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EP. REVIEW: DARLING in the FRANXX

zrnzle500 wrote:

What do you find not-good about A-1's work? To me, they are too varied in quality and style due to their heavily freelance nature to make blanket statements about the studio's work as a whole

I have concluded that saying that A-1 Pictures is an untrustworthy studio has become a hip thing to say. In my experience they have done solid work most of the time. Some of my all time favorite shows (Your Lie in April, Anohana, From the New World, Sound of the Sky) were animated by A-1.

I'm putting this on my "Sit and wait" list. In other words, I'll wait a few weeks without watching new episodes and just watch comments in the mean time.

What do you find not-good about A-1's work? To me, they are too varied in quality and style due to their heavily freelance nature to make blanket statements about the studio's work as a whole, beyond things handled by the studio itself, like planning - which has been a concern with the studio and potentially even this work specifically, since it is airing earlier than originally scheduled.

(Don't watch De:vadasy)

"Hey, remember that scene in Evangelion where Misato kisses Shinji, tells him it's a 'grown-up kiss', and says he'll get more later after he comes back from battle?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember how the context for that scene was that she was spoiler[dying of a gunshot wound and didn't have much time left] and therefore the whole scene was basically a last-ditch desperation move to get him in the damn robot before she spoiler[bleeds out and dies]?"
"Yeah?"
"What if we did that, but instead of all the nuance we make her a cougar school nurse who just really wants to bone a 14 year old boy?"

Oh so Raxhephon?

If Rahxephon was made by the same studio that did Night Shift Nurses, sure!

(Don't watch De:vadasy).

They're not consistent from a production standpoint because the staff works at a rotation rather than just one group of people so as a result most of their original works seem to fall apart entirely and their adaptations tend to be horribly rushed or not very good because they drag people just wanting to get a check so they turn in subpar work and move on. But I guess because they did one thing you liked years ago you can ignore their entire body of work. Kinema Citrus can make one anime that gets the attention of millions of people in one year just by giving a shit while A-1 can makes several new works per season that are forgotten or ignored the instant they're over.

It's extremely frustrating seeing how many people seem hellbent on comparing this to eva. Apart from a few visual references (long escalator rides, Hiro "getting in the damn robot"), the show really does not feel eva-ish at all. In terms of world-building and overall tone, it feels much more indebted to Diebuster, and in terms of the "robots + teenage sexual awakening" dynamic, it feels like a successor to Star Driver. Even the larger cast and their more open interactions is practically anathema to Eva's dominant themes (the Hedgehog dilemma and how almost all its characters lacked basic human connection).

No, it's because I have seen nearly all of their output that I say what I have said about A-1.

You are free to disagree, but you seem to be in the minority on Anohana and Your Lie in April, going by their ratings on every English speaking anime rating site.

A-1 has had plenty of other well produced shows over the years, such as the ones mentioned by others here and my personal favorite of their work, Space Brothers.

Just last year, they got the attention of the sakuga community with Apocrypha, especially episode 22,

Saekano's second season was fairly well regarded by fans and its reviewer on this site.

Whatever else you say about Eromanga-sensei, it got as good an adaptation in every regard as it could hope for and perhaps better than the material deserved.

Franxx's director previously directed the Idolm@ster, which is one of the most well regarded idol shows from a production and animaton standpoint, at A-1, and so far production wise, Franxx is likewise one of A-1's better works.

Whether the story will match that remains to be seen though. Certainly in recent years, their planning has been a concern, but with the right staff, A-1 are perfectly capable of putting out good work. I don't want to turn this into a discussion of the studio itself, so I'll leave it at that.

It's extremely frustrating seeing how many people seem hellbent on comparing this to eva. Apart from a few visual references (long escalator rides, Hiro "getting in the damn robot"), the show really does not feel eva-ish at all. In terms of world-building and overall tone, it feels much more indebted to Diebuster, and in terms of the "robots + teenage sexual awakening" dynamic, it feels like a successor to Star Driver. Even the larger cast and their more open interactions is practically anathema to Eva's dominant themes (the Hedgehog dilemma and how almost all its characters lacked basic human connection).

This kind of false attribution is always incredibly frustrating, because it badly warps perception of a show. If people keep looking for Eva references and expect and Eva story development, they'll be constantly baffled as to why the plot doesn't develop as they expect it to (I have similar gripes for people comparing series to Madoka that clearly arose from other subgenres, like Symphogear (Nanoha), and Wixoss (which is closer to Fate than Madoka)). It's like calling Star Wars a western, it's really only helpful as a sales pitch to producers, and does nothing to help understanding of the content of the show itself.

It's extremely frustrating seeing how many people seem hellbent on comparing this to eva. Apart from a few visual references (long escalator rides, Hiro "getting in the damn robot"), the show really does not feel eva-ish at all. In terms of world-building and overall tone, it feels much more indebted to Diebuster, and in terms of the "robots + teenage sexual awakening" dynamic, it feels like a successor to Star Driver. Even the larger cast and their more open interactions is practically anathema to Eva's dominant themes (the Hedgehog dilemma and how almost all its characters lacked basic human connection).

Franxx's entire aesthetic and art direction is nowhere near as lavish or well done as Idolm@ster for starters in fact that seems to be the most opinions I've seen online was how uninspiring the show looks for what is essentially an action mecha show being co-produced by Trigger, Animation wise there's no standouts and even in the second episode there was a fair share of low quality cuts and sequences of bad animation already. For an A-1 Production this early on it feel incredibly restrained.