First of all, I want to talk about two names: Jin Akategawa and Ishii Toshimasa. Jin Akategawa, as you may know, is one of the greatest sound directors of the industry; on the other hand, Toshimasa is a rookie director that was making its debut with 86. So when I was almost deafened by the first minute of the anime, I was sure to blame Toshimasa. Moreover, after 3 transitions between scenes that were made with food falling in the floor and making the sound of a f*cking atomic bomb while falling, my only thought was ‘there we go again, another project from studio A-1 Pictures that is left in the hands of an incompetent director. What isn’t my surprise then, when, by the end of the season, I’m considering Toshimasa for one of the best directors of the year (together with another rookie, Shin Wakabayashi)? That symbolisms hurt…god if they hurt.
And yeah, on the bad side of things, I might say that 86 sound effects, despite being good, are quite too loud, and they even ruin some OSTs from Hiroyuki Sawano. And that’s the next thing I have to talk about: the OST compositor by excellence, the one that dismisses any presentation. As I said, 86 has some problems with its OST; the sound effects are too loud and the inserts often aren’t fitted in the ideal moments, starting and ending in the wrong parts. But Sawano doesn’t need to be at his best to be unquestionably excellent, and 86 is the living proof of that sentence. Not to mention that the ending song, written by Sawano itself, is straight up beautiful.
Now concerning the narrative… I might confess that 86 isn’t compelling at all in it’s first episodes. It sounded like the story of the princess of justice that lived among a country of maniqueistic pigs and was the only one with a good enough soul to care for the poor edgy teenagers called 86 that were fated to die. The only good point at the beginning was the interactions between the 86; even though the context was cruel, all of them (or at least, all of them that were not Shin) were acting like normal adolescents, having fun, teasing one another and jovially hating the alba processors that were in charge of them. This atmosphere was immensely aided by the good character animation involving them, making each one quite unique, even if there were too many characters to give focus to each of them.
Nevertheless, this convoluted start showed itself to be really necessary soon after, in order to break all expectations. I won’t go in further details on 86 plot, in order to not spoil anything, but the anime manages to overcome and positively utilize its bad introduction to make a great discussion about discrimination and acceptance of difference (which for me, a white privileged guy that lives in the notably unequal society of Brazil, hits astonishingly close and sincerely puts me in a bad position), and a hell of a great worldbuilding, which, far from being unpredictable, manages to be still hugely impacting and rock-solid. My 9 out of ten for the anime might sound too much, and I’m still not sure that I will be able to keep it, but judging by the way the context is escalating, I trust that the second season, that is announced for this year, will validate my score.
Now about the characters: some may say they are the weakest point of the anime, and, though it’s difficult to state otherwise, I will try to do so. For me, Lena is one of the best characters of the year due to its evolution, which is special by the fact that there are almost no introspective dialogues to show her emotions; just the visual narrative and the context she’s in are enough factors to build her progression. About the others, the only one that really shows any development is Shin; I don’t really like his character arc, but I really appreciate to see such and edgy stereotype being deconstructed in order to make the character relatable and likeable.
Finally, I want to highlight the great work of CGI on the fighting scenes. Since many people dislike the use of CGI- and have they’re solid reasons to do so-, it’s good to see such a solid work being done.
In conclusion, 86 in one of the animes with greater potential I’ve recently watched. I suggest that, instead of the 3 episodes rule, you give it some more time, maybe 5 episodes, to really engage in it’s world, and from there on it will be a great experience, with plenty of good messages and impacting scenes potentialized by a hands down great direction and astounding OST. Maybe not a 9 out of 10, or at least not until Season 2 airs, but still a worthwhile experience that stands above the other seasonal animes.
