For a more visual review; check out this DTube video:
Status: Finished
Darling in the Franxx - OMG, this is the worst anime that Trigger studios has produced, or co produced. I can’t say much for CloverWorks or A-1 Pictures because I haven’t watched enough. SSSS.Gridman? Not sure, haven’t seen it nor do I want to assume it.
Darling in the Franxx is a mech show which takes place in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future where the remnants of human civilization have abandoned the surface. Giant ass underground mole monsters are attacking the humans who lives in portable citadels because they have lava. It’s up to our team of teens to suit up, enter their giant robots, doing suggestive positions and protect their citadels. But uh oh, it seems one of the teens are can’t pilot the giant robot with anyone. Enter our insecure protagonist nr 8-10-214. He is depressed since he isn't compatible with anyone else in the team, not even the team leader Not-Rem, that is until he meets the one who Kim Kardashian changed her hair as, 002, I mean Zero Two. Together they discover what humans have long forgotten. Power of Love and Advertisement baby! And with the team they also discover where babies comes from.
So now that we got that let’s get to our main attraction. Zero Two. If you have been on any community during the winter season, you probably have seen this picture of her smiling. This has become so popular that a famous celebrity talk about her. Well that's great and all, but how the hell am I gonna search for 002 beautiful NOSE without seeing this girls smug all over my Google? Yeah that is a problem for me. Speaking of replacing older character, the way zero two referring to her partner, is very similar to how Lum does it in Urusei Yatsura. You know what I mean! DARLING!
Ah Great! Now you have strike two classic characters in one move. But, is she a good character? I would say yes. She has a personality which shines through the show and her voice actress seems to have a ton of fun voicing the character. When something is going wrong in and out of the battlefield, she is there to help out but as well tease the rest of her teammates. She hates her superiors and given the episode we get to see her backstory, it's understandable.
And now for everything except Zero Two. Oh boy does Zero Two not save this mess.
I gotta admit, the premise is nice, the art design and animation can go from passable to good and the soundtrack is decent enough but not that memorable. With that all in mind, the story, the core of this show, is horrible.
You have character repeating their arc since the story demands it, characters who speaks sense who has to apology for what they said later on. The love story is deep as puppy love that is treated true love. You have characters who are loyal to a faction switching side because they feel like it without anyone questioning why they do it. You have the enemy, the freaking giant underground mole monsters, to just accept their murderers to join forces without even establishing a scene. Oh Geese, I guess you could get away with anything with these guys as long as you have a common enemy.
There are so much problems everywhere, that I will now use my time to bring up the questions I had during the time I have watched this series.
Spoilers Ahead.
Let’s see.
What the fuck was that for our main character? Why is he so boring in a trigger show? How come the organisation haven't discovered his blood type matches the test subject? I mean, haven't they tested him and the others over and over again for the past years? How come the best glasses boi gets shot down in the story, even when he's the voice of reason? How come he has to apology for being wrong when the character are going too far with their choices? Why the fuck are you keeping fat shaming the fat boi? What's up with your lore? How come the only two characters with expressive reactions are the shit boi and girl? Why is it being so silly that one group of people with an idea of immortality through lava got so much international backing? How come these aliens got so much contact in seemingly no time? Was there really no country or organization in the world that said no to this idea? No resistance across the globe? How come no one of the superpowers tried to develop their own way of obtaining the lava. You do know that the space race and that there are several other countries that has a space program beside NASA? Why do you have multiple episode in a row where we have no mech battles, in a mech show? Why would you then drop the mother of all bombs right after these episodes? Isn’t it like going from one extreme to the next? From sensory deprivation to overstimulation? Why do you have the team being so ungrateful to when she just lose her cool, when the same person saved their lives multiple times and kept the team as a whole? What? Did they forget that she helped to reunited the team in previous? Why does episode 14 and 15 exist? Why couldn’t they be one episode instead of two? Why waste our time with a break up, if it doesn’t last a full episode? Why does the Franxx turn red here and not turn red ever again? Why does the short hair boi who seemed gay is deadly sick, but gets better when he gets together with the girl with no talent. And why does the opposite thing happen when the girl with the glasses confesses her love to not rem? I not saying I don’t understand the reason, I’m just saying is oddly specific. It’s like it trying to say that when you don’t have interest in the same sex, you won’t die earlier.
Why haven’t a revolution happened so far? Why couldn’t it happened in episode 14 when it become clear that the organization was a shady as fuck?
If you could create multiple and successful clones of Zero Two, why not just keep cloning them if they by design are more loyal and have more success rate than your average human? Speaking off these clones, why does these characters seem so unimportant to the overall story? I mean with a few tweaks and you could written off these characters entirely. Their biggest contribution outside battle, which was by separating two people from each other, got dismissed as they brought back together again. Why did you do this to your own characters? Why do you keep changing your scenarios only to change it immediately back?
And of course, the most thought provoking question I had. The question that has been on my mind, ever since this anime has aired. WHY THE HELL DOES A MECH HAVE HAIR! NO NO, THIS IS A LEGITIMATE QUESTION! What kind of function would a mech hair have? I-I mean, this fucks me over.
And so on and so on.
The voice actors are doing fine I guess, I mean there was only one character which voiced sounded too much as it was recorded on a studio, but the rest were okay.
As for Zero Two, she is underused. Yes I said it! You think that the main attraction to this series would be, well, the main attraction. However it seems to she’s put on hold whenever the plot doesn’t need her. I can understand if you also want to flesh out some of the characters, which is fine and have worked for some of them. What do I mean by ‘some of them’? Well! You have some episodes that either connects with this character and other times you get disconnected. For example, you have this old scientist who supposedly lost his wife during testing of the robot. You know, the sad stuff to make this butt pinching old fart more tragic. But then you see the same old fart happily torturing children. What the fuck! You are now sending mixed signals whatever we want to feel bad for him or think he is a big jerk. So as far as this cast is, only two characters are too good for this show. I could say three but since how the fatso was okay with how he got cuckold, I'm going to stick with two.
I want to also further express on the animation. When it comes to animation for facial expressions, this one passes as any show that has been thrown money at it. Yet if we compare it to Trigger standards, this one doesn’t hold up against some of their heavy hitters. Which is, disappointing.
I have also heard that this anime had some influences from the current Prime Ministers of Japan; Shinzō Abe, which is regarding his thoughts on combating the decline birth rate of Japan. I don’t know if this is true or not. All that I am saying is that if someone told me that his idea had any work on this anime, it wouldn’t be that hard to convince me.
Also one more thing. For the who threaten Not-Rem voice actress, fuck you. If you do hate the character, then you might want to talk to the writer and not the one who is reading the script? This is really the scenario when someone is shooting the messengers, just to prove how toxic a fanbase can be.
Holy Hell! I never thought this show would turn out this. This is like a bad ending of making a mech anime. What a mess.
But if you guys like it. I guess you can enjoy this anime for it’s teenage romance. I'll be busy watching Getter Robo Armageddon where the mechs aren’t dismissed for couple of episode in a row.
Despite how crazy that show is, it's not crazy enough to put it's political agenda before it's story.
Of course I will also give you another recommendation for those who did enjoy this show. Now, if you really want to watch an anime like this. Which dwells into a pilot who is forced to pilot his mech for an war with other species in the future. He finds comfort with the women of his life, yet has to choose which one must he pursuits as he's getting slip between two worlds.
If you want to watch an anime like that, then you should watch Evangelion.
NAH I’M kidding, go and watch the original MACROSS you lazy bastards!