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Dr. Franxx / Werner Frank
The scientist who created the FranXX.
- Admiring the Abomination: Notes that the Moho-class klaxosaur attacking the Plantation is a particularly fine specimen, even as it bears down on top of his location. He was also like this in the past as he was very intrigued with the Klaxosaur race. Especially for the Klaxosaur Princess.
- Ambiguously Evil: Though he has the protection of humanity in mind, he was willing to run horrifying experiments on a young Zero Two that basically amounts to petty torture to see how much her body could take, and he didn't bat an eye at it. It's later shown that he has regrets about it and doesn't believe he can be forgiven for it, though.
- An Arm and a Leg: He lost his left arm when the Klaxosaur Princess bit it off.
- The Atoner: Shortly before his death, he states to Zero Two to be sorry for all the torture he subjected her to in her childhood, and also implies he arranged for her to reunite with Hiro in an attempt to make them regain their happy bond.
- Commonality Connection: He understands Hiro's feelings for Zero Two better than anyone because he shares those feelings for the Klaxosaur Princess (at least at a physical level).Don't you find her far more beautiful than any human? Pure and proud, and more alone than us all.
- Cyborg: Half his head and his arm at least are mechanical.
- Dirty Old Man: Casually gropes Nana's butt while criticizing her for being too serious.
- Disappointed in You: All but states this to Hiro in Episode 15, admonishing him for rejecting Zero Two.
- Everybody Has Standards: He might have done some bad things like experimenting on a young Zero Two and mind wiping her and Hiro's memories, but even he thought it was terrible of the APE council to use a Plantation as a bomb to attack the Klaxosaurs. He also changed his standards about his misdeeds later in his life.
- Foil: To Hiro, in many ways.
- Go Out with a Smile: He spends his final moments admiring the sight of Strelizia Apath just before he is killed by falling debris.
- Heel–Face Turn: While he was more amoral than evil, he did do a lot of vile things in the backstory and the present day. That said, in the end he helps the protagonists against the alien invasion and ultimately dies after helping to save the world from the VIRM.
- Herr Doktor: His real name is the German-sounding Werner Frank (reminiscent of Werner Von Braun and Victor Frankenstein) and he's the stereotypical sociopathic bastard willing to sacrifice anything in the name of science and his experiments, at least at first.
- Hollywood Atheist: On his Day in the Limelight flashback episode, it's shown that he was a pretty horrifying Mad Scientist even before fate made him the man we see nowadays, and when his college's dean angrily asks him why the hell he does all of this, he flatly says that he does it because he doesn't believe in God.
- Horny Scientist:
- And he is not subtle about it. He casually grabs Nana's butt, made the Franxx, and according to Zero Two, said that it's a good thing for the pilots to be perverts (though this can be understood as having a relationship with their bond as dual, sex-based pilots).
- Episode 19 reveals that he is in love with the Klaxosaur Princess. In fact, it's implied that his creation of Zero Two was at least partly inspired by this. However, the same episode also muddies the waters a bit by revealing that in his youth he was fairly asexual, being Oblivious to Love and Married to the Job. Franxx being piloted by boy/girl pairs was discovered through trial-and-error, when immortal yet infertile and emotionless humans failed to pilot his machines time and again, and only fertile and passionate children could do so successfully and non-lethally. However, his encounter with the Klaxosaur Princess awakened feelings so strong that he dedicated his life to creating klaxosaur hybrids like Zero Two.
- Hyper-Awareness: Notices things multiple time that others around him don't, such as when everyone thought Hiro and Zero Two got eaten.
- Hypocritical Humor: He called the council a bunch of geezers, despite being in the same category of age.
- Last-Name Basis: He is mostly known by his last name until Episode 15 where his first name is revealed to be Werner.
- The Lost Lenore: Played with. In his youth he dated and eventually married a Dr. Karina Milse, but her feelings for him were much deeper than his for her until the moment of her death. When she died testing one of his Franxx, he felt more guilt than grief over her death, for not loving or paying attention to her more in life. Still, she was the one human woman he was most capable of loving, and he lost all interest in humans or preserving humanity's future after her death (as his true love became the Klaxosaur Princess), and he named one of the child nurseries Mistiltheim in her honor.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Flashbacks show that Dr. Franxx has done some disturbing things in his time, such as subjecting Zero Two to horrific medical experiments, one of which involved burning a hole through her hand with a laser to test her Healing Factor. His only reaction during this was to marvel at how quickly Zero Two regenerated from her injuries, while ignoring her screams of agony. Episode 19 reveals that this was specifically why APE hired him in the first place, as before that Japan had to invent laws to keep up with his unethical experiments.
