Darling in the FranXX

In the distant future, humanity has been driven to near-extinction by giant beasts known as Klaxosaurs, forcing the surviving humans to take refuge in massive fortress cities called Plantations. Children raised here are trained to pilot giant mechas known as FranXX—the only weapons known to be effective against the Klaxosaurs—in boy-girl pairs. Bred for the sole purpose of piloting these machines, these children know nothing of the outside world and are only able to prove their existence by defending their race.

Hiro, an aspiring FranXX pilot, has lost his motivation and self-confidence after failing an aptitude test. Skipping out on his class' graduation ceremony, Hiro retreats to a forest lake, where he encounters a mysterious girl with two horns growing out of her head. She introduces herself by her codename Zero Two, which is known to belong to an infamous FranXX pilot known as the "Partner Killer." Before Hiro can digest the encounter, the Plantation is rocked by a sudden Klaxosaur attack. Zero Two engages the creature in her FranXX, but it is heavily damaged in the skirmish and crashes near Hiro. Finding her partner dead, Zero Two invites Hiro to pilot the mecha with her, and the duo easily defeats the Klaxosaur in the ensuing fight. With a new partner by his side, Hiro has been given a chance at redemption for his past failures, but at what cost?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Zero Two Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Ichigo Main

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Hiro Main

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Kokoro Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Gorou Main

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Miku Main

Yamashita, Nanami Japanese

Mitsuru Main

Ichikawa, Aoi Japanese

Zorome Main

Tamura, Mutsumi Japanese

Ikuno Main

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Futoshi Main

Gotou, Hiroki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Wakabayashi, Hiromi Producer

Toba, Yousuke Producer

Kamagata, Eiichi Producer

Reviews

Jan 28, 2025

Tas_Ali

Recommended

The story was incredibly unique, standing out in a way that captivated my interest from the very beginning. The art style was equally breathtaking, and I found myself especially enamored with Zero Two's character design, which added a delightful touch to the visual experience. What I appreciated the most about this anime was the outstanding character development; it was executed so well that I still can’t get over it! Each character experienced significant growth throughout the series, making them feel more real and relatable. Overall, this anime truly felt like a masterpiece, and even though it did include several sexualized scenes, I believe that without ... those elements, it would have easily received a rating above 10 for sure. The characters were so well-crafted, and I particularly loved how everything wrapped up in the end—it was absolutely jaw-dropping! Without a doubt, I would give it a perfect score of 10 out of 10 for the amazing experience it provided!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jan 26, 2025

Supersonic_Pain

Mixed Feelings

This show frustrates me because I've given shows 4/10s before (spoilers for my score if you just wanna read that and react accordingly, I guess) but it's usually because it's bad but generally tolerable enough not to actively piss me off

DarliFra is not that way. This show has some low, low, DIRE points but idk, I can't say I hated it when I was sobbing by the end?

I guess I'll start with what the show starts with: This is the most aggressively hetero show to hetero

I obviously have no problem with shows being hetero but this is built around the premise that a boy needs ... a girl and a girl needs a boy. It's clearly shown that a same sex duo can't pilot a Franxx (what the mechs are called in this), there's a lot of talk about a bird that needs its opposite sex partner to fly otherwise it's worthless, there's a lesbian character in the show that doesn't really get to do much and is shrugged off by her love interest (I can't really talk about her more without getting into spoilers but yeah, poor girl), even the "parents" of the pilots are set up so the male is the emotionless leader and the female is the emotional caretaker.

It is AGGRESSIVELY, obnoxiously hetero. If you're gay or asexual or even just an incel, you might as well kick rocks in this show.

Speaking of which, the first 9 episodes are absolutely godawful. If I had more respect for my own time and had less of an aversion to dropping shows, I straight up would not have finished this. I thought Zero Two was the nastiest waifu ever, factory designed to be gooner bait (which... is probably still true but at least she has enough substance to be interesting), I hated her. The whole pouring honey on everything she eats, calling Hiro darling like she is Lum, licking people, catching a fish in her mouth while naked, it was a physically repulsive show for the first stretch. It was like an artificial carnivore girl designed so any imperfections were conveniently forgotten.

Not to mention the back to back beach episode and then 50s sitcom-ass "erm, you saw us naked, we're gonna split the house in half" and WaCkY sHeNaNiGaNs ensue.

To be quite honest, I probably should give this a "Not Recommended" because I wouldn't ever ask anyone to sit through the first 9 episodes.

But then one of the pilots sneaks off and learns more about the world in E10... and it actually starts to become interesting.

I guess I should talk about the pilots first.

