Darling in the FranXX

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Darling in The Franxxx manga

The setup is really interesting, a post apocaliptic setting, where children/teenagers that brought up to be soldiers have to pilot mecha robots in male-female pairs, defending mobile cities that cling on survival.

It was intriguing in multiple psychological planes. One is the child/teenager soldier aspect which is not that new, but the female-male pair with the teenager aspect rejuvinated the setting. Of course it got more crazy with veteran soldier (who's seen to many death) vs naive rookies, love interests [pretty well worked out, especially considering teenagers], and how those rookies learn and mature into the people they need to be the ... defend humanity..

The main duo was the highpoint of the show, but even the other characters in the squad have distict personalities, which made it really enjoyable. Sadly some of their character arc was cut shot, which brings me to maybe the biggest flaw I had with the series.

Pacing. The manga takes it's time introducing WB and characters in really great manner, but the mange shift pace around chapter 40 which could be considered act 2, then atc 3 start at chapter 55, the onyl problem is? the whole series in only 60 chapters. So in the last chapter they needed to come back from the lowpoint, have a big final showdown, and then close al the threads. It felt really rushed.

I would give it an weak 8/10, it could be better even a strong 9, but the pacing, the missing character arc ends, and the rushed ending hurt it significantly.

How it fare against the anime?
I would say most of the direct changes is in favour of the manga, is has far superior characterwork. Although some changes can be justified because their are sometimes a dozen chapters without any fight and just introspection and character building, which wouldn't translate well in anime format for some viewers.

The story of the two deviates around the halfway point, which is also great considering that the anime just jumped off a cliff after ep 16, but sadly it meant that the good elements in the anime after the halfway point wasn't in the manga as well, and certain times the things we got instead were inferior.
Still would recommend the manga over the anime, even if we only consider the first 16 ep canon, although...

Tasteless and unnecessary nudity. I am not fond of any nudity in storytelling, but I learned to accept it, when it is important for the story. The Darling in the Franxx manga is not that. There are chapters were the first two pages just show a character showering. And I was just thinking why do I have to see an !underage girl! showering, what purpose can it serve in terms of the story? The answer is: nothing. The manga just wanted to be (h)ecchi and show naked girl any chance it got.
Does it take down from it's objective score? Maybe.
But it surely lowered my subjective take on it immensely.

I like studio Trigger animation very much, and their attention to details. That makes the bullshit ending a little more tolerable. That was my expectation when I got to this manga.

I truly think this manga is not good overall. It's rushed from the start, characters are VERY black or white, underdeveloped, and a lot of moments seem to have changed just to please the internet critics of the anime, without any actual reason in the story. The hated characters have less time and do even more hateful things, the beloved characters don't do any hard choices and are protected and righteous to the end. But ... I guess that's what people wanted, and a lot of more random unneeded boobies (but without all the sex and actual adult content). It went from a complex adult story with weird teen innuendos to a full blown young male teen shonen.

For the most part I had the feeling that I only could follow this because I already had watched the anime, especially at the ending. Better ending? I don't know. I don't think it's an ending even. None of the characters story actually ended. It's just without all the bullshit, but also without all the development of the anime.

Maybe if this manga had time to develop like the anime did, maybe if it could exist out of the shadow of the anime (for better or for worse), or maybe if Trigger actually let Code 000 tell the story he wanted from the start. Maybe if wasn't one of the most expensive per chapter anime of recent years, they could better explain the whole VIRM space thing for another whole season, then maybe people would see the story differently.

Doesn't matter... it is what it is...
and some kids will just be toxic and try to kill random people because they didn't get what they wanted from people that never owed them anything...

Before writing a review about this opera it is absolutely necessary to make extremely clear that Darling in the FranXX is an ORIGINAL ANIME SERIE.

This means that the anime came first, and I strongly advise to watch that first and then, if you really must, read the manga.

The anime did have a rushed and somewhat confusing and arguably meh ending. Which is why the manga came out and many people end up reading it after the disappointment of the anime, but the truth is that not only the manga is worse in every aspect (starting with the excess of really not needed fanservice).

The biggest problem ... with the manga is that it COMPLETELY MISS THE WHOLE POINT of the anime.

Darling in the FranXX is a brilliant work that bring a lot to think about about how society is evolving and a BIG take on transhumanism all the way up to getting tangled to other kind of extraterrestrial entities which I won't mention more for spoiler reasons.

Now the anime ends up addressing and making tha point that it took over 20 episodes to try to make, although in a rushed and dubious way. The manga basically wipes everything out and take an easy way out.

All the way to the point of completely swapping out the main villain!

If the anime is a serie that tries to bring some ethical questions about what's to come in our society both in a civil and spiritual way the manga is a battle shonen with absolutely no point.

I was expecting a chance to read something that expands on the rushed ending and of the plot points of the original anime work but what i find is a manga that trivialise and throws away all the interesting plot points and rewrites the whole thing in a pointless mecha battle thing with zero depth.

Honestly just watch the anime and take it as it is. I feel like all the people complaining about the ending completely missed the point of it. Sure it felt rushed and it could have been excecuted way better but at least it had some context