Story - 2/10
It's gonna be pretty difficult to talk about the "plot" of this show without mentioning some spoilers, so be warned.
Wow, they really shit the bed with this one. The story in Darling in the Franxx is just plain awful. Everything is told at an extremely slow pace, and ultimately ends up being unoriginal and not worth the time. Have you seen Evangelion? Gurren Lagann? Eureka Seven? Elfen Lied? Gunbuster? Shinsekai Yori? Well then, absolutely nothing in this show will surprise you in the slightest! The core problem with this show is its lack of identity. It tries to tackle many different themes and make references to many other popular shows, but does so with poor execution. This show has absolutely no balls and none of the plot lines go anywhere. Everything is just severely underdeveloped.
One of the main themes of this show is sex. The pilots are all underage and have to control the Franxx robots together in a doggy style position. Given how much fanservice is in the show and the absurdity of its metaphors, it is almost impossible to take anything seriously. I do give credit to the show for attempting to tackle these issues, but the execution was really clumsy. Many of the episodes try to comment on puberty and marriage, but end up being really cringy to watch. Franxx tries to take itself seriously, but none of the commentary bears any meaning. It seems like more of an excuse for underage fanservice.
I have already mentioned the world building, but let me elaborate more since it was one of my greatest disappointments with this show. Take episode 10 for example. Zorome gets lost and is taken in by a couple for most of the episode. Both the man and woman are adults, but the husband is kept frozen in storage. Is this every mentioned again? Nope! This is the most boring dystopia I have seen in recent memory. Darling in the Franxx does not develop on any of these details. It prefers to pull out beach episodes and talk about sex instead of creating an interesting world. In retrospect, it seems like the studio had no real plan for this show, and just made stuff up along the way. This is evident by how stretched thin the plot is and all of the boring twists that occurred in the last few episodes. Everything stopped making sense by that point.
Another key aspect of Franxx was the romance. It was obvious from the beginning that Hiro and Zero Two were going to get together. What leads up to it is a bunch of teen drama and inconsistencies between the characters. Only in an Elfen Lied-esque flashback episode do Hiro and Zero Two finally accept each other and become a lovey dovey couple for the rest of the series. Honestly, even Elfen Lied had more emotion behind this lazy plot device than Darling in the Franxx. If I'm saying that Elfen Lied did something better, then that should REALLY put into perspective how half-ass Darling in the Franxx is. Honestly, resolving the romance half-way through only made the show even more boring. After episode 15, I had lost all interest in the show and knew that nothing could save it.
The ending was the final nail in the coffin. I was nearly on the floor laughing at how much of a joke the ending was, if you can even call it an ending! All of the ex-Parasites work together to rebuild society while Hiro and Zero Two go off to fight VIRM with no definite answer on whether they will actually win? At the very least show the could have had a satisfying final battle, yet the studio denied fans even that. Usually I don't think an ending can break a whole show, but stringing viewers along for several months only to give such a disappointing ending is a huge punch in the face. There are still plenty of plot holes left open. Who is going to govern society? What's the deal with the adults? Are they all sterile? If so, are all of the parasite, in their short lifespan, expected to bear enough children to continue the human race? Are they all going to be manufactured in test tubes? What about the rest of the world? Did VIRM control this city, or the whole planet? Are the Klaxosaurs just gone now? I could go on and on. Sitting through this show for 24 episodes gave absolutely no satisfaction.
While there is plenty more to discuss, I feel like most of it has already been said in one form or another. The story of Darling in the Franxx was really bad, and probably the worst aspect of the series.
Characters - 3/10
The cast of Darling in the Franxx is extremely boring and uninspired. By the end, I did not give a shit about any of them in the slightest. Let me give a brief rundown on each character.
Hiro is the main character. A complete joke of a main character I might add. In the first few episodes he had some sort of internal conflict going on. He was not getting along with the rest of the squad. Very quickly this got phased out and he became duller than wonder bread. Hiro is more like Kirito from SAO. A Gary Stu with no real flaws. He really lacks development in this show and words cannot emphasize how boring his personality is.
Zero Two is the only reason why people watched this show. Honestly, she was certainly an entertaining character in the first half of the show. She had a fiery personality and was the center of attention in every scene that she was in. Once the romance is resolved however, she became a boring moe and does almost nothing for the rest of the show. Her character development is a joke. She does a complete 180 when she finds out Hiro was her real "dahling" and suddenly gets along with the whole cast!
