January 12th, 2018.
At the pre-air screening for DARLING in the FRANXX,
Mechanical Designs: Shigeto Koyama Strelizia
a scale version of the main robot, Strelizia, was presented to the public.
January 12th, 2018 Episode 1 Pre-Air Screening
On the stage, four members of the main cast introduced the show to the audience
and spoke about their hopes for the TV series about to begin airing.
And then, the screening began.
The curtain was raised on the story of the Darlifra anime.
Narrator Katsuyuki Konishi
A coming-of-age story about ten children living in a birdcage in the distant future.
The meeting of disgraced genius Hiro and the mysterious Zero Two
sets the gears of destiny in motion.
It's been about five months since the show began airing,
and its story has reached the halfway point.
Tonight, we will join the ten voice actors playing the birdcage children
Cast Interviews
and look back on the fifteen episodes that comprise the first half.
Manga Artist Kentaro Yabuki
We'll get a sneak peek into the manga's creation
and rare making-of footage! Don't miss them!
Director Atsushi Nishigori
DARLING in the FRANXX Playback Special
DARLING in the FRANXX Playback Special!
Voice of Ichigo
Voice of Goro
Q: Which scenes from the first half made the biggest mark on you?
Voice of Ichigo: Kana Ichinose Voice of Goro: Yuichiro Umehara
Well, it'd have to be episode 2 for me.
The part where Ichigo tries to pilot a FRANXX with Hiro,
has a hard time, and ultimately fails.
There were various factors, like Ichigo's desire to help Hiro pilot,
but she couldn't hold a candle to Zero Two inside a FRANXX,
and the last line, "You were awful,"
had all sorts of emotions mixed in.
That line stings. A lot.
Episode 2: "What It Means to Connect"
Hiro takes his first aptitude test in a real FRANXX.
Bring it on!
What?!
Why'd it stop?
Worried by his fixation on his first ride with Zero Two,
Move! Move!
Damn it! Why is this happening?
I'm sorry.
Don't apologize.
Ichigo volunteers to be his partner, but...
You were awful.
Voice of Ichigo: Kana Ichinose Voice of Goro: Yuichiro Umehara
I stand next to Konishi-san while dubbing.
Oh, right.
And we were both like, "I couldn't recover if anyone said that to me."
Gosh!
Well, there are several ways to interpret that line.
Yeah, of course.
I feel like Ichigo was directing that at herself,
but take a step back, and it's likely that she was talking about Hiro.
It could very well be taken that way.
How you can take a different viewpoint,
and how each viewer can have a different interpretation of everything,
makes this a really fun show in my eyes.
For me, as Goro's voice actor,
it'd have to be episode 9, the "Goro episode," as it were.
Where Ichigo rejects him.
She didn't!
I guess not.
She didn't.
Right!
It's on hold!
That's the most painful!
But that's where Goro finally gets a handle on his feelings
and has a weight taken off his shoulders.
That's the episode where he comes to terms with it all,
so I was really nervous while dubbing, but I also had a lot of fun.
Ichigo! Goro!
Episode 9: Triangle Bomb
Delphinium gets absorbed into a klaxosaur's body in battle.
I can't move!
Everyone get away!
Goro ejects Ichigo and is left behind in the cockpit all alone.
I'll save you.
I'll save you, no matter what.
So wait for me!
Ichigo...
At first, Goro felt like too much of a good guy.
Voice of Ichigo: Kana Ichinose Voice of Goro: Yuichiro Umehara
He was extremely hard to play.
What? Really?
I'm not that nice a person.
Oh, please!
I tend to doubt anyone who's too nice.
I wonder if they're hiding something.
With Goro, you have the complication of the Ichigo-Hiro relationship,
so I thought he might have some dark emotions lurking within.
All those thoughts made him pretty difficult to voice...
But then came the swimsuit episode.
Yeah, that happened.
Right?
Episode 7: "Shooting Star Moratorium"
When I got to see Goro as a normal boy there, things changed.
It made me feel a lot closer to him.
I realized that maybe he was actually just a nice guy, after all.
Like how he was bonding with the boys.
Yeah.
I realized that he's a guy who can mess around at times,
and the difficulty I felt voicing him until then went away.
I went, "He's truly just a really nice guy,"
and fell in love with him as a character.
Ever since then, it's been really easy to voice him.
Voice of Miku
Voice of Zorome
Q: Which scenes from the first half made the biggest mark on you?
