(L+CR) Darling in the Franxx

[RDNexus]

Sounds legit, and it could fit nicely if so

[KPSJ]

2nd count has not even started yet and people already complaining about the characters honestly I like the all besides two of them.. gobro is great, ichigo is building her own harem and 9'A even said "YAMATO NADESHIKO"(ichigo might be his ideal women), kokoro is starting to wonder where they come from and that plot will be interesting.... I feel once hiro gets his memory back milkman will be a loyal follower again and forgive him.

[archoel]

Damn. what an episode. I teared up, especially last scene. Looking forward to the preview on Thursday.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Very interesting, very intense episode.

95% flashback and it looks like they skipped over some details as well. The title of the episode (The Demon and the Prince) is the title of the in-world picture book.

The kids sure were treated badly. From the previous flashbacks it didn't look as bad but I guess in some ways the other kids were supported by Hiro. His perspective seems a lot bleaker. He wants to understand but nobody will tell him anything. To be honest, seeing his perspective, I'm surprised the kids aren't more messed up. I guess most of the other children in other units simply break under the pressure (or allow themselves to be moulded as the adults want) and just focus on survival and obeying orders.

Not Hiro. He's perhaps too smart and too empathetic for his own good. He sees little 02 and quickly starts to feel sympathy for her. Despite his own situation, he can still do that. Though given how 02 is treated I'm surprised he didn't show more anger towards the adults. Little 02 was treated pretty much like a lab rat and was more or less tortured just to see how she would cope with it. Quite horrific. At this point, 02 is little more than an animal and can't even speak.

I'm impressed that Hiro actually broke 02 out like that. They managed to evade the adults for quite some time. (Kinda makes you wonder why the adults were dumb enough not to put location trackers on those bracelets, but whatever - would be hard to have a proper story if the adults were too smart). Hiro notices the number of 02's bracelet and the first name he comes up with is "Oni" (heh) but discards that for "Zero Two" though he doesn't seem too happy with that name either. It also looks like Hiro's memory was erased.

So, where do we go from here? Well, any sympathy for the adults has taken a big dive, particular Dr Franxx. It probably won't be too long until we get a real confrontation between the children and the adults... but I think that'll be a few episodes away. The episode ends on a sort-of cliffhanger, where it seems Hiro has regained his memories and 02 now realises who Hiro is... but we'll have to wait until next time to see how it plays out.

[Stark700]

About time we're getting a background story episode focused on Hiro and Zero Two. Seems the half way point of the show is a good place for it too.

The past life of Zero Two is quite harsh and lonely tbh. The only thing keeping her going is herself in that world. We got a bit of Hiro and Ichigo's past too. The most noticable part is that he did encounter Zero Two in the past before. Good God, she looked terrible back then and got treated like an experiment.

However, after meeting Hiro, the two began to get along and it felt like Zero Two's dark life got brighter. An entire episode of background storytelling. Not bad. It's definitely interesting to understand our main characters better.

[RDNexus]

Best episode so far. Totally needed, totally worth it. Now I really wanna know (even more) how things will unfold from here onwards.

[Kismet-chan]

This episode was great. It made me both sad and angry, for all of the right reasons.

Spoiler:

S-So cute... She was an adorable little imp child.




HOW COULD YOU HURT THIS?!

[konart]

I'm ready for some "Shinji vs NERV HQ" Darling ver.

[The End of Son]

Best episode so far, really emotional.
I wonder what kind of direction the show now will take. It could stay the same or it could take a Hiro and 02 vs Papa direction or something like that.

[wuhugm]

Ewww 02 is a real monster
Let's switch to human Ichigo's route

[sikvod00]

Originally Posted by The End of Son

Best episode so far, really emotional.
I wonder what kind of direction the show now will take. It could stay the same or it could take a Hiro and 02 vs Papa direction or something like that.

Very likely the latter. Hiro's memories are awakened and he remembers how terrible the adults are. There's no reason for him and 02 to continue mindlessly following the same path and doing "Papa's" bidding now. It's just a matter of convincing the rest of the gang, which won't be easy.

Originally Posted by wuhugm

Ewww 02 is a real monster
Let's switch to human Ichigo's route

LOOK AT THIS BAIT RIGHT HERE! lol

[LeftSeven]

mmm...what a touching episode. seems like princess role in the book is reversed a bit, it's hiro as princess who help prince/02
no wonder 02 hate those experiment so much, they treated her like a monster, same thing like those parasites.
now hiro already got his memories back, what's he gonna do next? make up with mitsuru or ask plant13 to join him out of plant, but it's not that easy considering zorome and miku might be doubt him. so i guess he would pretend to obey them for now while wait for the right time.

