Highlights: Goro’s unrequited love, Ichigo just keeps staring at Hiro, Zero Two and Hiro become besties.
Seriously, guys and girls, I know you don’t understand things like ‘love’ and stuff but you don’t have to stare at each other so much.
Episode five: Hiro makes a decision to pilot FranXX despite a weird blue cancer thingy growing on his chest. Ichigo picked a fight with Zero Two and knocked her head band off. Zero Two was so scary, I thought Ichigo was done for, but luckily nothing happened.
Episode six is the first time that the two protagonists felt like they really connected. Zero Two wasn’t with Hiro just to get a partner, Hiro wasn’t with Zero Two just to live. They were actually fighting for each other and their hierarchy had leveled somewhat. This episode also somewhat cleared Ichigo’s bad attitude towards Zero Two somewhat, if not, almost completely. I think this is my favourite episode so far.
Episode seven takes world building and character development even further. We get to see that people have abandoned the surface to live in plantations. This is because mankind had harvested ‘magma’ as a new natural resource, thus drawing in the Kyoryuu. (It’s kind of similar to how utilizing Higgs particles draw the Gauna in Sidonia no Kishi.) The kid’s reactions to this is realistic for someone living in that setting. They agree that living in plantations is great and admire the Papas for building such a great city, and also themselves for protecting that city. I also like the Kokoro and Mitsuru part. What I really want to know now is this: how much does Zero Two actually knows about the ins and outs of this whole thing with ‘Papa’ and the plantation and the ‘experimental group’? Why is she not telling anyone anything?
These few episodes have been really fulfilling, not to mention that Zero Two’s voice is starting to grow on me. Ah, I love Tomatsu Haruka.
And finally episode eight is focused on the conflict between the boys and the girls that felt like it came straight from a sit-com. This episode made the characters feel like they’re elementary school students and the Papa council were like ‘oh look at these kids going through puberty’. What really bogged me was that they have too many tubs in the bathroom. And the scene between Kokoro and Mitsuru seems promising, maybe these two will get some interesting developments in the future.
What’s really weird about this episode is how they ended the whole boys vs. girls quarrel. See, when the quarrel accelerated to the point where the two parties thought that it should stop, the guys were going like: “You know, those girls are doing their best out there, taking hits from Kyouryuu with those delicate bodies, we should treat them better and act like the gentlemen we’re supposed to be.” And then Miku was like: “You know, it’s okay to stare for a bit since I’m so cute.” Like, Miku? Seriously, girl? I thought this is going to be a great episode that tackles issues with puberty and stuff.
However, the episodic manner that the episodes proceed in has a weak point: the development from the previous episode doesn’t carry on to the next. I’ve watched to episode 10 before writing this review, and it’s completely forgotten that they found the previous 13th squad’s room prior in episode 8. It’s like, nobody, not even Zorome is the least bothered that their predecessor all died before growing up, and whatever development Miku and Zorome had in episode 8 just got thrown out the window, since they’re back to yelling at each other a few minutes later. The understanding between boys and girls got covered up by the death threat at the end of the episode. Zero Two kind of redeemed this episode with the rooftop scene, but it feels kind of pointless when the characters don’t really show any growth from it.
All in all FranXX is still fun to watch. It does have the same weak points as longer anime that tends to stretch character development a lot, but the setting makes it still interesting. The battles at this point is just background to world building and character arcs, and it would be good if FranXX has some more good fight scenes in the coming episodes.
bonutzuu 