Darling In The Franxx...

[Daos]

Rofl they really wanted to Gurren Lagan this thing and man did it not work.

That was perhaps the stupidest thing I've ever seen. One more episode of this crap?

[korosu]

two episodes with the same title

[Chapinator_X]

So what have we learned all this time?

- There was literally no risk of anything bad happening to anyone that wasn’t a member of the Nines.

- Imagine the Gurren Lagan battle if fighting in space was a pleasure cruise. 

- Hachi: Leave me here, I can’t go on.

Nana: Dude, we’re five feet away from safety, so chill.

- Mitsuru’s heart grew three sizes big that day, so that’s nice. 

- I figured they wouldn’t just leave Zero Two on earth for the grand finale where the main couple has to fight and declare their love as they defeat VIRM and the OP music blares, but did Striletzia need to have Zero Two’s body superimposed on it.

- Everyone can just have a casual conversation in space with a massive Zero Two is without questioning their sanity. 

- Hiro’s favorite fetish tags are Vore and Giantess.

Its been a guilty pleasure to keep up with the show, and despite it not completely hitting train wreck mode until recently, it wasn’t out of nowhere. Much of it was easy to predict given how generic the series is and how little time they gave to the narrative sections we’ve been marathoning through for the last few episodes. People are devastated by it, but it’s not a surprise that they would just start getting completely silly now that they’re rushing to the part in the story where they can fill in their own ending to the storybook Zero Two got as a kid. In a way, the storybook is the show, not just in the symbolic relationship between the prince and the witch, but also in that they’re just making shit up so we can get to the end already without feeling pressured to continue it through movies or more seasons. 

[CaptainStarwind]

So, Episode 23... yeah.

I might as well take this chance to comment on some of the things that bugged me in Episode 22 as well, since I never did before.

Both Kokoro and Mitsuru, as well as their "romance", has been handled rather terribly over the course of the show, and these last two episodes are no exception to that.  Episode 22 sees Kokoro confirmed as pregnant.  I knew this scene was going to happen, and I expected that they would handle it thusly: new Nana tells Kokoro she's pregnant, then tells her she'll be getting an abortion, so as not to lose her viability as a pilot.  Kokoro immediately refuses, having gained some motherly instinct, and the rest of the kids back her up.  To my utter surprise, they handled that scene rather well.  Considering Kokoro doesn't even remember Mitsuru himself, let alone having sex with him, it makes complete sense that she would be shocked, confused, and HORRIFIED that she is pregnant, and that's how the scene portrays her.  New Nana isn't even really vilified, which, given how she was treated a few minutes earlier in the episode, I completely expected. 

Unfortunately, Kokoro and Mitsuru's interactions in Episode 23 ruin pretty much all of that.  See, I had a theory about Kokoro and Mitsuru from the moment that they got their memories wiped.  My theory is that their memories weren't "wiped" per se, but that they were moreso "locked", or that they were given forcible amnesia.  I base this theory on the fact that Hiro had his memories wiped, and seem to have gained them back around mid-series (admittedly, he could have just been viewing 02's memories at that point, but the show was never totally clear on that, so I stand by my point).  I figured my theory was given some credence after Episode 20 or 21 (I forget which, exactly) when Kokoro and Mitsuru's FranXXX goes down.  The way that series of events happens, I figured they were starting to break down the mental barriers put in place to lock their memories of each other.  Mitsuru's action before and after that event added to it.  Before that, he was being level headed with Kokoro, treating her nicely, but like a person he just met.  After that, and in particular during and for the rest of the episode after the pregnancy reveal, he looked guilty and worried, presumably because he not only remembered his relationship with Kokoro, but also the fact that he got her pregnant. 

Then Episode 23 comes along and reveals that NEITHER of them have any of their memories.  But they get back together at the end of the episode because...?  They never really give an explanation for it.  They just say that "they were together once, so they can do it again," and boom, "married" again.  Given how this relationship progressed throughout the show, I shouldn't be that surprised, but this just wreaks of laziness.  How hard would it have been to write in that they get their memories back?  Seriously, how hard?  Hell, I did it in the preceding paragraph, and my creative writing experience consists of writing poems about angst in the 7th grade.  Are they seriously trying to say that the two fell back in love with each other or the course of what had to be no more than a month of losing their memories of each other?  What bull.  What complete bull.  This was a terrible romance that they somehow managed to make even worse. 

