Darling in the Franxx

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Warning: This entry may contains spoilers.

Darling in the Franxx (Dārin In Za Furankisu ) is a science-fiction anime series written by Atsushi Nishigori and Naotaka Hayashi and directed by Nishigori. It is co-produced by Studio Trigger and CloverWorks (Formerly A-1 Pictures' Kōenji Studio).

Synopsis

The series takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has been driven to endangerment by giant beasts known as klaxosaurs. The remainder of humanity soon establishes a military city known as Plantation, where children are bred to be partnered in boy-girl pairs called Parasites and pilot giant mecha known as Franxx. One of these children, Hiro, is initially viewed as a prodigy, but after failing one of his tests, his resulting emotional stress leaves him unable to pilot a Franxx, making him lose any desire he had in life. While skipping out on his class's graduation ceremony, Hiro encounters Zero Two, an infamous Franxx pilot who is a member of a race of humans with klaxosaur blood, leaving her with red horns on her head. After both of their partners are killed in a klaxosaur attack, Zero Two convinces Hiro to become her new partner, or "darling" as she puts it.^[1]

History

Darling in the Franxx was announced at Studio Trigger panel at Anime Expo 2017 alongside SSSS Gridman & Promare.^[1]
A few days later, an official website^[9] has been launched, alongside the Main Staff, Trailer and Visuals.

On August 9th, 2017, A new video introduces the two characters as "children without names." Instead, they go by "Code:016" and "Code:002." The video also features new images by character designer Masayoshi Tanaka, and quotations from each character. Code:016's quotations (in blue) read, "What am I doing?," "My whereabouts are nowhere…," "The dying never changes," and "Let me ride!" Code:002's quotations (in red) read, "I am… always alone," "I don't like my own taste," "I'm not afraid of death," and "Are you prepared to die?"

On September 9th, 2017, a new commercial was revealed showcasing Shigeto Koyama's new teaser visual that depicts a machine named "FRANXX."

The video describes FRANXX, or "steel maiden," as a woman-shaped robot that can be piloted. Like the first commercial, the second commercial also features some phrases in colored text that appear to be lines of dialogue from the main characters Code:016 (blue text) and Code:002 (red text). The blue text reads, "But we were born only to pilot the FRANXX." The red text reads, "Will you escape? With me."

Throughout the next 5 Weeks (Sept 13th to Oct 11th of 2017), new trailers revealsedseveral pairs of characters and their Franxx, also revealing their names.

The series debuted on January 13th, 2018. A manga adaptation by Kentaro Yabuki* (best know for his work on Black Cat & To Love-Ru) began the following day. As of July 7th, 2018, all 24 episodes have aired.

Reception

As of January 22nd, 2018, the anime series has an average rating of 7.9 from over 10,000 user ratings on MyAnimeList.^[2] A review of the second episode by TheGeeklyGrind^[3] noted the series is laden with sexual innuendo, which they note is potentially to its detriment, but is not a deal breaker after two episodes. They note that the position the pilots are in when controlling a mecha appears sexual (shown below).

Right-wing Propaganda Accusations

On May 20th 2018, Anime News Network critic Jacob Chapman^[10] gave a series of tweets saying that Darling in the Franxx was right-wing propaganda, as the show features a subplot about having children, which Chapman argues is a means of encouraging the propagation of the status quo and discouraging lifestyles outside of the traditional heterosexual family (excerpts shown below).

The tweets drew plenty of disagreement from fans of the show on Twitter,^[11] Reddit,^[12] and Sankaku Complex.^[13] While not everyone agreed with Chapman's claims, in the following months, jokes spread about Darling in the Franxx being pro-creation propaganda (examples shown below). A thread about jokes about the show being propaganda was posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[14] where users suggested the show's plot-line about childbirth was the source of the jokes.

Online Presence

Since the series' debut, Darling in the Franxx fans have made a dedicated Wiki^[4] for the series. There is also a TV Tropes^[5] page for the series. On Reddit, fans have debated the merits of having the show be so bluntly about sex.^[6] The show has over 161,659 likes on Facebook.^[7] The subreddit for the show has 56,467 readers as of July 28th, 2019.^[8]

Fandom

Online, fans of the show have created some popular Anime Music Videos (AMVs) for the series. One created by Astarte 「AMV」Project posted on January 13th has gained over 130,000 views (shown below, left). Another by D.HEADZ posted the 14th gained over 78,000 views (shown below, right).