(L+CR) Darling in the Franxx

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Kokoro and Mitsuru's plotline is unfolding exactly as predicted. Of course, nobody bothered to check if Kokoro was pregnant, and they're already recovering their memories. I maintain the memory wipe's only purpose was to introduce some cheap drama.

Let's play out the pregnancy for a moment. They've got four more episodes so I don't expect the cliffhanger to materialize. Given how this show deals with time, there could months of story remaining. I think it's likely that a month or even two has passed since Kokoro and Mitsuru had sex. Conceiving a child on what appears to have been their only intercourse is possible but highly improbable though. Perhaps this story line was intended to send a strong message to the kids in the audience about the potential consequences of unprotected sex. Might they have slept together more often than that one time we see? I don't recall any suggestions that they did.

Now that we know that everyone has working plumbing (except maybe Zero Two and maybe Hiro?), the avoidance of any side aspects of puberty like menarche and nocturnal emissions seems clearly intentional.

So, assuming they will survive, do you think Kokoro and/or Mitsuru will recover their memories before Kokoro starts to show? Did any of the other parasites read the book besides her? Though it looked like it was aimed at kids I suspect it would have shown what pregnant women look like.

On the memory front, Kokoro and Mitsuru do have that moment at the end together. Still, given the elastic pacing of this series, that could just signify the beginning of a longer process.

And, yes, as plot twists go, this is up there with Guillotine Gorilla!

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Let's play out the pregnancy for a moment. They've got four more episodes so I don't expect the cliffhanger to materialize. Given how this show deals with time, there could months of story remaining. I think it's likely that a month or even two has passed since Kokoro and Mitsuru had sex. Conceiving a child on what appears to have been their only intercourse is possible but highly improbable though. Perhaps this story line was intended to send a strong message to the kids in the audience about the potential consequences of unprotected sex. Might they have slept together more often than that one time we see? I don't recall any suggestions that they did.

Improbable but not impossible, and this show has already made abundantly clear that it doesn't give a flying fuck about science or logic in far more important respects, so I don't think that's surprising. Also, given how much effort they put towards glorifying human reproduction in any way or form and portraying the choice of sterility that most humans made as unnatural and dangerous, the continuous insistence on "leaving a mark for the future" which started with the mention of making babies, etc. I highly doubt this is supposed to be a PSA against teen pregnancy (which I doubt is a big problem in Japan). If anything, it's a PSA to fuck more and have more children .

[wissenschaft]

If they had sex during the week she was going to ovulate than its not unlikely that she would get pregnant. It would just be very lucky timing to have your first time especially when your completely ignorant of how pregnancy works. But then most people even nowadays are ignorant of how pregnancy actually works.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Wow, look at that cliched turn of events. Audience already predicted the reveals would go down this way to the point where people considered the alien-nature of some of the APEs before this big reveal. In fact, the cliched plot goes so bad to the point where they played the reveal that "Klaxosaurs = Franxx" totally straight like it's supposed to be a real big twist. Hah! Sure, that's a twists for those who haven't seen Evangelion and its cloned shows or even one of the the recent biggest anime hits in the decade of 2010s called Attack on Titans.

Originally Posted by wissenschaft

Yeah, like I said, I agree it was just for shock value. Shock value that worked really well give the reaction to episode 18.

Yeah, that cheap writing method worked really well for audience who didn't know better, especially those types who suffered psychological meltdown after they watched episode 14 and lashed out like immature brats. They fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The rest of us who didn't fell for it already knew that it's a cheap drama right when it happened. Not to mention such writing technique is juvenile and beyond bad after we passed the 2000s decade. When Dawson's Creek has better writing than your show when it comes to drama, you know you messed up. I wish I could tell the writers that.

Originally Posted by Kanon

Incidentally, I thought it was yet another proof APE was incompetent, but the bastards surprised me. The two VIRMs at least know how to get things done. They actually had a back up plan in case Klax hime hijacked the superweapon they were planning to use. Well played there.

Not sure how to feel about the aliens. The rest of the revelations were fine, with most of them having been hinted at earlier (like the Franxx being Klax), but aliens... I don't know. Anyway, feels like the whole mess could have been avoided if Klax Hime had been more friendly and had tried to explain herself like she did in this ep before attacking humans. They wouldn't have believed her at first, but given how powerful she is, she could have easily forcefully exposed the VIRMs who had no means to fight back initially.

This is the writers trying to pull both Gurren Lagann and Getter Robo on us. As for the quality of the result, well, you can see it for yourself. *sigh* thank god we still have the OVAs of Yamato and Gundams. Otherwise, avid mecha fans like me would have to spend this year without well-written mecha shows. At least the "Guillotine Gorilla"-shock reveal happened in a silly show that doesn't treat itself seriously and it fit. Here, not so much.

