. I would be more concerned if she didn’t deal with her experiences like that; that’s not healthy. At the same time, I’m impressed that she was able to hold it together for so long. She has an extraordinary will.

So, the crew convenes in the conference room (yes, they have one), and talks future plans. It’s there that we finally confirm what I already knew:

Welcome Aboard

Just as I thought, Homura’s master was one of the Four Shining Stars of the Eden’s Zero. Her sword is the one Valkyrie is using. Aside from looking for her, she also wants to fight the person Valkyrie couldn’t beat, the Demon King. Since Ziggy’s offline, Shiki will do. Shiki promises to fight her one day as they promised.

So it looks like Homura is going to stick with the crew now, along with Weisz. Weisz may act like a scoundrel (and a slight pervert), but you can’t deny that he’s a good person. He’s like a young Han Solo.

Also, that robot-thing has joined them. It was a part of Rogue Out, but it was actually Sister’s servant. Fake Sister forced it to serve her while the real one was imprisoned. Guess he’s a part of the crew now, as well. I can’t remember what he does, but Sister Ivry says he’s in charge of doing all the chores. Well, the more the merrier!

Also, that robot-thing has joined them. It was a part of Rogue Out, but it was actually Sister’s servant. Fake Sister forced it to serve her while the real one was imprisoned. Guess he’s a part of the crew now, as well. I can’t remember what he does, but Sister Ivry says he’s in charge of doing all the chores. Well, the more the merrier!

New Friends

I feel sorry for Weisz, though. If Sister Ivry ever finds out he shot him full of holes on Guilst, she’s going to kill him. That said, I like Sister more and more. She can go from sassy one minute to caring and nurturing the next like she is with Mosco.

There seems to be a much bigger problem brewing, however. In another location, it’s revealed that due to the Chronophage attacking Guilst, it released an evil from the past. We don’t know much about him, other than that he was the one who turned Guilst into the lawless dystopia we saw it as. He’s a member of the Oracion Seis Galatica, and he’s called:

Review

I don’t know what Oracion Seis Galactica is, but given how Mashima has used that as the name for a group of villains in Rave and Fairy Tail, it can’t be good. It seems that Shiki and the others may have a powerful new enemy to face in the future. Where it goes from here, though, is anybody’s guess.

I’m just happy that the Guilst Arc is over. It was exciting, but I couldn’t handle having to deal with seeing bad things happen to the gang. I know that’s a given, but having to wait a week to find out if characters you like are all right is torture. Next week, we’ll be moving on to the next arc in Eden’s Zero. I hope Mashima keeps improving his work. This is good stuff!

Thanks for reading, guys! Jay out!

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Eden’s Zero Chapter 27 Review/Recap

Well, that wrapped up faster than I thought it would! It seems that the Guilst Arc of Eden’s Zero is, for the most part, over. There will be a follow-up chapter or two that wraps everything up as we transition to the next arc, but the climax has come and gone. It’s established in the last chapter that there were only ten minutes left before the Chronophage attacked Guilst. It’s every man for themselves on the planet.

Pretty accurate representation of an apocalypse.

Of course, Rebecca and Pino wait for Shiki and the others. I admire the fact that they don’t panic. But then the giant tree goes berserk because “the planet’s Ether is counterflowing”, as Pino puts it. Global destruction logic.

The trees block Eden’s Zero from getting any closer, but Weisz and Homura make short work of them. Weisz can make flamethrowers out of guns now, but the big thing I took away is Sister’s reaction to Homura’s sword. She was as shocked as Witch was, which means she’s familiar with Homura’s powers. That makes my theory of Homura being connected to one of the Fours Shining Stars even more plausible.

After the two powerhouses cut an opening, Shiki demonstrates his creativity. He uses his Gravity Ether Gear to propel them to the ship, and then they punch it as the Chronophage shows up.

We then witness what happens to a planet a Chronophage attacks.

The creature swallows the planet and then passes through it, taking some of its time with it. In this case, Guilst’s back 1200 years into the past, before anyone lived on it.

Review

Guilst must have been a fun place to visit in Weisz’s youth if his stories are anything to go by, but it had turned into a den of greed and vice. Seeing it return to this state is the best outcome.

So, the Eden’s Zero crew made it off. The B-Cubers and the girls Illega had imprisoned made it off the planet. That leaves Illega and the members of Rogue Out. , I couldn’t care less if Illega died from the Chronophage, but I’d like to see more of Rogue Out. Jinn, at least, seems like he could become a recurring enemy. As for the Fake Sister, she is either alive or dead.

