86 – Eighty Six S2 – 2 [Its Too Late]

Welcome back everyone to another season of Eighty Six! If you’re reading this post you already know what you’re getting into so lets skip the preamble and jump right into it!

Right off the bat I want to, again, praise Director Toshimasa Ishii for Eighty Six’s visuals. The animation and compositing aren’t the best, Heike takes the cake in raw production values probably. But Eighty Six is making a fair go at the title for “Best Shot”. I just really love how it frames and cuts between scenes, imbuing meaning in even the smallest gestures. One of my favorites for the episode for example had to be around 7 minutes in. After being introduced to the now calm and peaceful daily lives of the 86’ers, something novel for them, we then get a short sequence of back shots. Fading between each of them as these days drag on into monotony, the music steady and unchanging but purposefully dull, without bite. It conveys what they are feeling really well! Now if only Eighty Six didn’t feel the need to verbalize it to.

Still narratively I think this makes sense. These kids, and they are all still kids under 18 years old, have only ever known war. It’s been their life. So I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for that to suddenly stop and to be forced to integrate into a society you don’t know anything about. Combine that with the lingering feelings of those left behind, this idea that you’re letting them down or not deserving of such a soft life, and you have decent motivation for them to re-enter the war. Nothing spectacular but it does the job. The real question for me is how Eighty Six will use it moving forward. Will this be a one-off justification to get them back in the robots? Or will we seriously explore the differences between “Choosing where to die” and “Fighting to live”? I hope we do!

As for the Republic of Giad itself Eighty Six is already hinting at cracks to come. The character of Eugene is pretty clearly being setup as a criticism for Capitalism. Showing the wealth disparity in the kingdom via his tattered clothes and his inability to go to school. How he has to join the military to ensure a better life after the war for his sister Nina, it’s all there. Whether or not Eighty Six actually does anything with this is another question. After what we have seen in San Magnolia I’m not sure I trust Eighty Six to do anything more than a surface level commentary about the system. We will probably get some nice individual character stories out of it true. But nothing grand or sweeping, nothing that will make you really think about the economic model of your country. Lets see if it can surprise me!

Speaking of Eugene I think his fate is pretty obvious to anyone familiar with Eighty Six. This guy is going to join the military, get placed in Shin’s squad, then be brutally murdered by the Legion to remind us of their threat. We can’t kill any of the core group after all, they’re important! So we have to introduce a new batch of disposable characters to make this feel like an actually gritty war! Can you tell I’m pessimistic about his upcoming role in the story? I hope you can. I’m really not expecting anything from this guy. All the flags are there and I’ve already written him off in my heart. And this makes it really hard to get attached to a character I just know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is going to die. Maybe that’s disingenuous of me but Eighty Six has conditioned me this way.

While we are on the topic of new characters though next up is our new loli, Frederica! I hate her! Ok maybe hate is a strong word but I really don’t like her. She exists purely to fill a slot in the waifu list for Eighty Six’s target demographic. Oh I get her place in the story, she’s meant to give some humanity to the nation that created the Legion and maybe explore what it means to do a war crime, great. But did she have to be a loli? With that voice? Am I expected to believe a 10 year old child understands what it means to commit genocide and the ramifications of it? Cause I don’t! If you wanted this angle just age her up 6-8 years and you’re golden! But no. We have to take a loli to the battlefield. Because reasons.

Actually before I finish this up there is one thing I hate, that I absolutely despise, about Frederica: The fucking eyes. Seriously?! This is supposed to be a semi-historical war drama set in a made up Europe! Do we have to add familial telepathy and the ability to see the literal future? What does this bring to the table beyond shredding your setting? Are we in a sci-fi or a fantasy? It’s bullshit! Stop adding these things and just let your setting, your characters, your conflicts stand on their own. I already expect these things to ruin more moments than they make work. Yeah sure we make get some kind of “unavoidable fate” crap and it acts as an easy way for Frederica to know everyone’s backstories so we don’t have to info-dump them again but that’s just lazy writing. I’m disappointed Eighty Six.

So yeah all in all what I liked about Eighty Six is back, what I disliked is growing worse and for all intents and purposes we have returned to the status quo. Our leads are going to be fighting in the war in one direction, Lena in the other, and they will eventually meet up at the end of the season for the big romantic kiss! Or something. I don’t actually know about the kiss but it makes sense. Anyways, whatever happens I’m here mostly for the episodic/individual character stories and the fucking pretty direction. If I can get both of those then I can at least leave Eighty Six as happy as I did last season.

How about you? Excited for more? Let me know down below!