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DARLING in the FRANXX - it's literal

I didn't see that coming. That was a very big surprise.

Just how tall is Strelizia Apath/Apus anyway?


 
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I'm still enjoying it, but it's just unfortunate that they seem to have hinged at least half of their emotional resonance on the Mitsuru/Kokoro ship that never clicked with me, and I still can't bring myself to give a shit about.
 
Hiro's waifu is the biggest waifu in the universe! :D
 
SerGregness said:
I'm still enjoying it, but it's just unfortunate that they seem to have hinged at least half of their emotional resonance on the Mitsuru/Kokoro ship that never clicked with me, and I still can't bring myself to give a shit about.
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I never really clicked with Kokoro or Mitsuru until this episode. IMO this episode was Mitsuru's strongest showing.

On a different note, poor Ikuno. She had only a handful of lines and never appeared on screen in person, only as Chlorophytum.

The giant space battle was alright I guess. Nine Alpha's sacrifice didn't really have any emotional impact and we didn't even see what became of the other Nines. The got surrounded and didn't show up later, so they presumably died off screen.

Giant Bridal Zero Two felt pretty bullshit though. It felt like a forced reference to GNR (or perhaps something from a mech show I haven't seen) instead of something that made sense in universe.

For a bit I felt Zero Two was out of character in thinking Hiro would reject her for not being human. After thinking about it I realized that Zero Two's fear of being rejected for not being human likely comes from being abused as a child and is likely deeply rooted in her mind. Those sorts of things take a long time to get over, so her falling back into that mindset isn't unrealistic. Even so, it was a bit annoying from a narrative standpoint because we know Hiro won't reject her. At least the picture book world was cool.

Was it just me, or was Zero Two leading the Klaxosaurs?
 
THE DARLING WAS IN THE FRANXX.I love that wedding dress imagery of Apus and the mothership being a bouquet. I mean if the mothership is a bomb and also a bouquet then Hiro and Zero Two better throw that shit.

I really did not dig the whole Giant Zero Two thing however. It felt weird, looked weird but I guess it's fine, I don't give a big shit though.

It also seems like that despite lovey-dovey Zero Two post episode 16 still feels insecure about the whole not human thing. I can understand it a bit where she's coming from so it's fine. I really do like that Hiro has gone full Oni. Also speaking of Hiro, he became a true madman. His fetish repertoire only grows. From horns to monster girls and now Giants.

Alpha dying was a shame. He was cool smug guy.

That aside Goro really does sound different with his new VA. At least this makes sure Goro lives, right guys?
 
You know when you're playing SRW on one route, then there's the big fuckoff meetup in space for the final battle and the units on the route you haven't followed are all upgraded with no real explanation?

That's DarliFra 23. :V

Also, this could not be more Diebuster if it were just Ichigo and 02 left. It's nice :V
 
Super Robot Wars.

Make like a codemonkey and Google that shit. :V

E: Darling in the FRANXX is Aim for the Top! 1 and 2 for people uncomfortable with strong lesbian undertones :V
 
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IN THIS EPISODE: LITERALLY GUNBUSTER


EDIT: Honestly though, this episode was way too rushed. Nine Alpha getting a bunch of character development all of a sudden, the Nines appearing out of nowhere what the fuck, end of season mech upgrades literally gifted to the protagonists, Kokoro/Mitsuru reconciling super quickly...

This needed to be spread out over at least two episodes. Or three.
 
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Shouldn't we change the thread name to
"Darling is the FranXX" or has 02 surpassed Dr. Frank's expectations
 
Arcus said:
IN THIS EPISODE: LITERALLY GUNBUSTER


EDIT: Honestly though, this episode was way too rushed. Nine Alpha getting a bunch of character development all of a sudden, the Nines appearing out of nowhere what the fuck, end of season mech upgrades literally gifted to the protagonists, Kokoro/Mitsuru reconciling super quickly...

