| No Title | |
|---|---|
|
Full Name |
Kokoro |
|
Alias |
Code 556 |
|
Origin |
Darling In the Franxx |
|
Age |
14-15 |
|
Occupation |
Franxx pilot for Plantation 13 |
|
Goals |
To destroy the klaxosaurs and protect Papa (former), and find happiness with those dear to her (achieved) |
Kokoro is a character from the anime Darling in the Franxx. She is the pistol pilot of the Genistra and was partnered with Futoshi but later became the partner of Mitsuru, with whom she falls in love.
Personality[]
She is a kind and soft spoken young girl who often doesn’t say what she really thinks and goes along with her friends. She has a close relationship with her squad mates and treats them all pleasantly, making her well-liked by them.
Love Interests[]
Mitsuru[]
Kokoro and Mitsuru have known each other since childhood but barely knew each other while they were growing up in the Garden. When they are 14-years-old, they are assigned to Plantation 13 and placed in Squad 13. At first, they didn’t talk to each other much due to seemingly having nothing in common; Mitsuru is a loner who keeps his distance from others and had little to no use for his comrades, whereas Kokoro is friendly and gets along well with her comrades.
It didn’t take Kokoro long to see there was something wrong with Mitsuru after he attempted to pilot Strelizia with Zero Two out of desperation to prove he was a better pilot than Hiro and he was left traumatized. From then onwards, they had occasional walk-ins in the greenhouse. Despite his cold and aloof demeanor, Kokoro offered to listen to whatever was bothering him but he rejected her and misinterpreted her concern as pity. As early as Episode 5, she exhibited a deep interest in Mitsuru to the point of finding an excuse to talk to him and initiating conversations with him. She offers to listen to his problems and admits she admires him for being tough and never leaning on others but he coldly tells her to leave him alone. His grudge against Hiro causes Kokoro to worry how this affects his mentality.
While exploring an abandoned town, Mitsuru speaks harshly towards Kokoro but he later saves her from falling debris after she wondered off on her own and warned her he can’t always protect her. During the Boys vs Girls conflict, Kokoro finds Mitsuru in the greenhouse and proceeds to tell him the names and meanings of the plants. She then asks him if he is alright talking with her because of the fight. He calls it stupid and he wants nothing to do with it. She praises him for his honesty and he is brave for being so being outspoken about his opinions. He finds that she kept the baby book she found at the abandoned city and agrees to keep it a secret because he claims he has nothing to do wit it, although this is considered a violation of regulations.
When Mitsuru falls ill, Kokoro finds out he underwent a risky injection to become a parasite and she is deeply concerned for him. Due to Mitsuru and Ikuno’s incompatibility, a partner shuffle is suggested. Driven by determination to help Mitsuru, Kokoro goes as far as to break her promise with Futoshi and become Mitsuru’s partner. They later rendezvous in the greenhouse and she asks him why he thinks humans stopped having children because having a baby was the most natural thing in the past. He doesn’t care why and tells her not to think of unnecessary things. He asks her if she became his partner out of pity but she denies this. During a battle, Mitsuru shuts down Genista and calls himself incompetent but Kokoro insists he isn’t and she convinces him to confess about his difficulty in trusting others and it’s because Hiro broke a childhood promise. Kokoro sympathizes with him because she broke a promise to Futoshi but, to prove she trusts him and he can lean on others, she attempts to pilot Genista alone. He stops her and asks how she can trust him so much, but she smiles in response. He smiles back and calls her ‘unbelievable’. She is later shown to be surprised when Mitsuru promises to protect Kokoro after being confronted by Futoshi for his behavior.
Gradually, Mitsuru develops an interest in Kokoro and asks her to cut his hair, which surprises her as the request came out of nowhere but she merrily accepts after seeing his awkwardness. As she cuts his hair, he confesses how guilty he feels for how he treated Hiro for doing nothing wrong. Kokoro praises himfor resolving his problems and he praises her handiwork. In response, Kokoro impulsively kisses him, which catches him off guard and she runs away in embarrassment after apologizing. Some time later, as both talk about their sadness about leaving Miltiteinn soon, Kokoro suddenly talks about how boys and girls can create a new life and tries initiating sex with him. He is deeply confused and rebuffs her. After her book is found by the 9’s, Kokoro admits she wants to have a baby to leave a mark for the future before she dies and, as she looks at Mitsuru, she believes they can have a life other thannpilotibg the FRANXX. Later that night, Mitsuru finds Kokoro crying in one of the abandoned rooms after being berated by Alpha and he comforts her, leading to a passionate kiss and they have sex for the first time. They begin secretly meeting in one of the abandoned rooms to spend their nights together.
Shortly after, they decide to get married after learning the meaning of marriage from Hiro. The wedding goes smoothly and they exchange vows and rings. However, before they can kiss in the middle of the wedding, the 9’s lead an assault team and have the two taken away because their relationship and the ceremony are considered to be dangerous to APE’s objectives. A couple of weeks later, they are returned to Squad 13 butbhave no recollection of the ceremony or each other because their memories were altered as punishment. Kokoro attempts to become partners with Futoshi again but he refuses and insists that she stay with Mitsuru. Both are co fused about all the things their friends say happened between them despite no remembering nothing. Mitsuru says he doesn’t believe he’ll develop those feelings for her and she agrees. They then take off their wedding rings and it becomes apparent they want nothing to do with each other. Kokoro suddenly becomes sick although they don’t know the cause. They decide to pilot Genista together and do really well at first. However, when Mitsuru compliments Kokoro, he initially calls her by her code number but then says her name, which gives him a painful flash in the head. She asks him what’s wrong and calls him by his name, which gives her the same pain. Bother ealize the pain is because they called each other by their names and they stop fighting out of fear.
