Makoto's review of Darling in the FranXX

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First of all, a foreword: I understand if you hated this show. If you are a fan of the works it borderline parodies; If you like the technical aspect of animation; if you hate the characters. All of those are reasons I would not argue much against. That said, there are several aspects of this production that deserve praise, and failing to do so is an inexcusable oversight: Firstly, this is an original anime. This means people behind this had to fight for it. A lot. Making an original anime is like making an ad for a product that doesn't exist. Financially, it is basically suicide. In an industry that favours the practice of churning halfhearted adaptations of mediocre works, any passable original work should be recognized as a good thing. Another thing is that Science fiction is a genre that has basically been abandoned in favour of the more sellable Fantasy and Romance/Drama. For a reason. Even a very easy to understand scifi, like this one, alienates some viewers. And besides the "I didn't understand" angle, I have never seen any complaints about it on this show. And that is also for a reason. The scifi aspect is well done. The concepts are within borders and the implication of them are both explored AND resolved. The scifi is not perfect, but perfectly acceptable. And finally, the bad fanservice is a lot more contained than you would expect for a show with these themes. Code Geass has a lot more weird camera angles, random out of place nudity and weird close ups. For a show about mechas being piloted by the power of sex and that features themes of love and reproduction, there is a lot less sexual shots, especially on the second part than one would expect. And we have to respect that. With that out of the way, let's talk about the rest: The art does get cheap. Faces on the background are so bad they are often distracting. Since this is a collaborative work, that aspect varies a lot from episode to episode. The environment and character design is well done. Zero Two's character design specially. It check all the boxes and is very well made. Besides that, I should touch on the mechas, or "Franxx", as they are called. They are robots with feminine features and actual faces. Not something I ever remember seeing in a mecha show, although admittedly I have not seen many of them. It does sticks out and does make the experience unique, but I'm afraid that does more harm than good. There are two sides of this show's writing: the scifi plot and the drama aspect. They do intertwine sometimes but it is fair to treat them separately. The drama side has a lot of questionable conflicts and resolutions that I'm pretty sure a lot of people are put off by. Without going into too much detail, characters act a lot like a Drama character would, which is not a bad thing per se. But keeping in mind the audience for shounen-mecha-ecchi shows are not the most sensible folks, this characterization probably also does more harm than good. The weakest point in the writing is the amount of characters. Besides Kokoro who does relevant things, everyone else should have a lot less attention devoted to them. The core cast, which are Zero Two, Hiro and Ichigo are well developed, Hiro being the weakest, as his motivations are sometimes vague. I think Miku and Zorome are not neutral, in the sense they don't contribute to anything. I think they are actually detrimental to the show. Their characters would be merged into other characters during the editorial process of any respected editor. Sound and acting are not remarkably bad or good. Tomatsu Haruka(Gintama, Sword Art Online, Horimiya) plays Zero Two very well. She does play it a little safe, as is her style, but it does fit well into what the character is supposed to be. I do wish she had a little more passion in some scenes, but that might be a directorial decision. I have the same comments about Uemura Yuuto's(Bungou Stray Dogs, Vinland Saga) performance. They are great actors, but I feel they could spice it up a little bit. Ichinose Kana(Higehiro, Do It Yourself!!) to me did the best work. Her character being the emotional core of the show, and she delivered it perfectly. Sound effects and mixing are good, but unremarkable. I'm not a fan of some soundtracks used, nor was I a big fan of the opening and ending themes. Director Nishigori Atsushi is a very good animation director who has worked on a ton of very good episodes and movies. But I'm not sure how to judge his work here. I understand it should be hard to work with the writing he was given, and I think he did an Ok job. But I can't stop to think that a more experienced Director would maybe steer this thing into a more cohesive direction. Thematically, there are some incongruences that make the show worse. As an example: One of the core tenants of the emotional and scifi plot is that the kids have no concept of love or sexual reproduction. They don't know what a kiss is, or what it means to like someone. But still, there are conflicts involving the girls thinking that the boys are being "perverts". The concept of a "pervert" cannot exist without those other concepts. That makes no sense. Some aspects are brushed aside that should be explained as well: Why does Zero Two hurts people who pilot with her? How does drinking Zero Two's blood alter Hiro's body? Why does using a Franxx makes them age faster? These are small details that could either be explained or not added to the story at all. On a final note, the homages to other shows do get out of hand, specially because sometimes it feels like this show doesn't understand what makes the scenes they are paying homage to work. The actual final product aside, I do dislike the marketing work on this show. Both the name and the promotional material do a very poor job at expressing what the show is about and what its strong points are. In conclusion: There is a lot that could be better here, but it is still a show that will be remembered for a long time, and there is value in watching it.