- Noodle Incident: It is never revealed how did he lose his jaw and half of his skull, assuming it was not a voluntary cybernetization.
- Oblivious to Love: Episode 19 reveals that in his youth he was close friends with APE scientist Karina Milse, who was sweet on him but whose obvious interest he didn't notice until she spelled it out for him.
- Pet the Dog: In the past, although he had no qualms about torturing Zero Two, he still provided her with a room full of toys and later a children's book. It would make sense for someone with an ambiguous disorder like his to believe that it could compensate it. In the present, he often sides with the children whenever they enter a conflict with APE, and it is revealed he reunited Zero Two with Hiro in an attempt to undo the harm he had done.
- Redemption Equals Death: He atones for his past crimes and receives a sort of pardon by Zero Two, only to die by the end of episode 21.
- Shadow Archetype: He is in many ways what Hiro could have turned into had he not loved Zero Two.
- Shipper on Deck: Episode 21 reveals that he deliberately assigned the main duo to Plantation 13 to see if Zero Two and Hiro would rebuild their past relationship. This of course makes his previous pushing on Hiro less coincidential in hindsight.
- Spanner in the Works: Big time. If it wasn't for him not trusting APE from the start, VIRM would have had a completely airtight endgame. Squad 13's isolation and growing independence, storing parasites in an off-the-grid cryostasis facility, and ensuring there would be a couple of adults left to be emotional anchors were all steps in giving humanity tools to rebuild, and not letting VIRM know about it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Calls Hiro out on rejecting Zero Two in episode 15, correctly guessing Hiro's feelings that she is more beautiful than any human, but also more truly alone than anyone. Dr. Franxx had hoped she'd found a partner in Hiro, but... This helps Hiro snap out of his funk, and go to Zero Two.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: The only known adult whose rejected the immortality treatment, using cybernetics instead.
- Wild Card: While nominally a part of APE, the professor clearly has his own agenda. Episode 17 reveals he's the reason Squad 13 were left to their own devices for a whole month, and he'd been blocking APE for realizing what was going on while he used them as a private experiment to the point where the Nines had to be sent to investigate, cementing that he's on his own side. He's also been storing all the failed parasites in cryostorage since he still thinks of them as human.
Papa
Voiced by: Tesshō Genda (Japanese), Christopher Sabat (English) Foreign VAs
The chairman of APE, the group which governs known human civilization."My children, you have had the good fortune to be chosen as parasites. Your great predecessors defended out cities and our people, and they splendidly took flight as our representatives. Turn your life into a blaze of glory and shed every last drop of blood you have. I pray that you will become a shining ray of hope for humanity."
- Ambiguously Human: Has not yet been seen without his mask and robes, and is as robotic in personality as the rest of the adults. With the Klaxosaur princess calling them human-wannabes and him stating how they'll be destroyed by their own creations, it's likely him and the rest of humanity are not human. Episode 20 confirms that Papa and the Vice-Chairman are members of an alien species called the VIRM.
- Animal Motifs: Together with all other APE council members, who all wear masks based on various monkeys and apes. His mask resembles a macaque or chimpanzee, being the most human among the other Seven Sages. Ironically, he's the least human of them all besides the vice-chairman.
- Aliens Are Bastards: He and the vice chairman helped sucker humanity into a dystopian, stagnant Empty Shell so his Alien Invasion could go off without a hitch.
- Bad Boss: He has no qualms about ordering the Plantation 26 Squad to undertake a Suicide Attack or having an entire Plantation self-destruct if it means being able to achieve his goals in the Gran Crevasse attack. He also brushes off the deaths of Lemur and Tarsier as insignificant.
- Big Bad: He is responsible for most of the plot and is the true villain of the series.
- Condescending Compassion: His view of humanity is very paternalistic; feeling that he knows what's good for humanity, klaxosaurs, and other sapient species across the galaxy better than they know what's good for themselves. He will use any means trick and strong-arm them into accepting his "gift" of immortal assimilation into his species' Hive Mind, or Put Them All Out of Their Misery.
- Cult of Personality: The main idol of the plantations and figurehead of APE which all living humans have come to worship akin of a god.
- Emperor Scientist: Downplayed. Episode 19 reveals that APE came into power by discovering Magma Energy and related inventions. While Papa is the leader of APE it's unclear if it's his direct handiwork.
- Energy Beings: His true form is a shining mass of white light with two masks floating in the center.
- God-Emperor: The Parasites literally pray to him before meals.
- Gold and White Are Divine: In a cargo-cult sort of way...
