When it comes to watching a new show, the first few episodes are critical. It doesn’t matter how good the rest of the series is, if the first couple episodes aren’t captivating enough, there’s a good chance people will lose interest in the series and give up on it, but sometimes, there are shows that are worth the wait, series that truly open up after the first episodes and really captivate and draw you once you make It through the first couple episodes. One such show that has impressed me beyond my expectations is the mecha anime “Darling in the FranXX” by the well renowned Studio Trigger, which, despite a slow start, is proving itself to be a thrilling show with excellent pacing, art style, and story writing. I initially started watching the show out of curiosity; I was constantly seeing so much media, both original artwork as well as memes, surrounding the show I decided to see what all the hype was about. At that point the show was already five episodes in, and after watching the first four, I was left feeling somewhat disappointed. I’ve been a big fan of Trigger’s shows, and whilst I know their shows can have slow starts, they’re usually entertaining enough to keep you with the series; take Kill La Kill for example, whilst the bulk of the story doesn’t really happen until the middle of the series, with Nonon not showing up until around episode 10, the first couple episodes are entertaining enough to keep one watching, in fact, my favourite episode from KlK is episode four, “Dawn of a Miserable Morning”. Whilst it doesn’t progress the story very far, it’s entertaining enough to keep the user hooked on the series. With Darling in the FranXX, the first episodes felt emotionless, overly serious, and rushed, and pushed me to the point where I nearly felt like giving up the series altogether. Episode one felt way too rushed to establish the story, and honestly had me confused at parts, with episodes two through four relying too heavily on the friction between Zero Two and Ichigo, and Hiro’s blind determination to become a pilot. Whilst we’re on the topic of characters, the show’s characters initially left me with a bad taste in my mouth, they reminded me too much of the characters from Aldnoah Zero, with the main character being seemingly emotionless and overpowered, and every other character being both expendable and forgettable, but as the series progressed I soon began to grow fond of the characters, each with their own list of likeable personality traits. Whilst I still think that the characters are still somewhat forgettable, what they bring to the series outweighs most other flaws they might have. What was the real turning point for me with this series was episode 6, A.K.A the beach episode. Now I know that it might sound odd that a cliché “filler” episode would make me begin to like the series but both it, and the “boys vs. girls” episode that followed afterwards really changed my perspective on the series, with both episodes focusing less on action or story progression, but mainly serving to help stir on character development, combine that with the episodes’ more lighthearted tone and you have an excellent break in the story that really helped me to grow into the series and develop a liking for the characters as a whole. This has all leads into the later portions of the show where the show’s ongoing theme of repressed emotions and a naïve ignorance to any form of human intimacy begins to show its cracks, and for the better. We start to see the characters open up and discover what true emotions they’ve been so hidden from. It’s a lovely way of not only progressing the story, but also helping to establish each character’s unique role in the story as a whole and with each passing week the story has taken time to focus not only on individual characters, but also on the cast as a whole, and it’s done this all without feeling rushed or forced. However, it’s easy to get caught up in the slice of life episodes, and one needs to remember that this is a Trigger show, and there’s still a deep plot that needs to progress. Once the slice of life we begin to see story reach a head, tensions begin to rise, and emotions begin to boil over, all cumulating to a head near the middle of the series, with a character conflict so intense that it actually split the fan base in two., but since this a Trigger show, things don’t stay put for long, and it wasn’t long before we see the series brought to an even greater climax, with character’s developing more in one episode than they realistically have throughout the entire series. This also marks the point where the show’s running theme of repressed emotions and ignorance of intimacy falls away completely and the show changes direction and shifts to its second premise that’s been lurking in the background for the entirety of the series. You don’t have to watch DiTF for long to notice the Orwellian cues in the story. The setting of DiTF is almost an “Anime-ized” version of 1984, just with large robots and monsters. Everything has a reason, and DiTF’s world building helps to explain why humanity is in such freedom-less state. The shows distinct Orwellian cues come into full force in the second half of the show, leveraging the fallout caused by the first half of the show in order to set up and build towards the second and final climax of the show. As the tension builds and a push for freedom is made you start to get the feeling that something is off with the story. Something doesn’t feel quite right. Trigger as a studio is known for mind bending plot twists and their ability utilize those crucial twists in order to weave the story together in artful ways, however, even after over 17 episodes there really has been nothing in terms of ground breaking twists and you truly believe that the show is on a clear and defined path to its conclusion, but it’s at this moment where the show’s greatest flaw comes forth. Darling in the FranXX DOES have a pot twist, but in typical Trigger fashion instead of the twist being something related to the characters, or anything remotely close to the plot, DiTF’s plot twist follows the same line as Kill La Kill before it, where the main antagonists was a large space-faring pseudo-physical enlightened race all along, and this is where the story begins to falter. Throwing a space race in the story felt like a poorly executed Deus-Ex Machina that is trying to make the show too much like Gurren Lagann, it detracted from the impact and morals that all of the previous episodes built towards, and whilst Trigger managed to pull it off with a varying amounts of success, I can’t help but feel somewhat let down by how the show decided to close off the story. The final episode of any show is always going to be bittersweet, but as the show began to come to a close I couldn’t help but feel somewhat disappointed, disappointed by a show that I honestly felt had the potential to rival some of the best anime in regards to storytelling, that Trigger felt the need to throw in an honestly unneeded plot twist, and that it felt like everything that the show was building was broken down in a matter of a few episodes. That’s not to say that DITF has a horrible ending, the final episode is sweet, and does leave you feeling satisfied at the shows conclusion, even if there are some admittedly cliché tropes used. It just feels like DITF could’ve been so much more than it was. Writing a good story is a difficult job, you have to balance character development, plot pacing, backstory and world building, as well as time constraints and consistency. Trigger as a studio has always managed to deliver in these departments and has shown they can indeed excel at it across a variety of formats. I personally hold Trigger’s works in high regard as they’ve managed to create some truly breathtaking stories and I honestly believe that shows like Kill La Kill and TTGL are among the best animes of all time, with Darling in the FranXX being somewhat of a homecoming for the studio; a return to roots with the Mecha genre, but in the end, whilst it succeed in telling a captivating story, it faltered in its overall execution, and ultimately make it difficult for me to call it the best anime of the year, especially with Attack on Titan season 3 just around the corner. However, I do believe that Darling in the FranXX has an honest place in the Trigger library and will have certain place with anime fans both now and to come.
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About Me:Welcome to my blog! Here you'll find various articles about all sorts of topics. Politics, Music, Video Games, eSports, and many other topics I feel the need to write about. Archives
February 2018
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