Darling in the Franxx is licensed by Crunchyroll. It was written by Atsushi Nishigori, Naotaka Hayashi, Masahiko Ōtsuka, Rino Yamazaki and Hiroshi Seko and directed by Atsushi Nishigori.
In an actually-not-so-distant-post-apocalyptic future, humanity is terrorized, and virtually on the verge of extinction, due to giant monsters known as “klaxosaurs”. However, the APE organization that rules over what remains of humanity, has found a way to keep humans alive – by putting what people remain in giant, mobile fortress-cities that they call “Plantations” (it’s exactly what it sounds like). In these Plantations, children, who are called Parasites (see? Exactly as it sounds), are raised to pilot mechs, known as “Fraxx”, in male-female pairs, to fight klaxosaurs and protect the people of their Plantations. In this world, if you are a Parasite and can’t “pair” with someone, you are sent away to somewhere unknown to meet an unknown fate. Hiro, despite having stereotypical protagonist potential, is one of those types of Parasites and is unable to pilot a Franxx with someone. However, that changes when he meets a mysterious girl with red horns: Zero Two. Despite her optimistic and carefree demeanor, Zero Two is not only known for having klaxosaur blood, but also as a “partner killer”, because everyone she has piloted with dies. Everyone, that is, until Hiro. Together with their teammates, Zero Two and Hiro fight not only to save humanity, but to beat the terrible odds to survive until adulthood.
Ok. I’m sure many of you saw that clip that was released when this show came out of the male and female in a mech cockpit in a clearly sexual position. I had the same reservations as you. I honestly had no intention of watching this show when I first saw it. I thought it would be nothing but obnoxious fan-service and overly-sexualized female characters. I was half right. Yes, there is fan-service and yes, there’s some over-sexualization. BUT it’s really not that bad. Really, only the first couple episodes are a bit annoying about it, other than that though, there is an incredible amount of action and a deep, intense, over-arcing plot.
That being said, let’s talk art. The character and world design are good, and pretty, but they really aren’t anything special, what truly stands out in this show is the mechs. They have actual anime faces, they’re meant to look similar to the female co-pilots, and they each have their own unique weapon. Honestly, the anime faces bothered me a bit at first. It was weird and different from every other mech. Then I realized that this is what made them unique, what made them different than every other mech out there.
I liked most of the characters in this show. Well, there is really only one character I didn’t like and that was Ichigo. Her character was incredibly annoying. She is supposed to be the leader, it’s talked about over and over by her, as well as others, about how she needs to be strong and confident so she can command effectively and keep everyone alive, but she continues to suck at being a leader. The entire time. Yes, it’s a lot of pressure, I get that, but she is the LAST person that should be the leader. She constantly makes judgments and acts based on emotion, despite coming off as cool and calculating, it’s almost always Goro or Hiro making the important calls. And she’s just so…whiny. There are a good 3 episodes that are 90% her whining about Hiro and needing to be a good leader but then not actually doing anything to change and become a good leader. There are also your usual episodes where they do stuff like take a day off and go to the beach and nothing happens and you don’t even know why you just watched 25 minutes of that.
That being said, the rest of the character are unique and you are invested in them. Hiro and Zero Two are clearly the main protagonists, but even so, all of the others have their own development despite being secondary characters. Even their adult commanding officers who aren’t on screen much have their own story and development. On top of that, the plot of the series is so much deeper than you initially think. It’s more than your run-of-the-mill mech anime where the pilots get in their giant robots and punch enemies until they explode. They really aren’t in their mechs a ton. I mean, they are in them enough that the action stays pretty consistent, but the majority of the show takes place outside of the mechs. The mechs are not the center of this series. Which is a big part of what makes this show so good.
OVERALL SCORE: 7 / 10
While the two complaints I had may seem small, they greatly take away from what should be an otherwise great show. There were even a handful of episodes I only partially watched and then stopped because I was either annoyed or didn’t care. Despite this, I still feel this is a show worth watching and I recommend it.
Darling in the Franxx is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
There is currently a manga adaptation of the anime by Kentaro Yabuki and a four-panel comic strip by Mato. Both are being published in Shōnen Jump+.
