You know, when it comes to Neon Genesis Evangelion, everyone will agree it isn’t a straightforward or simple Anime. It’s a complex, deep, insightful and challenging series about life, death, love, sacrifice, obsession and a host of other topics. There are dozens of pieces to a very intricate puzzle throughout it’s 26 episode and 2 movie run and everyone can come up with their own interpretation of what it all means. Everyones own unique take on the story is what’s made Neon Genesis Evangelion one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, mecha Anime of all time. Darling in the Franxx…is not that show and it’s trying very, very, VERY hard to be when nearly none of the gratification Evangelion had received has been earned.
With each new review, I somehow find new things to harp on about elements I’ve already ranted about. In this set, the world continues to bother me. I wont talk about the lack of understanding of basic human emotions (there was actually some decent development on that front for once). No this time I’m gonna rant about the “Age System or Classifications.” Yes, the pilots, or Parasites as theyre called, are being thrown into a seemingly neverending war for the fate of Humanity’s future. It’s a dangerous profession theyre born into…or are they? Seeing as how “love” is a foreign concept, I cant imagine kids are birthed the old fashioned way. At one point at The Garden, Kokoro even asks if anyone knows where they came from. So yeah, the concern that these kids will never be adults is valid. But what about the Adults present in the show already? The Parasites overseers, Nana and Hachi, particularly both me in this regard. Somehow they are adults and yet seem to either be hiding all the answers…and yet probably know just as little as I do overall and are just playing off being more mature. At one point they begin piecing together that, puberty and personal connections might make better pilots out of kids. Why is this so shocking? What the hell is wrong with this word? My point is, at the 12 episode marker, Evangelion’s world was about to get pretty freaking complex but the world and how it worked had been well established. Darling in the Franxx has done a hefty amount of ZERO world building and just wants to keep building up what it thinks is a game changing Evangelion sized mystery…I can tell you now, I should be disappointed when it falls flat on its face…but my expectations are next to nothing already soooo…
On the character front, most of todays set of episodes took the spotlight way from the Hiro/Zero Two golden couple to dig a little deeper into the rest of Squad 13’s collection of clichés and caricatures. While it was a carbon copy of an Evangelion episode (and God knows I might end up doing a Top 5 on that matter), Goro’s episode was probably one of the few times I had an smidge of liking Darling in the Franxx. Goro’s been one of the more level headed and not annoying characters despite him being placed in the friendzone by Hiro’s Biggest Fan Ichigo. I think I liked the episode because it was Miku, one of my two least favorite characters on the show, who actually called Ichigo out on this crap. It’s like she heard my comments on Ichigo’s “leadership” skills and vocalized them. Basically, Hiro’s attention, happiness and safety are Priority #1 and if any one of those three are threatened, Ichigo breaks down and it’s up to Goro to snap her back into doing her job. So I guess Miku gets a rare pass from being near the bottom of my “least favorite charaters” ranking. On the opposite end, however, Zorome continues to be the loudest and most obnoxious weak link and I feel like he learned nothing from his big trip to the inner city and meeting *GASP* an elderly person. I’m sure there was an actual big clue presented in this encounter…but it’s Zorome so I’ve kind of forgotten it or just ignored it.
There was a brief attempt to shake up the teams a little which brought out all sort of pesky feelings. Squad 13 is a mess but they do have a minor understanding of love, even if it’s being overprotective of their little family. Kokoro has done an admirable job trying to get Mitsuru to open up, even if he keeps trying to blow her off. But considering the last person he formed a close friendship with stabbed him in the heart, I can see why Mitsuru has trust issues (btw Hiro was the one who did it so thanks Hiro). I did note that apparently, two pilots of the same sex cant pilot a Franxx. Soooo…Dr. Franxx is a giant pervert but also homophobic? We only saw the new piloting teams of Kokoro with Mitsuru and Futoshi with Ikuno once so I’m wondering if this will be the official pairs going forward as I don’t think we saw them sortie during their stay at The Garden.
Oh boy, The Garden. So many new clues and revelations were waiting for Squad 13 and I’d be invested…if I actually gave a damn about Darling in the Franxx (which at this point I really don’t). We know that APE is conditioning new kids to pilot more Franxx because of increased Klaxosaur attacks. We know that there’s an elitist Franxx pilot wack jobs known as The Nines, who hint that Zero Two is gonna kill Hiro at some point. And Zero Two actually tries to kill Hiro during a battle so she can “become human”. The pink haired poster child did lose some points with me for her sudden shift to insanity. Hiro knows full well the risks of piloting with her and still wants to be there for Zero Two. For her to go all monster crazy without an explanation feels like a step backwards, or a step forwards with a key piece of intel missing, sounds like par for the course. Still, Zero Two’s choke hold on Hiro flooded some flashbacks into his brain so I think we’re gonna find out more about them meeting as kids in the next set of episodes.
I can see now why this series went from being one of the most anticipated titles of 2018 to one of the biggest jokes of the decade in Anime. Darling in the Franxx is really trying to mimic Neon Genesis Evangelion to the point of near flat out plagiarism and without the gravitas, majesty and tragedy that made it the legend it is today. Oh Darling in the Franxx is legendary don’t get me wrong…just not in the way it clearly wants to be. The dumpster fire continues on Friday…how long until it becomes an inferno I wonder.
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