Category: 86 – Eighty Six

86: Eighty Six S2 Anime Review 42/100

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Reviews by Lenlo

Sequels are always difficult to write reviews about. Usually, barring any major production or authorial changes, you can tell if you will like it just by your reaction to the first season. With minor shifts up or down for whatever the current content is about. My recent Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen review is evidence enough of that. But sometimes… sometimes you have the unfortunate case where a sequel falls short. Where for whatever reason, be it changes in production, writing staff or simply going on longer than it should, the series falls off. Animated at A-1 Pictures, directed by Toshimasa Ishii and originally created by Asato Asato, 86: Eighty Six Season 2 is, sadly, one such case. Why is that the case? What could have happened between season 1, something I enjoyed, and this to fall off as hard as it did? Well, lets jump in and talk about that.

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Eighty Six Season 2. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents. Continue reading “86: Eighty Six S2 Anime Review 42/100” →

Eighty Six S2 – 12 [Handler One]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Welcome everyone to the big finale of Eighty Six! It took a long time to get here, damn near 3 months just for these last two episodes, but it’s finally happened. Does it wrap things up well? Do Lena and Shin finally meet? Is it worth the huge wait? Let’s jump in and find out!

So as far as endings go… I think Eighty Six actually did a good job. I know, I know, “Lenlo, you’ve ragged on Eighty Six for almost 6 months now, what do you mean its good?!”. Trust me, I was surprised to. But for all that I hate how we got here, hate the 9 episodes of mediocre journey, Eighty Six did the best it could to wrap up what it had. It called back to, and connected with, all the story beats that lead up to here. The 86ers finding something beyond war, finding acceptance in a new community, the whole thing with Eugene. A lot of this is augmented by some pretty stellar direction, and yeah if you think about it to hard its still meh. But emotionally? I think Eighty Six delivered on it’s ending. And you know how important endings are to me.

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Eighty Six S2 – 11 [Shin]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Eighty Six has returned everyone! After 3 months everyone’s favorite genocide simulation has come back to finish what it started! I’d say I hope all of you went and rewatched some old episodes for a bit of a refresher, but doing that myself just reminded me how disappointing this season really was. Still, it’s time to bury the hatchet and see if Eighty Six can end on a high note. So lets jump into it!

First up, lets talk about just how good this episode looked. Like seriously, say what you want about the narrative, the Eighty Six team used those 3 months well. This episode looked gorgeous. From the editing to the coloring and animation, it’s like they saved all of their efforts since production started for this. Take Shin’s opening flashback for instance! I absolutely loved the use of foreground silhouettes layered over scenes in the background. The flat black morphing and flowing around the screen, exploding into nothing at the sound of the gunshot, the exaggerated mouth movements and use of negative space. And then we have stuff like the black bars constricting the scene tighter and tighter, Shin reaching out towards it. The story of how we got here may be mediocre but the visuals behind it certainly are not. And this is only the beginning of my visual praise!

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Eighty Six S2 – 10 [All That’s Left]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to the last Eighty Six post of the year. In fact this is the last Eighty Six post until March! That’s right, the production issues have gotten so bad that it can’t actually end this season and so has to somehow fit into the next. It’s Wonder Egg Priority all over again, except Eighty Six doesn’t look near as good. Enough about me lampooning the shows production schedule though, lets jump into lampooning its narrative!

By and large this episode felt like a giant “meh” to me. Like… like a waste of my time if I’m being honest. Yes yes, it’s the big climactic battle. Bullets are flying, mechs are running, Kiri/Morpho is being confronted and its hype! Except I don’t really give a shit about Kiri nor do I find this confrontation to be in any way interesting. It’s like… We all knew who was going to win. We always know who is going to win, thats how these things go. Yet despite knowing the good guy is going to win the entire Shounen genre has still found a way to make these things work. And the best ones do it by making us understand, by making us care about, the villain we are fighting. And Eighty Six just hasn’t invested me in this Shin-knockoff Knight of a character.

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Eighty Six S2 – 9 [Together Unto Death]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Welcome back everyone to Eighty Six! The shows been having a rough time recently, what with all the delays. In fact we won’t even be getting the last two episodes this year! What that says for the production I can’t say but odds are it isn’t very good. Anywanys, how about we hope into the episode.

Starting off, for all that the delays concern me Eighty Six gave us some good shots. From the time-lapse of the dragonfly corpse or Shin and Raiden’s talk on the bridge to the open vista’s and waving grass. The long panning shot of the mechs showing just how far away Shin was, mentally and physically, or Raiden and Shin’s shadows showing how he is alone only to reveal another person, etc. Eighty Six looked pretty this week. Of course there wasn’t much in the way of movement, the actual animation of Eighty Six seems to have taken a back seat. But if you ask me that’s fine! Fast paced action was never the main draw of the series, not visually nor narratively. So if we have to sacrifice it to get the snappy editing and scenic views back, I’ll gladly take that deal.