I hate Kokoro so much.  She's written in this show to be nothing more than the human embodiment of a doormat.  I swear, her only purpose is to be "saved" somehow by Mitsuru.

But enough on that, let's get to Hiro and 02.  To be honest, I thought the interactions between Hiro watching 02 vs. the rest of the group trying to farm and make a life on Earth were actually pretty good.  Hiro was in love with 02, and she's now effectively a vegetable.  It makes sense for her condition to always be on his mind, so I really can't blame him for wanting to be with her pretty much every moment, hoping she comes back.  At the same time, everyone else is valid in what they do, too.  Their food is cut off, so they need to farm and find water to live.  It's entirely in their right to be somewhat mad at Hiro for not really helping out with this, even if it's because of an equally valid reason.  Goro's blow up towards Hiro at the end of the episode actually echoed a lot of the sentiments that I was feeling in the latter half of the show, particularly that Hiro was pretty much placing all his time and emphasis with 02, keeping the rest of his friends to the side.  Goro is one of the few characters in the show that I don't actively hate, so seeing him punch Hiro felt really good.

Gurren Lagann was the first thing I thought when I saw the beginning of Episode 23, but that probably works against DitF, since all it did was remind me of a much better show.  I don't really have many complaints about Episode 23 (other than what I said above about Kokotsuru, of course).  I do like how that blonde Nine (the one who calls 02 Iota, I don't remember his name) effectively admitted to Hiro that he's pretty much lived for fighting, then blew himself up.  I didn't really like him, but I would have hated it a lot more if he got redeemed by the power of friendship or something.

I kind of figured something like that would happen with Hiro and 02.  Specifically, I thought that both 02 and Hiro would end up abandoning their bodies to ascend to a higher level of consciousness within Strelitzia, defeat VIRM, then go off and either wander the galaxy together or ascent to a higher plane of existence.  Kind of like what happened to Eureka and Renton in Eureka Seven before Nirvash ejected them (which is honestly probably the reason I thought it would happen here).  And... it sort of happened, I guess? 

To be honest, I really don't want the story to end with Hiro and 02 coming back to Earth and living together.  The story emphasized how much the two wanted each other and would never abandon each other, so if 02 is unable to come back to Earth, the logical conclusion is that her and Hiro form a new merged consciousness or something.  Back on Earth, they unfreeze the rest of the Parasites that they randomly kept frozen for no other reason than to restart the population on Earth, Kokoro has her baby, and the human race rebuilds and returns to having sex.  But, it doesn't really look to be shaping up that way.  How disappointing.

[Jman]

So countdown till Giant Zero Two fanart floods the internet...

This is what happens when a show wants to say a ton, but all you care about are two characters.  Which is two more than a lot of shows admittedly.

[mochi]

so basically if I'm reading the gist of the above synopsi correctly this just happened?

[PokeNirvash]

Nah, everyone would have already been turned to Tang if it did.

[mochi]

13 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

Nah, everyone would have already been turned to Tang if it did.

ah, so it's going to

 

well, this show continues it's downward spiral then, if they're just unashamedly plagiarizing eva now

Edited July 1, 2018 by mochi

[Daos]

Yo dawg, I heard you like giant robots and Zero Two, so I put some Zero Two on your giant robot.

Yeah Hachi acting like he's finished from a minor injury... I found that funny. "I'm finished save yourself! Never mind it's not that bad."

Uhhhh two good characters? I still declare Zero Two as the only good character and the only thing anyone will remember about this show after its done. And she still never showed the slightest bit of remorse for all the partners she killed so she's kind of a shitty person but the show glosses over that.

Does anyone else find it stupid that they just happened to have a huge space fleet lying around capable of fighting on even terms with Virm?

This is why you shouldn't try writing a show by committee. That may work for sitcoms but not so much for a 24 episode anime.

 

 

[Gina Szanboti]

21 hours ago, CaptainStarwind said:

They just say that "they were together once, so they can do it again," and boom, "married" again.

That wasn't a wedding.  Hiro and Giant Zero Two was a wedding!  Complete with bridal veil, attendants down the aisle to the portal and a bouquet!  Good thing she didn't get carried away and toss it back to the bridesmaids...

[scope]

Evangelion 4.0 (you can NOT get no satisfaction)

Edited July 5, 2018 by scope

[Daos]

Well it's finally over. Ok ending I guess. Lacked emotional impact due to most of the characters being kind of pointless and not getting much development.

