Darling in the franxx overall review năm 2024

Darling in the Franxx was a controversial anime when it came out, but despite its clear flaws, the show's merits still make it worth watching.

Despite spawning many memes when it first aired, Darling in the Franxx is an anime that has been mostly forgotten. While some shows immediately cement themselves as classics and are talked about for years after they initially air, others quickly fade from memory, even if they had a lot of hype behind them at the time of their release. Darling in the Franxx appears to be among the latter group. However, now is the perfect time to rediscover the series.

Darling in the Franxx was released in 2018 and co-produced by A-1 Pictures and Studio TRIGGER, with Studio TRIGGER and CloverWorks handling the animation. The series is set in a dystopian future where humanity is hanging on by a thread after an apocalypse. Humanity has abandoned the Earth's surface, and adults and children live separately. Adults are immortal and live in futuristic cities, but they are not allowed to procreate or have relationships with each other. The children, on the other hand, are artificial creations called parasites. They live in places called birdcages, where they are trained to operate mechs called Franxx.

The Franxx are important, as they are used to fight off creatures called klaxosaurs. Each Franxx requires a boy-girl pair who synchronize with each other to control the mech. The series is set in one of the world's birdcages, Plantation 13. Hiro is a pilot prodigy who is marked for greatness. However, he fails the final Franxx exam, as he is no longer able to synchronize with his partner. While he is avoiding the graduation ceremony, he meets Zero Two, a pilot with klaxosaur blood. Zero Two is called the "partner killer," as her partners always die when they synchronize with her for the third time. Despite this, Zero Two and Hiro end up forming an uneasy bond.

After it came out, the show was the center of some controversy. Many people criticized the amount of sexual innuendo as being inappropriate for a show with a teenaged cast. Others noted that the plot felt overly rushed in the show's second half, making the story confusing and hard to follow. Some also argued the second half failed to successfully capitalize on the characters and world-building that came before it. These criticisms only grew louder after the show's ending. Many fans and critics called the final episode a massive anti-climax and said it felt like it had been hastily written to meet a deadline.

However, many reviewers praised the show for its frank examination of the confusing coming-of-age experience and for its unique plot, which explores modern issues through a sci-fi anime lens. Positive reviews also drew attention to the show's characters, who are well-developed and memorable. This is evidenced by the fact that Zero Two became extremely popular in certain anime circles, with memes that feature her still being common today. Studio TRIGGER's animation also received lots of praise, and the series features all of Studio TRIGGER's usual hallmarks.

Looking back, Darling in the Franxx seems like a textbook example of a mediocre ending ruining a show's legacy. Even positive reviews agreed that the rushed second half led to an average finale that didn't live up to expectations. This means that many people simply won't recommend the show due to the disappointment of the ending sticking in their minds and overwhelming their positive memories of the show.

However, Darling in the Franxx is a show worth rediscovering. Despite its flaws, it is a very unique series that is unlike anything else around. While the second half may feel rushed, the show still has a memorable world, fascinating characters, and all the beautiful designs and animation that you would expect from a Studio TRIGGER production. Darling in the Franxx is not perfect, but it is a creative take on the mecha genre, and it will likely inspire future creators to experiment further with the genre.

Darling in the Franxx is a mess of good ideas marred by poor pacing and an unwillingness to make the most of its material. On the surface the premise is absurd. Teenagers who don’t know the first thing about sexual relationships due to never getting educated on the subject, are raised to pilot the Franxx mecha in male-female pairs. This involves the girl crouching bent on all fours over with a display on her back and handles attached to the butt of her uniform that the boy sitting behind her uses to pilot. Darling is not subtle with its imagery.

The series follows five pairs of pilots, but for the most part it’s Hiro and Zero’s show. For some reason Hiro fails at being a pilot for anyone other Zero, despite his high aptitude scores, and Zero is a hybrid that is both human and klaxosaur (the klaxosaurs being the kaiju the Franxx were created to fight).