[SeaDoor]

Excellent episode! Not a surprise but excellent nonetheless.

Now I want some background on how the adults became such amoral creatures. At this point the adults are painted in too much black so some nuance would be nice to have.

[Kuroageha]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

Ewww 02 is a real monster
Let's switch to human Ichigo's route

Sorry, not into traps my dude.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

Ewww 02 is a real monster

Monsters, we are. Lest, Monsters we become.

Now that it is confirmed this is Beauty and the Beast, when is Z2 going to princess carry Hiro (like Morgiana did with Alibaba ?

[firemagnet]

Originally Posted by Sion Astal

Is the series is going to end like the book?

Spoiler for Picture:

From the scenes we get from episode 1, it may well.

Wow, what a rush. Episodes 11, 12, and 13 were the best this series has produced so far , with a lot of speculation here and on MAL being confirmed at least in part.

With respect to episodes 1 and 12, we're beginning to come full circle, and this is not the end of the beginning but the beginning of the end.

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To draw upon some of the themes brought up by "close to red" in his analysis of episode 12, this episode is really Zero-Two's love story, and it sets the tone for the rest of the series to come; the snow in this episode represents a new beginning and the coming spring of love, and matches thematically with the fairly tale of the beast and the prince shown in the episode, hence my comments above. Here, snow represents the beginning of their relationship, where the cherry petals in the opening scene of episode 1 unambiguously represent that she's found love with Hiro in plantation 13. Eventually, we'll come back to the end of this story, book-ending with a return to the opening scene of a now fully klaxosaur adult Zero-Two standing in the ruins of the Garden surrounded by other klaxosaurs.


With respect to episode 13 itself, this was a much needed world-building episode that fleshes out both of their characters and illuminates that regardless of their positions, the characters all suffer consequences to varying degrees for attempting to exit the system. The contrast between Hiro and Zero-Two couldn't be more stark; he's human, a prodigy, and treated well even among the highest ranking human candidates, and takes initiative where others will not. Among the rest of the children, he is clearly a born leader, and everyone looks up to him and his initiative. Meanwhile, Zero-Two is merely a curiosity and apparently a highly evolved klaxosaur; left in a run down room in solitude and with minimal care, she's tortured daily to test the limits of what "humanoid klaxosaurs" are capable of. Hiro finds her, so much his opposite, thanks to his own curiosity. In her lie some of the answers to his questions, but this episode is really about her; we see how her ideas were shaped by him, and we can infer from this episode that Dr. Franxx quickly seized upon the seed that Hiro had planted in Zero-Two to make her more cooperative. It's likely that the "good" doctor encouraged the idea that killing more klaxosaurs would make her human as a means of gaining her cooperation. It also paints a very bleak picture of how she learned about "kissing" and "what comes after kissing;" if the science teams for APE were capable of torturing an infant as part of an experiment, then they would have few if any qualms about forcing themselves upon Zero-Two as she grew older, or having her previous partners mate with her as part of an experiment.

[zibi88]

Originally Posted by Sion Astal

Is the series is going to end like the book?

Spoiler for Picture:

I think the story will turn out differently. In the book the princess became human to be with her love, but I belive at the end the story will turn the opposite, Hiro will drop his human self and become a similar creature that 02 is so she would never feel lonely again.

Still the professor lost some points in my eyes after what he was doing to that kid 02 or later how he just erased their memories... now Hiro does not need to listen to his advise about the emotions becouse he was the real monster to take them away from Hiro with that memory erasing procedure.

Anyway I wonder how other kids will react to the news of the past or how Mitsuru will react to hear that the reason why Hiro didnt remember is becouse the "adults he prises so high were the ones that erased his memories" and were the ones that took away Hiros emotions.

Some of the kids already are starting to doubt the adults... like Hiro, Mitsuru, Kokoro even Zorome so soon we might see them rebel against the plantations... in the end it will turn out that the dinos are the good guys.

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by zibi88

I think the story will turn out differently. In the book the princess became human to be with her love, but I belive at the end the story will turn the opposite, Hiro will drop his human self and become a similar creature that 02 is so she would never feel lonely again.

So what you're saying is, this is anime Shrek.

[Sakuratsuki]

Beauty and the beast goes Shrek route...plausible

Emotional episode. There is no doubt (if you still had any) that the adults are the problem here and not the kids. The kids are the products of this disgusting cult. 02 and Hiro are the key to make a change because the others don't know any better than serving and pleasing Papa. Hiro has been bright and skeptical from his young age.

So that's where 02 got ''Darling'' from.

[Mistyclear]

So Hiro started Zero Two and the whole darling thing huh....
As expected the “adults” were jerks, good thing I never once thought they were sympathetic.
So Zero Two is full out klaxosaurs huh....