Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: DARLING in the FRANXX
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11335 |
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Was it just me (or my monitor), or were the cuts on 02's fingers from her gnawing at her nails red instead of blue? Maybe she is becoming more human?
And did I correctly interpret them to be saying that Hiro's licking her blood as a child is what enabled him to pilot with her as an adolescent? |
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Mojave
 Posts: 178 |
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That's what I took away from it as well. Although it also seemed like they were saying that same act is what caused him to become unable to pilot with anyone else. |
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Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
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The Goro centric episode was all about Goro coming out about his feelings for Ichigo. That was it. Goro doesn't expect Ichigo to reciprocate and in fact she doesn't. She doesn't in the episode where she saves him, and she doesn't when they're in the city getting the medals. So in no way has Ichigo ever let go of Hiro. It's only during the beach episode where she reluctantly accepts 02 because she sees Hiro being well with her. But she doesn't trust her. So how people can see any movement of Ichigo towards Goro baffles my mind because nothing in the previous 13 episodes hints at that. This time she made her move AFTER 02 was sent away (and she had no influence on that either since it was a decision of the higher ups). So she did nothing wrong and finally expressed her fealings for Hiro explicitely (she tried in one of the first episodes and that came out clumsily, and she tried again during the beach nigh walk and was interrupted). Not this time. She grabbed the occasion and rose to the challenge. Unfortunately for her she will get shot down because 02 is Hiro's soulmate. And being shot down is what will enable her to get over her unrequited love and then move to Goro. It's actually a well done character arc. |
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Kiddo626
Posts: 62 |
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But the thing is, Hiro didn’t even try to explain why he wanted to talk to Zero Two. I mean, he could have said something like, Ichigo: We’re keeping you away from Zero Two. Hiro: Wait, you don’t understand! She and I might have met when we were kids! Ichigo: What? Hiro: I don’t know for sure, but that’s why I just wanna talk to her. If he had said that, and Ichigo still shot him down, then his sneaking out later would’ve been justified. But no, all that happened was, Ichigo: We’re keeping you away from Zero Two. Hiro: Okay. *sneaks out* He didn’t even try to explain himself, and it was so frustrating. I feel like half of what happened could’ve been avoided had he simply spoken up.
But they gave her the chance at the beginning to explain herself. Most of them were saying, “That’s not true, right, Zero Two?” They were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt so she could make a case for herself. But she didn’t deny the accusations, she didn’t answer their questions, she didn’t apologize for putting Hiro in the hospital, she didn’t give them any indication that she legitimately cared about Hiro’s well-being and was not just using him for her own benefit. No, all she did was straight-up ignore them and say, “It’s none of your business.” She had her chance to clarify things at least a little, but she blew it. What happened afterward she had brought entirely on herself, IMO. And the thing is, writing wise, there was no reason for any of that to play out that way other than to force the drama in order to move forward. The separation could’ve still happened, just not in the contrived way it played out here. |
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Chrono1000
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Crext
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Chrysostomus
Posts: 335 |
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Probably because such a situation is very ripe for drama, I guess. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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On this, I believe Mojave is correct in saying that Hiro licking Zero Two’s blood when they were kids is what caused Hiro to only be able to pilot with Zero Two and no one else. Ingesting humanoid klaxosaur seems both unambiguous and only applicable to Hiro. |
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Chrysostomus
Posts: 335 |
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I guess it also explains how his blue cancer was healed too. It didn't cross my mind since the piloting of a Franxx is a very unsubtle metaphor for sex but... licking knees? What the hell does that have to do with sex? Once again, it's amazing how this anime is extremely blatant with its metaphors but then has nothing to say about any of its supposed themes. I also love how it's taken 14 episodes to go nowhere, no major plot yet and no antagonist. Everything is back to square 1. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4374 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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uhhhh I DEFINITELY would not go that far. its only the western fanbase that is moaning about ep 14! so far i haven't heard a peep out of the japanese fanbase for if they had a problem with that ep, they would certainly let them know! (ala oreimo style death threat letters and other BS that would put someone here in the US in jail!) and luckily for the franxx committee, nothing as of yet! |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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I realize that we as a community seem to be trying to willfully ignore that this show is similar to previous, thematically-dense mecha shows  ... but when a show is intended for an audience of entrenched fans, how can the Western anime community muster up anything more than a collective "meh" when predictable-in-hindsight melodrama occurs?