I feel like a lot of them are just kinda... there. Goro is such a cuck, dude. Hiro already has his perfect waifu and Ichigo is just jumping at his feet like a puppy, begging for scraps, and Goro's more than fine letting Ichigo trample all over him for the first, like, 23 episodes. I hated Ichigo, total drag.

The Pink Franxx Duo... I mean... they're there, I guess? They did not really add or detract to my experience.

Mitsuru (who for most of the show, my brain INSISTED his name was Natsume, idk why) was cool but I felt like he had an unforced error regarding his character late in the show. It wasn't a bad twist or whatever at the time, but it never really gets resolved so what started as a natural character development then somehow loops into "why would he choose to do this". Again, I can't go further into it for spoilers but yeah.

Also, what the hell was up with Futoshi? Bro was only there for 2 things: to whine about [EVENT THAT HAPPENS IN EPISODE 11] and to be fat. Seriously. Like 90% of his lines are related to food or being fat. The gang visits someone in the hospital and I joked that Futoshi was going to take the food for himself since the patient didn't want to eat... AND THEN HE ACTUALLY DID IT. He ends up getting an eating disorder but Pink Franxx Guy just tells him to eat and then he does and it never really comes back up. I mean, it was an interesting plot point but it ends up just coming and going.

They also introduce an Elite group of Franxx pilots who work for Da Big Man called the Nines and these dudes barely matter. They narc on the protags like once, one rides with Hiro for one mission, they try to take Zero Two back occasionally, but for a group that could have easily been the main antagonists or something, they don't really do much.

Eventually, the protagonists end up doing some cool stuff talking about the world and letting the kids discover more about it and becoming more independent and rebelling against the system. I heard this show gets crazy around E15 and I mean it wasn't that- [EPISODE 20]

Wait, what was that?

[EPISODE 20]

What do you MEAN, DarliFra, you can't just do [that twist], you've got 4 episodes left?

I was actually gobsmacked, floored, suckerpunched by the twist in E20. It isn't the worst twist in the world... if this was, like, E12. But with 4 episodes left, it just introduces new characters that you don't give a shit about.

Really, it starts speedrunning even before that to cram everything it wanted to say in.

So the finale ends up being some Giant Space War against an antagonistic force you don't care about when mech battles have never been their strong suit.

Speaking of, the mech battles. I'll admit here, I never got around to watching Gundam and TTGL is still on my to-watch list so maybe I'm just not a mecha guy, I enjoyed Evangelion but if you asked me to name what I liked about it, I don't know if the mecha battles would hit the top 3. It's not really what I think of when I think Eva.

So take this with a grain of salt: I was bored by the mecha battles. Part of the problem to me was the klaxosaurs looked like generic enemies you'd fight in a DarliFra live service looter shooter or something, there are obviously more unique enemies but even they have the uniform black and blue design. I mentioned E1-9 was kind of repulsive but it was also pretty boring. Maybe I was spoiled by Trigger making Kill la Kill and Edgerunners, but DarliFra did not live up to those 2 shows by any imagination.

However, I ended up enjoying Hiro and Zero Two's relationship, I thought a certain other duo had a cute relationship even if [event] kind of spoiled it, there were a lot of nice moments that made this show worth watching for me.

I just think, as a whole, it's too uneven, it has a lot of bad events happening to spoil the anime, the mecha battles weren't that great, there are so many characters that are wasted, and it just overall has too much negatives for me to consider it a GOOD anime.

If you're a Trigger fan, a mecha fan, or a Zero Two gooner, you'll probably enjoy this show. Anyone else, I can't really recommend it because you have to wade through 9 episodes of crap to even maybe get a show you'll sometimes enjoy. I don't regret watching it but I dunno, it's probably the most uneven show I've seen. Watch with caution.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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May 28, 2024

0004_1

Not Recommended

Funny

No Short Recap, i dont really feel like doing one for this show

Art - 8/10 Animation is good, character models are good, CG if used is alright, Very trigger esk easily the high point of this show.

Characters 2/10 i hate 90% of characters, there is probably 3 characters that are likeable and don't act childish, I can understand characters acting childish if they are done in a true way how children act but how they are portrayed in Darling In The Franxx is just annoying.

Story 2/10 Story is boring, Basic and not unique, the most unique part of the story is when zero ... two turns into a spaceship.

OSt/Sound Design - 5/10 Nothing special here, alot of shouting from the kids in the show that gets annoying, but ost is fine and the opening is a banger.

Enjoyment - 5/10 I enjoyed the first half of the show and episode 15 decently, but the rest was all just shit story being dragged to fill out 24 episodes.

Overall 4/10 Do not watch this unless you want to be disappointed and lead on by a good opening and a cast of formidable characters. Not Worth.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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