Edens Zero's Use Of Time Travel Explained
"Edens Zero," the newest anime from "Fairy Tale" creator Hiro Mashima, is perhaps one of the most unique shows streaming right now. The story concerns Shiki (voiced by Takuma Terashima), a boy raised by robotic A.I., as he travels through space in search of the creator of the universe. The show blends the epic scale of a space opera with a lighthearted humor that one might recognize from Mashima's earlier works. In one episode, the characters will be grappling with a massive time-eating robotic Dragon, and in the next a character will be worrying about their popularity on the internet. (One character, Rebecca [Mikako Komatsu], is essentially a YouTuber or Twitch streamer, with a robot cat pal named Happy.)
The whole combination makes for an incredibly entertaining story filled with heart and humor and not afraid to tackle the exciting action and limitless potential a space frontier has to offer. One of the sci-fi tropes the show deals with is time travel, and like the rest of the series, its take on it is totally unique.
The Influencer who can influence the past
Time as a whole is one of the central focuses of "Edens Zero." As mentioned above, one of the main villains in the story is a Robotic dragon named Chronophage who literally eats time, and provides the ever-present threat looming over the whole story.
Time travel is presented in "Edens Zero" as an ability unique to Rebecca. Yes, the wannabe influencer in this story can go back in time, something I'm sure many internet celebrities wish they could do. Rebecca's abilities are unique in that they are connected to her own memory — she doesn't travel through time so much as she shifts her consciousness to a past version of herself, retaining memories of the future, and uses what she's learned to change the outcome.
It's complicated, to be sure, but it's a power that comes in handy quite often, and it's a version of time travel we haven't really seen before. As of right now, the full potential of this ability has yet to be realized, and hopefully we'll find out more about Rebecca's time leaping in the next season.