This needed to be spread out over at least two episodes. Or three.
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I agree on the Kokoro/Mitsuru thing, I think also some more time on Mitsuru/Hiro. They covered a lot of emotion with that one little flashback but I think there's a little bit more room in there. The Nines didn't need a bunch of development, IMO, and the less time we spend on jerks, the better. I couldn't disagree more on the mech upgrades, though. It's so refreshing to just have them go "Hey, we got Random Space Modifications now that we're in space" instead of half an episode dedicated to "We're heading into space, so here's a detailed run-down on your Illudium Q 36 Random Space Module".
 
I feel like the Mind Wipe really set it back badly for me. On one hand, true love conquers. On the other, I would have appreciated them realizing what happened...and not being able to reclaim it. Just knowing that something was there and that it won't be again and that's alright.

I like the wedding dress imagery but having ALL of Z2's face and hair really made it weird to me. It just doesn't work at that level of scale.
 
Dream Logic said:
I feel like the Mind Wipe really set it back badly for me. On one hand, true love conquers. On the other, I would have appreciated them realizing what happened...and not being able to reclaim it. Just knowing that something was there and that it won't be again and that's alright.

I like the wedding dress imagery but having ALL of Z2's face and hair really made it weird to me. It just doesn't work at that level of scale.
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They say 02's face looks like a duck or a fish
 
Dream Logic said:
*snip* On one hand, true love conquers. *snip*
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So, here's the thing: I don't see the point of Kokoro/Mitsuru. We already have hiro/02 as our main 'true love conquers' thing, and it's not like the relationship has provided anything in terms of actual character development for either of them. Mitsuru's big progression was when he stopped being a colossal douche, which came mainly from mending the fence with Hiro, and was only tangentially affected by Kokoro if at all. Kokoro's only real 'developments' where the in the hamfisted, unsatisfying 'but thou must' way the two of them got together, and the whole rediscovering children thing, which could have happened independently of Mitsuru, save for the biological necessities. All this despite the fact that the two of them have gobbled up screen time from all our other MC's the last 6 episodes or so, Hiro/02 included.
 
SerGregness said:
So, here's the thing: I don't see the point of Kokoro/Mitsuru. We already have hiro/02 as our main 'true love conquers' thing, and it's not like the relationship has provided anything in terms of actual character development for either of them. Mitsuru's big progression was when he stopped being a colossal douche, which came mainly from mending the fence with Hiro, and was only tangentially affected by Kokoro if at all. Kokoro's only real 'developments' where the in the hamfisted, unsatisfying 'but thou must' way the two of them got together, and the whole rediscovering children thing, which could have happened independently of Mitsuru, save for the biological necessities. All this despite the fact that the two of them have gobbled up screen time from all our other MC's the last 6 episodes or so, Hiro/02 included.
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Hir02 is the leading couple, but they have a different romantic gimmick. It starts off as Garden State with robots and turns into a tale of accepting the real person instead of a fairytale, but then the second cour walks that back with the fairytale imagery because most people want their Manic Pixie Dream Girl fairytale :V

MitsuKoko is about loving someone your Papa doesn't approve of, shaking off an arranged relationship and choosing what the heart wants. The pregnancy thing can pretty easily be read as a stand-in for learning about her own body, which should be empowering. It's about a woman's right to choose, which makes it super uncomfortable how upset this narrative makes people. The worst thing in the world is a woman wanting to have a kid, apparently :V

And Mitsuru's progression comes from him taking responsibility for his own life, instead of riding Hiro's jock all the time.
 
I think this show suffers from not having enough Studio Trigger balls-to-the-wall weirdness. Robots piloted by sex imagery was a good start, but they missed all the in-between ridiculousness that would have otherwise helped sell all the stuff that's been going on in these last episodes.
 
