On the surface, Darling in the FranXX has all the ingredients for a standout anime: stunning animation, fluid 2D mecha (a rarity these days), and a dystopian post-apocalyptic setting. The first episode hooks you with its mystery and visuals. But as the series continued, it became a mess of contradictory themes, underdeveloped ideas, and wasted potential.

My biggest issue is the show’s incoherent ideology. It constantly straddles the line between criticizing its dystopian society and romanticizing it. Are we meant to question the rigid gender roles, the militarized indoctrination of children, and the oppressive system? Or are we supposed to idolize it? The show introduces a world where piloting a FranXX requires a "man" and a "woman" which is a setup that reduces individuals to their reproductive functions, yet it never offers substantial commentary on it. Instead, it presents this ideology as natural, even sacred. The inclusion of a lesbian character in one episode doesn't serve much purpose, as the narrative remains aggressively heteronormative and proud of it.

By episode two, it’s obvious that piloting the FranXX is a metaphor for sex. But if you’re going to comment on adolescent sexuality, you need to do so thoughtfully. The show fails again here. These children are supposedly raised without any knowledge of intimacy, yet they display all the learned behaviors of a sexually repressed society. The boys are pervs & the girls are shamed by their own nudity. The female characters’ sexuality exists only in relation to the male gaze. They never express desire themselves, only embarrassment. This is a narrative choice that reinforces the very dynamics the show pretends to question. If the writers wanted to explore what is innate versus what is learned, they should have built a world that genuinely reflects that premise.

Then there’s the cast. Too crowded and underdeveloped, the ensemble could have been cut in half without losing anything meaningful. Most characters are one-note archetypes, and their interactions feel boring, tropey, and shallow. For a while, the mystery surrounding the society’s leaders keeps you watching but around the three-quarter mark, everything collapses. Zero Two does a complete 180, devolving into a lovesick damsel in distress. The narrative loses its buildup, replacing any political stuff with sudden space aliens. The final arc is a disaster too. Zero Two becomes a giant space waifu, and the reincarnation ending is so cheesy it undermines the little emotional weight the series might have earned. The show would have been better off letting its characters die with dignity, for goodness sake...

I’ve watched a lot of bad anime. I've seen ecchi, harem, isekai plenty. I can enjoy a simple story when it knows what it is. What I can’t stand is a show that pretends to be deep. Darling in the FranXX wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to be a deep commentary on sexuality and society, but it also wants to be fanservice-heavy and action-heavy. If it had committed to being the latter, leaning in to one genre like Kill la Kill or Gurren Lagann, it might have worked. Instead, it’s a confused, frustrating mess that wastes its potential, its characters, and its audience’s time.