This is it ladies and gentleman, this where Eighty Six redeems itself. Forget all of the Starbucks Philosophers and Liberal Arts jokes, Eighty Six is taking its shot. And I couldn’t be happier. So lets dive right in shall we?
Immediately before we get into all the politics, the narrative and all that jazz I want to talk production. Eighty Six is not the most well animated show of the season. That’s simply a fact. The CGI robots are fine and are used minimally however this is primarily a talking heads show. But what talking heads they are. Some of the shot composition, lighting and scene transitions were absolutely kino this week. Whether it be Undertaker and Lena’s moonlit conversation, the broken mirror, Lena’s reflection in the window or the bleeding fountain pen. Eighty Six was absolutely packed with clever shots. Connecting themes and events with physical objects that brought out the most in every single scene. Credit to Director Toshimasa Ishii and his team for this one. As for the actual politics and narrative of the scenes themselves? Well that was pretty good to.
And what better place to start than with the Legion and their big reveal? This idea that the Legion are collecting and using human brains as computers was great. It’s absolutely staggering just how much Eighty Six manages to accomplish with this one twist. For instance, this immediately makes the Legion a legitimate threat. This war no longer has a timer and the enemy is getting smarter! Like zombies, every fallen ally becomes a tool for the enemy. This also simultaneously justifies a lot of Undertakers previously “edgy” actions. Remember back in the first episode when he shot his ally inside their downed drone? Now not only was this a mercy shot, it was necessary as well! It also justifies why the 86 can’t even get burials out in the field, why he carries around the tags, and the added horror of falling in battle.
We can’t forget all of the thematic tie-ins with death this introduces either! I have my issues with the “voices of the dead” shtick which we will talk about later but thematically? It’s great. The fallen of this effectively enslaved race is coming for the Alba and they don’t even know it. Crying out into the void the whole time. This explains why all of the previous Handlers never returned! It wasn’t because the 86ers were assholes or drove them away. They literally couldn’t handle the horrors of war forced on them by the Para-Raid with Undertaker. It makes you wonder how much of this is intentional. Did the Legion do it purely to keep going past their 10 year mark? Or have their goals and motives changed as they introduced human brains to their systems? Whatever the case, I’m really curious now!
This brings me to the one negative I have though: Undertakers supernatural “I died once so I can hear the dead” is bullshit. We don’t need this supernatural crap. Especially when a better solution and explanation is staring us right in the face: The Para-Raid. This was my first, immediate thought when getting this explanation in the episode. That the Legion had taken the Para-Raid implants along with the brains and were purposefully transmitting along the same frequency. A kind of psychological warfare and an easy justification as to why everyone can hear them and know the Legion are coming. A sort of ghost in the system if you will, even revealing a future access point for communication with the Legion should Eighty Six go down that route. At the very least I think this is better than whatever mystical bullshit Undertaker was spouting.
Still, that’s a rather small complaint in the face of all the things Eighty Six got right this week. And the best part? I’m still not done because now we get to talk about my favorite new plot point: Undertaker’s brother! I like what Eighty Six is doing here. How Lena and Undertaker have 2 completely different takes on the same man because of two very different experiences. It makes him feel like a much more complicated individual and I’m looking forward to how Eighty Six connects the two. I’m especially looking forward to Lena’s reaction when she learns that he has most likely been made into one of these “Shepherds”. Because we all know that’s where this is going right? Undertaker wants to hunt him down after his service is up, whether to free him or get revenge we don’t know. Whatever the case though, it’s good shit.
Finally lets take a moment to chat about how Eighty Six has progressed on the racial side of things. While there were no big world shaking revelations I did enjoy a lot of the small things Eighty Six did here. Like the parallel between Lena’s friend and the pictures on her wall to the 86ers drawings of their previous Handlers. So they “don’t forget”. Or how the continued debauchery of the Alba capital is starting to push Lena more and more towards the 86ers. Even the small tidbits such as how Undertaker used to live in District 1 and remembers the fireworks of their big festival. These are small things sure. They aren’t the main revelation of the episode. However I like that Eighty Six is preparing for the future. Setting up plot points here that slot in easily to the episode that will payoff later. It gives me hope.
So yeah, all in all I think this was another good episode of Eighty Six. Easily the best one since the 1st that initially made me pick it up. Between the war finally getting into full motion and Lena being aware of her attitude towards the 86ers, actively using Undertakers name for instance, it’s good progress. I especially like that we have an actual endgame now. Before this episode there was nothing to work towards. Racial equality? Booooring and well outside of Lena’s sphere of influence. It’s simply to much of a fairy-tail to accomplish that in this show. But ending a war that can kickstart that while building a relationship between our two leads, Romeo and Juliet style? Now that is doable. And probably much more entertaining to watch if I’m being frank.
And of course I have to ask: What did you think? From last episode it seems like everyone is on board with Eighty Six improving and moving in the direction. Did you enjoy the plot twists? Or would you have preferred it focus more on the racial subplot instead of the Legion? Let me know below and I will see you next week!
I might be wrong about this, but I don’t think Undertaker’s claim that he can hear the dead because he died once needs to be taken in any supernatural way. It’s certainly possible that something supernatural is going on, but given the sci-fi nature of the show, it seems more likely that something simply happened to Undertaker after he “died” that time: for example, perhaps the Legion tried to take over his brain but failed halfway through (possibly because his brother interfered in some way), and he can hear their voices as a result. Undertaker was probably just speaking in metaphors there (and even if he wasn’t, his mystical theories may simply be wrong), and I’m sure we’ll eventually discover what really happened.
I really hope thats the case. I’ll take any sort of fitting explanation I can that isn’t supernatural. Maybe he was just waxing poetic, maybe the Legion, I dunno. I just don’t want it to be “a feeling”, you know?
Oh boy, I really should watch the episodes more carefully, I seldom notice all those clever parallels between Lena’s and Undertaker’s worlds. I guess that’s why I read your posts, haha! And yeah, I think/hope that there has to be some more logical reason behind Undertaker’s hearing of the ghost voices. He probably isn’t quite sure why either, which is why he believes in the supernatural stuff for now.