Darling in the FranXX Episode 12 Discussion

Makaze_no_Moujuu said:


Hardly. It's predictable as hell.

Also, ep 12 saved a 24ep series? Anyone still watching, is only doing so because they love Trigger, and want to support them. Also, for animation showcases like episode 11 was.

NamelessWaltz said:
Horrible episode, bunch of nonsense ... Monster? Curse? Didnt they already speak about it in the first episodes? Isnt it the time to reveal what is that thing which makes her a Monster? Why does she look different from other human beings? Still not very impressed with the episode. At some point it just felt like they are trying to enforce some stupid drama that nobody cares about, holy s*it zero two's behaviour even started to annoy me.

P.S I noticed them saying that the Klaxosaurs have never been spotted in the area where they are growing those children, yet in the first episode we see the same scenary with Zero 2 and Klaxosaurs around her ... Ummm wat?

freecaio said:


what i meant is that if we would have gotten an episode like the 11th was, many would have probably dropped the series

araneathedragoon said:


Give some time for Futoshi, he will be a good guy. ;)

Makaze_no_Moujuu said:


It's ep12 of 24...how much more time do the writers need?

Hell, why are there this many characters on the team if the writers can't develop them?

There should only be six main characters: Ichigo, Hiro, 02, Goro, Kokoro, and Mitsuru.

Those are the only characters they've done anything at all for, writing wise.

cupc said:
It was stated in the earlier episodes quite clearly that the reason Hiro wants to pair up with 02 is to feel a purpose in life, something I assume is due to the 'stamen' nature of things, humans grown to fight.

Now, he clearly has developed an interest for her, thinks of her as a friend and worries about her as well. I'm not sure if Hiro knows if he truly has romantic feelings for her at this point; it certainly does not seem so with all the the beta shit he's pulling off

But I think the relationship between Hiro and 02 is fine by anime standards -- pretty cute

cupc said:
It was stated in the earlier episodes quite clearly that the reason Hiro wants to pair up with 02 is to feel a purpose in life, something I assume is due to the 'stamen' nature of things, humans grown to fight.

Now, he clearly has developed an interest for her, thinks of her as a friend and worries about her as well. I'm not sure if Hiro knows if he truly has romantic feelings for her at this point; it certainly does not seem so with all the the beta shit he's pulling off

But I think the relationship between Hiro and 02 is fine by anime standards -- pretty cute

Makaze_no_Moujuu said:
Hiro already realized he was just using her to find a purpose in life. He then decided to he would push to help her as well...but we've gotten nothing on that end. What do they do together? Do they talk? Do they play? Do they read books? Do they cook?

He loves her because the plot demands it.

Makaze_no_Moujuu said:


I already addressed that. What I asked is why does he now like her, beyond giving him the ability to pilot? Hiro already realized he was just using her to find a purpose in life. He then decided to he would push to help her as well...but we've gotten nothing on that end. What do they do together? Do they talk? Do they play? Do they read books? Do they cook?

He loves her because the plot demands it.

Also, while most anime romances suck, that doesn't mean this one has to.

110cono said:
Question: Will there be a new episode next week as it is a 24 episode season, or is there going to be a break for now?

cupc said:


I mean he's definitely trying to help by approaching her about her transformation to a monster girl in several episodes now. Is it working? Not really, but I think that's the more interesting plot direction to take here, rather than resolving everything instantly.

With this show already having enough problems with runtime as it is, leaving out mundane things friends typically do together such as playing and reading is probably a good idea

GranSaiyaman said:

They used to eat together and play around a little bit as far as we know, but I think that's all.

Btw, you don't need to have common interests or thoughts to fall in love, there's not an exact formula for it; you can say that Hiro started to feel attracted to 002 at first and that gave him the ability to pilot the FranXX, and then he realizes he wants to see her happy and not suffering as shown in the 6th episode (if I recall), when he was kinda dying.

Revvie-chan said:
Man I want to drop this piece of shit of a series already but if I drop it I can't shittalk about it.

Revvie-chan said:
Man I want to drop this piece of shit of a series already but if I drop it I can't shittalk about it.

ConfusionHaze said:
To be honest I kinda wanted to know what comes after kissing...


I guess we'll have to wait a couple of episodes more to know >.<

Sasora said:
This is a huge episode.

Don't know why people are hating on this episode.. I'm assuming this is when shit is going to get real.

And it's so hilarious how everyone is reacting the same way to when she said "You're just fodder". That actually triggered me too LOL.

There's also some huge ?'s. She said at the beginning "Found you" so this assumes she remembers Hiro from the past......... But now she doesn't know it's him? What? And didn't she say he was her first darling. What the fuck? LOL. Yeah that's the issue with the series so far..

