- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Darling in the Franxx (Darlifra) is a giant robot series co-produced by Studio Trigger and A-1 Pictures. It is the dream production of its director, Nishigori Atsuhi, and while those studios are in charge of production, the overall composition of the production team bring to mind the glory days of Gainax. Featuring industry notables like Imaishi Hiroyuki, Koyama Shigeto, Tanaka Masayoshi and others, short of Kyoto Animation's Violet Evergarden, Darlifra has the most talented team in the current season.
And what is that team producing?
A tale as old as time, though this one is dripping in so much sexual subtext that even Sigmund Freud is probably telling them to clam down lol
But that subtext could be really interesting if Nishigori and his team capitalise on their theming. The setting is clearly intended to seem oppressive. The teenaged pilots are called parasites. The value of children is explicitly defined by their capacity to act as FRANXX pilots, and they are controlled and manipulated by a very literal mass of faceless adults who expose them to extreme scrutiny. They are forced to occupy this pilot role, which is very clearly symbolised as heterosexual marriage - the male characters wear black piloting suits while the female characters wear white, with a kind of hood-like helmet bringing to mind the garb of a traditional Japanese wedding. In a special ceremony their fingers are linked by a ring-like cord. Their full dress uniforms very literally emblazoned with XX and XY chromosomes, depending on gender. There's some obvious allusions to sex in the robot battles themselves.
Zero Two looks like an oni and is symbolised as one*. Oni are symbols of transgression in Japanese classical literature - lawlessness and immorality. Obviously the oppressive regime that creates these arranged giant robot marriages and extols teenagers to shed every last drop of blood is the real villain and that says something in itself. But it could really do with following through on what Zero Two represents, and doing something actually transgressive.
If something is done with all this clear theming then it could have the makings of a classic. Because apart from everything else the actual production and design is excellent. It's like the best of SF anime in that it has its own very complete visual language to it. It has an aesthetic which is Evangelion by way of Diebuster by way of Star Driver, but while you can see all this other DNA in the design work the way it comes together in this bright but oppressive regime is very strong. There's basically no part of the look of the show which isn't well executed, and the animation quality is really stellar - hand-drawn robots and monsters and such.
This is a 2-cour show so we'll have a lot to discuss over the next half year, so let's see where it goes!
*Her name is a pun. A fucking PUN.
