Good morning fellow steemians! I just finished the first episode of the new anime Darling in the Franxx by studio Trigger and A-1 Pictures, and thought it might be a good idea to divulge some of my thoughts on the series. To begin, I'll start off with a brief synopsis provided by Trigger/A1.
The story is set in the distant future. The land is ruined, and humanity establishes the mobile fort city Plantation. Pilots produced inside Plantation live in Mistilteinn, also know as the "birdcage." Children live there knowing nothing of the outside world or the freedom of the sky. Their lives consist of battling to carry out missions. Their enemies are mysterious giant lifeforms known as Kyouryuu, and the children pilot robots called Franxx to face off against them. For the children, riding the Franxx proves their existence.
A boy named Hiro is called Code:016, and he was once known as a prodigy. However, he has fallen behind, and his existence seems unnecessary. Not piloting a Franxx is the same as ceasing to exist. One day, a mysterious girl known as "Zero Two" appears before him. Two horns grow out of her head.
Why is it important that I post this? Well because my main issue with the first episode is that it doesn't provide much for world building. You had to initially read over the description to get a general idea of what the story of the show is. This is a major issue for me that I hope is rectified in next week's episode as we are lead into this world with very little discern for the audience's ability to answer the question "Why?" when it comes to the laws of this world.
What I understood from the first episode (SPOILERS AHEAD) is that we are on a barren wasteland, where small bio domes contain the last surviving members of society on the planet that humans reside on. Residing in these domes are people with no names and are merely called by numbers, trained to fight off the monsters that rule the overworld and threaten their everyday lives. Number 016 is a troubled highschooler who finds a mysterious girl while trying to cope with his shortcomings of being a Franxx pilot. 016 finds that when faced with trouble and impending dangers he will need to take a call to action to save his home and friends.
I tried to stray away from too many spoilers in my own synopsis. but that is my general description of the story I can take from episode one. This is straying far from the original description of the anime as provided by the writers, but that's the issue from the first episode, not enough is explained to keep me as interested as I should be.
On the other hand, the blend between A1-Pictures and Studio Trigger's art is amazing to see in action. Trigger, responsible for most of the character designs as well as the action choreography does a spectacular job at creating unique and interesting character and world design. A-1 Pictures is also being responsible for the human character design, as noteworthy by their refined and unique style of art. Additionally, studio Khara is responsible for the 3D-CG imagery, as their studio has perfected the art as shown in the Evangelion Rebuild series. Personally, I'm super excited to see Shigeto Koyama's work as being the lead designer for the mechas. Known for his work in the Gurren Lagaan series, he has a great deal of experience with dynamic mechas, and he knows how to make each mecha stand out in it's own unique fashion.
Overall, I'm super excited to see what comes out of this series and hope that the next few episodes build more upon the hook that they tried to write as the first episode. I should have a second episode review up once the second episode comes out, so if you liked this one be sure to check out the next.