I feel like the group that wrote this just decided to take stuff from other successful anime and cram it in, they even did an Angel Beats ending after the Gurren Lagan space battle with the Evangelion giant robot girl.

Overall I'm going to say it was an anime. A mediocre and forgettable anime.

[Jman]

Average, disjointed, but still better than Voltron and Zero Two is still great.

Expect a sequel film.  Also expect Gridman to be better.

[Blatch]

3 hours ago, Daos said:

Overall I'm going to say it was an anime. A mediocre and forgettable anime.

Is it a more anime anime than Akame ga Kill!, or is that show still unmatched?

1 hour ago, Jman said:

Average, disjointed, but still better than Voltron and Zero Two is still great.

Expect a sequel film.  Also expect Gridman to be better.

And Promare, too. I feel like that's going to be the biggest hit, if only because of how long it's been since we first heard about it. You know how much people love their hot-blooded robot shows.

Edited July 8, 2018 by Blatch

[Jman]

I’m willing to bet Gridman gets a slight boost from the “holy shit, Trigger animated Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad” crowd.

That said, yeah, Promare looks like straight fire.

[mochi]

least it't over, doesn't give me high hopes for Promare though....will be a shame if Kill la Kill and Little witch Acadamia end up being Trigger's only good animes so I certainly hope Promare is good

[Jman]

Just now, mochi said:

least it't over, doesn't give me high hopes for Promare though....will be a shame if Kill la Kill and Little witch Acadamia end up being Trigger's only good animes so I certainly hope Promare is good

You know 95% of everything on Franxx was handled by A-1, right, especially after the midway point?  It may be how steak is done but it’s it how you write a good show.

[mochi]

as a side note has anyone else noticed that Promare's protagonist is one of the alternate versions of Dandy from Space Dandy?

 

double side note I just notived Dandy's lips were animated to match the letters DNA, then the rest of his lines were just standard lip-flap....it's sort of funny that when characters speak english in anime they match their mouthes to the english words but not when they speak Japanese

Edited July 8, 2018 by mochi

[mochi]

3 minutes ago, Jman said:

You know 95% of everything on Franxx was handled by A-1, right, especially after the midway point?  It may be how steak is done but it’s it how you write a good show.

you have a point, it's entirely possible the show would have been a lot better if Trigger had been given full control of it

[mochi]

1 hour ago, Jman said:

Average, disjointed, but still better than Voltron and Zero Two is still great.

Expect a sequel film.  Also expect Gridman to be better.

based on it's status as a rip of of Eva and Rahxephon expect it's sequel movie to be more of a rough recap of the last few episodes but with weird differences that contradict the series proper ending

[Daos]

23 hours ago, Blatch said:

Is it a more anime anime than Akame ga Kill!, or is that show still unmatched?

And Promare, too. I feel like that's going to be the biggest hit, if only because of how long it's been since we first heard about it. You know how much people love their hot-blooded robot shows.

I think Akame Ga kill gets a bad rap for being generic. It really wasn't. Most anime won't stick a cute girls severed head on a pike. Most anime won't kill their MC or their entire cast.

Plus the source material has little girls being raped by rabid dogs. Not something that screams typical anime.

Franxx just borrowed stuff from better anime and used the good old "love gives us superpowers" trope. And threw in a last second reincarnation thing.

I'd say Akame was more entertaining than Franxx by far.

Mal Rank.. Akame .... 872 rank 26 Popularity

Franxx  363  Rank 198 Popularity

Both poorly rated, but Akame is WAY more popular.

Edited July 9, 2018 by Daos

[mochi]

the progression of this show's fanbase

eps 1 through 10: THIS IS AMAZING, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHERE THIS STORY GOES

eps 11 throug 14: I'M STILL WAITING

eps 15 through 17: ??? the fuck is happening

eps 18 through to the end:......well........Darling in the Frankxx was an anime....that existed.....oh well

[Chapinator_X]

The last musings I had now that it's all over:

 

- The Mitsuru/Kokoro pairing was always strange, and it was hard to gauge what exactly they lost memories of, but Ai was pretty cute. Damn, having four kids though? I bet it was all Kokoro's plan. Either that or she's the type who locks her thighs whenever he says he's going to pull out. Also, funny how Mitsuru's illness was a dropped plot point.

