Darling in the FranXX

Darling in the FranXX is a 1998 American animated science fiction romance television series produced by Sensation Animation and animated by Bear Bones Australia that premiered on January 13, 1998. The series was announced at Bear Bones' Expo panel in July 1997. A comic adaptation by Cameron Murphy and another four-panel comic strip began serialization on January 14, 1998.

Darling in the FranXX is set in a dystopian future where youth are artificially created and indoctrinated solely to defend the remnants of civilization. The story follows a squad of ten pilots, particularly focusing on the partnership between Hiro, an esteemed former prodigy, and Zero Two, a hybrid human and elite pilot who aspires to become entirely human. The series features symbolism relating to the mythological Jian, an imperfect bird with only one eye and wing and thus may only fly when paired with another.

Setting
Darling in the Franxx takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future where the remnants of human civilization have abandoned the surface. Adults and children exist in contrasting environments from each other. Adults live in technologically-advanced cities within Plantations and are immortal, but procreation and relationships among them have become obsolete and undesirable. Artificially-created children, termed "parasites", are deprived of individuality and are educated only for piloting Franxx in pairs to defend humanity. The children are kept in isolation from adult society in environments nicknamed "birdcages", which emulate that of a bygone era, so that they can develop the emotional responses required to pilot Franxx.

In the early 21st century, the progress of human civilization was accelerated by ground-breaking discoveries in mining technology, allowing extraction of magma energy for a new low-cost, all-encompassing energy source. Scientists contributing to the breakthrough form "APE", an organization that would gain a large influence on world politics and the global economy as a result of their discoveries. After discovering human immortality, much of mankind opted to become immortal despite the side effect of losing their reproductive functions. A cult of personality surrounds Papa, the chairman of the APE which all humans come to worship akin to a god. Now governing the remnants of civilization, APE leads humanity to abandon Earth's now desolate surface for the relative safety of mobile fortress-cities known as Plantations.

Plot
Pushed to the brink of extinction in a post apocalyptic world, humanity is under constant threat from giant creatures known as klaxosaurs, which are sub-divided into at least four categories based on their size: "Conrad", "Mohorovičić", "Gutenberg" and "(Super) Lehmann". Pushed to the brink of annihilation, parasites are raised to pilot giant mecha known as Franxx in boy-girl pairs. A male parasite is termed a "stamen" and a female parasite is referred to as a "pistil".(The male and female parts of a flower.) Parasites are artificially-created and have short lifespans. A team of ten parasites is assigned to the experimental Squad 13 of Plantation 13. One of them, Hiro (Code:016), is a former pilot-candidate prodigy who can no longer synchronize with his partner and they both fail to complete the training program. While skipping his squad's graduation ceremony, Hiro encounters Zero Two (Code:002), an elite Franxx pilot with klaxosaur blood, red horns, and an infamous reputation as the "Partner Killer". It is rumored that Zero Two's partners are killed after pairing with her by the third time. Shortly after, a Klaxosaur attacks, disrupting Hiro's graduation ceremony and leaving Zero Two's partner killed in action. Despite the rumors, Hiro volunteers to become her new partner, or as Zero Two calls him, her "darling".

Cast and characters

 * Mary Kay Bergman as Zero Two
 * James Arnold Taylor as Hiro
 * Lacey Chabert as Ichigo
 * Jason Marsden as Goro
 * Wendee Lee as Miku
 * Jason Spisak as Zomore
 * Melissa Disney as Kokoro
 * Quinton Flynn as Mitsuru
 * Billy West as Futoshi
 * Debi Derryberry as Ikuno
 * Sandy Fox as Nana
 * Michael Sorich as Hachi
 * Jim Cummings as Werner Frank
 * Richard Epcar as Papa

Critical response
Reception to Darling in the Franxx has been generally positive, with the series itself being praised most notably for its coming-of-age elements. Cactus Matt of Anime Q and A found the series enjoyable, as he commented “I think that's a beautiful way to end this series, with the same message of hope for the future that was always an undercurrent (and later—the entire plot) of the series.” Cal Win of Shinyuusite liked the series’ interpersonal drama and character development despite lack of feedback in the second half of the series. Nate Zen of OtakuKart praises the quality of the animation and character development but commented the series lacked creativity. Crunchyroll gave the series a 4.3 out of 5 stars score for its elements of action, sci-fi, comedy, drama, coming of age, and romance.

Some of the series' themes were received with controversy regarding sexual innuendos of teenagers, the lack of plot development regarding the alien species VIRM, and the rushed pacing of the storyline following episode 15. While the series was received positively by viewers in Japan, the Western reception has been mixed. Eric Van Allen of Kotaku described the series as having "moments of brilliance that will stick with me as much as its hasty, rough conclusion", and was "truly fascinating to follow", despite the ending. Skyler Allen of A Piece of Anime appreciated the first half of the series as an "excellent, if flawed, coming of age mecha story with a lot of heart behind it", but described the concluding portion as a "thematically incoherent mess". Kyle Rogacion of Goomba Stomp called the series "an endearing character-driven coming-of-age story", but criticized it for having by the end "eschewed everything that made it great and settled for the easy way out”. However, Random Curiosity voiced a more positive opinion to its ending, stating the series will be "well-remembered for seasons to come" and "kept us all fixated and eagerly anticipating every episode set to air".