A couple of days later, Kokoro discovers she is pregnant with Mitsuru’s child. Faced with the choice of having an abortion or keeping the baby, she becomes distraught at having lost her purpose in life as a parasite and is paralyzed with fear on what she should do. Mitsuru is also shocked and falls to the ground, and doesn’t know what the right choice is. He tries to see Kokoro as she struggles with a decision but stops himself and feels guilty for causing her pain. After some deep thinking, Mitsuru resolves to support Kokoro no matter what and he wants her to have the baby. Due to her pregnancy, she is unable to go with the squad to space to rescue Zero Two and he decides to stay with her in order to try to reconcile with her. Kokoro questions him why he stayed and his response about the baby being his responsibility as well dissatisfies her and she tells him she doesn’t expect anything from him because of their memory loss. During a storm, he tries to get her to safety because it isn’t good for her body but she breaks down that she feels useless now that she isn’t a parasite anymore. He decides to stay with her but she ple for him to leave him alone and she doesn’t hold him responsible for the baby but he says he‘s not trying to be responsible but he wants to protect her and she has given him a reason to live: their baby. Although he thinks of himself as a weakling and he doesn’t know what love means, he can keep going forward long as they are together and shows he still has his ring. Kokoro asks why he still has it and why he calls her name even though it hurts him. He says they can start over even without their memories and her name is too important to him. She shows her ring to him and cries out to him, and they embrace and cry together as they reconcile. They then hold hands and put back their wedding rings.
When Kokoro begins to show in her pregnancy, Mitsuru tries to be as attentive to her as possible and becomes overly protective of her. While Kokoro appreciates his support, she says he worries too much. She later gives birth to a baby girl, whom they name Ai. When Ai is born, Mitsuru cries out of joy and Kokoro happily smiles at him. They gradually grow closer as they raise their daughter together, and after the two year timeskip, it is shown they are officially married and have grown to deeply love each other. After the ten year timeskip, Kokoro and Mitsuru are still happily married and have three children (2 daughters and 1 son) and they are expecting their fourth child.
Futoshi[]
Futoshi was Kokoro’s original partner. They also have known each other since their childhood in the Garden but didn’t start to interact with each other until after they were assigned as partners and placed in Squad 13. Kokoro gets along with Futoshi really well by complimenting and comforting him. During their startup ritual, they flashed each other a thumbs up and she praised him for a doing good job after they successfully synchronized.
According to Zorome, they have a ‘lovey-dovey’ relationship, which is evident when she tries to imitate Zero Two and Hiro by offering Futoshi to sit next to her and hand feed him. They also held hands, which Kokoro didn’t mind even if the others found it to be weird. Overtime, Futoshi’s feelings for Kokoro began to grow and he became deeply infatuated with her due to her beauty and kindness. When the girls’ suites melted in front of the boys during a battle, Futoshi was embarrassed but admitted he wasn’t ogling her but he found her to be beautiful, which deeply embarrassed her. However, when the group reconciles, he got on the floor and apologized, which again embarrassed her.
Although Kokoro didn’t feel the same way as Futoshi, she played along with him until he asked her to promise to be his partner forever. She was uncomfortable but agreed. When a chance to switch partners was offered among the squad, Kokoro quickly offered to become partners with Mitsuru and this devastated Futoshi, who was caught off guard. She apologized and later became official partners with Mitsuru while Futoshi was paired with Ikuno. Although she appeared content with the switch, Kokoro admitted to Mitsuru that she felt bad for breaking the promise and hurting Futoshi, and she doesn’t expect him to forgive her for what she did. Futoshi never blamed Kokoro for breaking their partnership and his main concern was to make Mitsuru promise to protect her. Mitsuru‘s initial indifference to the situation only angered Futoshi, and when Mitsuru‘s recklessness almost got him and Kokoro killed, Futoshi punches him but then was relieved when Mitsuru promised to protect her. In response, Futoshi admitts he loved Kokoro.
Kokoro and Futoshi remained friendly and they quickly patched things up. Although Futoshi continued having feelings for Kokoro, he accepted being only her friend. He was shocked to learn Kokoro and Mitsuru had developed a romantic relationship and had gone as far as kissing, but when he confronted Mitsuru about it, he quickly doubled down and insisted he only wanted them to be happy. He becomes more vocal in his support for their relationship by insisting he be the priest for their wedding so he can stand beside them and wish them congratulations. He was the most outraged at Papa and the others for ruining their wedding and alternating their memories for the sake of APE’s objectives and, despite not being completely over Kokoro, he refused to become partners with her again after she asked him to because he wanted her to stay with Mitsuru. He was happy for them when they reconciled and when their daughter was born, to the point he embraced Mitsuru and congratulated him.
Tivia[]
*Kokoro is the first parasite to naturally conceive and give birth to a child.
*She is interested in the ‘language of the plants’, and she seems to know all the names and meanings of the plants.
*She is skilled in knitting, and is knowledgeable in horticulture.