Manga: Eden's Zero 7

Eden's Zero Vol 7 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

A young boy gazes up at the sky and sees a streaming bolt of light. The friendly, armour-clad being at his side tells him gently, 'That's a dragon.' The fact that he's joking isn't important. What's important is the look of wonder on the boy's face... and the galaxy-spanning adventure that's about to take place! 

Volume 7 finds the crew in search of Valkyrie, however they soon stumble across a seemingly peaceful planet that's under the tyrannical reign of Madame Kurenai. Shiki and Homura soon become separated and relegated to the labour district in order to mine 100,000 metals before they can be free. It's not the kind of mining that you might be thinking of though. 

In an original twist there's creatures that carry metal and they must be defeated to obtain or rather 'mine' it. While they deal with Madame Kurenai's minions there, the lady herself is seeking the Eden's Zero. We also make the discovery of a weakness to the ether gear, which I personally thought was an interesting development and makes it seem less over powered. 

Meanwhile, Rebecca has been separated from them and is unable to make contact with the others remaining on the Eden's Zero. She does run into Labilia though and I think I dislike this character more and more every time I see her. It was kind of heartwarming for her to offer to help Rebecca and to help her become a better B-Cuber in the process, but there was a little twist that I really shouldn't have been surprised by. However, we do get to meet another B-Cuber called Nino. I spent a lot of this volume trying to decide whether or not I trusted him! 

Volume 7 moves along smoothly from point to point with its usual mix of action and intrigue, plus a really big monster to fight! There's also two really great plot twists to look out for in this one, one of which throws quite a spanner in the works for our crew and their mission and I'm curious as to where they're going to go from here! 

Manga: Eden's Zero 3

Edens Zero Vol 3
Rating: 4/5 
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

Space pirate Elsie gives Shiki the warship he needs to continue his quest to find Mother. Little did he know, the ship belonged to the Demon King Ziggy! Once aboard, Shiki and the crew meet Witch, one of the Demon King's Four Shining Stars, who welcomes Shiki as the new Demon King. When the group ends up at planet Blue Garden while chasing the remaining Shining Stars, they are swept up in a heinous plot to kidnap B-Cubers! However, in the shadows lurks a chaos beyond anything Shiki and his friends could have ever imagined...

Things are starting to heat up in this third volume of Edens Zero. We have some questions about Rebecca and her power and if she can use hers like Shiki which would presumably be addressed at some point in the future. The way has definitely been left open for her to get a power up though! Not long after settling in to the new ship however, and establishing themselves as a team, we get a new team member in the form of Witch. Witch is an android charged with maintenance and one of the Demon Kings Four Shining Stars. 

Thanks to Witch, the ship gets an upgrade and thus we have...Edens Zero. Yep the ship is called Edens Zero. Boom. It also appears Shiki is the new King. 

I have to say, this volume has a snappy pace. After settling in we're quickly given a mission and something to aim for. Namely gathering the other three Shining Stars so that they'll have a chance at making it past the border and the dragons in search of Mother. We also get introduced to Homura in this volume, who seems kind of shady as willing as she is to help. 

While our team is given a goal to aim for, we get sidetracked in this volume as we have to carry out a rescue mission which provides us plenty of action and excitement to keep this volume moving at a fast pace. Of course we do come face to face with another of the Shining Stars which presents us with a little bit of a mystery. 

I'm loving the bonds of friendship and the teamwork already between our crew members, and I love how Weisz just keeps on coming back. I'm also enjoying how things are picking up this volume. I feel like this volume the story is really getting in to its stride, and there's a more solid direction for the plot to head in as the storyline is given a focus when the characters are given a goal! We do get left on an interesting cliffhanger though as four characters are ready to throw down and our latest character has some suspicious motives. Things have certainly gotten interesting! 

Manga: Eden's Zero 2

Eden's Zero Vol 2 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher, in exchange for an honest review! 