That said, I like the design of the Star-something. But the way it wasted the alien-ships is yet another rip-off of the first attack of the Macross ship in SDF Macross. They seriously need to stop ripping off from better shows.

[Guido]

Finally, I watched the episode, and I have this to say on the confrontation depicted as Freddy vs. Jason, though Freddy this time won the round.

What I mean is that both sides VIRM and the Klaxo sapiens, whoever wins means that what remains of humanity is done for, unless the impending planetary apocalypse forces the remains of APE (humans) and the remains of the klaxos to form an unlikely alliance, if not also and improbable symbiosis, to fight their common enemy: extinction.

To tell you the truth I began suspecting a twist like this could potentially play out as sooner as the sixteenth episode, since part of the animation staff worked previously in Kill La Kill,

Spoiler:

and in that show's second half revealed the life fibers to be of a parasitic, alien origin wandering the universe devouring entire planets.

As someone previously posted, staff working in other shows with similar twists are common, but this staff successfully managed to apply the same twist into a totally different show with a sense of refreshment for the audience.

To be fair VRIM's collective mentality plus trascendence, invasion massive fleets, and their modus operandi at infiltrating the Earth and posing amongst humans greatly reminded me of the following races depicted whether be anime or american sci-fi shows:
1. The first drawing a parallel to the Anti-Spirals from TTGL or that's what I believe.
2. The second paying homage to the Space Monsters from the GunBuster franchise.
3. The third detail I can draw parallels with either the Shadoen, from the Roswell Conspiracies, or the Tyrusians, from Invasion America, employing similar tactics to infiltrate human society and passing off as humans unnoticed, until the truth gets revealed in the last story arc.

As for Dr. Franxx, even though, he's far gone into his mad science curiosity, I still believe the good doctor will play one last role in the final crisis to give the children a notion of a future to fight for.
In fact, this latter statement would better correlate for him to do something about helping Hiro and Zero Two getting together back again. Hence, I as well suspect Dr. Franxx has one last revelation of his own to tell, but he will disclose that truth with Zero Two.

In a nutshell ....

Spoiler:

Half of APE's Council (Papa included) are VIRM double agents, and the rest are humans who took the "Immortality" treatment.

Papa anticipated Klaxx-hime hijacking Strelizia in order to plant herself inside the Franxx and taking control of Star Entity. Nevertheless, VIRM's played their ace card with overwhelming success dealing an ironic twist that they hacked right into Klaxx-hime to retake Star Entity when just a few minutes ago Klaxx-hime had taken control of the superweapon in order to attempt at decimating VIRM's fleet.

[Ligerleon89]

Humanity basically just got played alongside the Klaxso on this one. And with humanity giving up their reproduction abilities I think, being a freaking fiddle to the VRIM who ingratiated themselves into humanity, gave them what they wanted so long it fitted with their plans for this moment. Dang. And all that foreshadowing with Kokoro was also leading up to the moment that humanity as a species has to continue their existence doing the old fashioned way, to which Kokoro and Mitsuru did start on that. So it would make sense for them to survive to the end...although childbirth is a complicated, and dangerous process that I don't think they checked out well enough, hope they got time after when this is through, assuming they survive.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Ligerleon89

...although childbirth is a complicated, and dangerous process that I don't think they checked out well enough, hope they got time after when this is through, assuming they survive.

Here's hoping the show stops doing the predictable and actually shows us how Kokoro will go through the late-pregnancy and childbirth process without proper guidance or proper medical aids. But the chances for it to happen is low. Not impossible, but extremely low.

[Ligerleon89]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Here's hoping the show stops doing the predictable and actually shows us how Kokoro will go through the late-pregnancy and childbirth process without proper guidance or proper medical aids. But the chances for it to happen is low. Not impossible, but extremely low.

Just ask the multiple women in real life who went through this one, even without the proper medical aid you brought up. And believe me, I'm not taking this lightly. And it's always been obvious about how this thing with pregnancy will go. Anyway, this one's on the ball of Dr. Franxx and Zero Two who just seen her boyfriend get taken away by the Klax Princess. We know that she's going to save Hiro, the way Hiro saved her from herself on the path to self-destruction in a very disturbing way back then.

[Jaden]

The alien twist makes some sense, considering the existence of klaxxosaur...

I guess the only thing I don't get is how cold Hime is towards her human cousins. I imagine if people knew the truth about the aliens, they would resist. Yet they are treated as a lost cause, and there wasn't any attempt at counter-propaganda.

