After a while watching this series it started becoming more and more clear that you could basically replace 90% of the dialogue with narration from that old 1950s Sex Ed PSA and it would be basically the same. Instead of "So your body is changing, maybe you'll want to take Susan to the Homecoming Dance" it's "so you're becoming a parasite, soon you'll be steering your partner's booty handles in your very own FranXX." It's kind of quirky and funny that almost all of the dialogue is an innuendo of some sort, but it gets a bit tedious and excessive after a while.
This sense becomes especially overt and overbearing in the overall message of the show, which is essentially "Hey kids, if you're not non-stop banging all the time, you have no purpose in life and you might as well kill yourself." This is a sentiment that may make sense from the Japanese perspective, considering their current extremely low birth rates, but it seems a little harsh and mean spirited anywhere else. I mean, sure banging is fun, but your whole world shouldn't revolve around it. In college ya bang then go to class, in the real world, ya bang then go to work or pursue any number of other interests to become a well-rounded person. Though my younger frat bro wannabe self might disagree, these days death is not the only alternative to getting your dick wet 24/7 haha. But hey, it also preaches that "the power of boners is stronger than death itself and anything is possible when the end goal is getting laid," so I guess that's something.
But as I said, Japan is in dire need of some poontang promoting propaganda at the moment, so they cranked this one out and now everyone else is just kind of cringing along with it. Seeing as this deals with coming of age and going through puberty, the setting and age of the characters makes sense, but is still no less awkward to consider, especially in how they're drawn and how aggressive the constant sexual overtones are. It becomes a whole new level of weird when, as I recently did, you find out that the dude who made this also made Gurren Lagann (one of my all time favorite shows) and apparently Yoko was supposed to be like 14 in Gurren pre-time skip, I mean... WHAT!? Seriously, I still don't know how or why that's a thing.
Context aside, the animation is pretty primo, it's got a cool neo-futuristic, Tron-looking universe and interesting lore that I hope will get expanded on and make more sense as it goes on. I'm 6 episodes deep so far and still watching, mainly due to the production quality, the fact that it's made by the same people who made one of my favorite shows and is overall well-crafted, in spite of the often cringe-inducing writing. Darling in the FranXX gets a 7 out of 10 from me thus far.