Shiki, Rebecca, and Happy have gone to the planet Norma in the hopes of getting a bigger ship from an old friend, Professor Weisz. But when they get there, they see outdated technology and an unfamiliar city...and the only sign of the professor is a mysterious young man going by the same name. What's more, he's gotten himself into some trouble with the toughest gang on the planet--and neither side is going down without a fight! 

We have immediate intrigue from the beginning as we meet our narrator, before we head in to some action and it's not long before we see what the opening page meant when it said "time has no meaning". It's an interesting twist, I'll give it that, and I wasn't expecting it. Whether or not it was just a convenience for the volume to give us another character for our crew, or whether it has a larger part to play remains to be seen. 

Throughout this volume we get to know Weisz who is the latest member of our little group, along with a little robot called Pino! They should be interesting additions to the crew, because Weisz is kind of a scumbag, but he's not all bad? You could say. 

There's a nice amount of action as they're running from a gang and then having to stop the gangs evil plan, and there's the time element and then we have to fight some aliens. We finally get to meet the space pirates properly, as our characters come in to contact with Elsie Crimson. I actually quite liked her and I'm kind of hoping that we get to see some more of her! I was a little bit disappointed she didn't join our main group! 

She does provide us with a few more interesting twists, there's some connections to Shiki's grandfather, an interesting tidbit about Mother, we meet Elsie's nemesis Justice who's with the Cosmic Government and hunting her down, and I'm so looking forward to more of that too! Plus the final page leaves us with a hint of a new character that we'll be meeting in volume 3, I assume! 

Volume two has a nice balance of action, intrigue, heartwarming and emotional moments, and plot progression as we gather some new crew members and bring in a few new elements while moving things in to place to head off on our quest. This is presumably the final volume focusing on the world building, and introducing us to the characters before the story really kicks off next volume! 

Manga: Eden's Zero

Eden's Zero Vol 1 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

At Granbell Kingdom, an abandoned amusement park, Shiki has lived his entire life among machines. But one day, Rebecca and her cat companion Happy appear at the park's front gates. Little do these newcomers know that this is the first human contact Granbell has had in a hundred years! As Shiki stumbles his way into making new friends, his former neighbors stir at an opportunity for a robo-rebellion...And when his old homeland becomes too dangerous, Shiki must join Rebecca and Happy on their spaceship and escape into the boundless cosmos. 

I've been so ready to see what Mashima is going to do next after the end of Fairy Tail, and ever since information about Eden's Zero has been released, I've been so curious about what it's going to be like as we can see a few...similarities from the cover alone! 

The colour pages are cute at the beginning! Rebecca is kind of like Lucy with her attitude, she's a b-cuber so she's basically a YouTuber, but she's kind of a badass too when she needs to be which I wasn't expecting and her BFF is Happy the cat. Shiki has a knack for napping wherever and I'm kind of jealous of that. He uses ether gear that lets him float and have strength etc. Rebecca asks him to be their bodyguard and they register him as an adventurer at Blue Garden. 

The opening chapter kind of hit me in the feels with the robots and Shiki and what they did. But it also introduced us to the world of the series effectively. It looks like there's going to be a focus on the power of friendship again, and there's some ominous speculation from an...entity and a sense of anticipation for the adventure. I liked the way the space settings were drawn and Blue Garden. We have space dragons too!? Like....mechanical dragons?! There's a nice amount of action to go with all the introduction and there's even some surprises....like Happy and what he is, and Rebecca's previously mentioned badassness. Our two characters are on a quest to find "mother", to get the greatest B-Cube content and up Rebecca's subscribers...basically. 

As much as I enjoyed this volume, I can't ignore the Fairy Tail similarities. In the art both MC's really do look like Lucy and Gray but with some subtle differences, and obviously....the cat. Happy looks like Happy. Elsie Crimson the space pirate....I thought she looked like Erza in the art we'd seen already but she basically is as far as I can tell. Libby is also kind of a grown up Wendy except she's a cow, and then there's Weisz Steiner who looks like Laxus. There's echoes of Fairy Tail throughout with one of the robots wearing the pumpkin from the GMG arc's hat, a quest flyer and so on. The catnapper also totally looked like Racer. 