- Humanoid Aliens: He can pass for a normal human in his clothes, but it gets subverted by his true form, lacking any humanoid features
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. While the VIRM's planet gets blown up along with its troops in the finale, he and the Vice Chairman survive after all the crimes they comitted. But they don't get away scot-free, as they lose all the souls they had accumulated, leaving their survival as an All for Nothing, while humanity thrives.
- Light Is Not Good: His appearance invokes that of the pope, but considering some of his Bad Boss actions, later on, his divine appearance is not telling of his negative nature. Episode 20 reveals his true form as a giant glowing alien made of light, making this a foreshadowing of their true nature.
- Malevolent Masked Man: He, along with the other members of the higher ups wear masks.
- Manipulative Bastard: Episode 20 reveals he engineered the entire war with the klaxosaurs, tricked humanity into giving up their reproductive functions and turned the world into its dystopian state to make the alien invasion he was part of easy.
- Odd Name Out: All of his fellow council members (save for his Vice Chairman), go by the names of the species of simian that they, as well as their masks, resemble. However, he is only known as Papa both to his fellow members on the council and all of his subordinates.
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The head of APE, and never seen without his similary-masked compatriots.
- The Sociopath: Utters not a sigh of remorse regarding the senseless sacrifices of a plantation and a squad of children along with the memory-wipe of Kokoro and Mitsuru despite their actions being utterly harmless in the grand scheme of things. In Episode 20, it is shown that he's part of an alien Hive Mind which manipulated humanity into a dystopia and making the VIRM invasion easier by sterilizing humanity in exchange for immortality under false pretenses.
- Starfish Aliens: While he does look humanoid in his clothes, his true appearance outside of his clothes lacks any human feature.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: He's revealed to be a part of VIRM, a race of Energy Beings that share a Hive Mind of immortality and endless, gentle pleasure. They want to share their happiness and immortality with all the other sapient species of the galaxy... even if it means waging war on the species they want to assimilate, and wiping them out if they resist if necessary.
The Vice Chairman
Voiced by: Nobuo Tobita (Japanese) Foreign VAs
The vice chairman of APE.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Much like Papa, is in on the invasion plot. He is the second-in command of VIRM.
- The Dragon: He is the most loyal adviser to Papa and is the only adviser who's in on what Papa is actually planning.
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. While the VIRM's planet gets blown up along with its troops in the finale, he and the Vice Chairman survive after all the crimes they comitted. But they don't get away scot-free, as they lose all the souls they had accumulated, leaving their survival as an All for Nothing, while humanity thrives.
- Odd Name Out: Like Papa, he does not go by a primate name (which is white-nosed saki, for the record).
- We Have Reserves: He's not shy from ordering whole squads or even plantations to become kamikaze-pieces on the battlefield if it serves Papa's agenda, something the others in the council show an issue with afterwards.
The Council
From left to right: Gorilla, Marmoset, Vice Chairman, Papa, Lemur, Baboon, and Tarsier.
The rest of APE's council. All go by codenames derived from species of primates and have masks to match.
- Alas, Poor Villain: It is not made clear if Lemur is evil, but he suffers a more brutal death by the hands of a snake klaxosaur and he only wants the Klaxosaur Princess to surrender in peace.
- Ambiguously Evil: It is unknown about their motives and while Papa and the Vice Chairman have hints of evil and Tarsier seems to follow the assassination plan, Lemur is shown to be in the dark about the whole thing and the Council does not seem have the same motive or be on the same note, as Gorilla and Marmoset are openly questioning Papa.
- Ambiguously Human: They may look and act human, but they’re never seen without their robes and masks. When the Klaxosaur Princess unmasks Tarsier after killing him, his hood is revealed to be empty, and she calls him a “damned human wannabe”.
- It's revealed that they are all Humans except for Papa, the Vice Chairman, and Tarsier. Just before their souls appear to be sucked out
- Dramatic Unmask: The Klaxosaur Princess casually unmasks Tarsier after killing him, revealing that there’s nothing but an empty hood underneath.
- Happens again in episode 20 when Papa and the Vice-Chairman drops their masks and reveal their true form as parts of the VIRM Hive Mind.
- Karmic Death: The human members of the council end up assimilated by the aliens that they sold the rest of humanity out to.
- Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: By Episode 18, it’s becoming clear that APE’s members aren’t all on the same page. At the very least, Papa and the Vice Chairman kept the rest of the Council in the dark about their plans to assassinate the Klaxosaur Princess and how their mysterious endgame will affect them personally, and when the other Councillors confront them about it, they brush off their concerns.
- The Omniscient Councilof Vagueness: What they seem to be, and they are not seen without their masks. This is zigzagged latter on with Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering as the pressure of their plans combined with Papa playing his cards too close to his chest leads them to doubt each other.
