Today we are talking about a series that has been around in discussion for most of 2018
and it’s one I’ve held a variety of opinions on. Before it even aired I was expecting a
below average Eureka Seven clone staring anemone with a romance partner too dense to stand
straight. A funny comparison considering AnemonE got her own Eureka Severn Movie just last
month but what can you do.
Then, after watching the first three episodes, I was quite impressed by the world building
of the show, though confused at how you properly pronounce the show’s title, Fran-X, Frank,
or Franks, IDK. But ultimately predicted the show to be a fan service romp a la Kill la
Kill with few redeeming elements but enough of a fan base and controversy to keep it in
public discourse for most of the year. I was at least somewhat right thanks to that last
part. Controversy is probably too strong of a word
though, as the series we are talking about today is full of relationship drama, and when
all is said and done that just really boils down to an overblown best girl showdown.
Really though
they all ignored the real best girl here. But I’m not one who backs down from controversy.
For today we are talking about what I found to be one of the most entertaining dramas
of the year and what has become one of my favourite shows from two separate production
houses. Ladies, Gentlemen, and others my name is Arkada and today on Glass Reflection we
Darling in the Franxx is a 24 episode series produced in early 2018 as an almost unprecedented
collaboration between A-1 Pictures and Studio Trigger, helmed by director Atsushi Nishigori.
It takes place in earth’s distant future. Humanity has moved to a more fantastical kind
of molten energy, mined from deep underground to power all sorts of futuristic technology.
However in doing so, it drew the ire of the Klaxosaurs-A kind of Blue morphing monster
species who appeared seemingly out of nowhere in response to humanity’s drilling, and
drastically changed how humans live. Traditional cities have been laid to waste and the remnants
of society have taken to mobile dome cities that traverse the landscape. These domes all
house a squadron of mecha soldiers piloted by male/female pairs of teenagers raised specifically
for this purpose and not much else. They don’t have regular lives, regular families, or regular
hopes and dreams. They don’t know how relationships work. They don’t even know what a kiss is.
Their purpose is to pilot the mechs and defeat the threat.
WITH NO PUBESCENT DRAMA WHATSOEVER…
Yeah we’ll come back to that.
One of these children, a boy named Hiro finds
himself incapable of piloting a franxx, his connection to any partner is weak and unstable
and since this is the one thing he was raised to do, his self-worth is in the dumpster and
his whole existence is called into question. Until that clichéd faithful day arrives when
he meets Zero Two. Zero Two is an enigma, she a demon looking girl with red horns, who
shows up with an entourage and seems capable of piloting a mech all on her own, without
the need of a partner. However, she takes a liking to Hiro and eventually invites him
in the heat of battle to join her, combine with her to fight in her mech, to become her
darling. You can imagine Hiro being ecstatic by this,
suddenly he has purpose again, he can pilot a Franxx like he always thought he would,
suddenly all is right with the world. Until it isn’t. Being partners with Zero Two is
not a simple affair, she’s not quite human, she’s not quite monster either. She doesn’t
follow the rules or norms that Hiro and his squad-mates had come to expect out of pilots.
Then when and when rumors that all of Zero Two’s previous partners ended up dead comes to light
friction begins to develop in the group. This is what drives the show’s narrative.
I’m going to allow myself one evangelion comparison to this project, being to me the
one that matters the most in trying to describe this series to newcomers. It’s very open
in how you wish to interpret things. So much about the setting can be interpreted in whatever
way you wish, the character designs, the mecha and their fighting style, the messed up situation
the characters find themselves in. But if you can get past, at least some of that, there
might be, in this pile of confusion and multitudes of ideas, a story worth watching.
Though, it’s hard to really nail down what this series is trying to do, what story it
is trying to tell and for a number of reasons. For much of its narrative, Darling in the
Franxx is about adolescent fighting, relationships that start and stop, pride filling in for
purpose, and most importantly…Love and all of its different possible forms. Much of the
entertainment to be gained here was from the interpersonal drama of a group of friends
forced together, with new additions to their social hierarchy and their own biological
development barging in making it difficult for each of them to really know what they,
want. Or how to properly express their feelings to each other. The show spends time on feelings
of envy, jealousy, and forging your own path because those with more experience aren’t
around to guide them or those who can just flat out refuse too for one reason or another.
This of course is all set up in a wrapping of beautifully animated mecha battles against
an unknown dangerous force, which seems to threaten all life on the planet.
As this sort of thing tends to do.
As well as this struggle the characters are placed into by superiors who don’t seem to really
care all that much for them at all beyond what a textbook might describe as empathy.
The children are treated as weapons, with their bodies and emotions merely tools that
can be molded and forced into a mecha for some grand purpose. Some grand plan.
One of the things I really liked early on was a focus more on the immediate questions
of what is happening between the characters rather than trying to examine "The Big Picture".
