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Honestly looking at this episode as a whole I could very well call it a prime example of the problems with Franxx condensed into a single episode. Previously I guessed that Franxx would go one of two endings being either starting a counterattack against VIRM or setting up the new line of humanity. This episode actually tries to do both and the end result is rather mixed. Mainly because the majority of the episode was quite bleak but I still found myself apathetic to the plights of the protagonists. As to why I wasn’t quite invested, the reason was proven by episodes end as for all the grim tidings, everything was just washed away while friendship wins over all. It looks like the Nines are dying, oh wait they have enough strength to pilot Franxx and are good guys now. The farm the kids were building has failed and it seems that the earth is too far gone to support plant life anymore but wait, turns out there is a lush plantation nearby which can support plant life so huzzah!The old Nana returns and is facing an existential crisis, but hey she finds her way giving some random kids some headpats.

There has been serious losses in this needless war, but wait it turns out all the failed pilots were refrigerated below the plantation all along and are alive. Even Naomi from episode goddamn one is still alive. Zero Two is a comatose vegetable, but wait her brain is fighting aliens up in space and now Hiro is going to save her! SIgh…look Franxx, grim storytelling requires consequences. You can’t just hand wave the consequences because it’s inconvenient as that just renders all the drama before now for naught. This is the Maeda problem where in the writer wants all the emotional weight of heavy storytelling while doing everything in his power, regardless of logic, to ensure a happy ending. But a happy ending completely negates the scenes pire for if you have a scene where a character grieves over the death of a loved one, only for that loved one to walk right in moments later then that makes all the grieve and emotion of the scene before pointless.

I now have full confidence that none of the main squad are going to die and that a happy ending is inbound so whatever gaslighting these series attempts will be just a waste of screentime. The writer doesn’t have the balls to kill anyone off so let the shipping happen and lets get this ending over with. Well at least this final battle with VIRM could prove interesting, we got two episodes so I am guessing the battle will take one while the last episode will be some kind of epilogue. So otherwise besides the teenage hissy fits we got Kokoro finding out that she’s pregnant much to her dismay seeing as she has no memory of the conception. Which does pose an interesting question as she was fully up for it before the memory wipe but now that the memory wipe has happened it seems to have removed all her previous interest in parenting. Indeed the trigger for all this was the book she found on the beach episode and if we take away that memory then her interest in children wouldn’t have bloomed. So it’s surprising that Kokoro is the same person yet due to a change of memory has two entirely different opinions of pregnancy. I admit that I am finding new Nana quite amusing as she seems to be reacting to the situation in a manner very similar to mine. She quite frankly holds no interest in anything and is withholding power control from the kids on the simple grounds that she will only follow orders from father. Upon being told that they will all die if they don’t get it she responds that “Yep, guess we will die then.”

Old Nana and Hachi look to be jumping in as the plantations new caretakers under the last orders from Franxx with the general idea of them becoming the new “Adults”. It’s nice to have old Nana back but it does feel a little cheap t have her turn up alive after all. Again this series has heavily insinuated that individuals removed were killed only to have it that nobody was killed and while I am not bloodthirsty I just find the means to keep her alive to be contrived. My readers, few though you may be, I fully concede that I am feeling burned out for keeping up with the anime this season has been tough and work has just gotten burdensome. Some of my dissatisfaction with this series may be due to that mindset though I do feel my complaints are still valid. From the look of things it seems to be a popular sentiment of this show as of late though I find the comments regarding Franxx’s Atheism to be absurd. Franxx didn’t do what he did because he was an Atheist, he did it because he wanted expand his knowledge of science and make himself closer to the Klax queen. If anything I was consider him a religious man who had yet to find his god, which ended up being the Klax queen. But that aside while Franxx has be a rather enjoyable ride, when you look at the package as a whole you find that it falters on many levels. We near the end so as we do I find that this series is beginning to feel like a waste of time. And I value my time highly.

Huh…wasn’t expecting that to be resolved so quickly. So as predicted Zero Two makes it to Darling and as predicted they power up and drive off the aliens. Also as predicted Zero is is now dead…or dying…or in a coma…or in some state that leaves her dead eyes by episodes end. I admit to be rather ambivalent about this development. As a matter of fact this episode despite the high stakes and dash to get Zero Two to the finish line, was rather by the numbers. Or it was more that I just felt rather bored as the events unfolded. I also wasn’t fond of how things played out here as we had sudden revelations that only served to make the plot more mundane. For one Ikuna used some sort of super attack to clear rubble which resulted in her aging rapidly which seems like a very left field development as previous episodes hinted more that the rapid aging was a side effect of being clones with a shortened life span, not connected to the operation of Franxx. This just feels like a cheap excuse to negate the shortened lifespan and shows to me that Trigger is gunning for a happy ending. There is also the matter of the Nines whose origin is explained and despite them being an antagonist rival since the halfway point of the series, are tossed aside faster than you can say wasted. I don’t understand, i thought they were going to act as some sort of villain vanguard and they were certainly built up as much but instead here they are just getting decimated which makes me question why they are even here.