Voice of Miku: Nanami Yamashita Voice of Zorome: Mutsumi Tamura
Well, it'd have to be episode 8, right?
Right!
That's our episode.
Eight.
Zorome and Miku, especially Miku,
totally snapped.
Totally snapped!
But you can't blame her, can you? The boys were in the wrong.
Episode 8: "Boys x Girls"
A big fight breaks out between the boys and girls of Squad 13 over the perverted side of Zorome and the rest of the boys.
Miku and the girls explode in anger.
Wait! I-It's not what it looks like!
It was a sign of puberty, something rare in this world.
Hear us out! It was Zero Two!
Crap. We can't stop them now.
Stop!
Perverts! You horny perverts!
Fiends! I'm gonna break you in half!
We should leave for now.
Hey, our clothes are gone!
What?!
Darling, you pervert!
Hey, darling, do I seem a little more human now?
It felt like the children's emotions were quickly becoming more intense and varied.
Voice of Miku: Nanami Yamashita Voice of Zorome: Mutsumi Tamura
So it left a big impression on me.
Yeah, well...
Episode 8 also had a light-hearted tone,
but it wasn't all fun and games.
You had Zero Two going all,
"Is this human?"
Yeah, yeah.
All of that stuff was written with real impact.
It also felt a bit bittersweet.
Right?
Like, they weren't just leering at them all the time.
Yeah.
They'd hit puberty, so their emotions must've been in flux,
but ZoroMiku have this incomplete feel,
and it's great how they're supporting each other.
They both kinda-sorta love each other,
but you don't know if it's romantic or if it's more like sibling love.
I know, right?
For what it's worth, it does seem to be sibling love.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a bit removed from romance.
The romance is really prominent with the other characters,
but not so much with ZoroMiku. It's like...
Like they've been infected with each other's warmth.
Yeah. Like a familial love, which is on a plane beyond romance, in a way.
In a way, yeah.
That's how the two of them are.
Yes.
The cast interviews will keep coming.
Keep an eye out for the manga making-of, too!
Sci-fi coming-of-age story DARLING in the FRANXX is a hot topic.
Apart from the TV anime,
did you know that there's also a manga version?
Comic Version DARLING in the FRANXX
Original Work: Code:000 Artist: Kentaro Yabuki
It's a manga that adapts the anime's world to manga.
It's currently serialized in the digital manga app Shonen Jump+.
A physical volume was also released back in February.
Manga artist Kentaro Yabuki is in charge of it.
Manga Artist Also worked on Black Cat and the To Love-Ru series
He gained much popularity with To Love-Ru, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump,
and this year marks the 20th anniversary of his debut as a manga artist.
But this manga adaptation was a major challenge for him, too.
At first, I wasn't sure if I could even draw robots and their battles.
Each chapter takes around three or four times the effort of my past manga.
With any other manga, I could put out several chapters with the effort I put into this.
But that's what it takes to recreate this world.
Yabuki-san draws the rough sketches by hand.
Everything after that is digital work, done on a tablet.
Let's see how the process works using an actual manuscript.
Comic Chapter 12
First, the drafts are scanned, and the line art is completed digitally.
A specialized software is then used to ink and tone the art.
This is Yabuki-san's first manga in which he's using digital art.
He let go of his old friends, the paper and pen,
as a show of his passion for Darlifra.
I definitely wouldn't have been able to draw Darlifra using my analog tools.
It would've been tough to draw those robots on paper with my old methods.
But when you work digitally, you can zoom in and work on the minute details.
I want this to be a crystallization of everything I've done as a manga artist.
I've doubled my support staff, too.
I've even used all the connections I've made
and asked for their help,
and I'm giving this everything I've got.
This does happen to be my 20th anniversary project,
so I'm giving it my all, and I hope people will check it out.
The comic version of DARLING in the FRANXX is updated on Shonen Jump+ every Sunday.
Shonen Jump+ DARLING in the FRANXX New chapters every Sunday at midnight JST
Please enjoy it, too!
Voice of Ikuno
Voice of Futoshi
Personally, if we're talking about the story up to episode 15,
Q: Which scenes from the first half made the biggest mark on you?
Voice of Ikuno: Shizuka Ishigami Voice of Futoshi: Hiroki Goto
it'd be episode 7, the swimsuit episode.
Ah, right.