We get hints of the larger human society that exists separate from the children, but it’s
more of an afterthought to the narrative, a piece of window dressing in the narratives
setting to help make the scenario feel more lived in and thought out. It allows you to
speculate and fill in the gaps with your own imagination and possibilities while the show
itself is handling the more in your face conflicts of the characters. The only downside to this
method of world building is when the narrative suddenly decides it’s necessary to look
behind the curtain, and attempt to explain what is happening in the world and why, but
it never happens in a way that satisfies. This of course happens here.
The enjoyment I got out of this series was with the characters, seeing them problem solve
with the challenges of interacting with one another, and how they react to the circumstances
they found themselves in. There was what seemed to be so much thought put into their conflicts
that even when their decisions at times became questionable, I could always see how they
came to that decision even if I didn’t agree with it. There was, I think, only one time
I thought the interpersonal relationships came to a situation that seemed contrived,
but largely a lot of their conflicts with one another had seeds placed early on and
a narrative path to resolve them that that felt natural.
That’s not to say that it’s all sunshine and sakura petals. I’m not going to mince
words here; there came a point where a lot of the interesting questions I thought the
series was asking… eventually stopped mattering.
There came a time in the series, where the
narrative takes the situation you thought was happening and flips it on its head. It’s
almost like they decided to have a Gianax Ending to the series but implemented it 5-6
episodes early, only to then try to somehow pick up the pieces for the finale.
I’m not going to sit here and claim like I know the cause of this change. There has
been rampant speculation since the finale aired back in the summer and even before that.
The series had a bunch of production issues, mostly stemming from the fact that the show
started as a quazi-joint production between Trigger, A-1 Pictures, and Studio
Cloverworks which at the time was still closely attached to A-1 prior to their separation
last October.
Needless to say, the Final arc of the series,
without spoiling it of course, took some…shall we say interesting steps. As I mentioned the
show up until that point had spent so much time exploring deep concepts into relationships
and expanded upon those concepts with different kinds of interesting questions and situations.
But the final arc seemed to put all of that interesting development to the wayside in
favour of a more action oriented plot, one that in my mind was poorly conceived. Like
I understand what they were probably going for, as a more action oriented dramatic build
up for the final episode gives a much better sense of finality to the narrative. It just
involved disregarding everything that had made the series good,
it draged a bunch of other things out over the last few episodes in a way that I didn’t
feel added anything to the story they were telling up until that point. This is a narrative
end that in no way lived up to the story that preceded it.
Now with my philosophy being “The ending is paramount”, here are my final thoughts.
The action for most of the series is fantastic, the musical tracks were far better than I
was expecting, and up until that final turn I was sitting back thinking that even the
worst misstep the show displayed was quite a bit better than the slop I thought the show
was going to be on the onset. But in the end, while the buildup to the final moments of
the series was a bit cliché, lackluster and a complete disregard of everything that made
the series good. The actual final moments of the show, the last few scenes were different.
As the ending point for the cast, and the final moments of the relationship between
Hiro and Zero Two, it’s quite bittersweet. It’s not what I was hoping for in an ending, but I still accept it
for as sad as it was, the ending struck me as…
...profoundly beautiful.
But ultimately, I can’t say that this series is something that I would recommend to a large
amount of people. This kind of drama calls for a particular kind of person, especially
considering how it all plays out. I can only tell you what I am going to do. I’m to
buy it, when it comes out, I’m going to put it on my shelf, and I am going to look
at it fondly. Not because I think that this show qualifies as the best of the best, after
its change in course? It doesn’t. But for me this is a series that far surpassed my
expectations, even if it fell so much on its face by the end of it. It was one of those
times I was so wrong in how I thought I would enjoy the series, so I need the reminder. Because
the relationships between all the main cast was something I heavily enjoyed watching and
perhaps you will to.
Thank you for spending the time to watch this
video on Darling in the Franxx. I hope you enjoyed it. There will be links down in the
description for you to watch the series in the locations for which it is available. Funimation
for Dub, and Crunchyroll for sub. For alternate anime recommendations, if you liked the interpersonal
relationships between our characters and want to see another series that has a focus like
that you cannot do better then with Shinsekai Yori, "From the New World" that'll
be right up your ally and I highly recommend it. My second recommendation is hard, mostly
because I want to cover the action but all the recent options that come to my mind as
proper comparisons won’t do you better, so I’m going back, back to classic GAINAX
and telling you to go watch GUNBUSTER if you have not already. Try to watch the OVA series even
if it’s harder to find because it’s a better telling of the story but if you cannot
the film is perfectly serviceable. Between those two I hope you find something to your
liking. Lastly, a very special thank you to my patrons,
who not only support my work in general, but allow me to do what I do, I love and appreciate
you all. Specifically though, as I like to do, I want to give particular shout-outs to
patrons Ryefan Boneapart, Rune Jachobson, Devon North, Joshua Garcia, Calhoonboy, Siri
Yamiko, and Victor Ekmark for being especially awesome. And until next
time – ladies, gentlemen, and others – watch more anime…and stay frosty.