Anime: Darling in the Franxx 202n4w

Darling in the FranXX fue el anime más polémico de lo que llevamos del año 2018. Algunos la alabaron diciendo que era como el nuevo evangelion, al igual que como decían lo mismo con Rahxephon o Eureka Seven cuando salieron, cuando en realidad eran un par de desastres del mierdoso estudio Bones. Por otro lado, la serie tuvo un desprecio más grande que otros títulos mainstream con el título de anime del siglo, debido a todas las controversias que despertó, como el montón de sexualización, netorare, y trolleo a las masas más liberales que vieron el show, con cosas como ver a un gordo siendo engañado por su compañera, a pesar de que nunca se le había entablado una relación amorosa, que interpretaron como desprecio a los gordos (que de seguro se identifican con él v:), o que todas las chicas del programa terminaran embarazadas al final, lo que todo el mundo interpretó como propaganda pro vida por parte del gobierno japones, lo cual tiene hasta un poco de sentido tomando en cuenta el nivel reproductivo en Japón actualmente. Pero polémicas a un lado, que no vengo a hablar de bardos estúpidos, que eso es externo a la calidad del show.

Empezando por la calidad visual, está bien, para un show de acción es competente, el movimiento es fluido cuando debe serlo, o sea, durante las batallas, tiene bonitos juegos de cámara y esas cosas. El diseño de los mechas es horrible, se ven poco estilizados y nada prácticos por lo desproporcionados que son, por ejemplo el franxx principal tiene el torso y los brazos muy delgados, mientras sostienen unos hombros y antebrazos enormes el doble de anchos, con una especie de motores sobresaliéndoles de la cintura que parecen alguna clase de falda, con patas piernas delgadas que además poseen una planta del mismo ancho que las piernas, debería haberse caído al instante, o debería averiarse al instante si debe sostener una cabeza con un casco gigantento con un cuello tan pequeño. Los diseños pueden varias, pero también son feos a la vista. El diseño de personajes no destaca, salvo el de 02, que posee los rasgos más distintivos del reparto, el resto se parecidos en estructura anatomía, bueno no es cierto del todo, los adultos y uno que otro chico posee distinciones, pero es bien genérico de todos modos. El uso del color y el trazo no es la gran cosa, es muy parecido a otros show de Trigger, líneas delgadas pero marcadas, bastante plano, sencillo de animar, con movimientos bruscos y exagerados, sin embargo se ve más distintivo que los de otras compañías. Se ve bien aunque inferior a otros trabajos del estudio como kill la kill, pero bueno, no se puede ser perfecto. La banda sonora, también está bien, no es la gran cosa, solo sirve para ambientar y más nada.

La historia por su parte se le puede resumir en derivaciones. En serio, la serie es sumamente derivativa, solo tienes que ver unos momentos de la serie y notarás un montón de referencias. Por darte un ejemplo, se supone que los humanos viven en una ciudad artificial, donde unos adolescentes deben pilotar unos mechas para defenderse de unos seres alienígenas que se dejan llevar por su instinto y fueron creados con una única razón. Si no notas el montón de paralelismos con Evangelion te los resumiré, la ciudad es idéntica a tokyo 3 en función; los franxx son iguales a los evas porque solo pueden ser usados por chicos que además se conectan mentalmente con ellos y deben estar sincronizados también; los seres alienígenas, los Klausoxaurios, son idénticos a los ángeles, tienen nulos raciocinio, se dejan llevar por su instinto y así. Y las similitudes no solo van con evangelion, con SnK también, la ciudad donde los humanos viven tienen una especie de muros que los defienden de los ataques, tal como las murallas de SnK, o que también tenga el temita de la humanidad al borde de la extinción por esos seres salidos de la nada. O que hay de las que tiene con Eureka Seven, solo con ver la actitud y apariencia de 02 es obvio que es la misma de Anemone, su origen es incluso idéntico, un ser creado a partir de modificación genética para ser usado como arma de guerra. He oído de varias similitudes con otros shows como Blue Gender, TTGL, KLK, urutsei yatsura y un largo etcétera. No se siente nada creativo, por el contrario, todo se siente como un reciclaje de conceptos ya usados en shows populares.

