Darling in the Franxx was never that good.
Sure, it ended worse off than the rest of its runtime, but this show never deserved any better than a 7 at any point. While it starts strong, its got several arcs that just completely misfire, a bland ass main character, uninteresting visual motifs, and really, really shitty action scenes throughout the whole run.
[++] The character designs are actually fantastic. The designs alone carry a lot of the casts' dead weight.
[+] Generally, the visuals look good.
[=] Actually can't remember what I felt about the sound design, so safe to say it wasn't too noticeable in either direction. That ED1 was fucking bomb tho.
[=] 02 is a fine character but she doesn't carry the show like some fanboy might seem to suggest.
[-] Hiro is a boring MC. You never really get anything out of him other than the fact that he gave the crew names and that he wants to ride 02 into the sunset.
[-] A couple character arc that just make zero fucking sense to me and are extremely offputting. 02 and Hiro remembering their connected past is just so unrelatable and cheesy. Mitsuru and Kokoro getting married without understanding it is just used to communicate some mushy feeling to the audience... and that is SO OBVIOUS that it totally backfires.
[---] 90% of these action scenes BLOOOOOOOOOOW. The Klaxosaurs can't seem to stay on model, and in this case that's a bad thing. It feels like there was no model planning. The action isn't punchy enough unless the turn up the budgetometer. Most of the fights don't carry the emotional weight they're meant to. The sort of come out of nowhere but they're not interesting at all. It can work having random fight, but they need to be unique and interesting! Look at Evangelion! Each Angel feels totally distinct and they have sick action scenes to back it up. In this show they fucking fight a block... Then the fight a bigger block. AND THEN A HUGE ASS BLOCK. ITS BORING. It sacrifices a bunch of runtime for no payoff.
I'm most upset about the fact that this series had potential. The designs were strong. The themes COULD have been strong. Sure it'd have to be a little more R-rated, but there's room for a lot of interesting dynamics when you have 2 horny teens piloting a mech together. I don't mean to make it hentai, but its a really solid device that doesn't get properly executed on. I'm also upset that this thing totally failed to live up to Neon Genesis Evangelion's legacy, even though it tried to mirror it so much. I can see why it tried, but don't baby the content and themes.
Story: 5
Art: 6
Sound: 5
Character: 4
Enjoyment/Overall: 5
