English Dub Review: Darling in the Franxx “Alone and Lonesome”

Teenagers battling with giant robots! A mysterious girl with horns! Lots and lots of metaphors for sex!

Overview (Spoilers Below):

In a dystopian wasteland, kids with code-names pilot mechs called Franxx in male/female pairs in order to fight Klauxosaurs (which are…also mechs?). Our hero is a guy named, er, Hiro. (Yeah, this show is not subtle.) When he seemingly loses his ability to pilot the Franxx, he’s about to be sent back to an orphanage. But he meets a mysterious girl with horns who might just alter his destiny.

Our Take:

Teenagers. Piloting giant mechs that have boobs. With lots of metaphors dealing with adolescent sexuality. Yup, it’s anime alright! So far the show is hammering us over the head with talk of partners, pistils, and stamens. (Pistils and stamens are the, uh, reproductive parts of flowers.) To be fair, it seems inevitable that by leaning so hard into all this male/female sexual dynamic early on, DarliFra is setting it up to be subverted later on. I sure hope so, at least. If the show ends up being about these kids breaking free of the boundaries and expectations imposed upon them by the adults who rule the land, this could end up being an enjoyable series.

Despite the differences between the main characters (Hiro is the most generic every-man who ever lived while 002 is the strangest femme whoever fatale’d), it is kinda nice that they bond over their shared status as outcasts. Hiro’s self-worth has been destroyed now that his sole purpose of piloting Franxx is gone, and 002 has… horns, I guess? Apparently, they’ve freaked people out in the past. (I’m betting she is not entirely human, given her statement about rarely seeing humans cry.) I reeaally like Ichigo so far, since her character design is basically Cocona from Flip Flappers, and the premiere seemed to focus on her more than the other supporting characters. All the kids seem interesting, and I’m excited to learn more about them in the future.

What I wasn’t too excited about were the some of the stereotypical moments that continue to plague anime, like the doctor geezer grabbing his female colleagues’ butt, or how Hiro holds onto 002’s underwear for some inexplicable reason. Sex is shaping up to be a big part of the show, but it shouldn’t have to be shoehorned in like this.

Visually, DarliFra gives me little to complain about. The color palette is very nice to look at, consisting of many shades of blues and reds. The shot of a naked 002 leaping from the river with a fish in her mouth is a statement, for sure.

I was happy with the dub. Matt Shipman’s performance as Hiro actually elevated a character I found more boring in the original subs. 002, voiced by Tia Ballard, sounded more primitive and gravely in my head, but she does a nice job of delivering her lines without sounding too over-the-top.

This premiere introduced a lot of concepts and characters in a short amount of time. I’m looking forward to getting to know them all and hoping that DarliFra knows what it’s doing. I’ve heard reports of things getting even more blatantly sexual in the next episode, but for now, I’m happy to see what the show has in store for 002 and her Darling.