[Ligerleon89]

Originally Posted by Jaden

The alien twist makes some sense, considering the existence of klaxxosaur...

I guess the only thing I don't get is how cold Hime is towards her human cousins. I imagine if people knew the truth about the aliens, they would resist. Yet they are treated as a lost cause, and there wasn't any attempt at counter-propaganda.

For me at least, Hime is simply just too peeved off at how humanity cooperated with their true enemies, they were too busying trying to selfishly grasp something that for the most part was impossible, until the VRIM gave it to them, but at a price they knew they could take advantage of the humans for. They did assist the APE who know reveal themselves as the VRIM that lead to more of the perversion of their tech and the death of some of their race. She simply just doesn't have the patience to talk or listen, she's too pissed off.

[KPSJ]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

I don't like this [The True Enemy is Them] trope

Grancrest Senki also doing that this season

Feels cheap

At least this opens the doors to nines joining the good side.

[Ligerleon89]

Originally Posted by KPSJ

At least this opens the doors to nines joining the good side.

I don't know about that. Alpha Nine definitely was angry at the K.P. for insulting their Papa, they may yet become an obstacle that Squad 13 has to best.

[KPSJ]

Originally Posted by Ligerleon89

I don't know about that. Alpha Nine definitely was angry at the K.P. for insulting their Papa, they may yet become an obstacle that Squad 13 has to best.

That was before he knew papa was alien willing to blow up earth along with everyone.

[Guido]

Originally Posted by KPSJ

At least this opens the doors to nines joining the good side.

I do agree on that issue getting settled one way or another after VIRM revealing themselves along with their true intentions.

As I already said, I'm predicting that the caretakers (human APE plus rest of immortal humans) along with the parasites (Nines, Squad 13, and the rest of children) will have no choice but to discard their differences and ally with the Klaxo sapien, whether Klaxx-hime like it or not.

However, in order for that to happen they'll need someone to look for as their leader or symbol of hope for future to unite and guide both species; someone that understands both species who could very well be Zero Two, Hiro, or both.

[HtwoN]

Aliens??? What the hell is happening?

[KPSJ]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Here's hoping the show stops doing the predictable and actually shows us how Kokoro will go through the late-pregnancy and childbirth process without proper guidance or proper medical aids. But the chances for it to happen is low. Not impossible, but extremely low.

Your review didn't disappoint.. i hope you do an overall review of this show when it ends.

[magnuskn]

Wow, some people here really like shitting on a show when it does something unexpected. Or "hurr hurr, I saw Evangelion, so now nothing surprises me anymore, durrrrr" unexpected, I guess.

[Wandering Soul]

I really don't know how to feel about the aliens reveal. That twist certainly caught me off guard. Every other reveal makes sense including the Klaxosaur=Franxx thing, but the only hint to council being aliens I remember is the whole "human wannabe" line. In the end humans were just tools for the VIRM to use.

I can't wait for Nearly on Red's analysis of this.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Ligerleon89

Just ask the multiple women in real life who went through this one, even without the proper medical aid you brought up. And believe me, I'm not taking this lightly.

That's not the point. We already know that there are IRL women out there who have experienced such a thing. My point is: wouldn't it be nice if an anime that promotes getting pregnant and giving birth to babies like Franxx actually commit to its cause by presenting us more about those things in the actual show? I mean, the generic way (if Kokoro survived) is to skip late-pregnancy and child-birth and then just show the baby already born in an epilogue or something like most anime out there that have pregnant protags. The unconventional way is to actually show Kokoro's late pregnancy and how she and her friends (given that they survived in the end) deal with the child-birth with their limited resources and whether or not Kokoro will survive the process, all with good execution. The former is what I guess the show will go with (or something similar) while the latter is something I don't expect a show like Franxx to have the balls to tackle it (but if it does, more props to it).

[Ligerleon89]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

That's not the point. We already know that there are IRL women out there who have experienced such a thing. My point is: wouldn't it be nice if an anime that promotes getting pregnant and giving birth to babies like Franxx actually commit to its cause by presenting us more about those things in the actual show? I mean, the generic way (if Kokoro survived) is to skip late-pregnancy and child-birth and then just show the baby already born in an epilogue or something like most anime out there that have pregnant protags. The unconventional way is to actually show Kokoro's late pregnancy and how she and her friends (given that they survived in the end) deal with the child-birth with their limited resources and whether or not Kokoro will survive the process, all with good execution. The former is what I guess the show will go with (or something similar) while the latter is something I don't expect a show like Franxx to have the balls to tackle it (but if it does, more props to it).

I understand what you're saying. Anyway 4 episodes left.