Fuera de las similitudes el show sigue siendo malo, si hablara de los personajes te los resumiría en que son molestos y una bola de hormonales sin sentido común. El protagonista (Hiro) está endiosado, se supone que debe ser una especie de Simon o Shinji Ikari, ya que tiene baja autoestima, miedo de morir y es cobarde, pero solo es un beta de mierda, todo gira alrededor de él, todos los quieren por una razón tan pelotuda como darles nombres a todos y por eso lo consideran un chico irable, a pesar de no haberse esforzado para ser importante, es insufrible, en muchos momentos del show hace acciones retardadamente altruistas como meterse en un mecha donde lo pueden matar sin pensar en las consecuencias. Parece que es el único bueno en medio de una banda de egoístas retardados, y lo lleva a un nivel que logra que medio mundo se vuelva bueno, no sería malo si al menos hubiese una razón plausible para ello, pero no. Y la resolución que le dieron no tiene sentido, el desgraciado renació como si nada, y todos lo quisieron como si fuese Dios, es muy patético.

La deuteragonista es la única razón por la que todos vieron la serie, y no es por nada, el personaje está sexualizado a la enésima potencia, incluso en su introducción estaba desnuda y caliente. Es un saco de cemento perfecto para la guerra de waifus del año. A cada momento la verás en posiciones sugerentes y reveladoras, bueno para que los otakus se masturben (incluyéndome v:). Fuera de su enorme proxenetismo pues, es un personaje muy despreciable, está loca la desgraciada. Quiere ser humana y no un experimento, todo bien hasta ahí, pero la chica ha sido responsable de muchos destrozos y negligencias absurdas, en un capitulo por poco hacen que la maten junto con el beta maricón de Hiro. Se supone que le dieron una especie de desarrollo donde se volvía amable, pero es demasiado rápido como para ser natural. Su trasfondo es una posta, primero porque es pura victimización, con todos los locos científicos torturándola para ver que tanto resistía el dolor, y segundo porque resulta que ya se había encontrado con Hiro, el cual le borran la memoria a los 2 para que no se diesen cuenta, plot twist estúpido ocultan información descaradamente para así no sepamos porque la gente es tan tonta.

Ichigo, que sería el saco de cemento enemigo te la resumo en que quiere a Hiro porque le dio un nombre, y ya. Es algo reservada y listo, lo mismo va con el resto del cast, son muy planos, tanto asi que se me olvidaron los nombres de cada uno. El rubio es amable, el más formal se supone que está resentido, el gordo es celoso, uno de ellos es un mocoso inmaduro e insoportable, la de los lentes es seria, la de las coletas es gritona y mandona, la rubia es sumisa y tímida. Listo ya te dije todo sobre ellos.

Lo malo no es solo que estén tan bien caracterizados como una tabla, sino que ademas les intentan dar una clase de exploración a cada uno en un buen número de capítulos, exploración que no vale verga porque nunca evolucionan realmente y solo son momentos de relajación, los cuales no tienen sentido cuando están en medio de una guerra, deberían estar pensando en como ganar en lugar de jugar a la casita. Además que no entiendo para que lo hacen, son molestos y son complementarios del duo principal, no poseen nada de independencia, ya que todos aman a Hiro en secreto por darles nombres. Y parece que su única función dentro de la historia es para crear triángulos amorosos, como el de Hiro con 02 e Ichigo, que luego meten al rubio también. Es un anime infestado de parejitas de esas que gustan a las fanbases. Lo que más me molesta es el montón de momentos fetichistas que originan, como ese asqueroso momento donde la rubia fornica con el chico resentido, solo para que el gordo se sintiese triggereado, lo que es netorare en todo el esplendor de la palabra, asco, o que hay de ese montón de escenas donde tanto chicos como chicas están desnudos y hacen puros chistes sexuales, fanservice del duro. El nivel de masoquismo y morbo en esta serie es ridículo y bien edgy con todos deprimidos por razones tan banales y otras tan exageradas y fuera de tono por la locura de sus personajes y la razón por la que existen, que es solo pelear desesperadamente contra esos monstruos hasta que mueran y ver como de la nada enloquecen al recordar eso.