At first their relationship is refreshing. Zero is worldly in a way Hiro and his friends are not, so she’s happy to introduce Hiro to this thing called kissing and she makes it pretty clear that she likes him in a setting where the characters don’t even have a word for romantic affection. Zero and Hiro become a couple before the first few episodes are over, which is incredibly fast for an anime, and their relationship is probably the biggest joy in the first half of the series.

Which is why it’s unfortunate that their relationship also becomes one of the worst things about it in the second half. It’s not just the feeling that the writers didn’t know how a relationship naturally progresses, but their behavior towards each other and the promises they make are inconsistent at best, head-banging at worst, to the point that in the final third they passed from my favorite characters to my least favorite.

And the series is constantly doing this. It sets up something really well in the first half, either through its plot or its worldbuilding, and then stumbles in the second. The real enemy of the series doesn’t even get revealed until the final five episodes, by which point there is so much to unpack that it’s not possible give the series the proper send-off it deserved.

Also worth noting is what the show does with its queer characters. Ikuno is a female pilot, and would love nothing more than to co-pilot with the girl she cares about, but the Franxx mecha literally will not work that way. They try, though the girl she likes, Ichigo, doesn’t read into the situation at all, and Ichigo is firmly heterosexual.

Mitsuru, who is implied to be bisexual, has a functioning co-pilot relationship with Ikuno (odd that the two queers start the series piloting together), but clearly doesn’t click with her, and it’s only with another female pilot that he eventually finds acceptance.

While it’s fine that a bisexual character ends up in a heterosexual relationship, the series’ forced heteronormative pairings send a message by letting Mitsuru find happiness, while Ikuno is left irritable and single. And the thing is, the show could have not addressed this at all and just had all the characters be heterosexual without bringing up that some people would have a real problem in this setting. Instead it brings it up, but any possible social commentary shoots itself in the foot.

On the animation front though, the mecha designs are unique, featuring cartoon-faced robots on spindly legs that don’t quite look like anything that has come before, drawn in the signature style of the lead animation studio, Trigger. Though Trigger shares animation duties with A-1 Pictures’ CloverWorks, it’s possible to see that it handled a fair number of the combat scenes due to the animation style it established in previous series like Kill la Kill.

The klaxosaurs themselves are impressive. Though they aren’t distinct enough for the average viewer to start categorizing them on their own, each fight is unique and the series doesn’t recycle previous types so the fights don’t get stuck in a routine. I don’t quite buy the worldbuilding once the series gets around to explaining them, but early on they’re a satisfying menace and one that cannot be negotiated with.

I find Darling in the Franxx difficult to recommend because its downhill slide is so steep. It had a lot of promise in the beginning, and I think the failure to live to up that hurts more than if it had been a mediocre project to begin with. It’s not terrible, and there were still some parts of the ending that I liked, but it’s clear that the main plot took too long to get going and the writers really didn’t know where to take Zero and Hiro. The rest of the cast, though they don’t get as much focus, come out of the experience a lot better.

Number of Episodes: 24

Pluses: Interesting exploration of adolescence with no knowledge of human reproduction, unique mecha and monster designs, promising world building

Minuses: Plot falls apart at the end, Zero loses the agency that made her such an interesting character at the start, LGBT characters are not handled well

Darling in the Franxx is currently streaming at Crunchyroll (subtitled) and Funimation (dubbed). Funimation has licensed this for eventual retail distribution in the US.

Why is darling in the Franxx so popular?

As the main character of Darling In The Franxx, Zero Two has been praised for her strong and unique personality. She paved the way for Darling In The Franxx to be a well-respected mecha anime by adding depth and interest into their world's dystopian backstory.

Why do people dislike darling in the franxx ending?

Some fans were annoyed by the lack of main character deaths. The only important people who die are Dr. Franxx, an antagonistic Franxx pilot nobody liked, and a girl who deserved better. Hiro and Zero Two also died, but they were eventually reincarnated, which also doesn't belong in a hard sci-fi series.

Is darling in the franxx a love anime?

Some reviews praised the large focus of the series on its coming-of-age and romance elements.

Does darling in the franxx have a sad ending?

Hiro and Zero Two die in the process of defending Earth from VIRM, and the series ends with the two of them meeting again as children, having been reincarnated on Earth, where the human race is now thriving again.