HOWEVER one of the characters did mention a "manga like that" when talking about Shiki's idea of what a Guild is and now I'm wondering how much of this has been done on purpose and if this series is actually supposed to be set in the same world as Fairy Tail? Like did I miss the announcement that says this is set however many years after Fairy Tail? Are these the descendants of Fairy Tail? 

Mashima did purposely hide some Fairy Tail characters in the volume though, I spotted Team Shadow Gear, Warren, Max and Lucy and Natsu throughout the planet! Although at first I didn't realise it was done on purpose so I was a bit like whaaaaaaat?! 

While there are some similarities to Fairy Tail, the Guild isn't the same, but some of the character designs are similar, the initial volume has left me with plenty to be intrigued by! I've been left with lots of questions and a sense of foreboding thanks to the end of the volume! 

Manga: Fairy Tail Lightning Gods

Fairy Tail: Lightning Gods
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Hot-headed wizard Laxus Dreyar is always on the lookout for the next challenge! So when Fairy Tail disbands, he and his loyal crew of Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow join the fun-loving guild Blue Pegasus. Before long, the guild's master Ichiya is kidnapped, and it's up to Laxus to save the day. However, when faced with a battle with a rival guild's female mages, Laxus learns a tough lesson... On the next mission, Laxus and his gang go up against an ancient relic of fearsome magic--one that will put their bonds of friendship to the test! 

I have been waiting for this volume for forever! I love this spinoff series, each one has been so brilliant and give us a really nice look in to the characters each volume focuses on! Laxus is just so hilarious to me, he's so grouchy and surly and I've been looking forward to him getting the spotlight for a bit! Plus the rest of the Raijinshu. 

Freed is definitely my favourite out of the three, don't get me wrong I love Bickslow and Evergreen but Freed cracks me up. He's such a Laxus fanboy. Not only do we get to see more of the three of them in this volume, but we get to see more of the Blue Pegasus crew too and I enjoyed getting to see more of their personalities and the dynamics between them. Plus we get to discover a new Guild as well!

This volume is hilarious, genuinely, but poor old Laxus has to figure some things out about himself, which I thought tied in really nicely with the main series. There's a lot going on this volume, we have two different storylines, both of which are given a nice amount of detail and are fleshed out really well, plus they're nicely paced. 

We get plenty of action, we get to see loads of all four characters and we even get to see a flashback to how the Raijinshu formed! Overall it's an entertaining and action packed volume, that slots in nicely with the main story! 

Manga: Blue Mistral 4

Blue Mistral Vol 4
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

When Wendy and Carla hear a rumor of a harp that can call dragons, they go on an adventure to see for themselves! There they meet little Emily, who is convinced that Wendy is a real angel. Wendy plays along until Emily decides that angels can grant wishes! Soon, a darker mystery unravels, and a religious cult threatens the girls' lives. The pressure is on for Wendy to solve these mysteries! 

The final volume of Blue Mistral is here! Everything Fairy Tail related is wrapping up and it kinda makes me sad! The opening chapter of this final volume is cute and heart warming, and we even get to see Mink again! You may or may not remember him from the previous volume. I'd ship it but...he's not in the main series. 

Honestly, this volume starts out all cute and adorable and then it gets pretty intense as Wendy is poisoned trying to protect Emily....the girl with the harp who mistakes her for an angel. 

I really liked the mystery element and there's a nice amount of action too. Plus we get to see a new Celestial Spirit and Natsu pops up as well! I do love it when he pops up in this series, it's always fun to see how he gets portrayed in spin offs! 

