Darling in the Franxx Episode 22 Review: Stargazers

Darling in the Franxx’s 22nd episode aired on 23 June 2018 and revealed that Zero Two is alive, however not in a good shape and Kokoro’s pregnancy finally gets revealed and creates a further problem, added to the ones the parasites already have…

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Japanese title: スターゲイザー

Episode 22 – Stargazers

papa-tachi left and Dr. Franxx is dead. The children are almost left on their own if it weren’t for the new Nana, who is not of any help. Zero Two and Hiro did survive the VIRM attack. However, Zero Two is not herself and receives unnatural cuts on her body. Hiro is worried about her and forgets his friends, who are finding a way of living on their own. Nana (007) informs Kokoro and the others about her pregnancy and suggests her to get rid of her and Mitsuru’s baby, because she is not able to fight in her current condition. The Nines are not eating and are instead waiting for some kind of maintenance. Hiro finds out, that Strelizia Apath is in space fighting VIRM with other Klaxosaurs and that this is the reason why Zero Two doesn’t seem to have any soul, which also explains her cuts. In the meanwhile, Hachi brings the original Nana back and they both find the disappeared children, including Naomi, after reading Dr. Franxx’s letter. Dr. Franxx also pleads the two of them to take care of the parasites. Hiro, determined to rescue Zero Two, will be accompanied by his squad and even the Nines members.

My Thoughts

Puh- I really thought that Zero Two did not make it out alive in the previous episode. Her eyes looked so dead and she wasn’t even moving. Though she is alive, she is not really alive… as her soul (?) is still connected to Strelizia Apath. At first, I was like ‘Why is she cutting herself in this state?’ but then it got revealed that she is connected to the Strelizia, who is fighting in space next to Mars. Now we only need to find a way to get her down! Klaxosaurs’ Princess left an empty Klaxosaur ship on earth which Hiro is about to board. It shouldn’t be a problem for Hiro, with Klaxosaur blood, to fly the ship but what is awaiting him up there?

Thanks to Kokoro’s knowledge about plants and vegetables, the children are planting vegetables in order to survive. Ichigo is doing her best in managing the survived children and recourses. She is really doing great but also exhausts herself the most. She has also been very worried about Hiro and Zero Two, but just couldn’t say anything to Hiro, which is why Goro exploded and punched Hiro after a while. Goro saw Ichigo worrying about Hiro and all the others, but Hiro only had eyes for Zero Two. Each parasite is doing his or her best in order to survive. These kids are more than just ordinary kids. They were raised to fight and are now fighting to survive, to live their own lives. On the other hand, the Nines are not doing so great. They feel empty because they are currently not getting any orders from APE and they even refused to eat their rations. Instead, they are waiting for maintenance, whatever they mean by that. This is why they look so thin and old out of a sudden. How come Zero Two is normally eating, but her clones want maintenance? I wonder how Dr. Franxx created them to be so different and how he made them and Zero Two be white-skinned.

Back to Goro and Hiro. Goro and Hachi recognize Mistilteinn being in space and Hachi mentioned that Mistilteinn contains soil from before the planet became a desert. So Goro’s intentions might not only be to help Hiro rescue Zero Two, but also to get Mistilteinn down and save each parasite. Watching tears running down Hiro’s face, after Goro and the others appeared to go with him, was really cute. This reminded me of the absurdly cute animation in the previous episode.

My What-Is-Going-On? Moments

Naomi
Naomi is back! The mystery around the disappeared children has finally been lifted! Or at least we know that they are still alive. What we don’t know yet, is what Dr. Franxx has been doing with them. Maybe he received orders to get rid of them but instead, he put them away to protect them from the papa-tachi? Because what else would you do with ‘useless’ parasites?

Kokoro as parasite
Why is Kokoro suddenly not able to operate a Franxx? She has already been pregnant the last time she and Mitsuru piloted Genista and it worked out. So why is she now not able to do so? Is it because the child in her womb is already a bit bigger than before or is there any other reason?

Memories
Nana and Hachi found memories of the adults being saved on a computer. I guess that this was the best way to make them live eternal after throwing away their body out of flesh.

Mitsuru and Kokoro
After Nana (007) reveals that Kokoro is pregnant from Mitsuru, they both seem to be a bit too perplex and worried even though they didn’t remember anything. Mitsuru looked so exhausted at first. I thought that they would be calmer. ‘Let’s just abort it’ and over. But no. Both took it really serious. However, one reason could be that because Nana (007) told them that Kokoro is not able to operate a Franxx in her current state. This could have triggered one of their biggest fears, not being a help to papa-tachi. But they already know that papa-tachi left them…

In the End

We only have two episodes left! How do you think this anime is going to end? Will there be a happy end at all? See you next time for my review of Episode 23!