Last time Darling and the Franxx had it’s best episode yet which raised my opinion of the series and gave me hopes for greater things moving forward. So it’s sad that they follow this up with the worst episode of the series to date. This episode was pure frustration to watch because you knew exactly what was happening and just how easily it could have been avoided. If either Hiro o Zero Two tried to explain the situation and what happened in the past then things wouldn’t have got this bad. If both Hiro and Zero Two hadn’t gone to see each other at the exact same time. But most importantly, if somebody could have stopped Ichigo from going too far. Oh boy if there is a serious casualty in this whole mess, it’s Ichigo. I haven’t seen a fanbase turn on a character so fast but hey Zorome wasn’t cared for that much in the beginning either and now he’s actually rather endearing. So could Ichigo turn this around? In a way she is a victim of the writing as they needed someone to put a rift between Zero Two and Hiro so Ichigo turned out to be the tool to make that possible. Looking at the situation from her perspective it’s actually understandable why she took measures to separate Zero Two and Hiro.
It’s just that under the present circumstances, that was the worst thing she could have done. For she was reenacting exactly what happened in their past to tear them apart and wound up Zero Two to the point that Hiro would see her at her lowest moment. Made all the worst by Ichigo forcefully stopping Hiro from running after Zero Two with her forced confession. Which really was in bad taste as it spits on Goro’s confession to her. Yes, she is under no obligation to love Goro just because he confessed to her but I just find it heartless to disregard his feelings entirely and chase after a doomed crush. You can tell she started things out of concern for Hiro but then her own emotions started pushing things too far that even the team was uncomfortable with how she was handling the situation. You cannot say there wasn’t any spite in how she ostracised Zero Two, particularly in trying to force her out of the next operation. This episode has Ichigo be selfish and ignorant which earned the venomous reception of the internet. For she is the single thing preventing the scene viewers wish to see between Hiro and Zero Two with the action being made all the more hateable by it being born of good intentions amplified with selfish desire.
The thing that makes this episode problematic is that while the characters actions make sense, the situation is just so utterly contrived. It’s clear the writer wanted drama and to tease out the reunion between Hiro and Zero Two. This series of unfortunate events just to create a conflict to force Zero Two away from the team is frustrating to behold and makes all the characters look bad for it. Which makes it more painful when you consider that it will take more than one episode to resolve this stupid misunderstanding between the characters. If they are smart about it, this development could be fixed fast as I am sure not many are a fan of it. But I fear we are in for episodes of Zero Two brooding over Hiro, Hiro brooding over Zero Two and Ichigo trying to sandwich herself in Hiro’s broken heart while Goro looks over it with depressed resignation. And boy, that certainly doesn’t sound fun. Oh and as a final note it is rather humorous for Mitsuru completely brush off Hiro remembering his promise despite him obsessing over it in a previous episode. Not sure if he was just playing it cool or if Kokoro helped him get over it.
