DARLING in the FRANXX

The distant future: Humanity established the mobile fort city, Plantation, upon the ruined wasteland. Within the city were pilot quarters, Mistilteinn, otherwise known as the “Birdcage.” That is where the children live... Their only mission in life was the fight. Their enemies are the mysterious giant organisms known as Kyoryu. The children operate robots known as FRANXX in order to face these still unseen enemies. Among them was a boy who was once called a child prodigy: Code number 016, Hiro. One day, a mysterious girl called Zero Two appears in front of Hiro. “I’ve found you, my Darling.”

If you like this, try

Neon Genesis Evangelion 86%

26 eps · 1995

Teens forced into pair-piloted mechs to save a broken world, with the same claustrophobic psychology beneath the battles.

Guilty Crown 84%

22 eps · 2011

A shattered boy gains power through a strange bond in a plague-ravaged world, echoing that same fragile-teen-carrying-a-burden feeling.

Gurren Lagann 82%

27 eps · 2007

Underground kids break free to pilot giant machines together, trading melancholy for boisterous energy but keeping the found-family core.

Kiznaiver 82%

12 eps · 2016

Classmates literally forced to share pain and feelings mirrors the raw, uncomfortable intimacy your favorite pilots had to endure.