A certain anime started with huge expectations and a lot of buzz. A famous studio was in charge of the animation, a well-known manga artist was doing the manga adaptation, and the plot seemed genuinely intriguing. However, halfway through the story, the famous studio dropped out. The official reason remains unknown. And the ending of the story was nothing short of a total mess. Viewers speculated, "The studio in charge of animation probably saw how terrible the ending's scenario was and quit production," which just looked pathetic from an outsider's perspective. Assuming that's true, didn't they realize the ending's scenario from the very beginning? It makes you realize they were using all those cryptic, suggestive settings to fool not just the viewers, but even the studio itself.
It was the robot anime called "Darling in the Franxx." I want to make a few apologies and corrections, though. When I just looked it up, I found that my memory had some major inaccuracies. It was co-produced by "Trigger," a famous studio with lineage tracing back to Gainax (the studio behind Nadia and Evangelion), and "CloverWorks," a younger studio. I thought Trigger was the one that dropped out, but it was actually CloverWorks. Trigger ended up having to clean up the mess. At episode one, it looked super interesting and I was excited to see where it went. But as the episodes progressed (people were already calling it boring by around episode four), the facade kept peeling away, exposing it as a completely hollow, garbage piece of work. Nowadays, the only things people ever talk about are the animation, the opening theme, and the ending theme. Only the OPs, EDs, and animation were godly.
Here's the plot of Darling in the Franxx: In the near future, humanity discovers and starts mining a new, incredible resource called "magma fuel" from deep within the Earth. Suddenly, however, giant monsters called "Klaxosaurs" appear and start rampaging, pushing human civilization to the brink of extinction. A genius scientist develops giant robotic weapons that look like an imitation of Evangelion (somehow female-shaped), and the main characters—chosen children—pilot these robots to fight the Klaxosaurs. The world, the protagonists, the Klaxosaurs—everything unfolds in a way where mystery piles upon mystery. But when the truth is finally revealed in the end, it turns out to be nothing more than a generic, clichéd Showa-era good-versus-evil robot anime. The true identity of the Klaxosaurs is the remnants of an indigenous species of Earth. In ancient times, this indigenous race was an intelligent life form like humans. However, they were invaded by extraterrestrial life forms. They resisted and somehow managed to drive off the aliens once, but predicting that they would attack again, they chose to evolve to defend the Earth. Some of the indigenous people transformed into Klaxosaurs, and others transformed into magma fuel, which serves as the power source for the Klaxosaurs. Thus, the indigenous people turned Klaxosaur went underground and kept waiting for the aliens to return. Meanwhile, on the surface, humanity was born and developed, eventually starting to mine and consume magma fuel—which was quite literally the very life of the indigenous people. Enraged by this, the Klaxosaurs began rampaging across the surface to protect the magma fuel. And the extraterrestrial invaders had already begun their invasion from behind the scenes, infiltrating humanity's defense organization. The protagonists were used as the vanguard of these aliens, and right according to the aliens' strategy, they ended up defeating the Klaxosaur princess (who is cute). Since destroying the princess means the Klaxosaurs are wiped out, the aliens finally show their true power and begin invading Earth. With her dying breath, the princess gathers her remaining strength and entrusts her power to the protagonist and heroine. The protagonist and heroine absorb the Klaxosaurs' power, mutate into non-human entities with absurdly broken strength, and travel together to the edge of the universe to protect Earth, engaging in an epic space war with the aliens. Then, after eons pass, the protagonist and heroine die right as their battle ends. Their souls head back to Earth, where they are reborn as ordinary children, and they have a fated reunion in a place connected to their past lives. The end. What kind of garbage script is this?
Just based on that synopsis, it actually sounds interesting, though. I looked it up, and the animation really is good.
Of course, if you put all your stat points into "making it look interesting," you can definitely make people think "this sounds interesting."
I don't really know, but based on watching the actual show, it's not interesting at all. That summary just leaves out various elements and cuts to the chase. In reality, it's a vulgar, erotic anime. You can already tell from the fact that the manga adaptation is by Kentaro Yabuki (To Love Ru). I mean, the robots are piloted by male-female pairs, and the composition of the cockpit is completely doggystyle, serving as a metaphor for sex. It just throws one "suggestive" element after another to create a "pretentious masterpiece vibe." It distracts you with good visuals, music, and animation. Just try searching "Darling in the Franxx boring" or "Darling in the Franxx trash." At first, the internet was buzzing, calling it a "guaranteed hit," but as the episodes went on, the viewers went "Ah..." and everyone scattered. When I watched the first episode, I even found myself hoping, "I want them to appear in Super Robot Wars," but garbage like this won't ever cross over unless connections and vested interests are involved. Well, just the first episode alone feels like an interesting "masterpiece-style" work thanks to the good visuals, music, and animation. Darling in the Franxx Episode 1: "Alone and Lonesome" However, everything after the first episode is boring, and please, don't do anything rash like paying money to watch it. You'll just be throwing your time and money down the drain.
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