GranSaiyaman said:

This is a great theory, I'm susprised-sad no one highlighted it :/

About this episode we've got to see that "personality issue" that 002's been building finally unleashed, I never liked her as a character but this episode makes me see her with different eyes; I won't say I like her now but now I understand more her own personality and her reasons to fight. I won't go with theories because I want to see what happens next (that doesn't stop me from thinking about some tho, but won't share them... Not now at least). Looking forward to the next episode.



Mod Edit: Removed quote of deleted post.

Tomlora said:

- We know Hiro has a memory loss... but I think Zero Two wants him to remember his past... and she tries many times :
> She's looking for a book (ep 12)... It's probably the book we can see at the end (flashback) -> "It's a story about a tribe, here they're being referred to as demons/monsters. They lived peacefully in a forest and have big wings on their back. In that forest there is a girl, she has long grey wings on her back. When they turn 16 years old, they are then allowed to leave this forest by flying away with the help of their wings."

GosuGian said:
That was a fun episode. We got some theory confirmation, some world building, some Zero Two backstory, some fighting, and a love confession by Hiro. Still haven't gotten to the Grand Crevasse but we'll get there eventually. Lets start by talking about the Garden. It seems like potential Franxx pilots come to the Garden and are injected with dosages of yellow blood cells. We don't know if all children in the Darling in the Franxx universe are sent there, but it seems like a large portion of them probably are. The "Nursery Lab 3" that we see on Zorome's and Mitsuru's profiles is actually a research facility within the Garden itself and it seems that certain parasites are brought there for special experimentation. Only members of the group that have been there are Mitsuru, Hiro, and Zero Two. We know that Mitsuru was there for his Elixer Injection, but as for Hiro, we still don't know what makes him special. We can assume that Zero Two may have spent most of her time there as a child because of her klaxosaur blood. It has been confirmed in this episode that the red-skinned child from the intro is Zero Two, in what we can assume to be her "klaxosaur form". I'll talk more about her later. We can see that the kids at the Garden are being given yellow blood cell injections way earlier than what Kokoro seems to think is normal. The worker at the Garden explains that it is because of increased klaxosaur activity, and a need for capable and obedient pilots. This is worrying, because this implies that those young kids are possibly being partnered up, put into Franxx's, and being sent off to die fighting klaxosaurs. Talk about living fast and dying young. Not much else to gather from the Garden itself. Like the name entails, it's a parasite development facility. Some small things to note are that all the plantations seem to be convening at the Grand Crevasse which means we can probably expect a large battle pretty soon. This would explain why they need to churn out more Franxx pilots as well. It's clear at this point that none of the kids become adults, and that many of them may actually turn into klaxosaurs. (More on this later.) The group is still unaware of their mission to the Grand Crevasse. Ape probably isn't telling them, because of the likeliness of many of them dying. It would definitely be sad to see any of them die.

Now we come to one of the biggest questions in the series, what are yellow blood cells? These made up cells have been a question for debate since the beginning of the series and even at episode 12 we still don't know much of anything. This episode gives us a few more clues. At 9:27 we can see the injections that the kids are given are labeled AG-YBC. A possible meaning for this could be antigen-yellow blood cell. I think it's becoming more and more clear that these yellow blood cells are not naturally occurring.They are introduced to the kids at a young age to make them suitable for piloting the Franxx and it's probably because their young bodies are more open to biological change. There are a lot of theories as for what the yellow blood cells could be, but I hypothesize that they are antigens synthesized from klaxosaur blood. An antigen is basically just a foreign substance that causes an immune response inside the body. We can see that when Hiro had the blue growth on his chest he had an increased yellow blood cell count, but a normal amount of white blood cells. (No sign of an antigen or infection) This made me think that when the children are given the yellow blood cell injections they are in a way building up an immunity to the YBC's. Think of it like building an immunity to a venom. It's possible that if the kids don't have a strong enough immunity to YBC's, they are given the Elixer Injection like Mitsuru. If they die during the elixer injection it's ok for the society because that means they wont turn into a klaxosaur or "monster" like Zero Two. I think this what all the adults mean when the refer to the children being infected. They are infected with the yellow blood cell antigen making it possible for them to turn into klaxosaurs. A possible side effect of having the yellow blood cells would be an inability to reach adulthood. It's not out of the question. I also theorize that Ape came to Dr Franxx for help in an attempt to fight against the klaxosaurs. Through some unknown means, Dr Franxx took the blood of the klaxosaurs and synthesized the yellow blood cells from it. These injections were then given to kids so that they could pilot the Franxx. Now this is a stretch, but it seems like the Franxx's are actually former klaxosaurs that were turned into pilotable mechs by Dr. Franxx and others. It's the only reason I could think of as to why the kids need to go through such intensive preparation before piloting the Franxx's. If they didn't they wouldn't be able to connect to the Franxx's in the first place. This show draws many parallels to Evangelion, (especially with their art direction and symbols). In Evangelion the Eva's are former angels with the souls of each pilots mothers within them ( that is why Shinji and Asuka are able to pilot their Eva's). In Darling in the Franxx, the Franxx are former klaxosaurs that are only able to be piloted by people that have a high YBC. This would also explain why Zero Two can pilot the Franxx so well, she has the highest YBC out of any of the pilots. This also explains why when the Franxx's enter their "stampede mode" they look so similar to klaxosaurs. Especially with the X-shaped eyes and toothed mouth. Once we find more out about the YBC's I think it'll unravel most of the mysteries within the story.

