Darling in the FranXX is the new series airing this season that answers the question, “What
would happen if you had an empty room and in that room you put the creator of To Love
Ru, The Mechanical Designer of Gurren Lagann, the director of Idolmaster, and then lined
the walls with the talented animation staff of both Studio Trigger and A-1 Pictures?
If you did that, what would they come up with?”
This.
Not since Trigger’s own Kill la Kill have we seen such a high profile series that looks
like it’s trying to bury a somewhat interesting plot concept under sexual tension and innuendo
between teenagers.
It’s hard not to laugh, really.
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Oh, I knew it.
I knew they couldn’t last.
I knew that after the quirky comedy and innocent adventuring shows of the past few years Trigger
would decide that it was time to go back to their roots.
Designing characters that force cosplayers to wear skin-tight spandex.
But now that I’ve gotten the low hanging fruit bashing out of the way, what exactly
is this series?
Darling in the FranXX is a mech action series that takes place…in some kind of apocalyptic
universe maybe?
From what has been shown, parts of humanity are living in specialized dome like structures
surrounded by wasteland and gigantic horrible monsters.
They defend themselves by raising children to jaeger mech units in order to protect their
dome from attack.
But the jaeger-ing is not like say Pacific Rim, where both pilots seem to handle identical
jobs and they just need the double brain-power to operate the machines.
No, in FranXX, the pilots must always be male-female pairs, because the female pilots take mental
control of the robots and the males
…ride them.
I’m not joking, there are joysticks attached to the girl butts to form makeshift steering wheels.
ANYWAY, as with most shows of this nature, there is one female pilot who is some kind
of mysterious all-powerful being and has the blood of the monsters they face, etc etc,
and she at first sight becomes infatuated with our male protagonist who before this
point was unable to pilot a FranXX before, but once this girl called Zero Two pulls him
into her cockpit for a quick make-out session, they suddenly pilot the most powerful FranXX
to victory.
Because of course they do.
Now in fairness it’s hard to truly judge this series impartially on the number of episodes
we have so far.
Making surface jabs at its themes like I have been is very easy to do because we haven’t
been shown a lot of substance yet.
Or rather we have, but the innuendo and hormones have been overpowering what little bit of
intriguing plot exists.
What we really need is perhaps a bit of a break from the characters’ personal narrative
and a little more time spent on world building.
Immediately following the first three episodes we start asking questions like: Why do these
domes exist and what benefit do they have?
Why are children sequestered away from the rest of society and forced to fight in mech
battles for a world they are not a part of.
Why do all of them have numerical designations?
Is it to avoid attachments or do the numbers have actual meaning?
Should I be expecting a character with the designation 01 to appear?
Or perhaps 00 like shown in the show’s opening?
Touching on some of these in the more recent episodes is nice, but I’m always hopeful
for just ALL THE WORLDBUILDING.
Personal preference though.
A lot of FranXX so far actually reminds me a bit of Eureka Seven.
Like the character personalities are vastly different of course.
Zero Two and Eureka are almost nothing alike.
But I don’t know, it’s the combination of the contrasting colour scheme and the naïve
vibes from our protagonist that’s very Renton-esk.
When I watched episode one the first time, I didn’t actually remember which studios
were part of the collaboration.
More specifically, I didn’t remember A-1 was a part of it until I saw the credits at
the end.
But while watching that episode if someone had told me that it was Trigger and Bones,
I would have believed them.
I’ve made reference to Trigger’s last big fan service romp Kill la Kill already,
but I’m mentioning it again because the sort of layout of this series, or at least
how I’m reacting to it, is very similar.
At least as we are going along.
That being the case then, what I expect out of this series going forward is action packed
popcorn material.
Whatever deeper meaning the creators try to squeeze in here or there will be nice, sure,
but that’s not why you watch this series.
I am not expecting Citizen Kane and neither should you.
But what I do expect is balls-to-the-wall, over-the-top insanity the likes of which only
Trigger can provide.
Combined with the experience of A-1 as well doing animation?
Damn, yeah this series could end up being a technical marvel in the action department.
And hell, by episode 5 we are seeing a possible turn towards more serious narrative content.
Like its still Trigger, so I doubt it’ll stick for very long, but either way,
I’ve got my popcorn ready.
and I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of this show. As it comes out.
So should you watch it? Yes.
Like, if what I have shown you has obviously turned you off of it, than don't. But...
...Yeah, yeah watch it.
At the time of this video, Darling in the FranXX is available in multiple locations.
Crunchyroll for Sub and Funimation for dub, the latter of which has been going pretty
well as far as their simuldubs go.
And of course there will be links in the description to make it easier for you to find and watch!
But that is it for me today.
If you’ve seen any of the show so far, then let me know in the comments what you thought
about it, just no spoilers please for those who haven't.
As usual, thank you to my patrons who make these videos possible.
And until next time, ladies, gentlemen and others Stay Frosty!