Perhaps the most talked about non-sequel for the past Winter and Spring seasons, Darling in the Franxx took the anime community by the hand and led them on a wild ride for 24 episodes. After concluding, we were left with mixed emotions. Some happy, some sad, and some simply conveying “what the hell…” DitF has been talked about to almost no end, with a majority of post-show discussion coming almost immediately after the finale. So what more is there left to talk about? Well, not much. But through a different lens? Maybe a lot more. The show’s dust has settled, and we are left with a clear picture as to what happened. This retrospective aims to provide an analysis of DitF from a much clearer mindset and after time has passed to process the show’s events, and form long term conclusions.
This piece assumes knowledge of the show. Spoilers ahead. Knowledge of Kill la Kill or Studio Trigger’s past work is also recommended, but not required. No spoilers for Kill la Kill.
The Final 5
So far, all of what I’ve said has been largely positive. I genuinely like the show. But it is impossible to gloss over the final five episodes. So I want you to take everything I just said, and toss it out the window completely, as it is irrelevant.
Okay. Maybe not quite that far. Up until now we’ve had subtle and nuanced exposition and hints about the world, with episode 19 being the most spoon fed piece of information we had been given the entire series. All subtlety went out the window from episode 20 onward. The fault of the last 5 episodes isn’t necessarily all of the plot points that were introduced, but more of the speed at which they occured.
Because… VIRM, who had been made out to be this ever-expanding military research arm slowly gaining power, turned out to be aliens wanting to assimilate all things into a higher state of being. The Klaxosaurs are not all that bad when we found out their story and motivations. And because… FranXX are based off Klaxosaurs and it turns out the Klaxosaurs developed a similar technology back when they were humanoids on the surface. But because of VIRM they had to become magma energy, and the Klaxosaurs that were fighting were very similar to the Franxx but had to use barely developed male Klaxosaur fetuses to successfully pilot, much like the Franxx requires the male and female components to work. In the Klaxosaur’s absence humanity took over and eventually VIRM, which started as a research firm, gained more and more power among humanity, eventually manipulating them to instruments of their will. But remember VIRM is actually aliens who want to assimilate everything into one consciousness. And Kokoro is pregnant and experiencing all the symptoms that go with it, the jig is up about VIRM so the people are left to fend for themselves, the Klaxosaur queen (who managed to maintain her humanoid form) is using Hiro Franxx style to try and stop a planetary bomb that VIRM planted from destroying the planet . But the queen isn’t strong enough, but luckily Zero Two is, so Zero Two and Hiro stop the planet from going boom. Hiro is released but Zero Two is forever in a state of piloting. The bomb gets retooled into an orbital cannon because did I mention VIRM is launching a space invasion and the Klaxosaurs have their own space fighters to combat them? Anyway Zero Two’s machine eventually goes into flight. But her body isn’t there, only her consciousness, causing her physical body to become a lifeless husk on Earth that exhibits signs of pain based on the damage her machine is taking. Oh, did I mention RIP Dr. Franxx? Anyhow Hiro and the gang decide to go to space to help Zero Two out, eventually pushing past the VIRM fleet with the help of the Nine’s and reaching a stargate around Mars. Hiro completes Zero Two’s machine and they pilot FranXX style into the stargate, and everyone else goes home. After an absurdly long time everyone has moved on, gotten married, had babies, and is just kind of wondering if and when Zero Two and Hiro will return, and Earth has reestablished things like schools being taught by Zorome of all people. But all the while Zero Two and Hiro reached the “planet” of VIRM where they send a really big bomb along with their machine and bodies into the planet, destroying it, and their spirits take another absurdly long amount of time to return to Earth but they are holding hands and dancing all the way there so that’s cute I guess. Eventually they reach a cherry blossom tree planted by Squad 13 an absurdly long time ago and manifest themselves within it and their spirits live on in the nature of the tree as a symbol of how the world once was. Or something.
Whew. All of those plot points happen within the span of 5 episodes, and this is perhaps the show’s greatest failure. The failure doesn’t come from the plot points being what they are. No, no, I have no issues with that. If they wanted VIRM to eventually be aliens, that’s fine. The issue arises with how and how quickly they did these not insignificant plot points. Up until this point, we had been given very well paced bits of exposition and development, and things were progressing along very smoothly. Whereas the final 5 episodes were an absolute developmental overload. While no one outside of the studio can really say for sure what happened in the writing process, a couple possibilities come to mind. One of which is the writers just simply planned on having a lot more episodes to work with, but was informed at the last minute they only had 24. Another possibility is that the writers had all of these ideas near the last minute, and absolutely wanted them to make it into the show even though they knew about their episode constraint.
These 5 episodes are perhaps the show’s biggest point of contention in the community. I’ve seen comments replying to the question, “Is DitF a good show to watch”? that go, “Yes, except for the last part where it goes a bit crazy”. It is a tragic occurrence for an otherwise amazing show. I believe a much better way to go about this would have been having the first cour as it was ending at episode 15, and for the second cour an additional 15 episodes. The additional 6 episodes, although it may not seem like much, would have worked wonders for the remaining plot points the writers wanted to introduce and conclude.
The Evangelephant In The Room
It’d be almost impossible to analyze DitF to any degree without bringing up Evangelion. The community has enjoyed comparing these two shows to each other as DitF is the most closely related mecha anime that has come out that could be compared. However, my opinion, and it is most likely unpopular, is that I don’t believe the shows should be compared and one ruled better than the other. Both tried to send a different message and explore different themes, they just share a medium deeper than simply being both anime. Evangelion is another incredible show that if you haven’t seen but liked DitF, I would encourage the watch, or have seen Evangelion but not DitF, would encourage the watch of DitF.
Never Let Me Go
So what are we left with? What am I left with? At the conclusion of DitF, I also concluded three camps had arose in the community that had seen it. Those that liked it but were a bit off put by the last five episodes, yet still managed to get through it. Those that didn’t like it through and through (which is of course a valid opinion). And finally those that aren’t even sure whether they liked it or not, but were just along for Zero Two’s wild ride. I personally fall into the first category, and am interested in hearing which one you fall into.
Darling in the FranXX was an incredible journey to experience. I even admit I shed a bit of a tear at the final visuals and conclusion of episode 24. And while I recognise that it does have its flaws outside of the episode crunch, Darling in the Franxx will be sticking with me for a while.
