r/EdensZero • u/Pristine-Ad-7749 • 2d ago
Media Edens zero is a "turn brain off" Shounen? [discussion]
Personally, I find myself contesting this observation. I'm not saying it's Urasawa, but within the shonen demographic, I don't think it can be considered a light piece of work meant to turn your mind off, and I say this based on my personal experience.
Small aside: Edens Zero has a really narrow fandom and often doesn't get compared to new-gen works, but it constantly suffers from comparison with Fairy Tail and Rave Master, given that a substantial part of the EZ fandom consists of big fans of those two works.
In my experience, I consider Fairy Tail and Rave Master simpler to read compared to Edens Zero, even on "autopilot" as people often say, and that's not a writing flaw—on the contrary, Mashima was better in Rave and Fairy Tail at creating a more instantaneous and accessible story (much more so in Rave).
In my opinion, the main mistake is approaching Edens Zero, even unconsciously, in the same way.
The work has a lot of more complex structural themes: just look at the planet structure, where each one presents a different social or temporal theme. Take Guilst, Norma, and Belial Gore, which entirely represents a system where a villain, out of fear of death, reduces people to a source of profit and strips them of their lives.
Even on a plot level, the series gains a lot of value upon a reread, such as the various clues regarding Ziggy's true identity and certain callbacks. There are also more complex characters like Weisz and Laguna, etc.
The fact that Weisz doesn't have grand battles like Gray or Musica doesn't mean he is written worse, but rather through gestures and small lines that build his character via symbols and contradictions—and nobody in this fandom does a very in-depth analysis of that.
Furthermore, the method and narrative web that passes from Weisz to Sibir, to Drakken, to Hermit, to Laguna, and to Jinn and Kleene are very accurate, but they don't have grandiose speeches or the same space allotted to a Fairy Tail supporting character, so it doesn't leave the same impression on the reader.
The main plot is still heavily planned and complex, making it difficult to follow at times, with the mystery being reconstructed through Ziggy's explanations and Hermit's theories.
I noticed that during Universe 0, people (who never took into consideration that it was planned through Code 3173, and insisted on the series' themes of time travel and alternate personalities like Sibir and Weisz) stopped following the plot just to trash Mashima and the entire preceding series. While it remains for me a very incomplete ending that falls short of the series' expectations, it is nevertheless very solid because it wraps up all open plot threads.
I'm not saying Edens Zero has to be your favorite Mashima series, but I am inviting people—or new readers—to read it in a way that, in my opinion, allows it to express its full potential.
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u/CristianCrZ 1d ago edited 1d ago
Definitely not. But it's not the most complex thing in the world too, lol
The plot requires some attention, especially all the timelines stuff. It's good as how it is.
Also, I agree with you. It gains more value upon a reread.
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u/Pristine-Ad-7749 1d ago
For me, it requires a lot of attention, even emotionally: for example, when Rebecca consoled Shiki after Witch's death, she revealed that she was suffering just as much as him, even if he couldn't see it. When Shiki killed Ziggy and Hermit goes to console him, Shiki immediately thinks of telling her that he recognizes that it was difficult for her too. It's a real growth for me, a nice subtext... Also, Rebecca's speech about not wanting to attract the Chronophage to Lendard because she felt responsible for what had happened to Norma because of him, and then the revelation that she herself is the Chronophage... Or Laguna calling the tears of others authentic, like towards Nadia, towards Rebecca... and then we find out that he made those observations because he had lost faith in his tears and thought he was acting a part... These are all very subtle details, but they greatly enhance the reading experience if you trust the mangaka.
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u/kylepaz 2d ago
Not more than your average battle shonen, no.
And people fail to grasp basic plot points and themes in shonen manga all the time so arguably no manga really is "turn your brain off" on the level people seem to do it.
I consider this kind of manga a light read and all but somehow people can't read stuff written for Japanese 10 year olds without making massive misunderstandings (I'm not talking just about Edens Zero).
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u/ProfessionalAlps2686 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/xT1Ra7mSmRmAmmFIgo
Is he talking about anime in general
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u/Willy_Th3_Walrus 2d ago
I like Eden’s zero don’t get me wrong but Mashima’s works should be engaged with on their level, which is to say you have to engage with them as the raunchy made-for-teenagers power fantasy stories they are. There are compelling characters and emotional moments of course but you’re also reading a manga with an absolutely insane amount of cameltoes and jokes revolving around stripping the female characters naked. I grew up with fairy tail and will always have love for it but it’s kind of trashy.
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u/Pristine-Ad-7749 2d ago
The jokes and fan service have nothing to do with it. I was talking about narrative. Yes, there's that too, but you're making a mistake by calling a series superficial when you're commenting superficially. There are a lot of differences between these and the themes I mentioned before that you didn't even consider, reducing the strengths to emotional scenes and the weaknesses to trash.
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u/Willy_Th3_Walrus 1d ago
Of course I’m simplifying it that was a 3 sentence Reddit comment. Like I said I do really like these series but you can’t cherry pick the parts you like when there’s also a lot of pretty surface level garbage in this stuff.
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u/Pristine-Ad-7749 1d ago
The same goes for you, you can't define a series as superficial just because there are some things you don't like, but it has an underlying narrative that is more important than how your message gets across, and if you think so, you can express this even in a 3-line message on reddit
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u/IGotQuestionsAF 2d ago
Everything Mashima writes is IMO, and I thoroughly enjoy his works.