- That waste of time "I'm sinking in the ocean of despair" situation Hiro was in was a waste of time.

- No "Kiss of Death" at any point during the final battle? The middle of the show pulled off a better ending than the ending of the show.

- I suppose the only way for Goro to get Ichigo to want his babies was to go full-Sasuke and just leave her hanging on while he goes on a trip around the world. And with the real life VA's health concerns resulting in him not making it to the last two episodes, it's bittersweet to see how Goro won the Ichigo Cup, but had to do it without the guy who was there for most of the trip.

- ITS A' ME! FUTOSHI! It's nice that he found a girl who loves him and wants to have kids with him, but that mustache was a strange inclusion.

- The age-acceleration exhaustion they did to Ikuno was bullshit. It was out of nowhere and only served to give her Age-IDS right when she found the perfect partner in Naomi, who they gave a Hays Code-approved romance with her just in time for The Destroyer to go MGS4 Solid Snake on us. 

- The crap that was shelved on Ikuno was bad, but there was absolutely no justice for the Zorome/Miku pairing. They were the only couple that seemed normal, but there was no affection or kiss or kids or anything. I guess they already won their consolidation prize for causing the least bullshit throughout the show and being the only couple who wouldn't have an awkward dinner date with any of the other canon couples, but geez, at least give us something cute for them to work with.

- I see we're going for the cliche "they were reborn" ending. Geez, I'd have rather seen them just floating around in space like Navi from OoT than something that lame. I guess Hachi and Nana can be their teachers if they get around to making a Darling in the FranXX Babies spin-off.

 

It's been a guilty pleasure to follow this, and quite a bit of fun to poke fun at it while it happened. Was it generic and disappointing for all the potential it had? Definitely, without question. But it was an event show that was enjoyable to follow with everyone else and see how far it would go. Emotions ran wild, people freaked out, but it was all par of the course for following a popular show as it happened. I will probably stop following everything involving this series though, because now that it's over, the only people left talking about it in a few months will be people who actually think this was a good show. Grossness!

[PokeNirvash]

So... yeah.

I'm probably only gonna watch this if and when I ever get back to working on NIBAI MUGENDAI, because storyboard and directorial analyses are the backbone of my mental vision for my works, and that includes TRIGGER when they're playing second fiddle to Cloverwanks.

Edited July 9, 2018 by PokeNirvash

[Daos]

Hard to believe that 6 episodes ago the Klaxxosaur princess and Virm wasn't even really a thing now was it.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Daos

[stilgar]

I am so glad I stopped watching this garbage.

[naraku360]

59 minutes ago, stilgar said:

I am so glad I stopped watching this garbage.

I'm glad I stopped watching Trigger shows. 

[stilgar]

Trigger has made at least 2 ok animes. 

[mochi]

9 hours ago, stilgar said:

Trigger has made at least 2 ok animes. 

as has been pointed out this anime never really was a trigger anime, it's about as much a Trigger anime as Steven Universe is

(Trigger did assistant animation on the last two seasons of SU)

 

[stilgar]

And yet is has all the hallmarks of a Trigger show.

[Jman]

Well...

It’s still better than Voltron.

[mochi]

1 hour ago, stilgar said:

And yet is has all the hallmarks of a Trigger show.

not....really

if it was a trigger show it would have been good and it wouldn't have aggressively forced both of it's gay characters to conform to heterosexuality

[naraku360]

2 minutes ago, mochi said:

if it was a trigger show it would have been good

Basically every Trigger show ever would beg to differ.

Edited July 11, 2018 by naraku360

[mochi]

3 minutes ago, naraku360 said:

Basically every Trigger show ever would beg to differ.

Kill la Kill and Little Witch Academia are good

 

Darling in the Frankxx is embarassingly awful

[Daos]

7 minutes ago, mochi said:

Kill la Kill and Little Witch Academia are good

 

Darling in the Frankxx is embarassingly awful

Keep in mind Naraku hates just about every anime that doesn't contain the word "hunter."

[mochi]

Just now, Daos said:

Keep in mind Naraku hates just about every anime that doesn't contain the word "hunter."

true

[Daos]

If you want to see how bad they missed the mark with Darling....

Gurren Lagan...... Rank 42   Popularity 23

Kill La Kill ............Rank 327 Popularity 28

Darling.................Rank 639 Popularity 188

There's a pretty big gulf between Darling and their two big hits.