While being aimed at a slightly younger audience, this is still a fun little spin off, and it's easy to read. Wendy really comes in to her own in this one, and it was nice to see more of a focus on her as she is the youngest and has a lot of growing up to do and you see her doing some of that in this series. I feel like it carried on well and connected back to the main series well too, and of course, it all came to a satisfying end! 

Manga: Fairy Tail S 2

Fairy Tail S Vol 2
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

The guild members of Fairy Tail, everyone's favorite magic-wielding heroes, are back for another round of adventures--this time featuring even more mysteries, magic, and fun than ever before. What would the Fairy Tail gang be like if they went to a modern-day high school, or lived on Earth Land in 10,000 BC? And when Natsu, Lucy, and Happy encounter some unfamiliar faces, will it lead to new friendships, or foes? Find out in this final volume containing nine fun Fairy Tail stories! 

This volume kinda lessens the sting of the ending of the series...although we are getting a spin off manga apparently so that's good right?! You guys know I freaking love Fairy Tail...it's my favourite, like my complete and utter favourite, and I live for these S volumes because they're freaking hilarious! Unfortunately...this is the last Fairy Tail S volume! 

This volume gives us a High School AU, we get a look around Fairy Hills, there's a very familiar chapter from early on in the anime involving a certain tree....a collaboration with Rave Master (I still reaaaaally want to read that series but it's out of print *ugly sobs*). Erza tries her hand at being a superhero, there's a crossover with Parasyte (haven't seen this series before at all but it was certainly interesting), and a Stone Age AU inspired by Mashima's Twitter drawings that you guys might remember! I have to say...that story in particular while hilarious isn't strictly PG I guess you could say...but it made me cackle more than once! 

Fairy Tail S Vol 2 is another fun volume, that lets us get to see the characters in new and interesting situations as well as showing us more of the characters and the world of Fairy Tail. A few of the chapters have been seen in the anime, or in the OVA's, but this volume has a couple that I personally haven't seen before! The characters are expanded on, as is their backgrounds and there's plenty of humour and fun! Perfect to read if you're missing the main series! 

Manga: Fairy Tail 63

Fairy Tail Vol 63
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

17-year-old Lucy is an attractive mage-in-training who wants to join a magician's guild so that she can become a full-fledged magician. The guild she dreams about joining is the most famous in the world and it is known as the Fairy Tail. One day she meets Natsu, a boy raised by a Dragon who mysteriously left him when he was young. Natsu has devoted his life to finding his Dragon father. When Natsu helps Lucy out of a tricky situation, she discovers that he is a member of the Fairy Tail magician's guild and the heroes' adventure together begins.

This is it you guys, this is the final freaking volume of Fairy Tail. I so wasn't ready for it, I got back from my vacation and it was sitting in the pile of post I had, and I just opened it and stared at it for a good few minutes because you know...so not ready! The cover hit me in the feels and made me come over all nostalgic and the chapter art gave me so much nostalgia too! 

After mentally preparing myself for one of my favourite series ever coming to an end, I finally started to read it and oh my God. Mavis hit me in the feels right from the start and there's a blissful moment when all seems well....before it all comes crashing down. Like I was thinking 'okay, but this is all kind of convenient' and it was like I could hear Mashima's evil laughter before he was like "SURPRISE B****". 

This volume, it's the dragon slayers time to shine, and there's so much action packed in to this volume! But not just the slayers, everyone gets to have their moment in the spotlight, and their moment to be a badass too! 

Everything ends happily, and for those that ship certain characters....while some things could be seen to be a bit ambiguous, there are some ships that are quite clearly sailing....finally. I loved getting a glimpse in to the characters lives since the final battle and it really rounded everything out and wrapped it all up and made me so emotional. It's really the perfect blend of action, and heartwarming moments...something to be expected from Fairy Tail. 

