Darling In the FRANXX (Trigger/ A-1 Pictures collaboration)

If anything I'm surprised Franxx hasn't made it into Super Robot Wars lol, even Getter Arc already got its debut in DD.

The best thing to come from this series isn’t even the anime but an award winning novel by Xiren Jay Zhao putting their frustration with the latter half into writing Iron Widow.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jul 22nd 2023 at 3:48:49 AM

Yeah, the latter half is pretty messy. Again, this all is because they didn't plan that part out, so as a result, story beats are just quickly flown through, and things start happening without enough buildup.

Even so, I still have fond memories of the show, if only because I love the relationship between Hiro and Zero Two. Had the second half been more focused on them, I think it would've turned out much better.

I still wish, no matter how futile it is, that Nishigori would give the go ahead to make another season of the show, or at the very least, an OVA. Heck, judging by all the comments on the Twitter account for the series, I'm not alone. Maybe that would give them a chance to redeem it.

I agree that the second half was when things went wrong, it felt like you could have made two seasons from the story beats of that part to make it better paced.

The manga fixed some of the issues the series had from what I recall.

Edited by raziel365 on Jul 22nd 2023 at 10:04:45 AM

Mostly it kept the aliens in the background and to still end on the Klaxosaurs.

Also making it more clear that Mitsuru was bi and that’s why he was such an asshole for the first half.

And also tone down his jerkassery and give him more redeeming moments so it becomes clear he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who happens to have a beef with the protagonist (for sympathetic reasons as revealed later on).

Honestly

• I think it starts falling apart around Episode 12-14. I'm not sure why Zero 2 suddenly went maverick. The teenage angst is losing its charm. This after plodding through a bunch of episodes where the others got Character Focus. Mitsuru legit is a moody teen because Hiro didn't remember something he said.

Honestly, I found Zero Two's angst to actually be understandable, especially once episode 13 reveals her backstory, and recontextualizes a lot of her and Hiro's interactions. And of course, episode 15 gives one of the most satisfying payoffs I've seen in an anime.

Shame about what happened afterwards. And honestly, Mitsuru and Kokoro getting such an enormous amount of focus over Hiro and Zero Two later is another problem I have with the show.

I'm at Episode 17.

• This anime is a hornier Gurren Lagann, both in narrative and aesthetic. Humans repressed and isolated, certain feelings repressed to ensure some mysterious form of survival against a bestial enemy. Two younger people unearth these emotions which turn out to be the key to unlocking primordial power in a giant robot powered by strong emotion. I got more out of Gurren Lagann cause I was younger, and the idea of an older brother cheering you on and making you Dare to Be Badass in giant mecha form was a banger of a premise. Seeing it repackaged with love instead of GAR just isn't doing it for me.
  • It is more mature I suppose - if I ignore our cast of anime teenager cliches taking up screen time with such interesting plots as splitting the house in half - there's more powerful resolutions from a wider and more rounded cast than Gurren Lagann had. The nudity and fanservice is about equal, but less opportunistic. You get 1 beach episode and 1 girls costumes start melting episode, but it's less than all the cheesecake Yoko Littner had.
• All the important plot stuff is basically contained in those scenes with that faceless council and occasional flashbacks. Seriously when I come back to an episode and feel lost, I just rewatch the bit where they're talking to get a feel for what was going on that episode.
• I don't feel like a lot of the events make sense - but that's due to me clocking out every couple of minutes during the non-mecha episodes.
  • Zero Two's meltdown in that one episode, I sincerely do not recall why that started when it did, and I know we get a flashback episode before that, but why exactly she started going berserk and ignoring her teammates is lost to me?
  • What was going on with Hiro? He couldn't pilot a Franxx because he didn't have a girl with a dom/top personality and suitable tragic backstory to help him get it up?
  • Kokoro and Mitsuru Mr Steal Yo Girl hooking up? One episode she was talking to him in her garden. Last episode she was talking to him and then suddenly wanted to pull open his shirt, and now this episode they're literally sleeping together in the same bed apparently and then after the opening credits the kids are planning a wedding for them because of something Hiro read in a book and told them about off-screen.
    • Fine, I get the heavier kid deciding to support Mitsuru Sasuke Uchiha and Kokoro, but honestly it doesn't sit right with me and I'm not enthused with his anime beta male reaction of being fired up to do this and then tearing up in each scene after. It's not a great source of comedy to me and its repetitive given how many times this kid (and I call him this because he barely has enough character depth or focus for me to remember he's one of the cast members honestly) has whined and nearly flat-lined over Kokoro's affections.
• Ikuno being a lesbian is... a thing I guess. I like, genuinely don't have any reaction to this at episode 17 of this 20-something episode anime being a big reveal, especially when most of the couples seem decided. I guess she and heavier kid Simp Mcgee are just going to be single.
• Aren't all these kids under 18? Weddings, kisses, sexuality. Yeah that's realistic but like... again, spending all this time on a wedding episode. For pseudo-children.

Okay. But episode 17.