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Eighty Six S2 – 8 [Stay This Way Forever]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome back to Eighty Six! It’s been two weeks since our last episode and its going to be two more weeks until our next. Suffice to Eighty Six is starting to fall apart and its easy to see in the episode. Don’t believe me? Then lets dive in to this weeks episode and see if I can’t convince you!

And what better place to start doing that than with the visuals! Whooo boy this episode had some issues, where do I even begin. How about the falling scene right at the start, that’s a good place. This looked like someone shaking action figures in front of a camera, it was that bad. Maybe if they had stuck to wide shots, or internal shots of the characters, they could have sold it better. But by showing the mechs at the angle and closeness they did but with absolutely no movement they just looked so… wooden. Same for the Nachzehrer going down in the background to, I couldn’t even tell it was “going down”. And then we have the blurred still frames during the big explosion later as well. Aside from a view landscape shots Eighty Six just did not look good this week. And I fear it won’t get better.

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Eighty Six S2 – 7 [The Truth Is]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to the third “I’m back” catchup post of the week! This time I lucked out because Eighty Six is skipping another episode, letting me take my time with this one. What that says about the production I don’t know! But it probably isn’t anything good. Enough about that though, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, Eighty Six had some fun shots this week. Nothing as ground breaking as the week before sadly but still some good shot direction. I’m talking stuff like the President meeting with the General, showing us most of the conversation through their reflections rather than their faces. It sounds like a pretty straight forward trick right? Tell us, the audience, that something is off, make us feel like someone is lying, by not showing us their face. And it is! But so many series fail to something even as basic as this. Then there was also the long held final shot in place of an ED, really letting the battlefield comms sink in. It’s simple… but effective. And it does a good job of hammering home just how much is riding on this mission without repeating it over and over “Everyone will die if you fail”. I like that.

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Eighty Six S2 – 6 [I Won’t Forget]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Eighty Six! This week we follow up on Lena, see her organize the defense of San Magnolia and have an all around good time! Or at least that’s what I would like to say. Instead we see even less of her this week. What happened in place of that? Lets dive in and talk about that.

First up though I need to give Eighty Six credit for this, the storyboarding is back baby. There were some really, really nice shots this week. Not much in the way of interesting cuts like we got last season sadly. But almost the entirety of Shin’s meeting with the general was just… really evocative. The way the sound cut out, the General’s dialogue fading away as Shin read between the lines and heard what they always did: Eighty Six. Expendable. The squad poofing away into the scrap metal with their names, clattering behind down behind him. This scene was probably the most engaged I’ve been with Eighty Six this entire season. This is the good shit! Now I just need Eighty Six to keep giving us this and less of the loli.

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Eighty Six S2 – 5 [Even So]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Eighty Six! Apologies for the delay with this, I’ve been busy this Halloween and only got around to watching the episode. I hope you all had as much fun over the weekend as I did. So without further ado, lets dive into it!

First up how about some praise for Eighty Six? I haven’t given it much recently, and I certainly wont after this, but credit where its due: The robots look good, Eighty Six has seriously stepped up their mech game. As far as standard anime CGI goes I think these are some of the better mechs I’ve seen in a good while. Their movements were surprisingly fluid as they ran and bounced around the city in those extended shots and the compositing was, by and large, pretty good. I never felt taken out of the scene by a 3D mech standing on a 2D background nor by MS Paint fire and smoke effects. And on top of all of that Eighty Six still managed to work in some evocative shots and edits, such as glass flying by Shin’s face or his charge. So yeah, good job.

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Eighty Six S2 – 4 [Welcome Back]

by Lenlo, posted in 86 - Eighty Six, Currently Watching:

Hello everyone and welcome to what is perhaps the dullest episode of Eighty Six yet! Think I’m exaggerating? Then you clearly haven’t watched the episode before reading this. And if you have but still disagree? Give me until the end of this post to prove it to you. So without further ado lets dive in!

Obviously the place we have to start is with Frederica. I know that this is becoming a weekly segment at this point but I have to get this out somewhere: She is the worst part of Eighty Six. From the blatant and pointless sexualization to taking over the conversations between the 86ers and making them about herself, she’s bringing down everything that made Eighty Six good. What’s worse though is that she also isn’t bringing anything new to the table to make up for what she’s ruining. A 10 year old waxing philosophical in her little “moe” voice about life and death, am I supposed to not laugh?! How am I supposed to take this whole knight and fallen kingdom plot seriously when it’s being delivered by fucking Moe Moe Kyun? And actually now that I mention it lets talk about this “Knight” plot because it’s incredibly lazy.

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