Genista

Genista (ジェニスタ) is a FRANXX from Thirteenth Plantation piloted by Kokoro and Mitsuru. It was originally piloted by Kokoro and Futoshi.

Appearance
Genista is a mainly black, dark gray, and green mecha robot with light pinkish-purple eyes. Its head resembles a hat, and a pair of gold strands resembling hair come out of it. Genista's front body resembles a long dress, and it has cubic shoulder pads. Genista's hands appear to wear black and green mittens and its feet resemble boots. Like other FRANXX, Genista is armed with a weapon. Known as "Rook Sparrow", it is a cannon that is slightly taller than Genista. The cannon is mainly black with green, grey and orange accents. At the top of the cannon is a magma-energy bayonet used to shatter Klaxosaur cores.

When the pistil tries to pilot Genista all by herself, Genista transforms into its Stampede Mode form. In this form, it vaguely resembles a duck, with orange four-pointed stars for eyes appearing on its hat as a big mouth with sharp teeth completely covers where her face would be.

Episode 02: What It Means to Connect
Genista is first seen in Episode 02 when Kokoro and Futoshi synchronize and activate it during the startup ritual. After successfully connecting, Futoshi asks Kokoro if he did it right. Kokoro reassures him that he did great. Zorome tells them to stop acting lovey-dovey, and then the two pilot the mecha for the first time.

Episode 03: Fighting Puppet
In Episode 03, Genista is once again connected and activated when it, Delphinium, and Argentea go on their first mission to eliminate a klaxosaur. They all arrive at a Level 8 mine to battle a small Klaxosaur. However, the magma-energy of Genista and the other two robots attract many other Klaxosaurs. After fighting all of them at once proves to be dangerous for them, Genista, Delphinium, and Argentea try to escape but Kokoro (as Genista) realizes that there are a lot more Klaxosaurs in the area. The three of them keep battling the Klaxosaurs until Strelizia arrives to rescue them.

In Episode 04, Genista, alongside the other FRANXX robots, face off against a worm-type Klaxosaur. With the help of Strelizia, the worm-type Klaxosaur's core is shattered and thus is defeated.

In Episode 11, Kokoro requests for a partner shuffle when Nana asks if anyone wants to do it. Much to Futoshi's devastation, she asks for Mitsuru to be her new partner. Kokoro and Mitsuru later commence connecting Genista, and while their paracapacity rate is low, it is above the stable connection requirement. Kokoro and Mitsuru later pilot Genista with the others in a battle against a Gutenberg klaxosaur, where Mitsuru blindly charges towards it and later shuts down Genista out of despair for failing to kill the klaxosaur. Kokoro manages to talk to him and she attempts to activate Genista in stampede mode before Mitsuru stops her.

In Episode 15, Genista takes part in a battle against a Gutenberg-class Klaxosaur which keeps regenerating into smaller Klaxosaurs, acting as the defense alongside Chlorophytum. Kokoro creates a plan on how to defeat the Klaxosaur, and the leader, Delphinium, approves of her plan. However, as Genista approachs the Klaxosaur to attack it with its cannon, Mitsuru begins to slip away, as Genista's Parasite levels go lower and lower until it completely disconnects and deactivates. Inside Genista, Kokoro talks to Mitsuru about his insecurities, as Mitsuru reveals why he doesn't trust anyone anymore. After comforting Mitsuru, Kokoro begins to activate Genista all by herself, and Genista transforms into its Stampede Mode form and starts roaring. However, Mitsuru is able to stop her from rampaging, and then he and Kokoro are able to successfully reconnect and reactivate Genista. Genista defeats the Klaxosaur using Kokoro's plan, as Strelizia delivers the finishing blow after a powerful blast from Genista's cannon reveals where the Klaxosaur's core is.

In Episode 20 and 21, Genista takes part in the battle at Gran Crevasse to help Strelizia take control of Hringhorni. However, an alien species called VIRM suddenly appears and begins fighting with the klaxosaurs and kills numer parasites. Genista doesn’t fight much due to Kokoro and Mitsuru having painful flashes from saying each other’s names but takes part in helping Zero Two reach Hiro.

In Episode 23, Genista stays behind while the rest of the squad travels to space to help Hiro rescue Zero Two due to Kokoro‘s pregnancy and Mitsuru chooses to stay with her.

In Episode 24, within the ten-year time skip, Genista becomes a monument and sits next to the school for the new generation of children.

Trivia

 * Along with Chlorophytum, Genista is the only other FRANXX who does not vaguely resemble the plant that gives its namesake, the actual Genista flower species is a vibrant yellow flowering shrub, while Genista's color scheme is a variety of dark grey with hints of neon green. However, the Genista flower species is known for seed pods that burst open furiously when triggered by insects, which may have been the inspiration for Genista's cannon.
 * The design of Genista's cannon, "Rook Sparrow", could possibly have been inspired by the "Gunlance" from the "Monster Hunter" video game series.

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