WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Edens Zero, currently streaming on Netflix.
Edens Zero may be a generally jovial shonen romp through outer space, but Shiki Granbell and his friends have experienced their fair share of tribulations. Having lost people they each hold dear, the crew of Edens Zero are no strangers to heartbreak.
However, despite its initial status as the biggest threat in the universe, a certain galactic being may have the potential to reverse every disaster they have faced. The Chronophage acts as an impartial force of nature, erasing the present state of everything it consumes, but its unique means of turning back the clock could be the solution to saving countless people once thought to be lost forever.
Shiki first learns about the Chronophage in Edens Zero alongside his companions Rebecca Bluegarden and Happy after their trip to the planet Norma. As a significant location in their past, Rebecca and Happy were astonished to find Norma in the same state as it was half a century prior, especially since it led to them meeting a much younger version of their benefactor Weisz Steiner. Once they left Norma with Weisz and the android Pino in tow, they learned from Weisz's older version that the planet had been attacked by a being known as the Chronophage, a cosmic serpent that devours time, rewinding reality on any planet it passes over.
Once Homura Kogetsu joined them aboard their ship, the team would have another near miss with the creature on Guilst. Hastening their rescue of Rebecca and her fellow captive B-Cubers, Shiki and the others sprinted to make it off the planet before being caught in the voracious snake's path. When the Chronophage finally did arrive, it swallowed up 1,200 years of the criminal paradise's history, turning it into a natural habitat for plants and animals free from pollution, technology or illegal activity.
Yet while the Chronophage is typically feared as a bringer of destruction in Edens Zero, there is reason to believe it may actually be a force for good. Many of the denizens of Guilst attempted to flee the end of their world, but several chose to stay in hopes of recovering their long lost youth. Additionally, the Chronophage seems to have a penchant for planets facing some sort of world-spanning problem.
While Guilst was known as one of the most lawless worlds in the Sakura Cosmos, Weisz likewise told Rebecca and Happy years earlier that Norma was a dying civilization with fragile stability. This pattern could indicate that the Chronophage is actually some sort of adjudicator of celestial balance, only eating time when a planet has gone too far. This is a trait shared by many other locations the gang encounters.
Shiki left his robotic fantasyland of Granbell after his adoptive society drove him away. Feigning a personality-manipulating virus, the androids of Granbell were actually sparing Shiki from the reality that the lifeforce of the planet's denizens was slowly wasting away. On a similar scale, Sun Jewel, the planet where Homura's teacher Valkyrie sacrificed her own life, was a den of opulence ruled by tyranny and oppressive labor practices.
If the Chronophage is actually be seeking out worlds plagued by disaster or corruption, it could theoretically target both Granbell and Sun Jewel, providing an opportunity for things to return to how they were before the deaths of Valkyrie or the members of Shiki's surrogate family.
Such a possibility is tantalizing, but there is currently no definitive evidence in Edens Zero that the Chronophage would visit these planets on its own. However, rather than wait for its potential arrival, Shiki and company could find means of sending it there themselves. No clear indicator of how they would do this has yet presented itself, but this could easily be rectified if they are able to locate the whereabouts of Mother. As the gargantuan being beyond the Sakura Cosmos, Mother is the ultimate objective of the Edens Zero gang. Should her rumored ability to grant any wish be true, giving them control over the Chronophage would be an easy feat.
Still, the question remains whether or not Shiki, Homura and the others would accept such an outcome. Though they would certainly jump at a chance to save and be reunited with their loved ones, older Weisz's explanation of how the Chronophage works implies that the earlier versions of beings who emerge after its visitation are essentially separate existences from their later counterparts. Considering the Edens Zero travelers place an emphasis on identity and heart, they may see the erasure of the present versions of their kin as something to prevent, even if they are already essentially dead.
Regardless of their opinions, the Chronophage's multiple appearances in Edens Zero thus far definitely seem to suggest it will play a large part in storylines yet to come. Whether these space-faring adventurers decide to make use of the anomaly's capabilities themselves -- or resolve to protect worlds on a collision course with it -- Shiki and his party will need to uncover some means of manipulating, overpowering or resisting it. If not, they may find themselves unable to affect it at all as it barrels through time and space.