Ya hablando más de la historia, como les he contado, se supone que es una historia de supervivencia, la cual no me la puedo tomar en serio, no solo por todo lo antes mencionado, como lo de borrar la memoria para entorpecer la información, los tiempos muertos y todo el fanservice. Los plot twist no tienen mucho sentido, son muy bruscos, como el infame giro de la reina klausoxaurio que termina con todos yendo al puto espacio de la nada con un enemigo sacado del trasero, lo que hizo que casi todos la que la vieron se diesen cuenta que no tenía sentido. O que hay de la revelación que les dije con anterioridad sobre lo de Hiro con 02 y el trasfondo del mundo, realmente me cuesta creerme tantas tonterías.

Las ideas no están mal, no tiene mal worlbuilding, al menos en un inicio ya que los giros destruyeron toda su plausibilidad. Pero de todos modos tampoco me importa, su exposición es muy corta y limitada como para darle una buena exploración, lo que ocurre con todos los eventos en este show, todo va tan rápido que no te da tiempo para que te importe.

La serie tuvo sus momentos sin embargo en los que metía cosas interesantes que pudieron dar a un buen desarrollo, el problema es que la serie es tan inepta que se olvida de ellos y hacen como si nada hubiese pasado, como el capítulo en la que iban de excursión a la ciudad, donde el mocoso se separa y se encuentra con una vieja que debe mantener a su esposo, se habían incluso hecho insinuaciones de que ese era el destino de la gente aquí y que posiblemente sea familiar del chico. Adivinen, solo se fue a pesar de haber tenido cierto rastro de desarrollo al sentirse mal por lo que vio ahí y las posible relación que tenga con la vieja, y volvió a como era en un inicio, dios como cagas un desarrollo de esa forma.

La serie además de eso es bien pretenciosa, como en el primer capitulo donde hacen una clase de metáfora con un ave la cual no le veo mucho sentido de que relevancia tiene con esta historia, o que tal ese cuento literario sobre la princesa que era un monstruo y mataba a su esposo, cual se supone que era el mensaje?, que la discriminación está mal como lo que le hacen a 02, a pesar de que tanto ella como la princesa del cuento son putas bestias hambrientas que buscan una presa a la cual apegarse? Qué clase de mensaje retrasado es ese?.

Darling in the FranXX es una serie atípica por lo que dije en el prólogo, ya que es odiada por toda en vez de ser amada como tanto le gusta a la gente, y en serio entiendo el revuelo, tiene un montón de sexualidad de principio a fin, pero eso no evita que sea un anime altamente sobrevalorado. Nada recomendable, sucio, nauseabundo, pretencioso, edgy, y nada serio, y eso que de seguro le puedo tirar más mierda que la que le estoy echando ahora .

Darling in the FranXX is a fine example of what modern anime have become and why they are throwaway trash. They are doing nothing but reusing older ideas, instead of having new ones. And on top of that, they don’t even do a good job at rehashing the same ideas. They are not trying to improve or refine them. They just make them more creepy, sexual, and edgy.

They also ride on the name of who made them, instead of how good they are on their own, and do their best to keep you interested with how absurd they are by constantly making up memes and crazy situations, without actually caring about the quality of the script or good characterization.

The show does its best to make you hate everything from the very beginning. You get the scene where they establish the main character, and all you get is a bland self-insert who recites emo poetry and there is an injured bird that symbolizes something. First impressions are crucial to like a character, and instead of giving you an interesting personality, or a cool design, or a sad backdrop, they throw in stolen quotes and symbolism, which have nothing to do with him as a person or you liking him.

This is all nothing but pretentious overthinking replacing characterization. How can you still care after that? Same thing with the main female character. The establishing scene is about her being naked and crazy. What is there to care about her after that, besides the doujin you will look for when you want to masturbate?

The majority of modern anime fans are fine with this trash, because they gave up on expecting to watch something good. Most of the community was calling this abomination the best title of the year, just so they can be part of the seasonal hype, write essays about symbolism, make theories about what might happen, only to lose interest as soon as it’s over, so they can move to the next trash that is about to come out.

But until that happens, they will be kept preoccupied with two seasons of boring one-dimensional characters, each one defined by type rather than an interesting personality, as they spend their time trying to understand sex. Just by this set-up, you know this is bad from the get-go, since everything is defined by sexual fitishes, numbers and percentages instead of, you know, personalities.

