'Edens Zero' Reveals its Erza Counterpart

Fairy Tail fans have noticed quite a few connections between Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail and his latest work, Edens Zero. While one major connection is seeing Happy in the main trio, one other huge shout out comes in the latest chapter of the manga.

A mysterious woman named Elsie appears, and she looks exactly like Fairy Tail's Erza. That's two characters pulled from his previous work.

At the end of the latest chapter, Shiki and Rebecca defeat a bunch of goons who were attempting to kidnap Happy and sell him for big money. Shiki's got the power of the Demon King, so this has caught the attention of the "Armored Space Pirate" Elsie Crimson.

Along with looking like Erza, her name is similar as well. It's obviously Mashima having a bit of fun, but with Happy's mysterious introduction into the world these similarities could mean deeper things later in the series.

Maybe nothing Earth shattering, that would impress on the story in any major way, but it could do wonders for helping Mashima further established his extended universe of works. He's already made many allusions to his other works, so this could be a neat step forward in just establishing that all of his stories take place on alternate worlds within the same universe.

It's a longshot idea, sure, but Edens Zero's space adventure setting opens Mashima up to many storytelling possibilities. If you haven't read Hiro's Mashima's latest work yet, Edens Zero was simultaneously published in five languages (Chinese, English, French, Korean, and Thai), for its first chapter as Edens Zero released in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine's Issue 30. The first chapter of the series was simulpubbed and available for fans in other territories on Crunchyroll Manga, comiXology, and Kindle.

When the announcement from Kodansha broke, Hiro Mashima had a special message for his worldwide fans stating, "I'm bringing you my next series pretty soon! I can assure you it's going to be full of surprises and excitement. Please look forward to it on June 26!" Fans have reacted positively to the new series publication after reading through its premiere chapter.

Although Fairy Tail officially ended last year, series creator Mashima has a ton of projects in the works. Along with a Fairy Tail sequel series, there are the confirmed spin-offs, Fairy Tail: City Hero, putting Fairy Tail's characters in another world, and Fairy Tail: Happy's Grand Adventure, which focuses on Happy, and Fairy Tail: Lightning Gods, which focuses on Laxus. It's a very exciting time to be a fan of his works for sure.

For those unfamiliar with Hiro Mashima's previous work Fairy Tail, the series was originally created by Hiro Mashima. It is set in a fantasy world full of magic, and Natsu Dragneel is a fire breathing wizard with the powers of a dragon, and is in search of his missing foster father, the dragon Igneel. As he and his wizarding guild Fairy Tail get into adventures, Natsu always tries to find a way to succeed. The series ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from August 2006 to July 2017 and has spawned 60 million copies. It was later adapted into an anime by A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Inc., and Satelight in 2009 and ended its first run in 2013. A second series ran from 2014 to 2016, and a third series is planned for a Fall release.