 

 

[naraku360]

15 minutes ago, mochi said:

Kill la Kill and Little Witch Academia are good

 

Darling in the Frankxx is embarassingly awful

Haven't watch Little Witch Academia but do hear good things about the OVAs.

KlK on the other hand is by no means a "good" show. It had, like, 4 or 5 episodes that were..... not terrible. 

If it had been maybe half the length and more like the premiere episode, it could have been good. But they really didn't have enough material to fill 20+ episodes, or they wouldn't have dedicated half the series to pointless rehashes of the same character arcs ad nauseam. 

[naraku360]

12 minutes ago, mochi said:

true

That's literally not remotely true.

[naraku360]

2 minutes ago, Daos said:

If you want to see how bad they missed the mark with Darling....

Gurren Lagan...... Rank 42   Popularity 23

Kill La Kill ............Rank 327 Popularity 28

Darling.................Rank 639 Popularity 188

There's a pretty big gulf between Darling and their two big hits.

 

 

Who fucking cares about this shit?

[Daos]

1 minute ago, naraku360 said:

Who fucking cares about this shit?

People who want to know how critically well received or generally popular an anime is? You might not care, some people may find it interesting. Considering they manage to get millions of people to review anime I'd say ... some people care?

Are you the type of person that goes to Rotten Tomatoes and asks HEY WHO CARES ABOUT THIS STUFF????

[naraku360]

8 minutes ago, Daos said:

People who want to know how critically well received or generally popular an anime is? You might not care, some people may find it interesting. Considering they manage to get millions of people to review anime I'd say ... some people care?

Are you the type of person that goes to Rotten Tomatoes and asks HEY WHO CARES ABOUT THIS STUFF????

I don't watch shows for their popularity.

[PokeNirvash]

56 minutes ago, mochi said:

not....really

if it was a trigger show it would have been good and it wouldn't have aggressively forced both of it's gay characters to conform to heterosexuality

That and A-1/Cloverworks did most of the animating. IIRC, Trigger only worked on 6 episodes.

[Daos]

Neither do I, but I do like seeing how a show I enjoyed was liked by the larger anime community. Every once in a while I find myself really liking a show that's critically reviled like Heaven's Lost Property or say... Killing Bites.

With Killing Bites I say... yeah I saw that coming, I can see why people thought it was bad. I mean, it was enjoyable but definitely bad.

With something like HLP... I actually thought the quirky ridiculous humor and great characters would make it resonate more with people.

It's also useful in seeing if overhyped shows like Franxx are as popular as their claimed to be, or if it's just smoke and mirrors due to a massive advertising campaign.

Like I said, I find it interesting, you don't have to.

[Daos]

10 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

That and A-1/Cloverworks did most of the animating. IIRC, Trigger only worked on 6 episodes.

Hmm, the show had about 6 good episodes... Coincidence?

[stilgar]

No, it didn't have 6 good episodes.

[korosu]

so they never explained how zorome knew how to masturbate (calling it "cranking one out" in the sub, "playing with yourself" in the dub) but didn't know what kissing was. that remains their biggest misstep.

[Chapinator_X]

LWA did have some pacing issues with regards to the second half since they had to resolve some of the most important reveals within an episode to catch up with the final confrontation. But it never shat the bed, and although I enjoyed Kill la Kill, LWA didn’t have as many hair-pulling moments. Space Patrol Luluco and Inferno Cop were also great, but I enjoyed LWA and Kill la Kill the most. 

I find my skepticism in Trigger comes from their non-creative material without the talented people that jumped ship from Gainax. When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace was dreadful, mostly because it was an adaptation of a forgettable work. Kiznaiver was original, but didn’t have any of the talent that could’ve made a decent anime, so you’re left with a bland show that is only remarkable for having the last Boom Boom Satellites song as it’s OP. Ninja Slayer was like a garbage version of Inferno Cop. FranXX gets the distinction of sharing its place in this pile, but at the very least, this time around, Trigger was part of a bad anime that wasn’t forgettable, and had enough popularity to linger on more than whoever still reps for Commonplace or Kiznaiver.

Edited July 11, 2018 by imchapp.in

[Jman]

Ninja Slayer is Aqua Teen if the show never evolved beyond the initial “food monsters” joke.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Jman

[PokeNirvash]

I'll admit that KLK and the original LWA short are the only Trigger works I've seen, but I'm sure I'd like most of the others regardless, because that's how I roll.