The characters have nothing to do outside of piloting waifubots by doing doggy style sex. This gets old very fast, since you don’t give a shit about action scenes that involve awful mecha designs and sex metaphors. Plus, the characters have no backdrop story since they haven’t done anything interesting in their whole lives. Their social interaction is limited to talking to equally flat people like themselves. Also, there are so many of them it becomes a snorefest to tolerate an episode dedicated to each of them; especially when you know only the main two characters matter in the story. Most others don’t contribute to the plot in any way; they are just there to waste episodes on sexual innuendos.

It could have been a decent watch if it stayed that way and didn’t try to have a plot or deeper meanings, but it did and it backfired horribly. For most of the episodes, there were no explanations for why they are fighting monsters or why the world looks like a huge desert. The writers were constantly teasing an answer to all that, and did nothing to prepare the audience for it, since most of the episodes were wasted on the sexual frustrations of inept waifubot pilots. All the emphasis was placed on vapid love triangles, cheating, cuckholding, and shameless references to older mecha. That also became the only thing the audience of this abomination cared about.

Evidence for how little thought was placed into the making of the cast can be found when observing what happens to them once they manage to resolve the conflict they were written with during their inception. The single trait that was defining them ceases to exist, and they become black pieces of paper, since whatever specs of personality they had was defined by their conflict. Essentially, the moment their emotional baggage is lifted, they stop having a personality.

Eventually the explanations for the mystery arrive in a rushed and retarded way, completely changing the atmosphere of the show, and as if by magic everybody realized the show was crap all along, despite that being obvious from the very beginning. After that, everybody was calling it a trainwreck and wondered how Trigger, the savior of anime, ruined the potentially best anime of the year (lol).

Some tried to defend this horseshit by saying previous Trigger and Gainax series were also becoming bizarre as time went on, and that it’s unfair to hate Darling when it was constantly reusing ideas from them. Those defenders are of course idiots who don’t see how said older anime had far fewer characters, with far more personality and backdrop stories, and had much smoother transitions by not wasting as many episodes on worthless characters, thus being left with enough duration to work things through a lot better.

But hey, this is a modern anime, so who gives a shit about any of that? The point is to hype it while it airs, forget it the moment is over, and move to the next trainwreck.

Pre-airing Expectations

Darling in the Franxx is about a post-apocalyptic Earth where the remnants of humanity live in mobile cities called Plantations where human-like mechas known as Franxx piloted in a peculiar position must defend them from monsters called Klaxosaurs; the Franxx and Klaxosuars engage in epic bloody duels every single day where they will tear each other limb from limb and the victor drinks the blood of their slayed enemy, returning home to party it up with dystopian house music reverberating every nook and cranny while bathing in the blood of their fallen enemy before engaging in intense love making sessions from their partners that lasts all night long!…from what I described, this mecha anime should be the coolest show since Toppen Tengen Gurren Lagann, correct? What if I told you that this isn’t the reason this mecha was so highly anticipated and you must throw away this awesome premise in the junkyard? Disappointing, right? The real reason this mecha was so anticipated is because of one, simple fact…waifu wars.

Darling in the Franxx was the most overhyped anime in the season it came out. However, as proven with so many other hyped anime in recent years, it was bound to end nowhere near as interesting or “good” as it begun. Somewhere along the line, it would lose everything that made it appealing to begin with.

Art, Animation and Sound

The most obvious reason why people got into this show was because of its high quality production values thanks to mainly Studio Trigger with some help from A1 Pictures’ subsidiary Cloverworks, having crystal clear art and fluid, sakuga animation that maintains its consistency throughout, resulting in a blended mix of good looking art and well animated fight scenes. You will never find an eye-jaring moment within the show and you will be constantly hooked by the clean animated fights between the plain looking human mechas and the dull designed Klaxosaurs.

Although the designs of most of Squad 13 are also plain and generically looking like their mecha counterparts; this is where you see A1 Pictures’ influence in the design and combined with Studio Trigger’s animation, this makes a weird but mixed blend of solid art and animation. However, you will not be bothered by these bland designs nor care as the great consistent art subverts your eye from the unnoteworthy designs. If you want a better reason the designs of the show won’t bother anyone nor is because the lead female Zero Two is ideal waifu material, having a god-tier design in comparison to her dull looking colleagues; she is a monster girl with pink hair with red horns that have a connecting head band and distinct eye cosmetic wearing a far better coloured uniform than the simple grey ones of her colleagues. Because of this focal point that keeps them too focused to care about the bland designs of the other characters, there won’t be many who will criticize the show’s designs and for good reason.