(Reminds me of how disappointed people were about Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress "going downhill", when you could have seen that show's plot trajectory coming a mile away.) Come on, this is a multi-coeur mecha show, barely believable out-of-character actions in service of the plot are the genre's bread and butter! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11335 |
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Exchange of bodily fluids? |
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iCards
Posts: 78 |
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After the week the staff is going to have with fans on social media i imagine it will be sooner more so than later.
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Hikaru Suzuhara
 Posts: 85 |
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Zero Two never makes any effort to get to know Hiro. When they were kids, her inability to properly communicate coupled with the memory manipulation turned him into nothing more than a vague darling concept rather than a complete individual. The people around her are treated as either expendable stepping stones to her goal at worst and utter indifference at best.
She feels Hiro may be her darling, but he fails all of her tests and behaves in un-darling-like ways. Flinching at her fangs. Reeling her in when trying to kill klaxosaurs. Telling her that killing klaxosaurs won't make her human. Telling her that she loves her "as she is" when she's going to change form. Letting her reach such a volatile emotional state in the first place. She's spent around 13 episodes with Hiro and essentially knows next to nothing about him. She's treated him in the same manipulative, mentally and physically abusive manner she's treated all the rest of her stamen partners, as a means to an end. Because she takes the book as gospel, she doesn't rightfully blame the adults for taking her darling away, she blames her own inhumanity, leading to insecurity and self-loathing. Presumably, APE dangles the carrot of "kill klaxosaurs to become human" in front of her to control her. The change in her appearance provides enough of a grain of truth to her so that she buys into it to the point of obsession. However, as a side effect of this, she kills her stamens. This has a number of consequences. It increases the perception of her as a monster, in both her own eyes as well as everyone elses. Even though she's obtained the freedom to mingle and interact with others, she's prevented from doing so by her own nature. She copes with this by dehumanizing others. They're not "darling-like", therefore they're fodder. This feeds into the notion that only darling will care for her, so there's no point in caring for others. They're sacrifices so that she can reunite with darling. Then comes a heavy revelation in 02's mind. Even though she's found her darling, she's not yet human. Because of this, she ends up realizing the fate prophesied by her book. By some miracle, Hiro survives, but 02 now is faced with the impending reality that unless she becomes human, she'll end up reenacting the scenario sooner rather than later. This all culminates in her trying to kill him as just another fodder stamen. When she finds out Hiro really was her darling all along, the reality of what she was moments away from doing only makes her self-loathing that much stronger. She hates herself and because she has no understanding of what it means to be human lacks the ability to empathize with and connect to others in a healthy manner Zero Two at this point in the story is an extremely broken, objectively awful, unhealthy individual who is only capable of forming unhealthy relationships. She has been the same manipulative, abusive person the entire series. It is only at the end of episode 14, when she screws things up for herself worse than ever before, does she finally begin to accept the consequences of her years of horrible monstrous behavior believing she doesn't deserve to be happy. She finally begins to grasp that it was not her appearance that made Hiro call her a monster, but her behavior, her actions. She doesn't protest or try to make excuses. She's accepts her punishment with grace. It is only at this point in the story that her character development can finally begin. When she can start to learn and understand what it means to be human and potentially find real happiness. The power of a name and how it can humanize a person has been a consistent motif from the beginning. The viewer hears the term darling, initially thinks of it as a term of endearment, only to learn over time that it's more in line with the number identifiers, something used to lessen humanity and individuality. The fact the Zero Two has never once called Hiro by his name is quite telling. There will most likely be a sequence wherein she calls out to him perhaps calling him Darling at first only for him to not respond, forcing her to reconsider what she calls him, and what it implies, before finally calling him Hiro which in turn will indicate she's beginning to see and potentially show concern for him as an actual person, with humanity and individuality rather than a vague character concept from a story book. |
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#838774
Posts: 158 |
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Hiro being a doormat is half the problem in this series. It was okay for the first few episodes, but man, he's more worthless and generic than normal for this genre. He is like an even pansier version of Shinji except there's not even the emotion there. Just a blank slate getting blanker every episode. This past episode and the Zero Two leaving is the most contrived and under developed shit I've seen in a series in a long time. @Hikaru Suzuhara wrote a novel which was quite complex and an interesting read. I would've watched that story, that would be a good story, that's not what is shown on the screen. That is what is extrapolated by superfans trying to rationalize the story. There is too much reading into scenes. They did not convey this emotion or this story very well on screen. I'm a writer by trade and this had the potential to be a very good story but it's just not told with cohesion. 
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