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 43 Review/Recap

The manga was on break two weeks ago, so there was no new chapter for me to add. When we last left off, that loser Spider went crying to Drakken Joe about the crew of Edens Zero beat him up. That’s when we found Joe doing this:

So, yeah, let’s pick up where that left off.

Recap

So remember how Spider called Drakken Joe his “brother”? Joe has no idea who the heck he is, because Spider’s just a low-level cog in his operation. As for the man he’s torturing, he owes Joe 5 million Gree (money). But since he can’t pay up, he’s torturing the poor man. He doesn’t kill him, but he makes him work to pay off his debt with unspeakable jobs.

Joe cares, first and foremost, about money, and his big concern is the fact that with Guilst gone, most of his customers are too. And when he hears that Spider used his name when he fought the Edens Zero crew, he has his lieutenant, Seth, execute the man.

He shoots him so fast, we don’t even notice it. But now Joe sees money to be made off the Edens Zero.

Back on the ship, the Edens Zero’s almost at full strength. The only one of the Demon King’s four Star-Shines still missing is Homura’s master, Valkyrie.

As said before, though, Homura doesn’t know where she is. She had gone to Blue Garden to find some leads at the Guild, but then everything else happened. Hermit says that there’s a legendary fortune-teller who might be able to help them, though. It’s said that this person resides on Mildean, a planet said to be frozen in time.

Back at Blue Garden, the mysterious guild master of Shooting Starlight, Noah, gets a call from none other than Drakken Joe, asking about the Edens Zero.

Review

I had known for a while now that Shiki and Drakken Joe were going to cross paths, but I didn’t think that it would happen so soon. Now that Shiki’s in Joe’s line of sight, there’s no way that he’s going to get out of this fight.

What I liked most about this chapter, though, was the reveal that the Shooting Starlight guildmaster can’t be trusted. I thought it was suspicious that he managed to escape from fake-Sister’s men, but I was distracted by the fact that Rebecca got kidnapped.

Then there’s what Sister says: she got the mission that led to her imprisonment on Guilst from Noah himself. And the fact that of the B-Cubers kidnapped, Rebecca and Labilia were the only ones targeted. Did Noah sell them out to Guilst? It’s highly likely.

Regardless, the ship will need to be at full strength soon, because it may be headed into a full-scale war with the biggest criminal organization in the Sakura Cosmos. I can’t wait!

The plot behind this manga is doing great at connecting everything together, if you ask me. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I give “The Smell of Money” a 4/5

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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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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Eden’s Zero Chapter 37 Review/Recap

There’s an old saying: sometimes, you have to fight fire with fire. When people are going to play dirty and cheat, there may be no other recourse but to cheat back. And in this chapter of Eden’s Zero, the crew decides to beat Jamilov at his own game.

Recap

As Amira said at the end of the last chapter, she’s a government agent whose mission was to go after Drakken Joe. She had planned on doing it by getting into Jamilov’s good graces, but she made one mistake: she put innocent people in harm’s way.

Homura demonstrates how great she is with a sword, though, and proceeds to send Amira running with her tail between her legs. Actually, if Amira didn’t log out fast enough, Homura could have ended up killing her. Also, this is Amira’s real face:

Back in town, the crew’s processing Hermit’s suggestion of beating Jamilov by using cheats. Rebecca’s dead set against it.

Weisz, though, doesn’t mind stooping to that level.

Sadly, Weisz has no real knowledge about coding, something that Hermit points out. She also points out that the reason that Jamilov hasn’t been banned is because he has other players banned by using their accounts. And just when I thought this guy wouldn’t sink any lower.

Compared to Jamilov, though, Hermit’s a programming goddess.

She then proceeds to take away all of Jamilov’s cheats, and then, just for the heck of it, turns Shiki into a giant monster.

Holy cow, she’s good.

Review

This chapter did not do much in the way of revealing the plot, other than what Amira told Homura. The government is making an active attempt to apprehend Drakken Joe. While we only have Amira to use as a lens, it’s possible that the GIA is using morally dubious means to accomplishing that. I.E. letting innocent people be killed in order to get in the graces of Joe’s men.

The big takeaway for this chapter is that we get a glimpse of what Hermit’s capable of. She’s a programming goddess who can rewrite data at her leisure. I can see why she was part of Ziggy’s crew back in the day. If they can convince her to join, then the Eden’s Zero would be even stronger. One thing’s for sure: I am looking forward to the next chapter

I Give Chapter 37 a 4.5/5

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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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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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Eden’s Zero Chapter 24 Review/Recap

Picking up right where we left off, Witch confirms our worst fears about Chronophage: 

• There’s no way to stop it.
• There’s no way of telling how many years it will eat.
• Depending on how much time is set back, anyone who wasn’t on a planet at that point will cease to exist.

The people of Guilst only have 60 minutes to get off, or they’ll die or be trapped there forever.

Planetside, while Jinn does show off some new tricks, it looks as though Shiki has him outmatched. The fight is interrupted by the arrival of Sister and Ganoff, who tell him to kill Illega and take everything he owns. But Illega seems to have fled amidst the commotion.

So, Shiki decides to just fight all three of them at once, because, why not? He’s a Shonen protagonist.

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile, Rebecca got her clothes back, so that’s a start. She and the other B-Cubers are looking for a way out, but one of them goes missing (I wonder if that has anything to do with Illega’s flight?) Despite Pino saying it would be inefficient to do so, Rebecca goes back to look for the missing B-Cuber (Copa, they said her name was?) 

Back at Rogue Out’s Church, Weisz and Homura continue their stand-off, until they both hear a noise coming from the basement. They head down to find a woman trapped in what I assume are cables meant to drain one’s Ether. The chapter then ends with Homura stating that the woman is none other than one of the Four Shining Stars of the Demon King, Sister Ivry.

This is merely a theory I am working with right now, but it might have some plausibility. The Sister that we see trapped in the basement is, in fact, the real one. The one who is leading Rogue Out could be an impostor or a duplicate. This is just speculation, though. Only time will tell if anything comes of it. That is, if the Chronophage doesn’t kill them all.

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