• I slowed down the part where Zero Two went Beast Mode. She... trips. I know the kid from the "Nines" - I'll come up with funny names for this gaggle of well-developed antagonists later - is supposed to be like her, and they briefly animate things like he sidestepped her... but I swear they make it look like she tripped. Seeing Zero Two get bodied by a whole team of people with her physical abilities was unexpected.
• I already knew redhead teacher woman was a Franxx pilot before due to spoilers. Neat the show gave her a backstory though. She's no Misato Katsuragi though and her relationship to the children doesn't feel interesting.
• Ohhhh snap, Mitsuru and Kokoro got their memories altered. Okay, well that subplot got clipped right as I was complaining about it. Neat.

Edited by FOFD on Apr 13th 2024 at 10:17:33 AM

Episode 19. Alright I'm just going to try to finish this today instead of doing my taxes because I really don't want to come back to this.

• A flashback for the old doctor who sexually harassed a coworker in the first episode. Huh. He was actually pretty foxy back then.
• ...and dead wife.
• This episode just explains the whole plot in one swoop.
• "She was without a doubt the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life." Man this guy is... he was married. Well, almost.
• Huh. I like this episode. Futoshi, Hiro, Satoshi, and the others asking the real questions. Zero 2 and Hiro's relationship even seems sweeter. Huh, maybe this anime really does have some matur-

Episode 22.

• Ahhh shit. Teenage pregnancy.

Episode 23.

• Gurren Lagann, SPIN ON. Who the hell do you think we are!? Let's go punch the Anti Spirals in the teeth. The Delightful Children from Down The Lane died. I think. Moving on.

Episode 24.

• Happy ending. Moral of the story is be sex positive and that nobody actually matures from their childish personalities when they get older. If two of your friends go to war you'll inevitably get to bang and start a family with your childhood classmate.
• Ikuno is dating the chick that Darling dumped in the first episode? When did she lose her arm? Wait, why is Ikuno dying again? Meh, whatever.
• Darling and Zero Two reincarnate after blowing up the enemy mothership after a 2-year journey across space. Neat. I mean I'm a little curious why Darling was just straight up dying, but I imagine it was due to 2 years of being in space without access to food or water.

All right, cool. I'm done with this. It's leaving my collection. It's done.

The bad

I do hope Studio Trigger's next project isn't about some individual rebelling against a tyrannical alien-like regime, revealing that said regime was actually a front or "the good guys all along," before introducing an even bigger alien big bad that the protagonist has to go to space to deal with. Kill La Kill and Gurren Lagann were enough.

And Darling and Zero 2's lovestory... I'm just going to say it wasn't my cup of tea.

• Darling has genital dysfunction
• Zero 2 shows up and cures it
• they get stuck in this Will They or Won't They? for a while until Zero 2's blueballs send her on a rampage
• one flashback later they're all good, holding hands, lovey-dovey
• From there it's pretty much reacting to The Reveal and their avian obsession all the way to the finish... where they die. That's right, the two leads a boy and a girl die. They just go on a mission to stop aliens from returning to invade where they die, leaving their Sesame Street friends to build new lives on Earth and never actually know what the f-ck happened to them.
• Then they reincarnate on Earth somehow because this is Battlestar Galactica all of a sudden.

So if I did have to pick something I kind of liked - it was how the structure of everything just started falling apart once the VIRM were introduced. I like when the plot structure changed - I mean I don't know what that Gears of War-esque Tomato In The Mirror Klaxosapien bullshit was about, but I did like how we kept those two adults, the redhead and the emotionless guy, still trying to do their best even with the doctor gone and the entire chain of command betrayed/killed/absent.

The art style was typical Studio Trigger levels of good.

I'd have found it interesting if we had a bait and switch with Mitsuru genuinely becoming the Super Special Awesome Kid Protagonist while Darling and Zero 2 died or effed off somewhere. It felt like we were heading there for a while before we got rerouted.

Ichigo and Goro were meh to me but it is kind of sweet they got together in the end.

Edited by FOFD on Apr 25th 2024 at 1:16:54 PM

I see.

Honestly, I'm surprised that the main relationship wasn't your cup of tea. Cause for me, it was what kept me going throughout the whole sloppy second half. I just really enjoy ones that allow the main characters to grow and change thanks to their connection, and that's what I got with Hiro and Zero Two's romance.

For me, it was the tale of two characters who feel extremely worthless about themselves, learning to open up, overcome their weaknesses, and in the end, manage to come together and help save both each other and the ones closest to them thanks to their love unlocking their more positive attributes.

Also, I'm a sucker for the whole "inhuman character learns to love and care for others," so that's another reason I liked seeing those two develop. Heck, with Zero Two, I know she's a meme character at this point, but there's a reason I still am a fan of her. Her learning to not consider herself inhuman and that her attributes aren't something to be ashamed about is, while simple, something I can easily latch onto, and seeing her stay a hybrid rather than turn completely human I also found interesting.

I especially liked seeing Hiro become a hybrid himself, and the fact that him ingesting her blood when he was little explaining his inability to pilot with anyone else I thought was a clever way of justifying it. By becoming a hybrid like Zero Two, he's able to show that she doesn't need to become a human, genetically speaking, but that her emotions and soul is what makes her that. You could say he's symbolically shouldering her burdens by having his blood be assimilated with hers.

