English Dub Review: Darling in the FranXX “Jian”

The Parasites fight for their home while Hiro and 02 shares a heartfelt reunion.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Parasites face their greatest foe yet when they’re called into battle against a Lehmann-class Klaxosaur. The fight is difficult, and they seem destined for failure until Hiro finds 02 (with some grudging help from Ichigo) and they rekindle their bond. With love on their side, there’s nothing they can’t handle!

Our Take:

Jian is a solid episode that, for the most part, works pretty well. As a whole, it’s filled with some of the biggest battles to date and shows off plenty of wonderful animation. The moments when Hiro finally reconnects with 02 are some of the most affecting of the entire series so far, and it is dubbed beautifully by Tia Ballard and Matt Shipman. On the more technical side, I’m not sure I loved the frequent text overlaid onto the screen to communicate 02/Hiro’s internal feelings. Often it felt a little heavy-handed, and didn’t really add anything new we didn’t know already. That said, I do appreciate how FranXX isn’t afraid to mess with the usual formula, whether it’s aspect ratios that change in certain scenes, or physical words that cover up the action going on behind them.

While I feel mostly positive about episode 15, it’s not without its issues. The payoff may have been worth it, but there was a lot of build-ups to get through. Honestly, the entire first half felt slow and didn’t have much going for it. Hiro’s moping may be necessary to show, but it sure was boring to watch. Even the enemy Klaxosaur seemed uncreative, almost as if the staff settled for ‘just like every other Klaxosaur, but 300% bigger’.

For the most part, this was a very good episode of Darling in the FranXX, and I enjoyed almost all of it. Especially towards the end, things got more interesting, with 02 and Hiro’s emotional embrace and flashbacks to their shared childhood trauma. I’m willing to bet that in the end, Papa and the other white suits may become the subject of their shared rage. This episode felt like a new beginning in more ways than one, with the callback to the bird species mentioned in the very first episode. If the show can carry this momentum as it moves forward, we’re in for one hell of an ending.