When it comes to music, Darling in the Franxx’s opening song, Kiss of Death, gives the show self-identification and one of the defining features of it in a similar vein to Neon Genesis Evangelion’s A Cruel Angel’s Thesis. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the show’s soundtrack since I could not hear any memorable pieces outside of Kiss of Death.

Story and Characters

Squad 13, Assemble!

The show follows a group of ten pilots who ride mechas in boy-girl pairs where you will learn about them and see their growth as characters while they fight the Klaxosaurs. The first half of the show does a able job in showing the daily lives of the characters, their personal conflicts with each other and their bonding with one another; I was even accepting of their time at the beach since and I am no fan of beach episodes. Another aspect the show was doing well at was teamwork; Squad 13 needed to work together to defeat the Klaxosaurs and didn’t rely on solely brute force. The pilots time bonding with one another blended well with their teamwork on the battlefield as it helped them trust one another and come up with tactics to beat their enemies instead of relying on a new weapon or mecha. The show was even giving the spotlight to all ten pilots instead of focusing solely on the main male lead, Hiro and the main female lead, Zero Two.

Darling in the Franxx was being a mecha anime where bonding together had merit, teamwork meant something and where every pilot could shine in the spotlight; it wasn’t being your typical mecha where only two characters had all the spotlight, they are only ones who can save the world and get all the newest and latest equipment along with some powerup. Darling in the Franxx was giving everyone the chance to have their fair share of the spoils of war.

Of course, bonding together and teamwork is fine and dandy when it comes to the battlefield, but no so much when the show spends too much time on this and barely gives the cast personalities. Unfortunately, because the show had reached its halfway point by focusing too much on bonds and teamwork instead of balancing between this and characterization, there wasn’t enough to give the cast their own personalities and they remain mecha cut-outs defined by some personality quirk. All of this would later become a major problem because it gives in to what it scorns.

Manchild Controversy

After a battle with the Klaxosaurs, the other eight pilots discover that Zero Two was draining Hiro’s life force, so they stop the two from meeting, with Ichigo leading the pack who tried to win back Hiro as her love. This wasn’t well received from the fandom because Ichigo was being a bitch all the time towards their favourite shipping and was attempting to steal Hiro away which made this a controversy. As a result, the fandom became triggered and raged heavily against the creators of the show such as the usual death threats or memes that ridicule Ichigo. With that said, I saw this a nothing more than the typical anime controversy that usually blows over within a week. For my personal take, I never saw Ichigo’s actions against Zero as divisive; I was glad to see this selfish and bold act since it was reasonable, well founded and could lead to character progression and eventually development. But since Zero Two said “Daaling”, the fandom sided with her despite her being completely self-centred attitude while Ichigo was labled as a manipulative bitch.
However, this controversy would have long-lasting affects on the rest of the show because after that the show became completely different from thereon.

The Hiro and Zero Two Show

A major battle takes place that will determine the victors later. Did Squad 13 work together to defeat the Klaxosaurs in this tide turning battle? Nope! Hiro and Zero Two get a colour swapped powerup and defeat their enemies in the usual over-the-top manner with no tactics whatsoever, and Ichigo along with the other pilots just accept their relationship despite being against it earlier. This completely went against everything the show was trying to stand for, so Darling in the Franxx devolves into the very thing that makes mecha anime bad; only two characters have all the spotlight, they are only ones who can save the world and get all the newest and latest equipment along with some powerup while everyone else is backdoor dressing to make the main leads far superior than them.

I see why this was the case; due to the controversy, the writers had no choice but to scrap their original script and hastily write a new one…based on the fandom’s favourite shipping, in this case Hiro and Zero Two. After the fandom got their stupid shipping, the writers had no idea where to take the show next since they threw out the original script, resulting in a disted and badly guided mess that ironically made more controversy. Despite this negative impact, the controversy might be one of the two reasons for watching this show to begin with.

