Back to HiIAmArchived's Profile HiIAmArchived's Profile

Ambivalent feelings about this manga here... This review will look into this manga as 2 separate arcs. The first being, chapters 1 till the point where kuroneko loses her memory. The second being the loss of memory till the end of the manga.

The plot was a really solid one, or at least I thought for the first arc. The story was really well planned, and one could see a good pace of flow. Most of the reasoning behind all these 'Aliens' were subsequently explained in the second arc. The main problem I had with this manga would be the rushed ending that it had. ... The first arc was of a good pace with many character developments. Only up till the point where people kept dying and stronger Aliens just appear out of nowhere, wreaking damage with the Anti-Alien organisation going missing with no clear explanation. While this may seem like a rant, I can assure you that when you reach a point where the climax hits and there is no proper closure, you will seriously get frustrated... Another flaw in this manga would be the unexplained origins of how there are aliens in the spine of the magicians, and the fact that magicians had to be girls. Though the ending of the manga was a happy one, the author did not explain if the aliens within this girls would 'awaken' and cause damage to the world. These are just some of the loop holes that I found were major to the plot which I found was really good at its initial stages.

As for the art and characters in this manga, I found myself gaining some attachments to the characters. The emotions and thoughts were well portrayed and expressed. Or at least for the first arc where the pace of the plot was decent...

In conclusion, I would recommend this manga. Recommend this manga for those who enjoy super natural stories. But a caveat, the plot has many loop holes and most of the explanations were not complete.

A Manga that evokes a deeper thought about the existence and meaning of 'God'. The initial story portrays 'God' as a being who grants wishes to make people 'happy'. By endlessly giving in to their greed, creatures known as 'Star eaters' starts to appear and attack those that are consumed by their hunger for their 'wants'. The three main characters are designed in such a way that they needed 'God' to make up for their flaw.

The story ends with how they realize that the meaning of 'God' was for them to realize their flaws and accept them. To embrace their weakness and find a ... solution in a humane instead of hoping and praying. The 'Star eaters' were then the darkness within human. They embodiment of the fears that man cannot overcome, and thus the need for 'God' to escape from reality.

The story has a good conclusion with all the characters realizing that they should use their own means to achieve their own goals. I believe the last few pages of the manga captures this well - The main character once a 'Wish' to his 'God' which is to be able to lead a normal life, but he has decided that he would use his own power and means to lead his life the way he wants it to be instead of using supernatural power.

To conclude, I believe that this manga is a good read with good art. A little bit of injection of some comedy and sadness, but overall I would recommend this manga.

Good and strong story plot. A decent pace for the manga, expect for the rushed ending towards chapter 83. Else, the overall enjoyment is there.

The art is not as modern compared to the other manga we have today, but the details and graphics depicted were decent.

A character driven plot, with anti-hero and hero clashing together to protect the earth towards the end of the manga. The story resembles Bleach in a way...

Though the story was rushed through, there was a good conclusion - The male MC was dragged into a life of a warrior by a girl. Ended with the male MC bringing the girl ... back into an ordinary life.

In conclusion, a manga worth reading!

Story: 9
A decent plot where the male lead wants to be a hero because of his childhood. He grows up to finally become a 'hero', just that he is viewed by many as a 'villain' in the initial chapters of the manga. The story is well developed such that readers would not find their selves lost in the back story of the characters, and the plot unfolds nicely without jumps or time skips. Not much unsatisfaction with plot, however I personally feel that the story lacks emotions. Some of the chapters can make you feel that the story is bland, but the ending makes ... up for the lack of strength in the story.

Art: 8
Great character design, but the design felt like it was really mainstream. Power rangers design mainly...


Character: 9
We can see clear development of the characters feeling for each other in the whole timeline. Each character had enough time/boxes to display their individual thoughts and feelings. Even the side characters, the Jackel, can be said to be one of the important drivers of the story. The feelings of the hero are adequately portrayed, however the main character lacked liveliness. He says inspirational sentences, but his actions do not back up his words.

Enjoyment: 9
Great story and it appealed well to me. The story followed its plot very well. Kind of reminds me of Boku No Hero (Anime and Manga). Story is also inspirational to some extent, the portrayal of how the male lead works hard and fights for justice instills a sense of righteousness within you.

Overall: 9
Would recommend others to read this manga if they have the time. I would place it as one of the 'top manga to read' in my book/journal if you have not read this manga. Of course if you have other manga that you want to read, then i would recommend putting this manga on hold. My personal opinion on this manga is 'If you have nothing else to do, read this manga.'

