Kokoro

Kokoro is one of the main characters in DARLING in the FRANXX. She is a former Parasite with the codename "556" of the Thirteenth Plantation, where she was partnered in boy-girl pair with Mitsuru to pilot a FRANXX called Genista and she was previously partnered with Futoshi. Over time, she began an intimate relationship with Mitsuru and they had a wedding ceremony but were punished by having their memories altered. Despite this, they reconciled after learning she was pregnant with his child. Together, they have four children; a girl named Ai who resembles her, a boy who also takes more after her, another girl who resembles Mitsuru and an unborn child. Kokoro is considered to be an attractive fair-skinned girl with wavy hip-length ashen-blonde hair that has long bangs framing her forehead on either side with a lacy blue headband to keep her hair out of her face while she has chest-length hair strands hanging on either side and calm, rich blue eyes. When piloting her FRANXX Genista, she wears a white bodysuit with light green accents and keeps her hair in a braided ponytail. In Episode 24, during her pregnancy, Kokoro was usually seen with a braid laid on her right shoulder without wearing her headband and she wore pregnancy clothes which were given to her to use from 007. As an adult, her hair is cut to shoulder-length and she wears the same lacy blue headband she wore as a teenager. She wears a white and tan colored dress with ruffled hems, her blue laced headband and her wedding ring on her left ring finger. Kokoro is a very kind girl who has a gentle and optimistic personality to match and she is interested in plants and she is very knowledgeable in the "language of flowers". She doesn't speak too often, choosing to think before speaking and thinks about others more than herself. Her kindness is treated with a welcome by her more feisty comrades. During scenes of tension, she is never the breaker or starter and sits by watching usually. She was depicted as someone going with the flow, which is seen when she couldn't voice her disapproval when Squad 13 explored the ruins of a town and during the Girls vs Boys fight. She also had an inability to speak out her mind and performance to avoid conflict due to her dislike of arguments. For that reason, she comes off as timid and sweet, as her strong kindness makes it appear she lacks the confidence to be confrontational, even in situations where she may disagree with her comrades. Miku states that Kokoro gets influenced by others so easily. Kokoro isn’t the type of person to seek attention and prefers to be treated no different than others. She gets along with her comrades very well and treats them with kindness, which makes her easily liked. Like the other kids, she didn't know how to translate her feelings of love due to her sheltered upbringing and, as a result, she didn’t know how to make it known to Mitsuru that she is in love with him. Even when he used to act cold towards her and the others, she never gave back any negative retaliation and felt a strong desire to help him with his personal problems, especially after learning he risked his life to receive an injection to become a parasite. Despite her meek and gentleness, Kokoro holds back a myriad of feelings, admitting to Mitsuru that she is often dishonest with most around her. The incident where she feigned loyalty to Futoshi by breaking her promise to be partners with him forever by partnering with Mitsuru instead left her feeling bad. She even admits that she's not the sweet, innocent and nice girl everyone thinks she is. Even if she wanted to help Mitsuru, she still knowingly hurt Futoshi and claimed that it would be right for him to get angry with her. Through dishonesty with Futoshi, she reforms herself a little in praising Mitsuru for being so outspoken and honest with her about his suffering and lack of trust in others, and offering him words of encouragement to help him with his problems. Through her interactions with Mitsuru, Kokoro slowly becomes more assertive and begins to honestly speak her mind, which is noticed when she reasons with the girls why they need to end the feud with boys and later openly questioning how they, as humans, were really born. A notable trait is also that she becomes much bolder, more straightforward and somewhat impulsive, which is seen where after Mitsuru had said some very nice words to her, Kokoro simply kissed him in response, and when he had said he would miss Mistilteinn because they got to spend more time together, she tried initiating sex with him. After finding a book on pregnancy and childbirth, Kokoro develops a fascination with it and wonders why humans stopped having babies. Knowing her purpose in life is to pilot the FRANXX and to die in battle, Kokoro develops a desire to bear a child to leave a mark for the future before she dies and she comes to believe having a child represents hope for the future. She also explicitly lets Mitsuru know of her desire to join her body with his and create a new life. Through this discovery, Kokoro gradually begins to question if her purpose in life is truly to only pilot the FRANXX and die for the sake of adults who don’t acknowledge them as individuals but as tools for warfare, and she expresses skepticism towards the ideals of Papa and the adults. She even admits she truly believes they are able to live a life beyond the FRANXX and forge their own destiny, an argument that deeply touches her friends and inspires them to find the courage to stand up to the adults. As her partnership with Mitsuru develops into a romantic and sexual relationship, she becomes deeply attached to him and she is happy when they decide to get married, as she is confident they will find happiness despite knowing full well they are violating regulations and risking punishment. However, their wedding is interrupted by APE and their memories of each other are erased. She retains her kindness but is utterly focused on her duties and loyalty to Papa, and as a result is more distant with Mitsuru than anyone else. However, she becomes confused as she hears her friends say they fight to live for the sake of the future, which subconsciously causes her to be curious about her lost memories. Once she starts having painful flashes over saying Mitsuru’s name, she becomes frightened and reverts back to her obligation to fight even if it will cost her life. She pushes Mitsuru further away to the point of being cold to him while keeping a friendly atmosphere with the others. Upon learning she is pregnant with Mitsuru’s child, she is distraught at having lost her purpose in life (the ability to pilot the FRANXX) and rejects Mitsuru’s support because of their memory loss. Even when Mitsuru admits he wants her to keep the baby, she admits that she believes their memory loss serves as justification for him to have no obligation to be responsible and she had no anticipation that he would want to be. She also struggled to feel any affection for her unborn child and the indecision on whether to terminate the pregnancy or not left her deeply saddened. The despair at being unable to fulfill her duty as a pistil finally provoked Kokoro to admit to Mitsuru that she feels she has no purpose in life anymore and she is willing to go as far as to endanger herself and her baby to be useful. However, when Mitsuru tells her how much he truly cares about her and their child, Kokoro decides to keep the baby and reconciles with Mitsuru. Kokoro also implies she secretly wanted to rekindle their relationship by keeping her wedding ring after taking it off. Although his concern for her borders to overprotectiveness, Kokoro begins to warm up to Mitsuru and she comes to truly appreciate his support and, when her daughter is born, Kokoro is shown to be genuinely happy. The birth of their daughter ultimately brings them closer together. They are able to form a genuinely happy marriage and they have three more children together. As a wife and mother, she is affectionate and devoted to Mitsuru and their children.