Air Date: Jan 13, 2018 - Jul 7, 2018 Studios: Cloverworks (production); Trigger (animation) Episodes: 24 Hello and welcome back to my blog everyone! First of all, I wanted to apologize for missing last week. I was out of town to attend a wedding so I didn't have to time to get anything pushed out. Please forgive me! |д・) This week we will be looking at a crowd favorite this past winter season: Darling in the Franxx. This is kind of an odd anime as it has a lot going on and initially has a lot to digest. There are mysteries all over and sometimes it gets confusing for the timeline, but the characters are very much relate-able and loveable. I think this is why so many people liked them especially one of the protagonists named "Zero-Two". If you were at AX this past month, you would have seen a good amount of people dressed in her iconic red parasite suit. Let's not waste anymore time and jump into this love and action-filled anime! Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world, humanity is on the brink of extinction. In a never-ending war against giant creatures called "Klaxosaurs" humans are forced to live in man-made plantations created by an organization called "A.P.E." To combat off these Klaxosaurs, A.P.E has also created children (called Parasites) to pilot mechas called the Franxx. Parasites have to form a boy-girl pair in order to operate the Franxx. After the Parasite graduation, Hiro (Code 016) is the only one from his class unable to graduate. This is also the time when he first meets Zero Two: a klaxosaur-human hybrid with infamous red horns. During the graduation ceremony, a klaxosaur appears and Zero Two is seen to be piloting her Franxx alone (called going berserk where the Franxx takes a more animal-like form) fighting off the klaxosaur. After being flung to the side of the plantation, the Franxx spits out a dead pilot: Zero Two's partner. Driven by a desire to become a Parasite, Hiro becomes the partner for Zero Two where the both of them fight off the klaxosaur and save Hiro's plantation. Little did Hiro know, this was the beginning of the many mysteries to come. Storyline: I'm not too sure how I feel about this anime. It started off strong, then it went into fan-service mode, then the story started getting juicy and progressed magnificently, and then it just got weird. It felt like they were trying to put in a lot of stuff into this anime and at times threw off the pacing of the story. There were some episodes where it did not fit in with the preceding episodes and just seemed like they were all over the place before they realized that they have to get the series back on track and went back to the main story. I have to say though, the main story progression was especially intriguing and it was those episodes that wanted me to come back next week to find out more about these mysterious klaxosaurs and how the world ended up the way it did. There were more of these types of episodes than the odd-ball episodes, but that does not take away the fact that the "filler" episodes tarnished the quality of the series in my opinion. The main thing, I think, that grabbed a lot of people's attention were the characters and their development. These are kids who grew up knowing nothing but fighting the klaxosaurs to be protecting the adults in the world. As the series progresses, they learn that the world is way more complicated than they initially thought. The introduction of Zero Two to the squad changes the dynamic of the squad, between each other and the outside world. Squad 13 (the one Hiro is placed in) is a special test squad that the higher ups only know. This group is the only group where they gave each other names and do not call each other by their codes. This is in due part to Hiro while they were small children. Their inquisitive nature leads them in and out of situations where normal squads would have difficulty. Seeing the squad grow from their naive, innocent minds into something like adulthood is the best selling point this anime has. If anything, this is the part of the story that I would highly recommend watching for. Seeing their bonds as comrades as well as friends is something special. Music: Just play the opening on repeat. That is all for this section. Just kidding (>y<). But in all seriousness, the OP and ED are some of the best music to accompany an anime. The music totally embodies the tone and atmosphere of the series. I mean the song name for the OP is "Kiss of Death" which Hiro is basically doing with Zero Two. Kissing a half human, half klaxosaur can lead to consequences that neither Zero Two or Hiro could see coming and that is exactly how the story pans out to be. They think they figure something out, but then the next event happens and totally shatters their thought process. The ED is something that wraps up the end of episodes in a serene yet solemn kind of way. The background music throughout the series is something that compliments the scenes pretty well. Whoever was in charge of the score for this anime deserves to get some recognition because good music composition can make a mediocre anime into a great one. Art: The main thing about the art in this anime is the use of light. I always love when they play with the lighting of scenes and how they utilize it to enhance an object or person in particular scenes. One of the examples is when they are fighting in their Franxx. All the light reflects off of the armor from the mechas and gives you sense that this is the pride of humanity. These mechas are the reason why humanity is able to survive and continue to look toward a future. I also love the character design in this series. You can really tell the personalities of the characters based off of their design. I think we are in the golden age of character design and animation because the artists and animators do good work showing the little ticks to show the emotions of the characters. It's those subtle details that they put in that I enjoy catching and makes shows that much more enjoyable. Despite everyone loving Zero Two, I would have to say my favorite character design is Ichigo (Code 015). Maybe it's the hair... (Most definitely the hair...) I also want Zero Two's overcoat she wears in some episodes. That coat is so cool! The only thing that was kind of weird was the appearance of the faces on the Franxx. I was taken aback when I first saw it because normally we don't see faces on mechas and it just looked off. After a while, I got used to it and actually came to appreciate it because it shows that the Parasites and the Franxx are one in the same. This is especially true because you see that the faces on the Franxxs are those of the females in the pair. This makes more sense when you see the process of how they link to their Franxx. The only REALLY weird part are the final 3 episodes... That stuff is just really off-putting and strongly disliked a lot of the design. Overall Impression: I think this anime is pretty good for the most part. It could have definitely been done without all those filler episodes in the middle of the first season and the final 3 episodes, but other than that, it was actually a pretty solid anime. It had some good progression in the parts that mattered and had me sitting at the edge of my seat for the majority of the time, but I can't get over how they ended it. The ending episode was well done and closed out the anime pretty well, it's just the episodes that preceded it that made the quality of this anime fall. The music, animation, and overall concept of this anime was something that I enjoyed a lot and it was what initially got me hooked. I was glad I toughed it out through the filler episodes because it just got even better after such a strong opening. This anime isn't on the top of list of animes to watch but I was thoroughly surprised at how impressionable this anime was. I would have to give it an 7.5/10 only because the ending was just too weird for my taste. Thank you guys again for reading my posts! You don't know how fun this is for me to get out my thoughts on the many animes and mangas I read nowadays. I appreciate you guys for supporting me and I hope I give you guys some insight on some of the animes that you never heard of or on the fence of watching it or not. I'll see you guys next week!
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Coffee senpaiJust an Otaku who also loves his coffee. Grab some coffee and watch anime with me ٩(θ‿θ)۶ Posts for this blog every Friday!
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