DARLING in the FRANXX · Season 1 · Crunchyroll
DARLING in the FRANXX Season 1
DARLING in the FRANXX Season 1 is a ONE-TIME WATCH, BollyMeter 6.8/10. 24 episodes on Crunchyroll from 13 January 2018.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
Launched in January 2018, DARLING in the FRANXX arrived from the A-1 Pictures and Trigger collaboration with considerable anticipation and a premise that fused mecha action with coming-of-age romance. The first half - roughly episodes 1-13 - delivered on that promise. Critics at Anime News Network praised the coming-of-age and romance elements and singled out Zero Two as one of the season's most compelling anime characters: carnal, self-aware, and emotionally volatile in ways that grounded the dystopian machinery around her. The mecha battles of the first cour were well-staged and the love story between Hiro and Zero Two gained emotional traction. The second half abandoned that momentum. Plot pivots toward cosmic mythology and alien antagonists struck reviewers as a betrayal of the character-driven intimacy the show had built. ANN's episode 24 review captured the critical consensus: the finale is technically accomplished but its pathos does not feel earned. Won Best Opening Sequence at the 2019 Crunchyroll Anime Awards for 'Kiss of Death'. Memorable for what it almost was.
BollyAI hasn't watched this. BollyAI has read everyone who has.
The Room
“This finale just doesn't feel earned after eschewing everything that made it great.”
Anime News Network
Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1Alone and a Bird7.8
The first episode establishes the dystopian world-building with visual confidence and introduces Hiro and Zero Two with enough mystery to pull viewers forward. The mecha designs and their intimate piloting mechanics are established without over-explanation.
The moment: Zero Two's first appearance - the series' best card played at exactly the right moment.
- E13The Beast and the Prince8.5
The midpoint episode is widely cited as the series' creative peak - a fairy-tale-framed sequence that layers Hiro and Zero Two's backstory with surreal visual storytelling. ANN called it the most cohesive and heartbreaking episode the show produced.
The moment: The picture-book sequence - the series at maximum ambition before the second half loses the thread.
“An astonishingly effective piece of storytelling - surreal framework stripped of convoluted layers.” - Anime News Network
- E24Never Stop Dreaming5.5
The series finale is well-directed and well-animated but arrives after a second half that drifted far from the character chemistry that made the early episodes work. Critics found the emotional register unconvincing given the narrative choices made in the final arc.
The moment: The ending image that divided the entire fanbase - half seeing it as poetic, half as evidence the show miscalculated its final act.
“Well-directed and well-animated, but none of that gloss covers up that the pathos doesn't feel earned.” - Anime News Network