Honestly, it was way more fascinating than whatever the cliche romance between Mitsuru and Kokoro was.

Guess we have different preferences.

Though I do agree with other critiques. It really didn't need that alien twist at the end.

Edited by LDragon2 on Apr 25th 2024 at 10:13:12 AM

I can understand and respect other people liking them. Just not my preference. I might cool off and revisit them some years down the line and maybe them like them better, but...

I used to really like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It had a similar premise in that there was this ordinary guy who meets an extraordinary Manic Pixie Dream type of girl, and they have a connection of wanting to find and meet other extraordinary people/things, and this causes both of them to change. The girl is the loudest, most toxic girlfriend you could ask for and she does some reprehensible things, but the guy reigns her in while she brings excitement and passion into his life, and I found it really endearing how she and the guy were just made for each other.

Then I met somebody like that in real life and it just became a lot less endearing.

Then I watched Future Diary which had a yandere, pink-haired girl who had a similar profile to Zero-2 with a less tragic backstory - so seeing Zero-2 leap out naked, eat honey over everything, antagonize the other kids, go berserk, all of her negative attributes really stuck out at me.

Its an incredibly personal thing, but characters that show those toxic attributes to the point of meme status just don't win me over easily. I think in general the larger-than-life, hyper-expressive characters of anime are losing their appeal to me too. The more subdued characters, the normies like Mitsuru and Darling (at least in the beginning) I can relate to more easily. Zorome and Miku, and Zero Two to an extent, weren't characters I liked as much.

I did somewhat like when Zero Two mellowed out and was gracefully

Thinking about it now, another thing I did like about this show - it depicts the complexity of romantic relationships and how you don't always get or meet someone compatible right away.

• from the beginning you had Hiro and Naomi not synchronizing well, and Naomi later (apparently) becoming Ikuno's partner (I think?)
• Hiro and Ichigo have been friends for a while with the latter having a childhood crush, but it ends up falling short of Hiro and Zero Two's compatibility in battle and romance
• Goro likes Ichigo who likes Hiro, so he puts his feelings aside, and they find each other later in life
• Kokoro and Futoshi are paired, but Kokoro ends up with Mitsuru instead, and Futoshi settles down with somebody else later

Understood. It does all come down to personal preference in the end.

Honestly, I never got any Yuno feelings from Zero Two aside from them both sharing pink hair and having a backstory that involves the main hero, so yeah.

For me at least, Zero Two's character was all about recontextualization and progression. We see her at first as your stereotypical Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and to be frank, I too also am not the biggest fan of that kind of love interest. However, as the series goes on, their are subtle hints that she is far more broken and lonely, not unlike Hiro, even during her more questionable actions.

Then we get to episode 13, which gives us the full context of her character and why she's acting the way she does towards Hiro. She was so sure that he was her Darling, and just lost faith in that. Him saying that he'd accept her the way she is only added to her self-loathing, as she wanted to be better and more human for her Darling, hence her lashing out at him. But now with the context of her past, it also places another light into her actions throughout the show up till then.

Each of her decisions, personality quirks, and actions that she takes can be seen as desperate or even in a few cases downright merciful in the grand scheme of things, given how much the adults were manipulating both her and the ones that she was assigned to like lambs to the slaughter. It's no wonder she carries all these feelings of self-worthlessness and the like.

It's what makes her reunion with Hiro in episode 15 all the sweeter, and why I enjoyed seeing her relationship with him whenever they were the focus.

Some have said that her more mellow and girly personality in the second half was a dumbing down of her character, but for me, it was a development that was truly earned. Now she is with someone who can be by her side and ease her burden, alongside accepting her faults and helping her to overcome them. To me, it was so satisfying to see her finally get to be that innocent girl, instead of always playing into her image as the "partner killer."

That's also why the whole "alien" thing didn't really work. They are so far removed from the central conflict facing Hiro and Zero Two's relationship that it makes it too impersonal. What I would've preferred was for the main villain to be more related to the adults who forced Zero Two into her state of self-loathing over her inhuman nature, as her overcoming them would better reflect her finally accepting herself, and knowing that she doesn't have to be some sort of perfect human for Hiro to love her, helped by him willingly becoming a hybrid like her as well.

Edited by LDragon2 on Apr 25th 2024 at 11:30:01 AM

For what is worth, Zero Two is also one of the few characters that actually has her toxic personality traits backfire on her and explicitly called out after the whole incident when she tried to "devour" Hiro. On one hand it was painful to see but on the other she was dealing with the consequences of her actions.

Indeed, it was her realization of what all she's done that leads her to grow as a character, and her relationship with Hiro is pivotal to it. It's why I love the pairing. Heck, the reunion between the two is one of my favorite scenes, even with the memes generated from the Narm Charm of the animation.

Seriously, it is one of the best performances by Haruka Tomatsu imo, and that's saying a lot, given how she always rocks every role she has.