EDENS ZERO

Edens Zero finally came out on Netflix and I decided to check it out and well. I wish this would’ve stayed in Netflix jail cause this ain't it. Right away you can tell the many flaws with this anime starting with the friendship bullshit FairyTail had, which manages to find its way into Edens Zero. I've seen like a million people complain about the character design so I'm not gonna bother doing that. What I will talk about is J.C Staff's bad animation, the very generic characters, plot, and the unoriginal worldbuilding.

The story in Eden Zero starts with Rebecca and Happy visiting a small town filled with robots and there they meet a boy named Shiki. Shiki doesn't know his real parents and he also happens to be the only human living in this place filled with robots. Shiki has been living with these robots since he was a little kid, these robots are pretty much his family, or so he thought. On the day Rebecca and Happy arrived the robots turn evil and kidnap Rebecca when Shiki asks “why did you guys kidnap Rebecca” they respond with "we hate humans" that's when Shiki feeling betrayed and hurt decided to save Rebecca and after saving her, Rebecca, Shiki, and Happy team up to go on a journey to find a goddess named Mother. But before they go on a journey to find Mother they must assemble a crew for their spaceship.

That is pretty much the main objective of season 1. Shiki, Rebecca, and Happy go on a journey to find people for their crew so they can go find a goddess named Mother, a person no one has ever seen. I mean, I wasn't entertained by the story it wasn't very interesting and throughout the anime, there were many many moments with unnecessary comedy and fan service, and honestly, if you want to see an anime about people going on a journey to find something that no one has ever found, than I'd recommend One piece.

If there's one thing I know aboutJ.C Staff it's how inconsistent their animation is, one moment they can make good/decent looking animes like Railgun S, Bakuman, and Danmachi, and then other times they can fuck up animes like One Punch Man season 2, and The Way Of The House Husband. Eden Zero does not look like an anime that came out in 2021, this shit looks worse than animes that came out in the early 2000s. The action scenes in this anime are awful, some scenes are filled with excessive amount of action lines. There are quite a few moments in the anime where people are shooting guns and there are bullets flying all over the screen but isn't hitting anything or anyone. Kinda reminds me of this badly animated anime that came out in 2006 called MUSASHI -GANDOU-. The bad animation is most likely because of the low budget but I also think J.C Staff's lack of effort plays a part in it as well.

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So for whatever reason Mashima loves creating characters who are obsessed with friendships. For the first 3 episodes of this anime it was nothing but "friend, friend, friend, and more friend" Shiki wouldn't shut the fuck up about friends, it was like the equivalent to Naruto saying he wants to be Hokage and Asta saying he wants to be wizard king. They just have to remind us every minute for some fucking reason. Also some stuff they say in this anime is pretty cringe, there was a scene where a random guy says don't touch the cat (by the cat he is referring to happy) and Rebecca responds with "he isn't a cat he is my friend". LMAO just cause he's your friend doesn't mean he's not a cat. Anyways back to Shiki, Shiki is a very mediocre main character, just like every generic shounen main character Shiki is related to a Demon ✓ Shiki is overpowered ✓ Shiki will do anything for his friends ✓, Shiki is loud and dumb ✓.

Rebecca isn't a very interesting character either, majority of the time I feel like she's only in the anime for fan service. Her partner Happy the cat is literally a copy and pasted version of Happy from Fairytail, there are a few details that make Eden Zero's Happy different from FairyTail's Happy, but it's not enough to make them feel like 2 completely different characters.

There are other characters the main trio meets along their journey like Hermit for example. Just like the other characters in Edens Zero, Hermit lacks creativity and is uninteresting, in fact, she's probably one of the dullest characters I have seen in this anime. Hermit is an android and she hates humans because she was abused by humans, because of this she realized humans are evil and she can no longer trust them. I mean this is one of the most stereotypical "Robot hates humans because humans are evil and mistreated robots" stories ever.

The world-building in Edens Zero is the only thing that really stood out to me, not because it was good, but because Mashima was just giving his own take on what has already been done before. For example, there is a world In Edens Zero called Digitalis, Digitalis is pretty much Sword Art Online. Shiki and the crew are in an MMORPG-like game world where if THEY DIE IN THE GAME THEY DIE IN REAL LIFE, or you can look at this Digitalis world as similar to Greed Island from Hunter x Hunter. If you are wondering what Greed Island is well, It's just another game world where IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE IN REAL LIFE. Also, some aspect of Edens Zero's world is similar to One Piece, like in Edens Zero crossing the border to leave Sakura Cosmos can be difficult because there are dangerous dragons that can get in your way. In One Piece, crossing the calm belt in order to make it to the grand line can be very difficult because there are massive deadly sea creatures along the way. I'm not saying Mashima copied One Piece all I'm saying is Mashima was probably Inspired by One piece, the story is similar, the main character's objective is similar and the world-building shares some similarities as well. Like I said earlier a lot of the things in Edens Zero are derivative and bland.

As a result of all these things, I didn't really enjoy this anime at all. Every arc has a fight scene that is badly animated, the main story for Edens Zero feels like a monotonous version of One Piece, the characters are dull and lacking in unique personality, and the world-building is unoriginal. Overall I thought this was a step down from Mashima's previous work, FairyTail.