It’s been a while since I reviewed something but if there’s an anime that I thought it was the right one to write again, that anime is “86 - Eighty Six -“.
I didn’t know a thing about the Light Novel other than its praise (won the “23rd Dengeki Novel Awards”) and eventually the synopsis, so while I had no idea what I was getting into, I still had some hype mainly due to Toshimasa Ishii’s solo directorial debut.
Story (8.5/10)
86 takes place in a future world threatened by autonomous drones known as the “Legion”. Those soulless mechas were created by the Empire of Giad as they declared war on all neighboring countries, 9 years before the story starts.
One of those countries, the Republic of San Magnolia, home to the silver-haired and silver-eyed Alba race, managed to withstand the invasion without any casualties.. at least, that’s what they say to the population, but there is the “86 district”, the one that it shouldn’t exist, a minority looked upon as human filth, “pigs”, ordered to pilot the “Juggernauts” (mecha created to fight the Legion) in order to keep the false peace.
From here, the story is basically character-driven. We got 2 point of views, Vladilena Milizé, also known as Lena, a republican soldier with a naïve personality trying to end all the prejudice and save the people from the “86 district” and Shinei Nouzen, the captain known as “Shinigami” fighting the Legion.
The first part focus more on Lena, she starts as a naïve soldier, thinking everything can be solved merely with dialogue but as the story progresses she realizes that those words don’t mean a thing if there are no actions involved.
The second part’s approach is more on Shin’s group, how they are surviving after they left the 86 district and how Shin’s character will manage to overcome the need of a clear goal after his brother plot and its conclusion.
Characters (9.0/10)
Being a character-driven story, the show has naturally great characters. I will talk about Shin and Lena, as they are the main characters and the ones who get the most development.
She was assigned to command the “Spearhead Squadron”, a group of 86’ers with bad reputation (every commander before her was driven mad).
Lena’s sense of justice is different from the majority of the alba race, she doesn’t see the 86’ers as people different from her, she thinks everyone deserves the same treatment regardless of the hair color, eye color, and her bright ideals are seen as a mere whim from the Alba’s pov. Now, that’s only what she thinks, her ideals, but in reality she never experienced what the 86’ers did, she was privileged for living a peaceful life and not having to face death each and every day, and that’s what Shin and his group make her realize whenever they talked to her, she knew nothing about the battlefield.
That’s her turning point, she had to change her ideals, she had to take action in order to help and actually do something instead of just spitting empty words, even if only a little bit, and to do so she even confronted her best friend, Annette, to gain access to the army, restocking then Shin’s group because they were about to be part of a big operation (she basically went against San Magnolia, something that would never happen if she kept her initial motivations).
Now, talking about Shin, my favorite character from the show and the one that is a lot more complex. He has been carrying the grief of his late comrades and also his brother who has been haunting him ever since he died. His only goal (originally) is what makes him alive, is what makes him fight the Legion, is basically what gives his life a purpose. After reaching it (end of the 1st part) he realizes he has nothing else to lose and doesn’t really consider any of his comrades real friends because he thinks sooner or later they will just die like everyone else who was part of his squadron.
The 2nd part of the show tries to give a new meaning to his life and the last 2 episodes are one of the best episodes I’ve seen in the past years. After Shin promising that he would wait for Lena, he would survive so she could one day get to them, and seeing him, after losing all the hope, smiling and crying was just phenomenal. It never felt rushed, it never felt like his characterization was out of nowhere, it was a process, a long one.
Still unsure about his future, Shin has now something valuable, something he wants to protect and will do whatever it takes to end the war against the Legion.
There's still room for development and that's part of the reason why his character is so goddamn well written.
Art, direction and sound (9.9/10)
I already mentioned, Toshimasa Ishii’s solo directorial debut was what made me watch 86 in first place, I had high expectations to see what he could achieve as the head of a project and goddamn I was right, his work was magnificent even with production problems (small team, schedule problems *cough* Aniplex *cough*).
Ishii was one of the most promising (future) directors from A-1 in these past years, he directed some of the best episodes of Erased, Neverland (s1), Kimi no Uso and was about time to give him a work that he could show us all his skills and 86 was simply the perfect match.
From using storyboard in many creative ways to his trademark transitions, he and his team always tried to do something I really appreciate in a media like anime which is basically show instead of explaining everything with monologues or exposition. There were moments that were really subtle and were meant to people interpret, something that he could do even in a restricted production, with the power of godly storyboard.
Episode 11 of part. 2 is the perfect example, the episode has a cinematic feeling, with the different aspect ratio, and we could argue that it looks cool and all, but it’s more than that. It starts with black bars when Shin is remembering all he did until there, all the ghosts who keep haunting him, what his brother did, it’s like he’s ready to die. Then, Lena arrives and when he realizes that is her, the black bars start to fade until they completely disappear which is when Shin finally finds the reason to live. In the same episode, we see multiple times Lena’s foot stepping on the black bars which is basically saying that she is ignoring Shin’s loneliness and is getting him out from there (for us viewers, she's obviously not aware of that).
I could be writing a long essay only about Ishii’s incredible work but that isn’t the purpose here. Also, Asato (the author) had a lot of reunions with the director and scriptwriter, Oono (who also deserves a lot of praise for adapting the story to the anime media with the utmost care and mastery), making sure that Asato’s vision was always there and that nothing that they considered important would be lost.
I would also like to mention the animation producer Shouta Fujii. He was basically responsible for assembling the team and while it wasn’t the perfect show when it comes to the animation itself, had some key scenes with good character acting but nothing outstanding, it was his first work as an "AniPro" so it was pretty good in a big scheme (Aniplex really tried their best to make it fail).
The CG was outstanding, one of the best when it comes to TV Anime, Hiroyuki Yoshida (and all the Shirogumi team) did an incredible work. I would be lying if I said that I prefer 3D Mechas over 2D, but since that’s something rare nowadays, at least they outdid themselves with this one (great textures, framerate, designs, etc…)
The OST was also really good, Sawano and KOHTA delivered yet again. I didn’t particularly like the first opening (both visually and the song) but the 2nd one was incredible! We also got an extra insert from Sawano for that final scene which enhanced what happened in a fantastic way.
I’m not giving 10 to this because unfortunately the production was far from being the best, like I already mentioned, some episodes suffered more but in a way it makes Ishii’s work even better. You can see that there’s true passion in adapting this work.
Enjoyment (10/10)
I hadn’t felt like this in a while, each episode caused in me different emotions, I never felt like pausing the episode to do other things (which I do a lot lol) and waiting for the next episode was always kinda painful because I really wanted to see how the story would unfold and what could Ishii to surprise me more than what he was already doing.
We had to wait 3 months to see the last 2 episodes but I can say that it was worth every second.
Overall (9.5/10)
Light novel readers say that Volume 2 and 3 (basically what was adapted in part.2) are probably the weakest volumes of the series and Ishii still managed to create such a cinematic experience with a cohesive storytelling and gradual character characterization, so if in the future, we get Season 2 with the same team, I just can’t imagine what is coming.
Well, that’s it from me, there might be some grammar mistakes or something but I think the message is there and if anyone read until here, thank you so much!