Story: 8
A generally good plot till the last 10 chapters of the manga. The development of the story and flow is well paced, not too slow such that it gets boring. The only draw back in my opinion was the rush to finish the manga, which left quite a few things unexplained. I did not really enjoy the 2 plot twist at the ending and the expected girl to win at the end of the manga, but it was generally a good read.

Art: 10
Great art with nice illustrations. I like how the emotions of the characters are displayed through multiple expressions which is not often ... seen in many manga.

Character: 8
Characters stick to their motto/resolve till the end. Great development of the character's backstory and relationship mid-way in the manga. Of course this development led to a great story line as you can empathize with how the various characters felt. However, that said, there were of course side characters that were quite 'useless' in the whole plot. (Read the manga and you will know why) The side characters were more of a humor sake rather than a flag/stimulus for the various main characters.

Enjoyment: 9
I like myself a decent romance story with focus on the male and female lead. This manga has fulfilled this by avoid unnecessary developments of the side characters. The plot is focused on Masamune and Aki which was great as this story is Masamune's revenge. No redundant relationships were established between characters to prevent side-tracks from the main story.

Overall: 8
Great read. I would suggest investing your time in this manga if you like the more 'modern' kind of art for manga and if you like a plot that is catered to both males and females. No superpowers or flying, just slice of life with romance.

Overall this was one the the few anime that actually made me take a step back from my busy schedule to reflect upon my life. Let me start the review by going through the minute details and move on to the picture, i will also try my best not to spoil the anime in this review, but just a heads up that there would be some spoilers.

9/10 for the Art work. I really felt that the art done by the studios was really good. The small details such as the sakura and the environment was very nice. Each character also had a unique art for ... themselves which was really nice. The only thing i did not really like was the robots in the show as i felt that there could have been more improvements to the bots to make them more realistic. The final bot presented in the the show, however, took me aback as i felt that that was actually some legit design done.

10/10 for the sound. Awesome music in this anime, especially for the ending. The music had a lot of meaning to it, be it the OP or ED. I especially like the last ED a lot, 'Darling', as it actually made use of the other ED to form a wholesome song which strike a cord in me. It really made me feel the essence of the show and the feelings of the female character for the male lead.

9/10 for the character. I felt that this aspect was executed well during the midst of the show, especially from episode 10 to 15 as the development for each character was appropriate such that we are able to empatise with them. I really liked the Zero Two and Hiro flash back as it actually explains the reason why Zero Two holds so much feelings for Hiro.


From here onwards, there would be quite a lot of spoilers, so this is just a heads up.
9/10 for the story. The story is actually pretty good. I have seen a lot of negative reviews saying that this anime was copied off other better anime. I do not deny those statements as i have seen some similar elements in this anime.
However my stand is that this anime is quite original in its work. Lets first take a look at the title. Darling in the FranXX. The word FranXX is actually to represent the machines used in this anime, or the robots. I like how they added the two 'XX' to the back of the word. In the anime we actually find out that these robots actually contain female chromosomes, and thus carry the XX genome. Also, they used the word 'Darling'. Darling in this case means Hiro to me, as Zero Two addresses Hiro as 'Darling'. This title essentially means, Hiro is 'piloting' Zero Two. Which brings us back to the flashback, on how Hiro reached out to Zero Two during her experiments. Hiro rescued Zero Two and gave her a goal in life, which is to be Hiro's darling.
Also, this anime mades us ponder on the actions of humanity. In this anime, they talk about using magma energy, and how the use of such energy is making Kalosaurous appear on earth. This feels like a anecdote to humans burning fossil fuels to meet our 'wants', and how such actions causes global warming and how such climate change is harming us. There is also an episode about humans striving for immortality, which kind of took me by surprise. As this anime portrayed how humans lose their purpose in the process of attaining such power.
The parasite garden also portrays how humans extort others to do their dirty work for them. The parasite are like those unfortunate people who are forced to fight in FranXX to protect the wealthy humans from the monsters.
This anime essentially touches on a lot of current relevant issues if we took a step back to think about it. That is why i really feel that this anime is a great anime to watch.
I do agree that the last 5 episodes were really rushed, and ALIENS CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!! Yes, it was suppose to be a fight between humans and the previous generation of 'humans' before they were wiped out. But i still find that the ending was great as they sum up the anime really well by ending the anime with Hiro and Zero Two finding happiness together.

To sum up this review, I found myself enjoying this anime a lot, especially the songs and the character development for Zero Two and Hiro. I really want to thank the Studios whom collaborated to make this anime. Hope the rest of you guys out there would give this anime a try.