Darling in the FranXX | Episode 2 Review

Welcome to my Episode two review of Darling in the Franxx! You can find my previous review as well as any initial thoughts on the series I had below.

<----- Episode 1 Review

Now that that’s aside I finally managed to get to watch episode two, only a few days before episode three is released. I was more impressed with this second episode as although it leaves a few more unopened mysteries as any show should, it also fills in the gap for the viewers on some of the information that wasn’t exactly explained in the first episode. I’ll get to that later though.

Opening Sequence:

Starting with this episode we get the opening sequence for the show, which has a pretty great song, and some nice stylistic visuals to it. One of the most prevalent features is the constant use of blood, honey, and the blue and orange colors that FranXX is commonly associated with. If you would like to check it out, watch it below. Not much to say on it right now, as it seems to have some allusions to future episodes. Unfortunately this op uses a lot of stills and previous animation, which I’m not a huge fan of, but it is still enjoyable.

Opening for Darling in the FranXX

Episode Goals:

From what I managed to get out of this episode was to establish more of the interpersonal relations between the crew. Hiro is shown to be the odd one out at times, being singled out by Zorome who claims to be the best in his class. It also shows the relationship between Ichigo, Hiro, and Zero Two, specifically the fact that Ichigo has feelings for Hiro and feels that Zero Two is a hurdle that is preventing her from reaching out to him.

A second goal of this episode was to show more of the action and rules of how the FranXX work. A bit comical to be frank, as the way the mechs are piloted is one person is the controller, while the other syncs up with the FranXX. The very configuration of the pilots is also a Neon Genesis Evangelion reference, as it shares a lot of the similarities in cockpit design. There is even a nod to unit failure in Evangelion when there is failure in this episode. There is a training fight between Hiro and Zorome, as Zorome wishes to take this opportunity to embarrass Hiro and make him seem to be an inept pilot. Unfortunately, both pilots are shown to be inept as the dual cockpit system relies heavily on emotional connection and trust between the two pilots.

Visuals:

Overall the visuals of the FranXX are more fleshed out in this episode as we finally get to see them in action other than Zero Two’s FranXX. Other than that, there wasn’t too much unique from last episode.

One of the FranXX units

A more artistic shot of the colony that the FranXX pilots live in

Overall Thoughts:

From the last episode to now, I’m more satisfied with some of the character development that occurred, but I still am waiting on a bit more fleshing out to the story. We find out that there is more history to Hiro and Zero Two than we initially thought, but it will be revealed in future episodes. I feel this is going to be a snowballing anime where the first few episodes start slow but eventually become more exciting as it goes on. Will I continue watching? Yes I will. Should you? That’s for you to decide right now, as I see there can be more exciting content in the works but some might already be turned off from it. We still have another 22 episodes of opportunity for more exciting content to arrive, but it’s important to flesh out characters at the same time.

Hope you enjoyed reading through my thoughts and check out my next review which should be out in the next few days.