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

Hiro and 02 could also be Switches in terms on whos Top or Bottom eventually, too.

Watch Symphogear

You forced me to...

I'd bookmark that. You might be needing it a lot before this series is over.

Additional thoughts:

• The metaphor being what it is, Zorome bragging about finishing the fastest sure tells us everything we need to know about what kind of person he is, doesn't it? Especially given that that moment was immediately followed by him getting called out for being inconsiderate towards his partner.
• I enjoy the fact that the fat guy appears to have the healthiest relationship out of all of them.
• Can't quite get a read on Goro. Why is he so completely okay with his metaphorical girlfriend metaphorically sleeping with his best friend?
• So this series is basically about teenagers having to figure out some really basic shit on their own because their sex ed is laughably terrible, and also they kill evil dinosaurs during sex.

edited 20th Jan '18 8:59:03 PM by Gilphon

Goro is okay with an open relationship maybe? Or maybe he's just not emotionally invested in the relationship and as such it doesn't bother him as much.

edited 20th Jan '18 9:11:31 PM by JapaneseTeeth

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Or he's gay.

I think Streliza has a seating set up more like a fighter jet where its pilot and co-pilot with one seated behind the other but not in the bent over doggy style position. Hiro might have the front seat and Zero Two the back but they can revolve to switch who is in control.

And yes they referred to Hiro as the Special Specimen which implies that yeah the problem is he has TOO much power for any normal person to handle. The contamination bit might be because Zero Two is the only Klaxihuman they have and they don't know what will happen when bottomless energy meets insatiable appetite.

A very possessive horned lady.

I thought that might be a possibility, but if so I'd think it would impede his own ability to pilot, which as far as we know, he can do just fine.

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I mean, I feel certain that the answer will become clear once we get to know Goro better; I'm just noting that I don't currently understand him.

Well of course we barely know anything about him due to it being the second episode so not being able to understand him is perfectly understandable.

Maybe we'll get something next episode as apart of the fallout from Ichigo & Hiro's disastrous attempt at dritfitng.

Heh I love how everything in this show can be traced to sex thing.

edited 20th Jan '18 11:09:17 PM by slimcoder

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Yeah, I'm sure it'll get development at some point. Gotta remember we're still just getting familiarized with everything.

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I don't get the impression that romance/sex are things that exist in this universe, outside of the unsubtle metaphors involved in robot-piloting. Ichigo obviously has a crush on Hiro but it seems like neither she nor anyone else gets that. Neither of them knew what a kiss was before the horned succubus's demonstration.

Maybe they're all just super repressed for some dystopian reason, but I think there's a lot more going on than just Goro being overly un-possessive.

I have to say, though, this show is already pushing my limits in terms of tolerable fanservice... and they're not exactly subtle about the Male Gaze (just compare those two locker scenes).

Personally I'm really hoping we get some subversion of all the stuff the kids are being fed regarding healthy relationship dynamics and so on - so far there's a lot of 'you're there to let the guy do what he wants' undertones to the pilot/sex scenes, to say nothing of the fact that the girls aren't allowed to do it themselves while the guys are (and are even given molded rubber... controls to do so). Basically, these kids are getting awful sex ed and hopefully they'll be given chances to figure out more stuff on their own later on.

Speaking of, I'm just waiting for the scene(s) where two of the stamens or pistils have to pilot a FranXX together, everybody is like 'whoa no that's super wrong' and yet it works anyway. Yes, I know there's some positive/negative yin-yang stuff implied in the piloting, but I sincerely hope they don't limit themselves, because when you make symbolism that blatant you have to be aware of the further implications.

It's been fun.

So, much like Kill La Kill was about a teenager dealing with nudity and the role of clothing in her life, this show is about teenagers dealing with sex and the place of it in their relationships. I'm okay with that.

Considering that most of the implied compability problems we've seen from their behavior in their Franxx and their synch rate seems to come mainly from the guys, it's almost certain.

