In 2019, the hit anime Darling in the Franxx, released in North America. Now, the manga adapted from it is going to be released as well. This mature sci-fi story has already made waves with the anime, so fans are likely to be excited about being able to read it - particularly since there are said to be several differences between the two.

Darling in the Franxx, the anime released in Japan in 2018 and was followed up by a North American release in 2019. Instead of being adapted from an original manga, this series was an anime first and then adapted. However, the adaptation made several changes to the original story, bringing about a different ending than fans have seen in the T.V. series. The manga adaptation began releasing in 2018 and concluded in 2020, long after the one-season show was complete.

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Comic, manga, and light novel publisher Seven Seas Entertainment has announced that it has licensed Darling in the Franxx for North American release. The manga was created by Code:000 and Kentaro Yabuki. This series will be released both physically and digitally. Each volume will be a two-in-one edition. It will be published through Seven Seas Entertainment's Ghost Ship imprint.

The main cast of Darling in the Franxx in promotional artwork

In a devastated post-apocalyptic future, Earth is a ruinous wasteland. Humanity's only remaining strongholds are mobile fortress cities called Plantations. Massive beasts known as klaxosaurs, the planet's new apex predators, have pushed mankind to the edge of extinction, and within the walls of the Plantations, things are no less dire. Humans no longer love or reproduce - adults live on in sterile immortality while children are regarded as nothing more than parasites, artifically created to pair up and pilot the Plantations' giant defense robots known as Franxx. Former child whiz kid Hiro fails out of the piloting program after falling out of sync with his co-pilot, and a fateful decision to skip his group's graduation ceremony puts him on a collision with a horned girl known as Zero Two, whose co-pilots always end up dead. She claims Hiro as her "darling," but what can that word even mean in such a loveless world?

The original manga adaptation lasted for eight volumes and was serialized through Shōnen Jump+. Although the first several volumes are supposed to be largely faithful to the anime, the volumes following the fourth diverge. This means that fans of the show can expect to get a fairly different story from the one seen in the anime. Diverging from the show may have been a very good decision. While the story was received favorably and became a hit, the last half of it was criticized for feeling rushed. The ending was also a source of frustration for many fans. A shift in the anime's story at the right moment could be exactly what it needs to re-enamor readers. Since it didn't begin as a manga, it has the potential to rewrite the elements that didn't land with viewers. It also has a chance to go into more detail and expand on or clarify other aspects of the show.

While North American readers may not be as used to seeing a manga be adapted after an anime, this is a great opportunity to experience the series in a brand new way. It is highly unlikely that a new season of Darling in the Franxx would be developed based on the ending, but this translation could be the fix fans need - potentially without the main frustrations the anime presented. Hiro and Zero Two's romance is a compelling one that definitely needs a revisit and even a tweak to finesse it. The first Darling in the Franxx two-in-one omnibus manga will release in March 2022.

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Source: Seven Seas Entertainment