This was a short chapter, but that’s a good thing. It wrapped up the Guilst Arc and without any extra hassle. In the next few chapters, I want to learn how Sister Ivry got captured and what that imposter wanted her for. As for Rebecca, something tells me she’s going to find herself with several thousand more subscribers soon.

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Edens Zero Chapter 26 Review/Recap

At last! I have been waiting patiently for two weeks to see the new chapter of Edens Zero and it did not fail to disappoint. Picking up where we left off the last chapter, it is confirmed that the one in the basement is the real Sister, Sister Ivry. She came to Guilst ten years ago for a mission, but she got captured. Then that imposter started using her powers for evil.

Fake Sister tries to say that she never meant to keep her powers and just “wanted to heal her friends”, and that she worships Sister. Yeah, not buying it, and neither is Sister Ivry.

Man, she is sassy. I like her!

So she decides to throw in with Shiki as the new Demon King, but first she decides to complete her mission. Which, apparently involves stripping off her Nun’s habit. Mashima got that from Gray, didn’t he?

Well, whatever she did, it seems to have freed all the girls that Illega trapped in stone. That beats me solution of finding that stone ray-gun and hitting the reverse switch.

Shiki and the crew leave Jinn and Rogue Out behind, and Jinn does not take being lied to well. I think he crushes her head. That is dark! I just wanted to leave her to the Chronophage.

Speaking of the Chronophage, there’s only ten minutes left before it arrives on Guilst, and most people are scrambling to get to ships and leave. Lucky for the B-Cubers and the freed girls, Illega’s tower has plenty of ships. They’re going to use them to escape, but Rebecca decides to stay behind and escape with Shiki and the other.

Clock is Ticking

Ten minutes is not a lot of time before the Chronophage arrives, but I know the crew of the Edens Zero will be fine. They have plot armor! I just want to see if any of the bad guys will get stuck behind. Especially Illega.

I won’t forgive Illega for what he did to those girls, or what he implied he was going to do to Rebecca.

What did you guys think of the chapter and of the real Sister Ivry? I personally like her. I don’t know why, but she seems to remind me of someone I have seen before. I’m not referring to Grey and his stripping habit, though (Character from Fairy Tail, powerful wizard but has bad habit of walking around shirtless or in his underwear).

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Eden’s Zero Chapter 23 Review/Recap

Now that I’ve finished recapping what’s happened so far, I can finally move forward with the rest of Eden’s Zero, Guilst Arc. This is Chapter 23: Million Bullets

Picking up right where the last chapter left off, Illega has been knocked completely unconscious by Shiki. Rebecca is overjoyed to see him and Pino again so soon, but Shiki doesn’t seem to pay attention to her. His focus is entirely on Illega and how he kidnapped his friend and hurt Happy.

Shiki just keeps beating that fat frog even though he’s already out cold. After seeing all the people he’s hurt, I was dying to see this happen. But it was still disturbing to see Shiki in a blood rage. I think Shiki may actually have a dark side to him, if this is any indication of it. If Pino didn’t use her EMP to shut off his ether gear, who knows how far he would have gone.

Regardless, Shiki and Rebecca are reunited. And then Shiki ruins it by just staring at her. I knew this was going to happen, but I just stopped caring.

 As luck would have it, the other B-Cubers were set free by Pino’s EMP, and they found some clothes to replace the ones that bubble stuff destroyed.

Something tells me that when they all get home, Rebecca’s subscriber count is going to go up a couple tens of thousands. Now they need to get off of Guilst

Rematch Awaits

At that moment, though, Jinn shows up again to finish what he and Shiki started. I knew that this was going to happen sooner or later, though, so I’m not surprised. I’m looking forward to their rematch. Meanwhile, the B-Cubers are going to find a ship to escape in.

Back at the Church, Homura has just finished wrecking Sister’s army, but then Weisz turns his gun on her because he still doesn’t trust her entirely. She says she wants to fight Shiki, but I have a feeling that she’s hiding something, just like Weisz. Then Weisz, just to prove that he can take Homura, shows off his Machina Maker, by showing the guns he installed in the floor.

Back on the Eden’s Zero, Happy finally wakes up to hear that Rebecca’s gonna be all right, but then all these alarms go off: 

So now, a giant time monster is headed to Guilst to eat the planet’s time. If that happens, everyone will be either a.) be stuck there forever or b.) cease to exist because they become unborn. I was hoping to see Shiki free all the girls that Illega had kidnapped over the years, but that might no longer be an option. The clock’s ticking for everyone to escape Guilst. I hope Illega gets stuck behind…

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