Welcome back to another episode of Eighty Six! This week we see the fallout of the Liberal Arts student realizing that posting on social media doesn’t actually solve anything. Will she give up? Or try something new? Lets find out!
So starting off, lets talk about the fallout from last week. Because one thing that Eighty Six did that I really liked this week was to double down. I expected it to try and validate Lena, to try and reassure her “Oh don’t worry, you’re a good person”. You know, the regular anime bullshit. That doesn’t happen. Instead every single character just calls her an idiot. Her friend, for thinking she can actually make meaningful change. Her superior and uncle, for being naive and idiotic just like her father. Even the 86ers get in on it again at the end saying that even if she learns their names that this changes nothing. This is probably a small thing to be happy about, I know. But after the 2nd episode my expectations for Eighty Six were really really low. So I will take any pleasant surprise I can get.
Speaking of her father, we start to get a bit of backstory for our favorite Liberal Arts major! This was very welcome. Not just because it gives us some context for her attitude towards the 86ers but also because it reinforces her naivety. Yes, her father was the same and yes, he raised her to have a bleeding heart. Yet for all of his good nature and his attitude towards the 86ers, what happens? He dies. Because just like her uncle says and just like his daughter, he didn’t accept reality. He wasn’t viewing the 86ers as equals or the war as a legitimate threat. Only 86ers die in battle after all, how else could he justify bringing a child to a war zone? And the best part of all of this? Neither he nor Lena are alone anymore.
In both episodes 2 and 3 I complained that Lena felt like she didn’t belong in this world. That she was the only bleeding heart in the country, how could that possibly happen? Well Eighty Six does a good job of addressing that this week: She isn’t alone. There are other bleeding hearts like her father or the Fox Commander out there. Individuals who do care about the 86ers and go out to help them. Whether it be through words or through actually joining them on the battle field and fighting beside them. The reason we don’t seem them is simple: They all die. That or they are staying silent and complicit like Lena’s laboratory friend. It makes me wonder what Eighty Six is going to do with Lena. Will she join them out there? I doubt it has the balls to kill her. We’ll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile on the 86ers side it’s just as I said, they still don’t accept her. They are more understanding towards her now of course. After their conversation, her reaction and her desire to learn their names they know she is earnest in her beliefs. But that doesn’t change the circumstances of their relationship. Lena is still overseeing them from within the safety of the walls. The 86ers are still fighting, and dying, alone in this war. So while they know Lena might actually care about them she still isn’t one of them. And I think that’s an important distinction to make. Lena still has a long road to travel. Not only in making things right, which I doubt will ever happen, but in simply understanding who the 86ers are. And with Eighty Six set as a split cour I don’t think Lena will be walking this road very quickly.
As for how all of this was presented, Eighty Six did a good job. It was rather meaningful that she learned, and wrote down, their names in a military cemetery. A place no 86er has ever been buried, recorded or entombed. Yet they probably deserve it more than anyone actually buried there. Combine this with Undertaker’s conversation about no 86er ever getting a grave, how he holds on to their tags so that the last one alive at the end can bury them, and it gives the scene some rather dark connotations. Is everyone going to die? Is Lena’s final act going to be burying these names in this cemetery? The first 86er names to ever be put down in this place of military honor? I don’t know. But it made for an incredibly satisfying and meaningful scene and I really appreciated that.
All in all I think this was a pretty good episode of Eighty Six. It rekindled my hope for the show, hope that episodes 2 and most of 3 had all but snuffed out. Is it perfect? Not yet. But it’s finally starting to tackle the themes and ideas that I saw in the first episode. If it can keep this up, can keep fulfilling the promises that it made, then I think I’ll be able to end it happy. This makes me want to ask: How about yourselves? I know many of you had the same issues I did with the early episodes. Complaints about Lena’s presentation along with the half-baked racial subplot. Are you feeling better about it now? Did you drop it and are only reading to see if it changes? Let me know below, I’m curious what other people are getting out of Eighty Six.
As for me? Well I will see you next week and hope that it can keep this up.
Yeah, Lenlo, I feel much better about the show after watching this episode. I was considering dropping it, but I will probably watch both cours now that it’s established why Lena is the way she is.
yeah, pretty on point. She was very “paper” deus ex machina, now she’s more human, but its not over yet, at least for me. It would be great if she made some grave mistakes along the way that took the toll on her and the crew. This can go in so many ways….but yeah, got me re-hooked. fingers crossed they had the courage to make something different.
Totally agree with you here, Lenlo, great analysis as always. I always enjoy reading your posts. I was about to drop 86 after ep 2 and then that bathing/water/fanservice scene, but it has definitely got more interesting now.