Everyone hates Ichigo, but honestly, she was ok by the end of the series. It was frustrating to see her gang up on Zero Two in the beginning. She didn't end up being a good character either, but I at least felt indifferent about her by the end.
Goro seemed like a cool character but basically got no attention in the second half of the series. Basically a background character for the most part.
Kokoro wants to have babies with Mitsuru, whose character was really confusing. Mitsuru had this burning hatred for Hiro at the start of the series but this sort of fizzled out. Mitsuru cuts his hair to signify his change of character and decides to make babies with Kokoro instead of bullying Hiro.
Zorome and Miku were basically background characters too. Zorome did have an episode of his own and he also bullied Hiro in the beginning. Even with this attention early on, he came off as really uninteresting, sometimes even annoying
Ikuno was a lesbian I think?
Futoshi's entire character is being fat. He likes food and Kokoro. Gets forced to run the wedding between Mitsuru and Kokoro. How embarrassing.
Naomi was Hiro's original partner. She was in the first episode and came back in the last episode. Ok.
Dr.Franxx appears early in the series, gets an episode to flesh out his backstory, and then dies. Cool.
None of the characters are interesting enough to mention. There were a couple that I liked and I couple I didn't like. Nothing offensively bad, just really underwhelming. Which is....awful.
Art - 7/10
The animation in Franxx is usually pretty good. While there are some shortcuts made, everything about the show looks pretty nice and smooth. The scenery is very lush and colorful, everything stands out well in this show. Each of the parasite kids wear the same outfits, but they are still easy to tell apart by their hair and facial features. Zero Two, while not necessarily original in her design being a cross between Lum and Lucy, certainly looks appealing and stands out among the cast. After all, her design is the sole reason why people probably watched the show in the first place. Franxx designs look like McDonald's toys, but I found the Klaxosaur designs to be interesting at the very least. The few action scenes in the show, primarily occurring in the earlier episodes, are well animated and fluid. The action scenes toward the end were anticlimactic, but didn't look bad at all. Visual direction is solid in the show. Future events are definitely foreshadowed earlier in the show using the visuals. I should also mention that both of the openings for the show are well animated, but honestly nothing mind blowing.
While the art of this show deserves praise, it is not without its shortcomings. I have already touched upon the usual shortcuts made in the visual production and the stale designs. The greatest issue I have with the animation is the missed potential when it comes to the mecha battles. After the first few episodes, the mecha battles are kept to the sideline and are barely even highlighted in the middle of the show. While I thought the mechs themselves looked silly, the show would have been more worthwhile if there were more action sequences to compensate for the stale narrative. Instead, the show switches between a lot of the same locations which boring really quickly. Darling in the Franxx is honestly a good looking show, but was still lacking in this department.
Sound - 6/10
When it comes to sound, Darling in the Franxx wasn't bad, but certainly underwhelming. Most of the battle music is pretty average, with no tracks that really stand out. I thought the OP "Kiss of Death" was fairly good, and it fit with the narrative of the show, but it still wasn't a piece that really stood out to me. The second OP was just a remix of the first, so I don't have much else to say other it being a lazy move. I really liked the first ED "Torikago" and thought it was really catchy. I especially liked the way that they ended each of the episodes off with it. However, the show really disappointed me by only using it for the first six episodes, and switched to mediocre tracks for the rest of the series.
The voice acting was alright throughout the show. Most of the voices fit the characters and their "personalities". Although most of the performances felt kind of boring, I did think that Haruka Tomatsu did a fine performance as Zero Two. Simply uttering the word "dahling" causes millions of adolescent males around the world to squeal. As for the English dub, I thought it was ok. If that's what you prefer, then by all means go for it.
Enjoyment - 3/10
The first six or so episodes of Franxx were fairly enjoyable, but it only started to go downhill from there. Franxx's lack of identity made for a conflicted viewing experience. Did it want to be a cool mech show? A teen drama? Nonsense? Probably the latter is most appropriate. The filler and fanservice were cringe worthy. The plot went absolutely nowhere and I had to force myself to finish the last few episodes.
Overall - 3/10
I admit that I bought into the hype of Darling in the Franxx, but I was completely delusional. I do not recommend watching this show. If you really like Zero Two then litter your room with figurines or watch some highlights online. Alternatively, if Darling in the Franxx does interest you, or you finished the show and actually did enjoy it, then I would suggest looking at the recommendations below. Almost all of the shows there are probably better than Darling in the Franxx. My personal recommendations are Eureka Seven, Evangelion, and Gurren Lagann.
