I love Darling in the FranXX unashamedly, even if I think it's not perfect. Before I go deep into my thoughts on the show itself, I want to lay the groundwork for why I'm about to defend Darling in the FranXX a bit and why, despite its flaws and my own personal grievances, I rate it fairly highly. Even though I want to start tackling the complaints as soon as possible for everything to make sense, let me start with the backstory.
When it was announced in July of 2017, dropping this image with it, I was instantly transfixed.
That was the moment I fell in love with Zero Two's design. More than that, I fell in love with the idea of the show. It could have been whatever genre it wanted and I would have watched it. Now, I must admit that my faith did waiver when I saw that it was mecha show, because, at the time, I hadn't really been much into the idea of the mecha genre, but I told myself that I would still give it a chance, even if it wasn't completely in line with my vision. So I waited he long wait for it to air and watched the hype build behind it slowly but surely until finally, in winter 2018, it began to air. From the very first shot of Zero Two in episode one, I knew that my hype had been rewarded.
And now, for the things I loved. First off, the characters, but especially the sense of family that I got from the characters. I know this is somewhat unpopular, with people saying how the main cast didn't get enough of development, an argument which doesn't really have any merit in my eyes. Each character got their own segments of development, even if it was in a small way. Miku is perhaps the only character where we can point the finger and say that she got the least attention of them all, but then you can also say that Futoshi got the same treatment. Either way, I'm going to be bold and say that, by the end, every character had gone through an arc, albeit, maybe somewhat small due to the scope of the show and the space arc that's so problematic, but more on that later on. I think we could rewatch Darling in the FranXX and clearly see that each of the main characters came a looooong way from the children that they were in episode one. Connected to the point on characters, I loved the design for every single character in the show. Each was unique in their own way and well drawn. Their unique personalities seem to just exude from them through something as simple as their design.
Zero Two and Hiro's interactions were a constant positive for Darling in the FranXX. In fact, I would say that their relationship carried the show 90% of the time. In fact, their two biggest episodes, 13 and 15, may be two of my favorite episodes of all time. That being said, even from the start their dynamic was intoxicating. From the moment they had their first contact, to when she pulled him into the FranXX, to their touching finale, they remained a constant positive, even if the direction their ending went wasn't so great. It's just a rare instance of two characters balancing each other so well that neither one seems to be more important than the other in the relationship, even if you're one of the many that think Hiro is bland as rice cereal.
There are plenty of other things that I loved, such as music, but most of the other things are mixed with the things that I had issues with toward the end of the show and I'll try and tackle them here. As much as I adore Darling in the FranXX, I am going to be overly critical from here on out, because most of the decisions were god-awful and could have been avoided so easily.
First off, the world that Darling in the FranXX built. There was so much potential here, so many directions they could have taken with the post-apocalyptic wasteland that was left, but by the end, it was by and large, pushed aside for a silly twist that I think everyone could have done without. Don't get me wrong, seeing the children revive the earth in the later episodes was cool, but it was one of the few bright spots in the final 4-5 episodes. Which brings me to the main issue with the show, the last arc. Why? Just why did this have to happen? I get the symbolism involved with many of the choices, but that doesn't change the fact that they just pulled this plot twist out of nowhere. Suddenly, the antagonists weren't antagonists anymore and barely mattered, 'friends' become enemies and vice versa, and space. That sentence basically sums the entire last arc up. It's bizarre. It's like someone burned their script for the last month and they were like," How do we make this as stupid of a concluding arc as possible?" It's such a shame too, because they had all the pieces for a phenomenal ending. Instead, they got too ambitious and tried to recreate Gurren Lagann, with a hint of Evangelion, Your Name, and Kill la Kill. I think the only question that we can reasonably pose at this point is: why?
That issue doesn't even touch on the fact that they threw away the one character that made the show popular in the first place: Zero Two. If you're watching for Zero Two, you may as well stop after episode 15 or so, because she's pretty much a completely different character after those episodes. It's a real shame too, because she was set up for some real growth, but instead kind of becomes...kind of childish, I guess? I can't really put my finger on the direction her character goes, but the point stands, she loses the personality that made us all fall in love with her. And I can't say that I completely hated it, I really liked seeing Zero Two genuinely happy for a while, but with the last arc in perspective, I feel somewhat robbed of my favorite character.
With all my complaining, the fact remains that Darling in the FranXX holds a special place in my heart. I cherish watching it these past 7 months or so. Unfortunately, it buckled under its own hype. It was never going to be good enough to deliver on everyone's expectations for the show. I think a lot of anime originals suffer the same fate, where they can't necessarily meet the expectations placed upon them. A recent example of a similar problem would be Tada-kun from this season. It was pretty well loved, until it concluded in a relatively normal way and failed to meet the fan theorist's expectations. I can applaud the writers for shooting for the moon and trying to make something spectacular, but it was all wasted effort in my eyes. I think Darling in the FranXX can teach most of us seasonal watchers something important though. The dangers of hype, especially with long anime originals, like Darling in the FranXX. Frequently, we elevate something like this to a level that it never was going to be able reach, and despite our high hopes, always disappoint us. It's just so hard for anime originals to please everyone and Darling in the FranXX is no different from the many shows that have come before it. When it's all said and done, I still rate Darling in the FranXX very highly, despite its shortcomings towards the end, this is one of the cases where the journey was so much more powerful than the conclusion.