There's plenty of nostalgia to be had thanks to Lucy and I totally got a bit choked up reading this final volume, I'm not going to lie. I don't think I'll ever be ready for this to be over, like I've still got the anime and the spin off series but still! I'm just sad there won't be any new Fairy Tail adventures but I have to say...the series has come to a truly fitting end, I loved the final couple of pages so much! 
SaveSave

Manga: Fairy Tail 62

Fairy Tail 62
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

The magical adventures of the Fairy Tail guild continue! 

There's literally no other synopsis floating around which is probably just as well because this is the penultimate volume and things are tense and I'm waiting to see how things are going to end, and I'm so on edge while reading because ONE VOLUME LEFT! 

Jellal really gets his badass on in this volume, and I was cheering for him because FINALLY. Blue Pegasus face off with Acnologia as they show up to help out Wendy and Erza, and there's an interesting plot twist regarding Anna, you might remember her! We go back in to the past and finally see what went down when Lucy's mother opened the gate and Natsu and co arrived! Meanwhile Gray and Lucy are trying to save Natsu who's facing off with Zeref. That's as much of a synopsis as I can give you without too many spoilers!

As the series is starting to wrap up we're getting more and more blanks filled in and questions answered and it's exciting but also kind of sad because it's nearly all over! This volume genuinely made me feel bad for every single time I've taken the piss out of Ichiya, I'm not going to lie. 

Volume 62 is fast paced, and there's a lot of action and a lot going on as two battles take place simultaneously...and kind of a third! The volume builds up to a crescendo pretty fast and as we end the volume we're left with some potentially devastating consequences. Things are sombre and serious, and there's plenty of tension to go with the immense sense of danger. This volume genuinely hit me right in the feels. All the pieces have finally come together, we know how everything happened and what went down and we get an epically huge battle to win. *sobs for eternity* The chapter drawings had me all nostalgic too, I'm so not ready for this to end! 

SaveSaveSaveSave

Manga: Fairy Tail S

Fairy Tail S 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

For the members of Fairy Tail, a guild member’s work is never done. While they may not always be away on missions, that doesn’t mean our magic-wielding heroes can rest easy at home. What happens when a copycat thief begins to soil the good name of Fairy Tail, or when a seemingly unstoppable virus threatens the citizens of Magnolia Town? And when a bet after the Grand Magic Games goes sour, can Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza turn the tables in their favor? Come see what a “day in the life” of the strongest guild in Fiore is like in nine wacky short stories! 

If you watch the anime, these stories and chapters will be preeetttyyyy familiar as they're all OVA or omake episodes! Obviously the actual episodes are longer and have additional scenes but still. This first volume was a brilliant collection of humour and heartwarming tales. There's also a lot of fan service, just warning you all. 

Remember how Makarov told the two GMG teams that whichever one won, could get the other team to do whatever they wanted for a day? Well we get to see some resolution to that and it's hilariously ridiculous. We get to learn some more about certain characters like Cana and Bisca which was nice as they don't get much page time in the main series. Welcome Home Frosch is quite possibly one of my favourite episodes and so you know...it was my favourite chapter of this volume! It was nice to spend some time with the Sabertooth members and it was a cute story. Then we have Fairy Tail of the Dead Meeeeeeeen, a hilarious horror comedy chapter, and Natsu faces off with Mavis too, aaaandd we get a nice dose of Christmas! 

Some shippers will be very happy with these stories, especially if you ship Gruvia, Nalu and Jerza...just saying! There's also some fun background on each of the short stories that was interesting to read and gave more insight in to each story and how it came about and how it fit in and so on. The art as usual is detailed when it comes to buildings and backgrounds, and obviously...it's the characters as we know and love them!

Manga: Fairy Tail Vol 61

Fairy Tail Vol 61 
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

As the most powerful wizards of Fairy Tail face off against the remaining members of The Twelve, their hearts, relationships, and skills will be put to the test. The battle between Erza and Irene reaches an emotional conclusion, Gray shows how far he’s willing to go to save his dearest friends, and the love of a father sparks a shocking revelation from August. As Natsu and Zeref’s showdown approaches, both enemies and friends must ask themselves who their true family is! 

