DARLING in the FRANXX Episode 6

Strezlia is back, to KICK YOUR ASS, MORE POWERFUL THAN EVER!!!! And she got lips this time too!

Well that was one heck of a major boss right for our young and inexperienced Squad 13. Heck I’m’ surprised nobody died from this incident, because things sure looked grim for a very long time. It was rather ironic how squad 26 had to be saved and bailed out by Squad 13, especially after regarding them as liabilities. The only one they actually acknowledge was Delphinium, (Ichigo and Goro). However the mystery box, Target Beta turned out to be Gutenberg Class, a particularly problematic class who displayed its tackiness and its ever-evolving forms. With whatever that blue stuff that was consuming Hiro, Strezlia quickly became to malfunction and eventually rendered immobile once Hiro was borderline dead.

In fact he was dead, or at least was almost swept away by it had it not been for him to regain a moment of consciousness to see that they failed to defeat the target, and now Zero Two was struggling in vain, attempting to fight back with no avail. She herself was almost greeted by death, but Hiro wouldn’t accept it. He realized she can’t fly by herself, and had yet to find her true partner (one that wouldn’t die). In this event, the most fascinating part is how the blue stuff stopping consuming him, and it actually subsided altogether. Something in his blood awakened when he made the resolve that his wings exists for her, and that he refuses to leave her alone. They ended up putting on an amazing display of wings literally emerging from Strezlia, and left everyone absolutely shook.

The scene was also incredibly beautiful, with the way Hiro rose and calmed Zero Two down. What I found made it so compelling was the delivery of just how these two are truly a “Jian” pair. It’s not just that, but also for the first time, Hiro’s source of motivation was not something that was expected of him by Papa and the other adults, but from within his own heart. It his because it is his own personal resolve is what makes his conviction to live that much stronger. I absolutely agreed with Zero Two when she regarded his initial reasons as “lame”.

Speaking of reasons. Hiro made an excellent observation and asked her why she always seems excited when she fights Klaxosaurs, but she doesn’t give him an answer. She says it’s probably because she is a monster, but seeing her need to kill more of them, sounds more like she has a bigger reason that may in fact be heavily connected to how she became a “special species” who has Klaxosaur blood flowing in her veins.

With the intensity of the fight, I am so relieved that Goro and Ichigo managed to keep focus for at least the majority of the fight. Ichigo only broke down when she thought Hiro was dead, and Goro had to step up and be that pillar of support to keep her focused. Honestly I thought she would be screwed after she blew her confession (simply by Zero Two walking by and drawing Hiro’s attention) and chickened out and said, “I aways thought of you as a sibling”. Talk about the wrong word choice when Hiro just smiled and replied, “Me too, I feel the same!” Man that was rough. You could tell Ichigo wanted to say she felt something more, and was absolutely deflated when he said that. You have to give her some mad props though, because even after that mess, she was still able to be focused enough to maintain her synergy with Goro. It was also awesome to see how she and Goro were on the same page in terms of trying to protect Hiro and ensure his survival.
Also can we just appreciate Goro for being such an amazing partner? He is looking out for both Hiro and Ichigo, regardless of how he feels about the situation. It’s easy to say he is definitely one of my favourite characters (besides ZeroTwo).

With the reappearance of the doctor, I am expecting them to provide us a more “technical” explanation of how this happened. We are also entering the second phase of the story, with the introduction of the white squad who I believe called Zero Two, “Nine Iota”.