Edens Zero

Episode 7-8

Well that was honestly one of the longest prologues I've ever watched! I know I commented on the pacing of these episodes in my last review, but one thing I will give Edens Zero is its ability to introduce concepts and ideas in a way that doesn't necessarily feel forced or rushed. There's a lot that gets dumped on our young wide-eyed protagonist in these two episodes both regarding his past, his destiny, and how he still has a long way to go before he can compete with the dangers that this universe has to offer.

Turns out Shiki's robot Demon Lord grandfather (yes that is a thing I just said) is confirmed dead like the series had previously implied, but it seems like he went out of his way to make sure that Shiki had everything he would've needed to be an adventurer should the time come for him to leave the planet and set off on his own. It wasn't focused on much, but it does lean into what I think Hiro Mashima does best outside of these bigger fantastical concepts: putting the family aspect of his stories at the forefront. Even Pino feels right at home with the cast, and while we don't know the exact situation revolving around why she ended up in the situation that she did – which can be a bit frustrating story wise if you really sit down and think about it – emotionally things felt rather nice. Even though we didn't get to spend much time with his grandfather prior to this moment, it does feel like a genuine passing of the torch without making things feel too heavy. If anything, the whole situation is kind of downplayed when compared to the larger universe, right down to the fact that this impressive ship is given to Shiki… while large pirate fleets and government assault ships are fighting in the background. Our main party might have had another level-up moment, but they still have a long way to go.

There is some decent setup here regarding some of the next larger goals that need to be accomplished, such as Rebecca learning how to use Either Gear herself while also looking for the other robots that used to belong to the ship in order to get it back to full capacity. We know what the grand goal of our cast is, they acquired a better means of accomplishing that goal, and now they know what the next two steps they need to make are along this journey. But before we get into that, we have to save Rebecca again from a perverted, sleazy toad man because it wouldn't be a Hiro Mashima story unless that happened at least once, unfortunately. I really hope this doesn't become a habit – it doesn't feel like too long ago that we already had to deal with Rebecca being put in a powerless situation only for Shiki to come to the rescue – but let's wait and see exactly what that situation entails. Also cyborg ninjas…because why not!

Overall these two episodes felt like they had a good balance of setup, comedy and heartfelt pathos. Things were beginning to feel a bit tired and familiar in the wrong ways by the end of episode eight, but Mashima has already subverted my expectations prior to this episode so I'm still going to give them a little faith that it'll happen again. Watching the series in two-episode increments feels like I'm slowly getting more and more pieces to a puzzle. Sometimes I'm able to figure out what one part of that puzzle looks like just for the final picture to end up looking much bigger than I originally thought it was going to be, and that can be exciting. A bit more cautious than usual right now, but I'm looking forward to the next piece of this puzzle being solved.

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Edens Zero is currently streaming on Netflix.