We get another exposition dump from the Klax queen who proceeds to reveal everything there is to know about the Klax history, who they are, were they came from, everything. Yet again it proves to be far less interesting than what was previously speculated. Not to mention a rather lazy means of exposition, it is odd for Frannxx to hold it’s cards so close to its chest for the majority of the series, only to just fling everything out lazily by series end. Then there is Franxx who gets some sort of redemption by sending Zero Two to Hiro but again sort of killed the deeper more morally ambiguous aspect to his character. Maybe that might explain my apathy in regards to this episodes content, for Franxx has taken the elements that I previously found interesting and turned them rather rudimentary and mundane. So the Aliens are driven off with them saying they will get those pesky humans next time so I wonder just what the last three episodes of Franxx are even going to be about. We could have Hiro and the rest preparing for a counterattack and have the series end with one more fight or we could just end the series with Hiro and rest setting up some new kind of humanity with the promise that they will fight off VIRM the next time they return. The first ending is predictable but at least could be enjoyed for the spectacle but the second ending would be a terribly unfulfilling conclusion. Which is bad because i get the feeling they are aiming for the second ending more than the first. Regardless I just feel rather tired of this show by now, it had its ups and downs while being a decently enjoyable watch but these last few episodes I will finish more out of obligation rather than genuine interest.

Suddenly, Aliens. If you are surprised by this sudden plot twist then I am guessing you are new to Trigger works. For in some form or another space gets involved. Indeed this is fairly reminiscent of Kill la Kill or Gurren Laggan and I will toot my own horn about somewhat anticipating it. I at least was right on the money about Father and the leaders being of extraterrestrial origin. But well here’s the deal. Turns out the Klax were the good guys all along who were trying to protect the planet from alien invaders who tried to drain it’s resources. They kicked the Aliens ass before and went underground to prepare for a second attack in the future. Meanwhile humanity surfaced on the planet and the Aliens, in a mark of rather genius manipulation, infiltrated their society, introduced Manga energy to get them to slowly kill the planet and even got humans to fight off the Klax for them. The Alien race is named VIRM and as a Reddit poster pointed out, VIRM and APE are a clear anagram of VAMPIRE. So yep, now they have revealed themselves and disabled the Klax queen while setting the planet to self destruct because we need a big finale.

Naturally the ground troops are wondering just what in the hell is going on and we got complications with the team in regards to Kokoro and Mitsuru. Both seem to be remembering unconsciously as they call each other by name, promoting an obligatory headache. Actually it is a common trope in regards to memory stuff but why is remembering always followed by some kind of headache? Shouldn’t it be more along the lines of just them accidentally recalling and wondering how they knew? I suppose the boring answer is that APE put in safeguards to [prevent them from recalling old memories. But in that regard this isn’t so much memory erasure but rather locking away memories. Well memories or no memories there is a problem, Kokoro is pregnant. But nobody knows she’s pregnant and sees it as some regular illness. So she’s going to get real surprised when her belly swells and suddenly she has contractions. Not sure how Darling is going to handle this particular plot point so close to the end goal but it’s going to be troublesome if they need to pilot.

I can’t say I appreciate the whole thing with the Loli Klax queen basically NTRing Zero Two. Much like the previous episode regarding Ichigo getting between Hiro and Zero Two, this feels like a forced development. It’s obvious that they are setting up Zero Two coming back to Hiro and just powering up the new Strelizia into some super form to take down the aliens. I doubt this series is going for an end of evangelion ending despite how hard it’s foreshadowing such a turnout. I said before that if this series was going to take a dark turn, it would be at the halfway point so now is too late. At most it will be Zero Two dying by series end which is very hinted at. But if they go that route then…this would basically be repeat of Gurren Lagann’s ending? Minus the giant battle on the milky way while using Galaxies as shurikens. Of course not exactly the same but the beats may be quite similar which leaves me with mixed feelings. For throughout the entire series there has been constant foreshadowing and hints at much darker tidings to come and I don’t believe that is just me looking too deeply into things. To me this series felt like it was promising to dive into deeper more mature themes but ultimately skirted the edge without truly risking anything. So i do feel cheated in that regard, much like watching something that was putting up a front of being deeper than it was. I do feel like they could have taken more interesting routes but didn’t and instead played the safe game. Which can be fine but rather underhanded when you promise more than what you are.