Darling in the FranXX Episode 4 Discussion

Hibikase said:


Alright. So firstly, hats off to you for catching and picking apart of these nuances and details within the four episodes that were provided thus far. I guess some of the scenes that you pointed out passed too quickly or were too subtle for me to draw out any meaning or significance, and I suppose that is just my fault for not paying enough attention. To preface, I feel like each person is looking for different things in the anime they consume. which will impact their overall enjoyment of a show. No one can look at a show from a pure objective point of view, and that is perfectly okay. So everything I say here on out is just my personal observations.

To begin with, I don't deny that the side-characters have potential of developing in future episodes, but what is presented so far isn't giving me much of a feel for how they can develop other than in a very predictable manner. For example, it's gonna be pretty obvious the Hiro is going to get past his confidence issues, Zero Two is gonna become less selfish, Zorome is gonna stop being a twat and actually respect Hiro and others, and Ichigo is going to get past her feelings for Hiro to focus on the the greater good of the group and become a better leader. However, predictability is not really the main issue here. The main issue is that from the few episodes that we have seen, we have little reason to empathize or care about these characters in any way. We know little about their backstory, and how they came to be the way they are now, and we may never be able to other than maybe Hiro and Mitsuru. This could also be pardoned if the characters were inherently charming or quirky in a subtle way, but to me at least, these character just feel like pretty generic cardboard cutouts and are even sometimes annoying in how faithfully they abide to their assigned tropes (this doesn't even explicitly serve as a plot device either, like in Kiznaiver). It also doesn't help that the most of the character designs (something that I look for most in anime) are disappointingly generic, the biggest offense being Hiro's design. The only exception from all of this would probably be Zero Two, but her character is a wild card at the moment.

What I meant by when said I didn't see what this anime is about does not stem from the fact that I don't see where the plot is going exactly, or what themes are going to be explored. My main issue with this show is that I don't see how all the elements that the show presents to us fits with its overall narrative (or the little that we see so far), and what direction the show could take in the future to compensate for this lack of cohesiveness. The tone and general mood of any show is one of the main baseline things that I expect to get right or establish early on. However, FranXX's tone is often incomprehensible. The show seems to take itself quite seriously from the first episode by opening up with some pretty 2deep4u monologues about the birds, but then shifts back and forth between high-stakes character drama moments (like with Hiro and Naomi), and pointless fan-service and awkward attempts at humor. The overall aesthetic of the show doesn't really convey much to me either. I'll admit that the visuals and fight animation are very nice to look at, but a lot of things seem to clash. For example, the post-apocalyptic, desert-like design of the world void of a larger scale society inhabiting it (other than the "plantations") does not pair well thematically with the show's commentary on the child parasites and their repression of sexuality. It also confused me on why the way the parasite pilot the FranXX is so overtly sexual, if the purpose of the society obviously opposes physical intimacy. The visuals often contradict each other as well, as seen in the whacky, colorful designs of the mechs that clash heavily with the vanilla setting/backdrop. Certain design choices in the show make me question whether this show is trying to go for a more mature tone in its story with lots of deep, thematic meaning, or just want to go all-out and be fun/zany (like many of Trigger's other productions). This conflict is proving to be difficult for me to accept, and that also influences my perception of where this show is going to go with this blender of random ideas and themes. There are a lot of things that could be still explored, but right now, the show hasn't done (imo) a good job of relaying these things to us, or making us care much for the characters. You can justify everything I just said by saying that the show still has a lot to go (as it is a 2-cour series), but I believe a great anime should get its watchers on board from the very beginning.