Fairy Tail & Edens Zero author clears FFXVI only 3 days upon release, conspiracy theories arise
Mashima Hiro, the manga artist and author of Fairy Tail and Edens Zero, recently posted a Tweet to announce that he had cleared Final Fantasy XVI, conveying his impressions of the game. Realizing that the busy mangaka had completed the entire game only three days upon its release, fans were awestruck by the brilliant display of time-management to the point of doubting reality.
Mashima Hiro is currently working on Edens Zero, which is serialized weekly, and Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, which is being updated every two weeks. Having a weekly serialization in the Japanese manga industry is known to be extremely time-consuming and essentially a never-ending battle with tight deadlines. The workload of mangaka is notoriously heavy and some authors have even suffered overwork-related injuries or sickness.
In such a world, Mashima seems to stand out like a sore thumb, having what seems like boundless amounts of time. On June 25th he nonchalantly announced that he had completed Final Fantasy XVI, which had come out on June 22nd . For reference, according to HowLongToBeat, FFXVI can take from 31 to 66 hours to complete depending on level of completion, which means that Mashima was quick to complete the game even for an average person, let alone for a busy mangaka. This led to amazed reactions from users, who found themselves doubting that Mishima’s day may last longer than that of average mortals.
At the same time, many users were not surprised, as this is not the first time Mishima has displayed such overwhelming command over time. Mishima had famously made and released his own game in the midst of working on his weekly manga (Related Article). The mystery escape game titled Rebecca to Kikai no Yokan he released in March 2022 features Rebecca from Edens Zero as the protagonist. This event also made fans feel that time might flow differently for Mashima.
In reality, it might have more to do with Mashima being really fast with his work – he is generally known to be quick in drawing his manuscripts, likely leaving him with more free time than the average artist. But the productivity with which he utilizes his time is definitely nothing short of inspirational.