Two volumes left. There are literally two volumes left. I am so not ready. I'm really not. I'm going to be devastated when this is over. Absolutely devastated and finding out that after this there's only two volumes left has me taking my time reading this volume and trying not to rush through to the end...something I usually do with these volumes. I read them so fast it's ridiculous but I made a conscious effort to slow down and savour it more! 

With the final volume approaching things are moving quickly with the story, things are tense and edge of the seat and there's lots and lots of dramatic moments happening. Erza's battle concludes and hit me right in the feels, Magnolia is returned, it's revealed why Zeref needs Mavis's power, Natsu is back to normal *cheers* and ready to throw down with Zeref, and so much more. Gray faces off with Zeref alone and there was some serious ugly sobbing going down at Gray's plan and how everything went down and I was left kind of staring at the page like whaaaat just happened!? Did Mashima sensei really just do that!? 

One of my favourite scenes of this volume was a scene that perfectly mirrored an earlier scene in the series with Natsu and Gray. I genuinely can't even. This volume has seriously given me all the feels and knowing the end is nigh really doesn't help! I'm literally so full of tension whenever I pick up a Fairy Tail volume lately! 

We get to see Cana being a badass in this volume as she joins in with Gildarts tackling August. It was nice to see her get some more page time and use her abilities and so on. I also really love seeing her interact with Gildarts, it's funny and heartwarming and such an interesting relationship. I also spent a good chunk of time looking at August like "don't make Gildarts angry bro" but did he listen? Nope. So it kind of serves him right I guess. 

We get to meet Larcade in this volume, and I'd been spoiled about him a long time ago when the chapter originally came out in Japan and spoilers where all over YouTube and Twitter BUT I had completely misread his relationship with Natsu and Zeref. He wasn't at all what I was expecting and I actually felt really sorry for him. I'd quite liked to have seen some more of him and maybe seen him join the Guild and get given another chance. 

Another big moment of the volume is Natsu and Zeref having their showdown, something I've been looking forward to seeing for a while. Unfortunately it's interrupted by Acnologia making his appearance. I'm not going to lie to you guys. Acnologia is a complete and utter psycho. Seriously. I just want him taken out now. Like....come on guys. Time to do your Dragon Slayer duties and deal with him. Although I guess we owe him one for dealing with 'God Serena' for us?

As the volumes progress and we head towards the end, I'm getting hit in the feels more and more. This volume had me choked up more than once, and there was a really beautiful scene with Natsu and Gray. They have such an interesting relationship. They clearly care about each other but they always argue and fight, and in this volume...I think it's the first time Gray's called Natsu his friend. I could be wrong because it's been a while since I read the other volumes, but I think it is and the entire scene really choked me up. Then Natsu comes along like "you're my friend, right Gray?" and I just....*ugly sobbing*. It was so nice to see this genuine moment of friendship between the two of them and know that everything was okay between them after the earlier scenes. 

My one issue with this volume is that it's such a head**** about August and I was like whaaaaat!? and that was it. It would have been nice to see more of him and to see some more to that situation because SERIOUSLY?! 

Fairy Tail always puts me in a great mood, I always turn to it when I'm feeling down and needing a pick me up. It's one of those series where you wish you could join the Guild too, and I end up fist pumping and cheering so much when I read this series. It's obvious things are coming to a close as we're racing towards the climax of this final story arc. Things are getting more and more intense, there's more tension, more shock reveals and more intense battles. Not to mention heartwarming and heart breaking moments between characters. I was so in to this volume and so ready for what comes next and then...IT LEAVES YOU HANGING?! I'm so not cut out for this, I can't take the wait for the next volume after everything we learned in this one! 

One things for sure, this is one of my favourite series of all time and the final two volumes are going to be spectacular!