I made a theory last episode about how Hiro had his memory wiped as a child. This theory still holds, but it also seems possible that Hiro might not have been the only one. All the kids at the Garden seemed to share the same blank expression as he did after his possible memory wipe. Maybe they perform some type of psychological conditioning to keep them from being rebellious, but it wouldn't explain the loss of memory. Not enough evidence to add to this theory, unlike the YBC theory. We now see the entirety if the Nine, and the group itself is strange. There are three grey-haired girls that look like triplets. I wonder if they could be clones. We still don't know how the children are actually created. The clone theory that has been lingering around in the community still could happen. We know for sure that wherever Naomi was being sent, she would have probably of been killed anyway. I still believe that she's dead, but I'm sure other people still have hope.

Now onto the the star of the episode, Zero Two. I had made a theory about how Zero Two suffers from an attachment disorder and this causes her to be uxoricidal in a comment before, but now I don't know. She could have an anxiety disorder from her excessive nail biting, irritability, and being always on edge but her actions counteract this. Zero Two is a really difficult to deconstruct unlike the other pilots, but I've come to the conclusion that she definitely has a body dysmorphic disorder. She perceives her own body as flawed and thinks about it almost constantly. This has caused her to perceive herself as a monster, which in turn has caused her to have constant emotional distress. This explains why she can't confront herself in a mirror, and why she can't confront Hiro about it. This is just a theory though. Something I found to be a key moment in Zero Two's mental deterioration is when she asks Hiro to kiss her. During the scene we can see that Hiro shows a moment of fear, one that Zero Two picks up on and this causes her to retreat. I believe that it is this fear that is causing all the issues we see by the end of the episode. This hesitation deeply hurts Zero Two. It makes her think that the Hiro she knows now is not the one she knew as a kid. She retaliates later in the episode by calling Hiro fodder. We've seen this type of "tough love" when Ichigo and Zero Two were in the garden. Ichigo doesn't want Hiro to be hurt, but Zero Two disregards his safety altogether. Saying that if he didn't survive, he just didn't amount to much. I feel like Zero Two almost idolizes Hiro in a way. Just like how the other parasites used to idolize him as kids, she kind of sees him as an almost invincible hero. Someone to save her from herself. Makes sense in terms of Zero Two's twisted way of thinking. Something I found interesting was when Zero Two asked Hiro why was he holding her back too. It seems like Zero Two thinks that Ape and Hiro are holding her back from becoming human, but its pretty clear that no matter how many klaxosaurs she kills it'll never make her human. I wonder if that's something that Ape told her would happen if she killed more klaxosaurs. It would definitely make sense since she is possibly the strongest Franxx pilot we've seen. Not much else to mention honestly. One last thing, I found interesting was the fact that Zero Two and Hiro met under a mistletoe. A mistletoe is actually a hemiparasitic plant that takes the nutrients from the host plant. Zero Two sucks the "life" from the partners she meets. Good symbolism for Zero Two.

Some final thoughts as always. Ichigo seems to always want to keep up her brave and bold facade. Hopefully if shit hits the fan she can actually walk the walk. Futoshi is taking his heartbreak with strides, it's admirable. They use the term "saurification" which is really silly, because it's just taking the "saur' part of klaxosaur and adding "ification". I hope this show keeps up its momentum, definitely anime of the year material.

Epicenter said:

..Why would he apologize to her? The only one he should apologize to is Mitsuru. She should give him an apology for lying.

MoonStar9 said:
Judging by Pixiv, the Japanese are shipping Mitsuru x Kokoro to the max. All I did was search his name and practically every art on the first page had him with Kokoro.

Just thought I'd inform if anybody was curious.

araneathedragoon said:




Futoshi told her love while they were guarding a construction against anytime appear-able enemies, while sitting in a robot. Kokoro's persona is to have good terms with everyone, not want to heart-break, so she gave a promise, because there is a vague coercion there, so the promise is not certain and genuine. Could Futoshi talk like that if his partner was Ikuno, Ichigo or Miku? I think Mitsuru deserved that fist indirectly.

GosuGian said:
A possible side effect of having the yellow blood cells would be an inability to reach adulthood.

