Darling in the Franxx Review

Overall Rating 4.5 of 10 - Was somewhat promising, but ultimately failed to deliver.

I do no recommend watching. I dropped after episode 9.

This show is not without its redeeming qualities. However fundamentally it is an unpleasant experience that borders on propaganda and affirms everything that is wrong with society.

I had cautiously high expectations at first. Authoritarian and oppressive system, a rebel that does not fit it and fights against it. That almost Code Geass start. Even her name is like a homage to the Lelouch's alter ago, Zero.

Zero Two however is but a weak woman far from Lelouch. The best she can do is to occasionally stick a middle finger to the system and its myrmidons and help herself and her Darling to escape them and do whatever they want. Early episodes did occasionally show just that. Even by episode 9 I would still claim that she is the most sane and sensible character of the entire cast.

The rest of the cast consist of adult supervisors who treat children as expendable cannon fodder, while also calling them parasites. Abuse, exploitation and hypocrisy all in one. Just like Holy Britannia Empire treated The Numbers. Actually no, unlike plantation managers, HBE was not hypocritical.

Unlike the Elevens, most kids here not only content with status quo, but even actively seeking the approval of the exploitative "adults". Suzaku's mentality is most prevailing here, even Suzaku is less of martyr bootlicker that some most of these kids. That is of course painful to watch.

To make matters worse it also has loud assertive women. Dumb cunts do get worked up over stupid things such as guys enjoying seeing them naked and go bananas over it.

Women making any rules is bad by itself. However insane women making rules are even worse.

Unlike Code Geass, where wise and great Lelouch managed to change the world, here the worst people take the lead and force their idiotism on others. The ugly world they create is painful to watch. Even by episode 9, where I dropped, there are no sign that anyone will fight against the system. In fact, there are even less signs of any opposition then there was in episode 5 or 7.

As a final note I would like to mention that art and design is relatively good. Show does occasionally show interesting breathtaking views over the cutting edge technogenic facilities. Mech and Klaxosaurs design are also interesting and creative. So are piloting arrangements. First ending song is somewhat good as well, however it was replaced with some shit on episode 8.

Overall, it is ugly story about ugly world, that could only satisfy abusive parents who hate their children. Do not watch.