Darling in the FRANXX (2018)

[ダーリン・ イン・ザ・フランキス]

Director: Atsushi Nishigori
Studio: Trigger, CloverWorks
Starring: Yuto Uemura, Haruka Tomatsu, Kana Ichinose
Episodes: 24

Synopsis:
Humanity battles creatures known as klaxosaurs over the magma energy that fuels civilization using specially bred and trained child pilots. A washout candidate finds a second chance with an elite operator dreaded as the Partner Killer.

Impressions:
When Studio Trigger has a new series out, I'm always quick to check it out. As a collaboration with A-1 Pictures (under its recently rebranded CloverWorks subsidiary), a lot of former Gainax people have come together and it shows. A lot of parallels can be made to Evangelion and a bunch of other series as well (such as Gurren Lagann, Kiznaiver and even Urusei Yatsura, among others). We've got an interesting utopian dystopia and unraveling that is one of the points of interest early in the story. While the initial setup for the characters is compelling enough, the way they grow and develop over the course of the series is quite rewarding. Much as Kiznaiver treated empathy as some alien concept the cast had to be beaten over the head with to understand, pretty much all social interaction has to be cobbled together here. The overt sexual imagery of the FRANXX and the themes of adolescence are ripe for commentary. While the mecha action is good, it's the character dynamics that will make or break the series for you. Without spoiling too much, there is a rather dramatic swerve in the third act of the overall story and it may be a bit of a hard sell. Overall, I was satisfied with the experience. It's worth seeing at the very least and just falls a bit short of me giving it a strong recommendation for adding it to your collection.

Rating:
Watch It