Release Date: October 2018 RRP: 5184 yen SSSS.Gridman may be the Studio Trigger anime of 2018 that everyone remembers, but earlier in the year they co-produced a show that anime fans were far more divided on – and in some cases most people would rather forget. Nevertheless Darling in the Franxx was still a thing that happened, and between being a highly publicised series and featuring mecha designs from Shigeto Koyama ( Star Driver , Captain Earth ), merchandise was pretty much a given. And it was Bandai Tamashii Nations that turned out to surprise fans, not only announcing the Franxx mecha for their Robot Damashii (Spirits) line but also human pilots in the S.H. Figuarts . Though it's looking less and less likely that Bandai will be completing the main cast in either line, at the main bases have been covered with the Robot Damashii Strelizia figure.

Darling in the Franxx is available in streaming form on Crunchyroll After the success of shows such as Kill la Kill , Space Patrol Luluco and Little Witch Academia , anything involving studio Trigger usually comes along with some fanfare. But their first mecha outing, and one as a collaboration with A-1 Pictures subsidiary CloverWorks , was definitely one to keep an eye on. This is Darling in the Franxx , the first of Trigger's three original works teased at their Anime Expo 2017 panel. Running for a total of 24 episodes (along with three special "making of" episodes), the series was spear-headed by Atsushi Nishigori ( The Idolm@ster , as well as involvement in numerous Gainax projects) with character designs by Masayoshi Tanaka ( AnoHana , Anthem of the Heart ) and mechanical designs from Koyama Shigeto ( Star Driver , Captain Earth ). Though the exact split in the workload isn't entirely clear, it's largely understood CloverWorks oversaw most of t...

Darling in the Franxx is available in streaming form on Crunchyroll Given that the studio was founded by the people that helped bring Gurren Lagann to life, it's amazing that only now Trigger are creating a full-length mecha anime. Maybe it's just that trying other things were higher up on their priority list, because Darling in the Franxx  still isn't a straight production. Instead Trigger have teamed up with A-1 Pictures ( The Idolm@ster, Aldnoah.Zero ), bringing together a number of notable staff members. The show is directed and co-written by Atsushi Nishigori ( The Idolm@ster ) with Naotaka Hayashi ( Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate  and Robotics;Notes ) along with action directing by Hiroshi Imaishi ( Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill ) and mechanical design by Shigeto Koyama ( Star Driver,   Captain Earth ). That's quite the list of talent straight off the bat.