FourthWall said:
Hir02 is the leading couple, but they have a different romantic gimmick. It starts off as Garden State with robots and turns into a tale of accepting the real person instead of a fairytale, but then the second cour walks that back with the fairytale imagery because most people want their Manic Pixie Dream Girl fairytale :V

MitsuKoko is about loving someone your Papa doesn't approve of, shaking off an arranged relationship and choosing what the heart wants. The pregnancy thing can pretty easily be read as a stand-in for learning about her own body, which should be empowering. It's about a woman's right to choose, which makes it super uncomfortable how upset this narrative makes people. The worst thing in the world is a woman wanting to have a kid, apparently :V

And Mitsuru's progression comes from him taking responsibility for his own life, instead of riding Hiro's jock all the time.
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I really hope you're talking about other people when you say people are being upset by Kokoro, because my problem is that I almost literally don't care at all about their subplot, and I'm only bothered in that it's kind of boring and they're taking up valuable screen time in a series that already has weird-ass pacing issues. (Tangent: I'm not sure why you mentioned mitsuru's development, only to say basically the same thing I did. :V)

I'm not sure I buy your 'choosing what the heart wants' thing. All of mitsuru's development happens after the partner shuffle, but we're given no indication why she would want to associate with him beforehand. Yes, Futoshi was shown to be clingy during the episode the partner shuffle happened and afterwards, but the whole time before that Kokoro seemed to be just as on board with the cutesy shit as he was. If you want me to buy that this is supposed to be about empowerment, I'd like to have seen a better through-line. I'm not even some emotionless hardass either. In fact, I'm kind of a softie, generally speaking. I got choked up more than once in the theater watching Deadpool 2 for fuck's sake. I can recognize that objectively Mituru and Kororo's scene in the rain is exactly the kind of thing that should have gotten me, and yet I have almost zero investment because if you want to sell me a story about a woman choosing the best thing for her, I'd kind of like to see why she would make the choice she does.

Like, Kokoro's choice was that she wanted a kid. Mitsuru was incidental to that.

Huh, maybe that's part of the reason it's not working for me. I dated a girl once who wanted to be in a relationship more than she wanted to be in one with me. It's not a recipe for a strong partnership.
 
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SerGregness said:
I really hope you're talking about other people when you say people are being upset by Kokoro, because my problem is that I almost literally don't care at all about their subplot, and I'm only bothered in that it's kind of boring and they're taking up valuable screen time in a series that already has weird-ass pacing issues. (Tangent: I'm not sure why you mentioned mitsuru's development, only to say basically the same thing I did. :V)

I'm not sure I buy your 'choosing what the heart wants' thing. All of mitsuru's development happens after the partner shuffle, but we're given no indication why she would want to associate with him beforehand. Yes, Futoshi was shown to be clingy during the episode the partner shuffle happened and afterwards, but the whole time before that Kokoro seemed to be just as on board with the cutesy shit as he was. If you want me to buy that this is supposed to be about empowerment, I'd like to have seen a better through-line. I'm not even some emotionless hardass either. In fact, I'm kind of a softie, generally speaking. I got choked up more than once in the theater watching Deadpool 2 for fuck's sake. I can recognize that objectively Mituru and Kororo's scene in the rain is exactly the kind of thing that should have gotten me, and yet I have almost zero investment because if you want to sell me a story about a woman choosing the best thing for her, I'd kind of like to see why she would make the choice she does.

Like, Kokoro's choice was that she wanted a kid. Mitsuru was incidental to that.

Huh, maybe that's part of the reason it's not working for me. I dated a girl once who wanted to be in a relationship more than she wanted to be in one with me. It's not a recipe for a strong partnership.
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I'm still going on record that it would be a lot more interesting if they didn't work out as couple either, possibly because Mitsuru turned out to be gay.

But then I suppose showing that it's possible to go through multiple relationships that don't work and there is such a thing as a healthy breakup is fine. But then it would get in the way of the message of START MAKING BABIES NOW, isn't that right Abe?
 
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