- Unwitting Pawn: They were completely in the dark about Papa's true motives and their decades of unethical experiments turned adults into the perfect targets to be absorbed by the VIRM Hive Mind.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: This is arguably the case for some of the members of APE, with the exceptions of Papa, the Vice-Chairman, and Tarsier, as they genuinely thought that everything they did, immoral or otherwise, was for the betterment of humankind.
The True Enemy (UNMARKED SPOILERS AHEAD!)
VIRM
Ladies and gentlemen, Light Is Not Good in its finest.
The true antagonists of the series, the VIRM are a race of bodiless aliens that assimilate other species into their Hive Mind. They attacked Earth in the distant past in order to assimilate the klaxo sapiens, but were driven off. Since then they have returned, manipulating human society from behind the scenes in the guise of APE’s founding members (Papa, the Vice Chairman, and Tarsier).- Alien Invasion: Of the Infiltration type. VIRM’s agents infiltrated human society as the founders of APE, and manipulated humanity to create the Orwellian society that we see in the present day. They also introduced magma energy mining technology to bring humanity into conflict with the klaxosaurs, likely to weaken both races so that VIRM’s final conquest would be easier. In the past their invasion of Earth was far more overt, and once the Klaxosaur Princess spills the beans to humanity, VIRM drops any pretense of being human and launches an all-out attack.
- As Long as There Is Evil: In episode 24 they are defeated, but they claim that they will come back as long there is a single living being in the universe...Or so they say, anyway.
- Assimilation Plot: They have assimilated “several” species from across the universe into their Hive Mind over the eons, and one of their goals in the present day is to do the same to humanity. They all but stated to succeed in Episode 21, seemingly sucking out the souls of every immortal human and beaming them off into deep space while leaving their bodies as lifeless husks. Averted in the end of the series, as Hiro and Zero Two's sacrifice frees all the souls they had absorbed.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Subverted. They claim to believe that they are the apex of evolution; immortal beings of pure energy that feel nothing but endlessly gentle pleasure, which they want to share with other sapient races. In reality, they're genocidal sociopaths that are willing to destroy entire planets if races don't want their brand of existence and forcefully absorb the souls of every person they can, without asking for their opinion.
- Condescending Compassion: As "enlightened" immortal beings of pure white light experiencing endlessly gentle pleasure through their Energy Beings Hive Mind, they pity most other races for having cumbersome mortal bodies that grow sick, injured, age, and die; also for developing clumsy societies fraught with conflict, crime, murder, racism, prejudices, and so on. Thus, they feel it is their duty to offer other races the chance to cast off their mortal bodies and join them in their endlessly pleasurable existence, or wipe them out if they refuse.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: There is no indication of their existence before Episode 17, and that hint is vague at best. The revelation of their true nature is a complete detour from the series's trajectory up to that point. Somewhat justified by the fact that their original plans for humanity were a lot more subdued, and involved people voluntarily and gradually surrendering their souls. But when their efforts to use Zero Two to destroy the Klaxosaur princess fail, and the princess exposes them instead, they decide to accelerate the timetable and annihilate all resistance by force.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: They rigged Star Entity/Strelizia Apath to explode with enough force to crack the planet open in case the Klaxosaur Princess gained control of it. They failed.
- Energy Beings: They exist as a mass of pure energy with one or more masks floating in the center, having given up their original bodies long ago. Any species that they assimilate also becomes Energy Beings, that is, part of VIRM .
- Enlightenment Superpowers: They certainly think so. The VIRM claims their superior knowledge and enlightenment has allowed them to reach the apex of evolution by casting off their mortal bodies, conflict, and unhappiness. Though they're not exactly reliable expositors.
- Faux Affably Evil: Unlike the Klaxosaurs (who are revealed to not actually be evil), the VIRM are unquestionably evil and have no problem taking over or destroying planets, even as they politely and condescendingly proclaim to their victims that it's all for their own good.
- Foreshadowing: As APE members they mention during one of their meetings that they "soon will be free from the shackles of their bodies".
- Greater-Scope Villain: The true main antagonists of the series, but less involved until episode 22.
- Hypocrite: They refer to the klaxosaurs as inferior beings that must be wiped out, but their troops appear to be corrupted klaxosaurs. Even better is that Hringhorni, the lance they created to use as the ultimate weapon to wipe out the klaxosaurs (along with Strelizia Apus), is made of klaxosaur cores.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: During the final battle they try using their corrupted Hringhorni against Strelizia... and Strelizia takes it back and strikes them with it.
