First of all, I would like to say that…
EDEN’S ZERO IS NOT FAIRY TAIL!!!
*cough*
Thank you!
This year we are in for a treat, straight to Netflix comes Eden’s Zero! I am so excited!
Eden’s Zero is written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima who also created Rave Master and Fairy Tail (I am a massive fan of both). Eden’s Zero is a science fiction manga, based in a fictional universe inhabited by humans, aliens, and self-conscious robots. The story follows Shiki Granbell, Rebecca Bluegarden and Happy the Cat as they explore the vastness of space in search of Mother, the legendary goddess of the cosmos.
The trailer (see below) for Eden’s Zero is full of typical Shōnen material, however having read over 80 chapters of the manga, I know that it is not all about the fighting and laughs, although plenty of this does occur. Eden’s Zero is a very different piece of work to Fairy Tail. Yes, it is set in space but that’s not the only difference, Eden’s Zero is a lot darker from the very beginning. Throughout the series expect to be drawn into a cosmos where there are space pirates committing all kinds of horrendous crimes, slave labour occurs and characters die, yes, they die…which didn’t really happen in Fairy Tail. Even though this may sound depressing, Hiro Mashima has creatively found a way to tackle these issues and continues to carry forward the message that you should never give up.
The reason a lot of people are saying that Eden’s Zero is another version of Fairy Tail is because of the similarity in style and appearance between the characters (especially the main characters). Hiro Mashima as a creator has purposely kept the characters similar to Fairy Tail and even crossed over some directly, such as Plue (the dog/bug snowman character) and Happy the blue cat that infamously follows Natsu in Fairy Tail. It is not uncommon for Mashima to re-use a character’s style; he has been doing this ever since Rave Master. He uses Ellie’s (RM) clothes as an influence for Lucy (FT), Musica (RM) and Grey (FT) are almost identical, Sieghart (RM) and Jellal (FT) are the same except for a haircut, there is even a version in Eden’s Zero too called Justice! Another thing that Mashima includes in his work is the continuation of the male protagonists’ names. Each of the protagonists’ names has a Japanese translation related to the seasons; Rave Master featured Haru which means Spring; Fairy Tail had Natsu which means born in Summer and Eden’s Zero has Shiki which means four seasons. We are yet to see how anime fans will react to the characters looking alike but in my opinion, I think it’s great and I feel like Mashima, as an artist, is being true to himself.
I am really looking forward to watching the anime of Eden’s Zero as reading the manga has been awesome.
Eden’s Zero will be released on the 10th of April in Japan, however we might have to wait until the summer to see it aired on Netflix. This is due to the nature of English dubbing and the fact that dubbed versions of the series usually get released all in one go, after the final Japanese episode has aired.
Arigato Gozaimasu!
Lexémon
Published: 2021.04.09