Epicenter said:


You can't call that coercion, if we're to acknowledge that Kokoro's persona of being on good terms, we have to also acknowledge Futoshi's simp persona in which he would never have harmed her or left her if she denied him. Even in this episode, after she ditched him and never truly apologized, he still treated her well. Why is Kokoro's false persona of not harming others making it okay for her to lie(in which even she acknowledged as a betrayal and her not being a good person), but Futoshi's authentic persona of being a awkward loser who wouldn't hurt a female should be disregarded to the point we're meant to believe she'd felt it was a dangerous situation(which was never displayed)?

Futoshi wouldn't have asked them, because they never would of been nice to him in the way Kokoro was, so now a guy can never ask Kokoro out?

And how did Mitsuru deserve a punch indirectly? I'm starting to think you have the same warped type of mind as Futoshi and many others who believe women can do no wrong. Mitsuru didn't do anything to Futoshi.

It really amazes me, people refuse to acknowlege her betrayal she acknowledges herself, and invent threats to her she never mentions as a reasoning for her actions.

araneathedragoon said:


For defense, I am not a closed mind type, and don't need to invent stuff for Kokoro... She is wrong, Futoshi is wrong... my point is why didn't Futoshi explain his feeling for her at an appropriate place and time. Whoever loves, hates, dates, deserves or betrays; I don't mind them. But, my point or reason for Futoshi -Kokoro case doesn't matter, because we are bound and limited with what the series is showing us.

For Mitsuru, again, it is my thought that why messing himself in the middle of battle? That punch delivers for it, other than he doesn't deserve because of Futoshi-Kokoro situation. Still, waiting for Mitsuru-Hiro relationship progressing in a good or bad way.

Also, we don't know Kokoro's exact reason for switching partner, a chance came to her way and she grabbed; better battle performance, because of sympathy for Mitsuru or because of that book from the ruined village or something else...?

My guess still stand; Futoshi will apologize her, also Kokoro will explain her decision to him, as we will learn, eventually they will be friends. Because, soon, the squad will enter a survival route. Since the series is so bumpy, I can't guess how well Futoshi-Ikuno partnership develops.

GosuGian said:

Now onto the the star of the episode, Zero Two. I had made a theory about how Zero Two suffers from an attachment disorder and this causes her to be uxoricidal in a comment before, but now I don't know. She could have an anxiety disorder from her excessive nail biting, irritability, and being always on edge but her actions counteract this. Zero Two is a really difficult to deconstruct unlike the other pilots, but I've come to the conclusion that she definitely has a body dysmorphic disorder. She perceives her own body as flawed and thinks about it almost constantly. This has caused her to perceive herself as a monster, which in turn has caused her to have constant emotional distress. This explains why she can't confront herself in a mirror, and why she can't confront Hiro about it. This is just a theory though. Something I found to be a key moment in Zero Two's mental deterioration is when she asks Hiro to kiss her. During the scene we can see that Hiro shows a moment of fear, one that Zero Two picks up on and this causes her to retreat. I believe that it is this fear that is causing all the issues we see by the end of the episode. This hesitation deeply hurts Zero Two. It makes her think that the Hiro she knows now is not the one she knew as a kid. She retaliates later in the episode by calling Hiro fodder. We've seen this type of "tough love" when Ichigo and Zero Two were in the garden. Ichigo doesn't want Hiro to be hurt, but Zero Two disregards his safety altogether. Saying that if he didn't survive, he just didn't amount to much. I feel like Zero Two almost idolizes Hiro in a way. Just like how the other parasites used to idolize him as kids, she kind of sees him as an almost invincible hero. Someone to save her from herself. Makes sense in terms of Zero Two's twisted way of thinking. Something I found interesting was when Zero Two asked Hiro why was he holding her back too. It seems like Zero Two thinks that Ape and Hiro are holding her back from becoming human, but its pretty clear that no matter how many klaxosaurs she kills it'll never make her human. I wonder if that's something that Ape told her would happen if she killed more klaxosaurs. It would definitely make sense since she is possibly the strongest Franxx pilot we've seen. Not much else to mention honestly. One last thing, I found interesting was the fact that Zero Two and Hiro met under a mistletoe. A mistletoe is actually a hemiparasitic plant that takes the nutrients from the host plant. Zero Two sucks the "life" from the partners she meets. Good symbolism for Zero Two.

Some final thoughts as always. Ichigo seems to always want to keep up her brave and bold facade. Hopefully if shit hits the fan she can actually walk the walk. Futoshi is taking his heartbreak with strides, it's admirable. They use the term "saurification" which is really silly, because it's just taking the "saur' part of klaxosaur and adding "ification". I hope this show keeps up its momentum, definitely anime of the year material.

kammie7 said:
or I could actually just have an opinion that you don't like.

YoungboyNFA said:
Shit so shes in love with some other guy from the past or what? I'm not liking where this is going, this bitch called him fodder. I'm not down with that. Crazy bitch.