My Sexual Experience…with Right-Wing Propaganda

After this major “victory”, the pilots are supposedly abandoned and must fend for themselves; they do this by…doing slice-of-nothing ever happens and exploring their sexuality. How can a show jump into sexuality when it doesn’t even have any experience with characterization? You will learn that Kokoro wants a baby, Mitsuru goes either way, Ikuno is a lesbian and Futoshi is gender-neutral because no one wants to “ride with him”; the rest of the characters such as Gorou, Ichigo, Miku and Zorome become background decoration so that the flagship of Hiro and Zero Two sails on forever. Such lovely characterization.

This ironic controversy led to some believing that Darling in the Franxx was promoting right wing propaganda. How can a show that isn’t subtle have such hidden political messages when it can barely tell a story? The way the pilots fly their mechas is clearly sexual intercourse and the way the Plantations connect with each other is clearly kissing. Even the title of the show, Darling in the Franxx, might as well be a reference to human reproduction organs. So, where’s the hidden messages in all of this?

Waifu Wars?

Although this show became fan pandering towards ships to please the fandom, the irony behind this is that there are no waifus; there’s only Zero Two. As stated, Zero Two has a god-tier design when compared to her bland looking colleagues; she knows much more than them about sexuality, acts far more erotically such as gorging on honey or hand out kiss lips with Hiro and can portray puppy dog eyes that makes anyone instantly forgive her. Seriously, what do the other female pilots have that would make them better than Zero Two in of personality and design? Nothing, there’s no competition; Zero Two is the only true ideal waifu. So the show doesn’t even do waifu wars correctly since there are no other waifus to ship. Still, its impressive to make one character stand out than the rest on a podium; if you ever plan to watch this mecha anime, Zero Two will be the second reason for doing so because she is utterly waifu material. Of course, that hardly makes her a good character.

Downfall of the Planet of the APE

Because the show spent too much time on exploring the sexuality of its characters and fan pandering, it barely had time to expand on its world-building set up in the beginning, resulting in a terrible info dump that makes the world-building sloppy and weak. How am I supposed to find it plausible that every human nation of the world just gave in to APE’s immortality plan without any fight and allow them to rule the world? The reason humanity has immortality is because of magma…which isn’t given enough reasoning or a pseudo-scientific explanation to make this scientifically impossible feat feasible.

Taking magma from the Earth awakened the Klaxosaurs, so the new APE society needed man-made machines to fight them called Franxx which began this whole conflict. Why did Dr. Franxx and his team only discover the fundamental reason for piloting them after they had already built them?

It is also revealed that APE can brainwash and remove memories; when a show introduces brainwashing, then characterization means nothing; brainwashing is simply bad writing. Even when APE had brainwashing to stop Kokoro and Mitsuru from exploring sexuality, why didn’t they also remove the rest of Squad 13’s memories about exploring sexuality if this was so detrimental to them?

Typical Trigger Twist

Oh, yes, Studio Trigger just loves its over-the-top plot twists. It is revealed…that it was VIRM, aka aliens, all along! How? There was no build-up nor foreshowing for the VIRM to be introduced. It also isn’t helpful that this twist doesn’t fit in with the show’s serious tone; it worked in Kill La Kill because it had a more chaotic and whimsical tone to work. Here, it comes off jarring and off-putting.

Once again, Hiro and Zero Two save the day because they are the only ones who truly matter in this show since everyone else became background characters who don’t mean anything. I’m not sure how the power of love can overcome unknown advanced alien technology, but who am I to digress at this point.

The Millennial Waifu Problem

With APE gone, the pilots must fend for themselves and this is the part that encapsulates the show’s problems:

None of the main cast barely have any personality since the show didn’t balance out between bonding and characterization at the beginning; they end up being hollow imitations of what they could have been in the original script and instead serve the flagship of Hiro and Zero Two. Miku and Zorome are dysfunctional characters who serve the flagship, Futoshi and Ikuno are mishandled characters who serve the flagship and Mitsuru and Kokoro are misguided characters who serve the flagship.

Ichigo and Goro are the best characters in the entire show; they are far better handled than the rest, are more proactive than the rest and don’t automatically serve the flagship; they call out Zero Two and Hiro’s selfishness respectively and are true team players. But the fandom won’t care about Ichigo and Goro since they have bland designs and personality, so who would want to watch them when the fandom prefers the flagship of Hiro and Zero Two.

