{Spoilers}
So this was on my to-watch list for a pretty long time. Honestly ever since it first aired. And at first it was getting a lot of attention what with Zero Two being best girl and things like that. But I honestly wasn't really convinced of the hype haha. What really got me intrigued was how people said that it was such a great anime with so much potential, but then fizzled out. Me, conscientiously knowing that I am easily influenced, tried not to take that to heart too much and to really develop my own opinion of the show.
For the first half I was so intrigued. I couldn't do homework. I couldn't move. I had to sit and watch. And so I spent the first half of the season glued to my desk as my workload piled up to the ceiling, enthralled. There were so many questions I had. What were these machines? Why did they call that monkey mask guy "Papa"? Where were their parents? What was this world? What's a klauxosaur? And so many more that I would pester V with as I watched. As with any anime with any sort of plot, these kinds of things are the stuff that are answered as the story unfolds. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for the answers to all of these mysteries. And as I was given these tidbits I just became more and more enchanted by this really strange story. There's no other way to really describe this mecha, post-apocalyptic show that I haven't seen anything quite like.
The main premise is that there's a group of people known collectively as APE that rule the world without question. This world is Earth, but everyone lives inside these traveling mega cities called Plantations. Because these civilizations are powered by magma energy from the center of the Earth, klauxosaurs have risen from the depths of Earth in retaliation. And so there's this guy named Dr. Werner that invents these mecha called FRANXX that need to be operated by a male-female pair, modeled after the sexual reproductive organs of a flower. I don't really get the whole plant reference either, but just roll with it. And don't question the way that they pilot these mecha either please, it's definitely not meant for children this show. And then because so many of the older people have chosen immortality, they're unable to pilot the FRANXX because they've lost their reproductive functions. So they somehow grow tons of test tube children and inject them with a whole bunch of stuff and put them under tests so that they can pilot the FRANXX and protect the Plantations against the klauxosaurs. And what emerges from this is this really weird dichotomy that we definitely don't see in today's society. In the same way that we find child labor appalling, the thought of children fighting wars for us similarly raises this gut-wrenching feeling that probably comes from our instinctual desire to protect our children and our species. But here we see children fighting to protect the adults. It's this strange flip in roles that starts the ball rolling for a lot of interesting thoughts such as the role of adults as caretakers, and also looking at the main squad of children, Squad 13, how children can still form sympathy, emotions, compassion, and the plethora of other traits that make a person "human" without this mimicry of parents and adult role models that we all have.
And so, in short, the story follows a lot of what Squad 13 goes through and uses them as a frame of reference for how the war is going and all of the inner workings of this almost alien society. I'm getting pretty overwhelmed just thinking about all of the complexities and all of the interactions and all of the everything that goes on inside of the Plantation and what happened in the past to lead up to this, that to get a proper sense of it all I think we'd either have to sit down together for like 5+ hours to unpack absolutely everything we witnessed, or I'd have to make like a senior thesis on this show. I'm kinda down for the first option, but the latter I'll leave to some anime reviewing Youtube channel. I'm sure there's tons of videos out there.
I think one thing, setting aside the complexities of APE, that really struck me was the complex interactions between the characters. Take the relationship between Zero Two and Hiro. Looking back at their interactions as children, you can't help but root for their love. However, I think this is where some of the audience anger comes in because as time goes on, you start to see how unhealthy of a relationship they have. Not that I'm any sort of love expert or anything, but just looking at the ending and how they're together forever, like that's all and good. There's your fairy tale happily ever after, but with a twist. Because they're so reliant on each other that you can't see where one ends and the other begins, you know what I mean? In order to have a successful relationship you kind of need more of a dynamic of support rather than congealing through some alien technology and your minds into some kind of spiritual being together on a plane. I'm just saying, maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but looking at like Goro and Ichigo's relationship...it was a lot more healthy. Kinda. Not really. Uh, in short all of their relationships were kind of wack. Like if you look at Ikuno and her unrequited love for Ichigo. Or if you look at Ichigo's idolatry of Hiro since childhood and how that turned into love. Or if you look at how Kokoro chose Mitsuru (RIP his iconic hairstyle though) over her old partner. V and I had a short discussion towards the midpoint of the show on how wack all of these relationships are...and I don't even know how to form an opinion on all of this. I'm not really sure what sort of purpose all of these relationships served besides being a major point of drama and really upsetting me personally. Like all of those ships...yikes.
Another thing I found kind of interesting, (can you tell I'm kind of tired with dissecting human romantic relationships?) was the kind of commentary they gave about the environment. Maybe this is me reading too much into it as an environmental major, but something I really took away from this is humanity's destruction of Earth. The Earth was unable to sustain itself, turning into a desert with no way to harbor any life, because of humanity's incessant hunger for energy. And that led to them having to take extreme measures to protect humanity. This also points to humanity's folly, of retreating from problems rather than facing them head on. And how humanity was searching for the solution to immortality, rather than focusing on living fruitful, yet transient lives. I think we've all kind of contemplated whether living forever sounds like any fun, and I think from seeing Zorome's small arc where he encounters one of the adult's that've lived for who knows how long and how sad she was, how she didn't care about taste anymore, how her husband got joy through an experience machine. I think all of these things point to maybe how some of the beauty of humanity comes from the transient nature of our beings? That's just some more food for thought. I didn't mean for this to become super philosophical, and yet here we are.
In short, this was definitely an anime that gave me many thoughts on the story and also what the story was trying to tell me. Because it was so long, it was a lot of information to absorb and to process. At many points I actually unconsciously held my breath and clenched my hands because the show had me in the palm of its hand. There were just so many dimensions that were explored like humanity, the environment, interpersonal relationships, what it means to love someone, what kinds of things shaped these people into who they were. Anyone that watches this would have a different take on how things went down and whether this was a good show. I think it was good in the sense that it gave us a complete story, albeit a bit OP at some points. And there was so many good just moments created as well throughout. It was rushed at the end, and I think they really missed out on something special. Haha don't ask me how I think it should've ended because I'm not that creative, but I think the whole reincarnation thing and defeating the enemy (at least sorta) was a bit of a "here's your happy ending" and made you satisfied, but somehow...lacking something? Maybe I'm just asking for the impossible here...but I think this show started off with a lot of potential and so much mystery. I think it's worth the watch. Haha and not just because I'm sick of watching plotless anime to relieve my stress, but I genuinely think that it's a good thinking piece. I'm going to stop babbling now because I actually just word vomited all of my feels out just now...partly at least...and now I'm tired.
Exhibit 1 of how Ichigo is precious but frustrating (also her aesthetic and everyone's aesthetic in the first OP? forget about it I watched that thing through so many times because ugh the mood of it was so good??? actually the OP and ED every time were really solid and I really liked them)
Lowkeyyyy Goro was my favorite character plz dont @ me (his VA just really got me idk why and his character in general (i just really love the childhood friend and am always rooting for the underdog what can i say?))
Thought they were going to die so I started tearing up...
After this point I stopped taking screenshots because...I was just too enraptured by the story sorry (also because I watched the ending episodes in between my classes and just really wanted to enjoy)
No comments:
Post a Comment