Ikuno and Futoshi aren't a pair yet there,
but that's the first time Ikuno smiles, and it's at Ichigo-chan.
That's when I think I got a real grasp of her character.
You understood her.
That's right.
Gotcha!
Episode 7: "Shooting Star Moratorium"
As Ichigo can't take her eyes off Hiro and Zero Two,
Ichigo?
Distracted, are we?
Ikuno gently calls out to her.
Huh?!
By the ocean, I mean.
Aren't you going to swim?
For the children, it's their first time at a beach and a brief respite from their lives,
You were always good at swimming.
Oh, that's what you meant?
Well, yeah...
and their personalities really come to the forefront.
I've got this book, so don't worry about me. Go on.
Thanks, Ikuno.
You came all this way just to read?
Forcing myself to frolic doesn't sit well with me.
But once Mitsuru shows up, she's the ice queen again.
Voice of Ikuno: Shizuka Ishigami Voice of Futoshi: Hiroki Goto
That's right.
When I first saw the script, I didn't know how expressive I should be.
Oh, yeah. You asked about that.
That's right. I wasn't sure.
But I realized that both her gentle and cold sides were real parts of her.
I see.
She's not forcing herself to be aloof, but also not forcing herself to have fun,
and she can smile when she wants to.
That makes sense. She is still only a kid.
Exactly.
Futoshi's foolhardy and reckless, too.
In a way, he's what all kids are like.
Right?
What do you think of him?
Futoshi, huh? For me, it'd really have to be episode 11.
Of course.
The partner shuffle episode.
That's how we became a pair, too.
Yeah, that's right.
Is there anyone who wants to try riding with a different partner?
Episode 11: "Partner Shuffle"
When Nana asks if anyone wants to switch partners,
Let me try riding with Mitsuru.
What? But Kokoro...
surprisingly, it's Kokoro who raises her hand.
Y-You promised...
Futoshi had asked her to be his partner forever, so he is deeply shocked by this.
I'm sorry, Futoshi.
Whenever I think about Kokoro,
I feel this tightness in my chest.
But now that tightness hurts...
What is this?
I hear you.
Futoshi's emotions really struck me there.
Voice of Ikuno: Shizuka Ishigami Voice of Futoshi: Hiroki Goto
It kinda reminded me of my past. Not my first love, though.
Right.
But how obnoxious I used to be then.
I'd just express my feelings without thinking about anything else.
That immaturity really overlapped with Futoshi in my mind.
Ah. So you were like that when younger?
A bit close, yeah.
The guy means no harm, but it's not the right time. That kinda thing.
I really saw myself in that side of him.
I have to admit I got a bit teary-eyed while recording.
Well, it was sad, even to watch.
For me, that was the most dramatic and memorable part so far.
Voice of Kokoro
Voice of Mitsuru
Q: Which scenes from the first half made the biggest mark on you?
Voice of Kokoro: Saori Hayami Voice of Mitsuru: Aoi Ichikawa
For us, by unanimous vote,
it's episode 11.
It couldn't be anything else.
Indeed.
That's the episode in which Mitsuru's past is first made clear.
It's all spelled out.
Until then, he'd only been a jerk.
But he had his reasons!
But you find out he had his reasons.
Episode 11: "Partner Shuffle"
Mitsuru's obvious hostility toward Hiro is a reversal of his admiration when they were kids.
I've been chosen to represent all of us children.
My code is 016.
I'll continue to show my gratitude to Papa
Don't.
It was all started by one statement from Hiro, something Mitsuru considers a betrayal.
Don't give him that look of admiration.
and do my best so we can all work toward our goals.
He's a filthy traitor!
He's also unable to open up to his new partner, Kokoro.
Why do you think humans stopped having children?
Probably because we don't need to anymore.
We don't need others to live.
Why did you volunteer to be my partner?
Futoshi hates me now, and it's a massive pain.
Was it out of pity?
No! No, it's not like that.
That episode truly drove home to me that they both have emotional baggage.
Voice of Kokoro: Saori Hayami Voice of Mitsuru: Aoi Ichikawa
Yeah...
And they both started a new chapter in their lives with episode 11.
A story that was different from the overarching plot of DARLING in the FRANXX.
That's the thing.
Kokoro-chan, as a character, changed completely with that episode.
Until then, she seemed really mature.
She had her cute side, but she was very tolerant and a bit like a mom of sorts.
But, just like everyone else, she's still growing as a person.
Ah, yeah.