• Zorome is as much as a little jerkass in the cockpit as he is outside of it and just do whatever he wants without regard to Miku, causing their piloting to be by far the most erratic as she tries to catch up with his whims.
• Futoshi actually wants to improve his performance for Kokoro's sake, but she is not honest toward him and just downplay his insecurities, so he can't actually correct his faults.
• Mitsuru sees the whole thing as just a chore to be done, and so he just "thrust hard and fast", so to speak, thinking that's all he needs to do. This causes Ikuno actual pain.
• Hiro just can't seem to "get hard" for anything that's not a demon girl dominating him.
• The only pair without any noticeable problem is Goro and Ichigo, as the guy is actually supportive and understanding.

Plus, I get the feeling that the higher-ups are supposed to represent eugenists; people who only sees relationships as a meant toward an end without giving any tought to the feelings of the individuals or the healtiness of the relationships. As long as they get more efficient soldiers, they don't care.

edited 21st Jan '18 2:27:38 AM by Alecoene

Is that info on the Genista and Cholophytum teams coming from the manga? I'm asking because the drill scene in episode 2 focuses mostly on Miku-Zorome and Ichigo-Goro; I know Kokoro mentions that it feels weird and clearly doesn't seem used to it when they do connect, but other than that I don't think Genista and Chlorophytum get to do much of anything.

It certainly does make sense both from what we've seen of Mitsuru's and Kokoro's personalities, I just want to be sure.

edited 21st Jan '18 2:40:28 AM by RedSavant

It's been fun.

Their synch rates are much more mismatched than Goro's and Ichigo's, wich means they're not as effective as pair, as was exposited by the commander. It's why Ichigo was chosen as leader in the first place. Ikuno is quite visibly pained in a way none of the others are, while Mitsuru doesn't give a damn. The Genista pair's problems are nowhere as obvious, but the synch rate still indicate that they exist, and we see Kokoro just brush off Futoshi's worries.

edited 21st Jan '18 3:08:19 AM by Alecoene

I had a though: Since Zoroma has the highest code name out of all the kids, and lower numbers are better, his attitude is probably a case of overcompensation. Smallest dog barks the loudest as they say.

Also wait, how tall is 02 supposed to be again?◊

^^Ah, that's some good attention to detail. I should probably not have watched episode 2 at 4 in the morning.

It's been fun.

Slightly taller than Hiro and about a head taller than Ichhigo.

There's an interesting scene in the manga where… I think it's Nana? says that "the children's role is to protect their parents". Something sounds awfully wrong in that sentence.

I though she was even taller.

But yeah, wow that sentence tells us so much about the society that created them, and it's nothing good. This is why I think that the adults will be the real bad guys of the series.

Yeah, same here. Especially given that you'll note the pods seem to have no fixed defensive emplacements - their only defense against the Klaxosaurs seems to be the FranXX, which, while undoubtedly effective (since my guess is you need to destroy that pearl inside them to actually damage them), seems... short-sighted?

It's also telling that Papa and the other high adjucants don't actually go down to the planet's surface on their own. The only people who are physically down there are people connected with running the parasites and their administrators, who, from their names (Nana and Hachi) are themselves failed or graduated parasites.

It's been fun.

It doesn't help that during the opening, you can see a bunch of antagonistic looking fellows◊ that are about the same age as the protagonists. Looking at the ones who could possibly be girls, all but one of them are identicalls and wear masks that cover their mouth. It is probable that they will be used to show everything that is wrong with the society's way of choosing pilots.

edited 21st Jan '18 6:10:31 AM by Alecoene

I wonder if they're also Klaxosaur-related and are muzzled because of it.

On a less serious note, I'm half-expecting there to be people who pilot their FranXX in non-standard combinations, like having Hiro be the control unit, two men or two women piloting, or even three-person FranXX.

Mostly I just want to see the main cast be utterly gobsmacked at all the weird ways folks like to, ah, pilot.

edited 21st Jan '18 6:31:21 AM by RedSavant

It's been fun.

It wouldn't surprise me if something like that ended up happening.

That said, it also appears as though there are some reproduction and parent/child symbols in there as well, so that might factor into it as well, though I'm not sure how.

edited 21st Jan '18 7:23:54 AM by JapaneseTeeth

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