- Join or Die: They offer sapient species across the galaxy (like klaxosaurs and humanity) the chance to cast off their mortal bodies and join the VIRM Energy Beings Hive Mind, or get wiped out via Alien Invasion. They also rip the souls out of anybody they can.
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. The VIRM's planet and fleet all got destroyed in the finale... With "Papa" and the "Vice Chairman" at large so the VIRM could still become a threat in the future. Howewer, they also lost all the souls they had accumulated, making their survival All for Nothing. Even worse for them is that they will have to rebuild their troops from scratch.
- Light Is Not Good: They are beings made of pure white light and as shown by Papa, the Vice Chairman and Tarsier, the VIRM are unquestionably evil.
- Me's a Crowd: During the final battle it creates several copies of itself trying to assimilate Hiro into their Hive Mind.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The VIRM claims that they're doing humanity a favor by having them cast off their mortal bonds and embrace the endlessly pleasurable existence of the VIRM Hive Mind. However, their hateful views toward those with souls and their willingness to destroy Earth out of spite prove that the deception, bloodshed, and sacrifices they make will never be justified as good intentions (or absorb souls without asking for the species' opinions in the matter leaves it very clear).
- Outside-Context Problem: As far as humanity was concerned, the klaxosaurs were the only thing they needed to worry about. The sudden appearance of an alien invasion fleet catches everyone off-guard.
- Pride: The main trait of their personality, claiming that they're impossible to defeat, considering other viewpoints different from theirs as useless and foolish along with treating anybody that chooses to do not lose its individuality as disgusting.
- Purple Is Powerful: Their ships, mechs, Tron Lines and energy weapons are all coloured purple, in contrast to the black and blue of the klaxosaurs.
- Put Them All Out of Their Misery: The immortal, body-less VIRM can't imagine anything worse than a mortal body doomed to decay and die, nor societies fraught with conflict, crime, murder, racism, and so on, so to them any sapient species that rejects their "generous" offer of endlessly pleasant immortality clearly doesn't know what's in their own best interest, or how badly they're really suffering in that state, and need to be put out of their misery rather than continue to live and die in that perpetually suffering state.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens: Of both the “Aliens as Communists” and “Aliens as Conquistadores” variety. They roam the universe looking for other species to assimilate into their Hive Mind, and when they find one they offer them a sales pitch about how discarding their bodies and joining VIRM will bring them peace and bliss. Anyone that refuses VIRM’s offer is ruthlessly attacked and exterminated, with VIRM plundering their resources and technology.
- Significant Anagram: VIRM entered Earth as a group named APE. Combine VIRM with APE and rearrange the letters, you get VAMPIRE. Fitting for an alien species that devours planets and assimilates sentient species.
- Third-Person Person: They always talk about themselves in third person. "This is VIRM's will."
- Time Abyss: They’ve been plaguing the universe for at least sixty million years.
- Uncanny Valley: VIRM’s mechs are far more humanoid than the klaxosaurs, but less humanoid than the Franxx, and they move and attack in bestial ways that make them seem more like zombies than robots.
- Uncertain Doom: In Tarsier's case; he appears to have been Killed Off for Real at the klaxosapien princess, as he doesn't show up afterwards, and his voice doesn't form part of VIRM's Voice of the Legion.
- Unreliable Expositor: Almost everything they say is of questionable veracity. Are they really the apex of evolution? Are they really immortal, or were they just lying in a desperate last resort to taunt Hiro and Zero Two (Tarsier was presumably Killed Off for Real and he was part of VIRM)? It's very questionable if they really are alive at the end of the series.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Subverted. They claim to believe that their endlessly gentle, pleasurable existence as Energy Beings sharing a tension-free Hive Mind is the apex of evolution and enjoyable existing. However, as seen in their efforts to deceive, murder, or sacrifice humans and other species alike, it's crystal clear that they look down upon humanity and would prefer to see them wiped out over them being free from their iron fist.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Once the heroes gain control of Strelizia Apath and turn its weapons against the VIRM fleet, VIRM decides to cut their losses and run, taking Hringhorni with them as they leave Earth.
- Voice of the Legion: When its speaks, it talks with an echo of "Papa" and the "Vice Chairman"'s voices.
- Walking Spoiler: It's nigh-impossible to mention the VIRM without spoiling Episode 20's big twist and how it affects all of the series' events up to that point.
- We Will Meet Again: After their troops and planet get blown up, they swear that they'll fight Hiro and Zero Two again at the apex of evolution.
- Zombie Gait: When not loping about on all fours or sprinting, VIRM’s mechs walk with a lurching, shambling gait reminiscent of a zombie.
