A Look at Darling in the FranXX Episode 6 [Final Impressions]

Big things happened this episode. It is almost certainly a turning point. There were good fight scenes, for once, and very large plot developments. A particularly notable occurrence is that the entire episode of setup from Episode 5 was completely undone. The animation budget was a fair bit higher for this episode than the previous, it seems, because most of the episode is a fight scene. While this episode was more exciting and interesting than the previous episodes so far, the noncommittal of the writer to develop the dinosaur heart aids in any meaningful fashion is an atrocious decision.

Hiro wished away his dinosaur heart aids. The Strelizia was being pummeled by a large square dinosaur monster, there were some death cues from Ichigo who called Hiro's death. A "death" scene where Hiro met his dead ex-partner acted as bait for something that wasn't going to happen. When the scene changed to Hiro having an epileptic fit in the cockpit, it was clear to everyone that they got baited. His heart aids retracted itself and possibly, but no confirmation, changed his biology. My prediction last week was that he would become part dinosaur and this has yet to be disproven.

The baiting of Hiro's death was predictable and a slap in the face to any form of internal consistency. There's nothing in particular about Hiro that makes him so much different from anyone else other than that he couldn't get it up pilot with other girls. Why should dinosaur heart aids affect him differently to everyone else?

We saw some new mechs from the Class B pilots and the designs were horrid. They all looked the same and had grey on grey colour schemes. The laziness of these designs is remarkable. No effort whatsoever. However, unlike Class A, Class B can actually work together and get things done. There's no Strelizia to save their asses so they are forced to not be useless. This is a total contrast to Class A, which are all completely useless except for Strelizia. This episode showed them as acting as pawns for Strelizia to kill everything. This is perhaps all they will be good at.

At the end of the episode there was a leading scene which will have later implications and only serves to tease at the current point. This ruins what would have been an otherwise a somewhat satisfying conclusion. Keeping episodes self contained is something that I value because it allows you to form opinions on everything that happens in the episode. These sorts of cliffhanger baits prevent you from being able to have opinions on everything in the episode and are a form of manipulation to make viewers keep watching. Cliffhangers can be fine, but cliffhanger baits that invite you to watch more to get an explanation are lazy. A good cliffhanger makes you want to watch more to find out what happens, not to get basic explanation.

This episodes was one of the better ones, despite the ridiculous implications of using the power of horny 14 year olds love to make dinosaur heart aids retract itself. There were examples of non-useless characters in Class B. A step in the right direction. I hoped Hiro would die this episode and the show change directions entirely, but that was not going to happen. The death baiting was not done nearly as well as The Last Jedi, but if it fooled horny teenagers that counts as a victory for A1 and Trigger. I respect A1 for making money, but I have little respect for Trigger and their nonsense.

Since this marks the end of the introductory period of the show, reading through these posts should give a good idea of whether you want to watch the show or not. I will continue watching this show and do a Should You Really Watch once it has concluded, but there is not longer a purpose for making these posts due to this episode.