My Darling in the Franxx

It's the future, evil machines roam a parched Earth and the entire fate of humanity relies on a small gang of horny teenagers. What could possibly go wrong? Darling in the Franxx is a scifi anime series (released January 2018) set in the distant future. All humans have been reduced to living inside gigantic domes, sealed away from the post-apocolyptic land around them. Oh and these humans live forever, yet have lost their ability to reproduce. The kids are all orphans and have been raised for one purpose - to pilot huge humanoid mecha robots (called Franxx) which they use to defend against enemy machines called the Klaxosaurs.

I actually really liked this anime series. There are times that it takes itself seriously and there are times it tries to abandon the tone and just play around. For example, the excellently choreographed and edited fight scenes are all deadly serious with the constant threat of death and destruction. Then, by way of contrast, the show often switches over to random girl v boy bickering or lusting after one another. The funniest thing, which may not be intentionally amusing, is seeing how the boy-girl teams operate the mech robots. They clamber inside, the girl bends forward as she straddles a control unit and the boy, sat behind her, has to operate the machine by controlling paddles on the girl's backside. It's all very pervy and sexual without actually being anything too rude. You sort of just accept it as the viewer.

The character that really shines however is the horned half human female called Zero Two. She first comes across as an unpredictable wild child given to running around wherever the mood suits her. She's actually very annoying but as the season progresses, you see more layers of her character and even some vulnerability. Episode 13 is a real tear jerker as the program covers her deeply sad and upsetting back story. Zero Two pretty much steals all the highlights in each episode, until that is her story arc gets somewhat shoved into the background for several episodes towards the latter third of this 24 part series. Thankfully she's written back into the importance of things during the build up to the finale.

Darling in the Franxx is typically very oddball for a Japanese scifi anime. The fight scenes between giant mech robots are excellently portrayed and the character building between the kids develops nicely. Most episodes develop the plot and there are lots of action and drama to keep wanting more although there are a few filler episodes (the beach episode for example seems needless to me apart from just to show scantily clad teenagers).

Definitely worth your time. 8/10
(I watched this on Funimation in dub form)


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