Hiro and Zero Two are the worst characters in the show. Hiro is a typical blunt dork and a self-centred, entitled prick who only cares about his waifu while Zero Two is a typical pink-haired girl who only got her top-tier waifu status for having a much better design than the rest of them and a selfish entitled bitch who only cares about her husbando. Everything revolves around them since they are the flagship the fandom wants which makes the story suffer and everyone else automatically bows to their whims preventing anyone else from having any spotlight. Not even their romance is interesting and ends up being boring since it only boils down to them reaffirming their love for one another, making it a sickening co-dependent relationship.

Just Divorce Already

Because only the flagship matters and nothing else, the rest of the gang go along with Hiro to save his waifu and stop the VIRM invasion…and it was so boring that I was too busy eye-rolling into the back of my head that I was seeing my cerebral brain fluid instead of cool mechas ripping the living hell out of monstrous enemies in this fear-gripping penultimate finale…Oh, wait, there wasn’t any of that to begin with, was there? As usual, Hiro and Zero Two save the day in another bore-inducing last minute save where they blow up VIRM and walk across the space wedding aisle because Zero Two is now a mecha wearing a wedding dress to meet with VIRM’s leaders…

Which leads into another bore-inducing rushed finale, that is ripped off-Gunbuster style and with the power of typical Trigger nonsense, they defeat VIRM but at the cost of sacrificing their bodies which will take them hundreds of years to regenerate…but who cares because I don’t. And that’s the end…wait, I feel like I’m forgetting something…wasn’t there other characters besides those two? Yes, there are but they don’t matter. But if you are wondering, the other characters engage in slice-of-nothing ever happens, for the umpteenth time, and start building their own lives with a new society of children after emulating the example set by some misguided characters…all done in an rushed infodump because that’s how much the show truly cared about them from the second half onwards.

Overall Analysis

Darling in the Franxx was an ambitious attempt to separate itself from the rest of its mecha kind by focusing on all its characters and giving them the fair share of the spoils instead of just two characters hogging all the glory; I was pleased that the show did that and was mildly enjoying it…until the second half where it became a fan-pandering mess and I started eye rolling it for devolving into a typical mecha show where only two characters matter and only they can save the world, get much better equipment and power ups and everyone else is background decoration.

Despite the mess the show became, I do believe Darling in the Franxx ends up being a fine gateway mecha and case study for newcomers since it has all the pre-requisites done right such as art and animation, a notable opening song that gives the show self-identification, an interesting premise and promising characters; I call it a case study since it has a notable waifu war and controversy which newcomers can learn from, enabling them to understand the concept of waifu wars and past anime controversies.

What do I truly think of the show? Having never being a die-hard mecha fan to begin with, this show was nothing more than mediocre mecha scraps that I threw in the junkyard for being a cheap imitation of better mecha and for devolving into a fan-pandering mecha mess that caved into fan pressure; I highly doubt any mecha veteran will find enjoyment in this mediocrity since the show sits on its laurels for too long to tell anything of value.

As a whole, you will mainly watch this show for the nicely animated battle spectacles, understanding anime controversies and waifu wars but not for anything well-written; even newcomers will slowly realize that the show in the end was hardly good, see its missed potential and will seek out better mecha shows.

In the end, Darling in the Franxx’s worst enemy isn’t the so-called rivals in the show, it isn’t with each other, it isn’t APE nor is it VIRM; it is the fandom who was triggered about their favorite waifu shipping not getting the main spotlight and begged for their sickening ship to sail, which is why the show devolved so badly and became a jarring mess, thus ruining the fun for everyone else. If anyone’s to blame for Darling in the Franxx falling apart, it’s the fandom; they wanted a trashy waifu shipping, so they were served a trashy product. Serves them right.

So much for Studio Trigger saving anime.

Tl;dr – Darling in the Franxx had the right tools and gears in place that functioned mildly for a while, offering some nicely animated mecha battles in its potential dystopian world. However, because its nicely rounded teamwork building took too long, it was unable to do anything meaningful with its characters or story as it had become squandered by fan pressure before any of the buildup could lead to a better product. As such, Darling in the Franxx devolved into a fan-pandering, typical mecha jarring mess where only one shipping matters. Newcomers will gain knowledge and understanding about anime controversies and waifu-wars; as for everyone else, there is little entertainment value since the mechas are hardly seen, battles are sparse and whatever message or payoff the show was trying to give becomes misconstrued.