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EP. REVIEW: DARLING in the FRANXX

It must have been 10-15 years ago, during the days of Dai-Guard and Godannar, post Evangelion, that I realized how annoying these types of progressively more powerful “Monsters” were to me. They get bigger and badder, they come from nowhere, they get no concrete explanation. It’s so dang stupid.

At least Evangelion has the “the mystery is the point” aspect to it, but the other ones…

I think it was Dai-Guard that had some cute super-scientist girl off-handedly says something like “It’s probably some sort of Environmental response to humanity’s destruction” and that was it… and I think the show ended at that time without a sequel.

And now we seem to be getting this again.
“We have no previous record of this Klaxosaur!” as it transforms from a giant moving fortress to a freaking battering ram with legs. Ugh.

-I was already pissed at the casual sexual objectification but figured they'll explain it 'later'

I think you're reading too much into it. It's a marketing ploy to get people to pay attention.

However. DARLING has plenty of other influences, as I mentioned in the review, but this episode was so throughly and clearly attempting to ape Evangelion's style, themes, and direction that the show itself is essentially begging for the comparison. People can complain all they want about not seeing the similarities as much as I do, but I'm not the only one to notice that, significant portions of this episode life direct, frame-for-frame shots, beats, visual motifs, and even sound-design elements *directly* from Evangelion. There's no argument to be made there, it's just a fact.

About blood: I stand corrected. It's only the veins that are blue, not the blood itself. My bad.

Zero Two's lone wolf nature is part of her character, but she barely gets anything to do this week; all her scenes exist to develop other characters instead of herself.

Quote:

Zero Two's lone wolf nature is part of her character, but she barely gets anything to do this week; all her scenes exist to develop other characters instead of herself.

I dunno, I think that scene where she's off swimming by herself, watching while the other kids play around the camp fire says plenty about her.

I was mostly disappointed by this trite, trope-filled, filler-esque beach episode, and the part that bothered me the most was the boys' camaraderie in ogling girls as an activity, because it immediately suspended my disbelief that they were raised in a bubble. When kids are kept ignorant about sex and raised in a segregated environment, as in fundamentalist communities, they wouldn't act like that. Not that they wouldn't look at girls they're attracted to, but they wouldn't make "girl-watching" into a communal game, reinforcing a "forbidden" activity within their peer group.

Agent355 wrote:

I was mostly disappointed by this trite, trope-filled, filler-esque beach episode, and the part that bothered me the most was the boys' camaraderie in ogling girls as an activity, because it immediately suspended my disbelief that they were raised in a bubble. When kids are kept ignorant about sex and raised in a segregated environment, as in fundamentalist communities, they wouldn't act like that. Not that they wouldn't look at girls they're attracted to, but they wouldn't make "girl-watching" into a communal game, reinforcing a "forbidden" activity within their peer group.

Completely agree, it completely broke my suspense of disbelief. They don't know what a kiss is but they find pleasure in ogling girls' breasts and butts?

It made me remember of an episode in the weird Centaur's Life that featured the merpeople society. In that society, it was the standard that girls didn't cover their breasts, so a couple of guys are shown having no interest in ogling their naked classmates because it's a normal thing for them. Conversely, they did show interest in a half-mermaid girl who had been raised outside the Merpeople country, so she covered her breasts. The boys were attracted to her modesty because that's what they found exotic. Although I wasn't a fan of the narrative that boys enjoyed seeing a girl ashamed of having to expose her body, it was at least more consistent with the established setting instead of trying to throw gratuitous winks at the audience that make no sense in the context of the series. The worldbuilding of the show so far is already very slim, and this type of moments break the coherency of the story

CrowLia wrote:

Agent355 wrote: I was mostly disappointed by this trite, trope-filled, filler-esque beach episode, and the part that bothered me the most was the boys' camaraderie in ogling girls as an activity, because it immediately suspended my disbelief that they were raised in a bubble. When kids are kept ignorant about sex and raised in a segregated environment, as in fundamentalist communities, they wouldn't act like that. Not that they wouldn't look at girls they're attracted to, but they wouldn't make "girl-watching" into a communal game, reinforcing a "forbidden" activity within their peer group. Completely agree, it completely broke my suspense of disbelief. They don't know what a kiss is but they find pleasure in ogling girls' breasts and butts? It made me remember of an episode in the weird Centaur's Life that featured the merpeople society. In that society, it was the standard that girls didn't cover their breasts, so a couple of guys are shown having no interest in ogling their naked classmates because it's a normal thing for them. Conversely, they did show interest in a half-mermaid girl who had been raised outside the Merpeople country, so she covered her breasts. The boys were attracted to her modesty because that's what they found exotic. Although I wasn't a fan of the narrative that boys enjoyed seeing a girl ashamed of having to expose her body, it was at least more consistent with the established setting instead of trying to throw gratuitous winks at the audience that make no sense in the context of the series. The worldbuilding of the show so far is already very slim, and this type of moments break the coherency of the story

I actually had a very different take on this scene. It immediately seemed different to me than the standard "The guys inappropriately ogle the girls at the beach" trope that pops up in so many anime. If you notice, each of the boys looks primarily at his own partner. They're not engaging in the forbidden group activity of ogling girls, they're collectively getting their first experiences with seeing their partners in a manner different from how they have been raised up to this point. With how strict the separation is, this is the most revealed they may have ever seen each of their partners. So they're enjoying that experience of seeing their respective partners in a new light, together. It's pretty much exactly the situation that Agent355 talked about with fundamentalist communities, as each boy is getting their first look at their partner in this new way. Instead of being a mindless trope, I thought this scene was actually excellent writing, as it took the place of where the common trope would be in this type of episode, and changed it to be different in tone and also adhere to its world's own logic.