EDENS ZERO is a big, loud, sometimes confusing space opera about a boy with gravity powers chasing a goddess across the stars. The 2021 anime adaptation, produced by J.C.Staff and airing on Nippon TV, RNB, RAB, TVI, YBC, and UMK TV Miyazaki, is based on Hiro Mashima’s manga. It ran for 50 episodes over one season, starting April 11, 2021, and ending October 1, 2023.
Trailer, via Netflix Anime.
Shiki Granbell’s Gravity Powers
The story follows Shiki Granbell, a human boy who lives among robots on the deserted theme park planet Granbell in the Sakura Cosmos. He can control gravity thanks to a superhuman power called Ether Gear, which he learned from his adoptive grandfather, the benevolent “Demon King” robot Ziggy.
Ten years after Ziggy’s death, spacefaring content creators Rebecca Bluegarden and Happy visit Granbell. When the dying robots force Shiki off the planet, he meets them and joins their quest to find Mother, the fabled goddess of the cosmos.
Rebecca Bluegarden and the Time Loop
Rebecca is a spacefarer who becomes Shiki’s friend. She discovers her own Ether Gear ability to reverse time and travel between parallel universes. That skill saves Shiki after he is killed by the crime lord Drakken Joe.
The Crew of Edens Zero
Shiki assembles a crew from Ziggy’s android companions, the Four Shining Stars, and others he meets along the way:
- Weisz Steiner, a criminal and technopath from an alternate history created by a time-eating Chronophage
- E.M. Pino, Ziggy’s memory-impaired EMP android
- Homura Kougetsu, a young swordswoman and pupil of the deceased Shining Star Valkyrie Yuna
Ziggy’s Revival and the Aoi Cosmos War
Before leaving the Sakura Cosmos, the crew encounters a revived, malevolent Ziggy. He wants machines to rule the universe by ensuring Mother’s death, which would trigger an extinction event for all human life.
Ziggy captains Edens One, an upgraded version of Edens Zero. He draws Shiki’s crew into a war with the neighboring Aoi Cosmos’s empire. There, he detonates the empire’s arsenal of 20,000 antimatter bombs to kill them.
Shiki leads his crew to escape. The Shining Star Witch Regret sacrifices herself.
The Good Stuff
The animation is bright and detailed, with action sequences that sell the scale of the space battles. The voice cast, led by Takuma Terashima as Shiki, Mikako Komatsu as Rebecca, Rie Kugimiya as Happy, Hiromichi Tezuka as Weisz Steiner, Shiori Izawa as E.M. Pino, Shiki Aoki as Homura Kougetsu, and Kiyono Yasuno as Witch, brings warmth to characters who could easily feel like cogs in the plot.
The humor works too. Rebecca’s comedic timing keeps the show from drowning in its own mythology.
Where It Falls Short
The pacing drags in the middle. Some arcs stretch past their welcome, and the sheer number of named villains and side characters can blur together. The show also leans heavily on recap episodes, which repeat dialogue and plot beats audiences have already seen.
The Numbers
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
| First episode | April 11, 2021 |
| Last episode | October 1, 2023 |
Final Word
EDENS ZERO is a solid adaptation of a beloved manga, with strong animation, a likable cast, and a genuine sense of wonder at the scale of its universe. It stumbles in the middle of its run with too much recap and too many moving parts. But the best episodes, especially the ones centered on Shiki and Rebecca’s friendship, land with real weight.
This is a show that rewards attention and patience. It asks viewers to keep up with a sprawling cast and a complex mythology, and it mostly delivers on the promise of its premise.
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