Darling in the FranXX

Darling in the FranXX

Darling in the FranXX anime cover art featuring Squad 13
Darling in the FranXX Cover Art

Overview

Darling in the FranXX is the newest Trigger original anime and started airing back in Winter 2018 along with Record of Grancrest War. This anime may be what the mecha genre needs in order to be revived after 3D animation killed it for the past few years.

Like with Record of Grancrest War yesterday, this post will be about the first 15 episodes and there will be another post about the series as a whole once it completes.

This series takes place in a future where humans no longer live directly on the surface of Earth, but rather in giant mobile “plantations” which are the only places safe from monsters known as Klaxosaurs. To defend the plantation from Klaxosaur attacks, children are raised to pilot mechs known as FranXX in male-female pairs.

The children grow up with numbers instead of names; the lower the number, the more potential one has as a pilot. However, one child 016, decided to name himself and his squadmates based on their numbers.

While everything was going pretty smoothly for this squad, a girl with horns, 002, shows up and forces her way onto the team. Despite what anyone else says, this is really a story about 002.

Characters

Hiro, 016, is the protagonist of the series. He was a failed FranXX pilot despite having exceptional potential until the arrival of Zero Two. He’s basically just another version of main character-kun.

Ichigo, 015, is the leader of Squad 13. She’s one of Hiro’s childhood friends and has strong feelings of affection towards him. Unfortunately for her, she isn’t paired up with him as her partner.

Goro, 056, is another childhood friend of Hiro and Ichigo. He’s Ichigo’s partner and likes her even though he knows she likes Hiro. Goro is probably the best male character in the series simply because he doesn’t annoy me in some way as the others do.

Miku and Zorome, 390 and 666 respectively, are another pair. These two act the most childish and could be considered tsundere like many childish characters seem to be. While they constantly argue, they wouldn’t trade partners given the chance.

Kokoro and Futoshi, 556 and 214, are a pair who seem to be able to get along well with everyone. These two tend not to get into arguments like the others, but instead, try to stop everyone else from fighting with each other.

Ikuno and Mitsuru, 196 and 326, are the opposite of Kokoro and Futoshi in many ways. While Kokoro and Futoshi tend to want everyone to get along, Ikuno and Mitsuru seem like they don’t really want to be bothered by the rest of their squadmates.

Finally, we have Zero Two, 002. As we learn later on in the series, she doesn’t have a real name because the name Hiro came up with for her was Oni and he didn’t think that was a good name for her despite her appearance.

Zero Two is the best character of the series and the only one I really care about when it comes down to it. I mean, she has pink hair, what more could you ask for? Honestly, if anything bad happens to Zero Two at the end of this series it will be a failure for the human race because she’s the closest we’ve ever come to achieving perfection.

Zero Two (002) from the anime Darling in the FranXX
Zero Two

Conclusion

For now, Darling in the FranXX is on track to become an 8/10 as well as my favorite Trigger anime, surpassing Space Patrol Luluco. That said, there are still plenty of episodes left for the series to either drop or rise in the ratings so we’ll see how I feel about it again once it’s complete.

Despite how the series concludes, I don’t feel like there’s any way for Zero Two to not end up as the #1 girl in my heart.

My review of the trainwreck that is the second cour of Darling in the FranXX is now available here.

2 Replies to “Darling in the FranXX”

  1. I liked the alien twist… darling in the franXX . Is one of my favorite mek animes … And I watch alot of mek anime… Why is it so hated … A lot of people copy other material doesn’t mean it’s the same story base …. You could compare two totally different animes and find similarities….

    1. Everything about the series falls apart after the first cour of the anime. For example, there’s a random NTR slice of life arc that feels extremely out of place.

Leave a Comment