She's not complete yet.
Indeed.
I really felt that she still had a long way to go.
You could say that was when she really began her journey.
Oh, totally!
Like this was her real starting point.
There's a bunch of stuff in the second half, too.
A bunch. It might have even more, in fact.
Look forward to finding out which episode we're talking about.
Voice of Hiro
Voice of Zero Two
Q: Which scenes from the first half left the biggest mark on you?
Voice of Hiro: Yuto Uemura Voice of Zero Two: Haruka Tomatsu
For me, it was episode 13,
with Zero Two and Hiro's flashback.
Yeah.
Of course.
Even out of character,
when I read the script, I felt it was a really heart-rending episode.
Until then, Zero Two gave off a sort of antagonistic vibe.
You couldn't tell if she really was on our side, you know?
But after that episode, the way you see her completely changed.
Episode 13: "The Beast and the Prince"
As a test subject, Zero Two was confined in a room and never even spoken to.
I was trapped in that room for as far back as I can remember.
It was the young Hiro who got her out.
A human was shedding pretty tears and offered her his hand,
Come this way!
and Zero Two saw the prince from her picture book in him.
I can get you out of here!
What's your code number?
Man, does she not understand me at all?
002? I've never seen a code in the single digits.
002...
Oni? No, Zero Two?
Not very good, huh?
Eo To!
Huh? Do you understand what names are?
Eo To!
Acting that out must've been really tough, huh?
Voice of Hiro: Yuto Uemura Voice of Zero Two: Haruka Tomatsu
Yeah, it was really hard!
I actually had the director make time for me during the previous dubbing session,
and we discussed how to portray the Zero Two of the past.
Right.
I asked how human she should sound,
and how much like an animal.
We spent quite some time figuring out how to strike the perfect balance.
When you know about her childhood,
you really empathize with her and feel bad for her after that.
Totally.
Ever since the flashback in episode 13,
the mood in the studio has become a bit more teary, with people sniffling and all.
But for me... This special comes after it,
so I'd have to say episode 15 had a huge impact.
Episode 15: "Jian"
Hiro rushes to be with Zero Two, who's entered rampage mode.
D-Darling?
They'd been in pain ever since they were separated,
I finally got to see you!
D-Don't look at me!
Aren't you scared of me?
I used you, you know.
but they finally recover their bond as partners and embark on humanity's great mission, the operation to take Gran Crevasse.
That doesn't matter anymore!
Let's go see the outside world together!
Zero Two...
Together, we are one.
Zero Two!
Darling!
Zero Two!
Darling!
Darling...
I'm really happy I met you!
I love you!
Me too, Zero Two!
I love you!
In episode 15, they both express clearly how they feel,
Voice of Hiro: Yuto Uemura Voice of Zero Two: Haruka Tomatsu
reach an understanding, and head off to battle.
They feel so liberated and free,
and our direction was to portray them as a pair of annoying lovebirds.
Oh, yeah! That's right!
Like how they go, "I love you," before going to fight.
It isn't often that you see such heartfelt joy being expressed that way.
In a way, it was like everything they'd repressed so far exploded.
Like, when they called each other's names,
I was told several times to put more heart into it.
That's how much it meant for them to get on the same page.
They had a really long road until now.
Yeah, their hearts finally became one.
They became real partners.
Right.
With that in mind, I hope everyone watches and enjoys the rest of the show.
In the second half, the story begins anew.
How is Director Nishigori feeling right now?
We're at the recording and editing studio, where the show's audio work is done.
On this day, episode 15 was being mixed.
They combine the voiced dialog, SFX, and BGM to produce one, final audio product.
Darlifra #15
The scriptwriting for the show's climax has also reached its final stages,
keeping Director Nishigori extremely busy.
We asked him what to expect from the story's second half, which starts next week.
This story began with Hiro and Zero Two,
Director & Series Composition Gurren Lagann (Character Designer) THE IDOLM@STER (Director, Series Composition, Character Designer)
and that's where I want it to return in the end.
I don't know if it will be a happy ending for everyone,
but I hope the ending
leaves viewers satisfied with each character's story purpose.
I feel that's more important.
It's a fictional story about fictional characters,
but I believe they're alive.
And I want to provide the right kind of closure for their lives.
It's a huge responsibility. I want to keep that in mind as we figure it out.
The story will now enter its second half.
Look forward to DARLING in the FRANXX episode 16 at this time next week!