Darling in the Franxx – 17[Eden]

Indeed Franxx appears to be doubling down on a darker more serious tone though I still am wondering if it will truly follow through on this or dismiss it fast and go full on happy ending. Personally I always feel cheated when a series foreshadows dark things to come only to turn tail when it’s time to pay the piper. But Franxx at least looks to be delivering so far and if they do negate all dark tidings and go for a full happy ending that would be quite the betrayal. Anyway in todays episode we get a number of revelations, one of which is that the childcare book that Kokoro has been fascinated with since the beach episode has come back full force. Though I misunderstood Kokoro’s interest in this regard as before I thought her interest was in sex but it appears that her actual interest is in having a child. The logic being that they have a means of leaving something behind for future generations besides fighting and which everyone knowing that there lives have a short expectancy she wishes to leave her mark somehow. I was a bit worried about Mitsuri shunned her after her advances and revealing her intentions but hot damn they actually took a route I thought they wouldn’t. Kokoro and Mitsuri had sex, there is no ambiguity in that for it was shown quite clearly. In fact I would be quite annoyed if they backpedaled this in any way as I am curious to where it leads.

I just hope that book went into good detail over just what Kokoro is in for as if she is oblivious then she has a nasty surprise waiting for her. Childbirth will be pretty brutal if she has no doctors on standby to help her out. Will Franxx intervene or would he see this as interesting experimental material? Speaking of which some recent light has been shed on the nature of “Papa” and the others. I may be misinterpreted this but from the looks of things the leaders of APE are not actually human and are possible alien invaders. They seem to be hinting that Klax are in fact true humanity and APE are alien invaders who have been cloning humans to fight humans. This is quite interesting as it suggests that Humanity has taken on some form of biological evolution in order to fight against the invaders, meanwhile the invaders are seemingly aspiring towards human forms. Either that or these are two branches of humanity, one whom took the path of beastal biological evolution that put them closer to beasts while the other took a path of evolution through technology which pushed them closer to a machine like existence. Both of whom seem to consider themselves “True humans” while the closest thing to actual humans are test tube grown cannon fodder for Franxx. In this case with Dr Franxx I always considered him a human who modified himself into a cyborg but what if it was the other way around and he was a machine that modified himself into a human? For the first time this series has got me interested in the actual world of Franxx which I dismissed as a bit too basic. But now there is quite interesting theming going on.

Not liking the Nines much here though. Of course they are not supposed to be liked but they just seem far too stereotypical cocky and antagonistic. I find it somewhat amusing that despite there egotistical posturing their Franxx piloting style is actually reverse so its funny to see someone so excessively prideful over bending over to pilot a Franxx. But thank god for Ikuno jumping in to slap him once he brought up a touchy subject for her. Indeed they seem to be going hard for a lesbian route for Ikuno which could bring interesting tidings provided it’s handled with care. Care which based on Franxx’s previous record, I don’t think it could provide. As a final note it appears that Hiro is growing blue horns hereby putting the blue Oni theory to near confirmed status and it appears adults go through some emotion damping process which can reverse back into a “puberty” state.