Category: 86 – Eighty Six

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.

Continue reading “86: Eighty Six – 4 [Real Name]” →

Welcome back to another week of Eighty Six! I was pretty critical last week as many of you noticed. Whether you agreed or disagreed though I think we can all agree that this week was better. If only for the clever directing. So without further ado, lets jump into it!

So, what do I mean by better? Basically that this week encapsulated all that is good, and bad, about Eighty Six. Take the Lena’s multiple conversations with the 86ers for example. This dialogue was tight and conveyed a lot of information about both sides. On the 86ers side we saw a lot of disagreement. Arguments about how to treat Lena, about whether or not they should bother talking to her, and a lot of underlying tension in their relationship with her. Some characters were accepting of her, others dismissive, others still indifferent to the whole thing. And we got to see it all play out through dialogue and character interaction rather than having it outright explained to us. Most of the time at least. What really makes this scene work though is how Eighty Six juxtaposes it with Lena’s side of the very same conversation.

Continue reading “86: Eighty Six – 3 [I Don’t Want to Die]” →

I’m back and this time with another new Spring 2021 show, 86 – Eighty Six! God that’s a confusing name. Almost as confusing as the setting! That’s right I have a bit of a bone to pick with 86 so strap in. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Before we get to the meat and potatoes of 86 though we first half to talk about the production. And surprisingly, I’m rather positive of it! The CGI model spider tanks are off of course, CGI integration with a 2D work is notoriously hard. But enough work went into the composite that you don’t really notice until they start to move. And even then this is still better than the 1st episode where the first person shot looked like a cheap Michael Bay movie. All the explosions and jumping around, it wasn’t good. I also like how the two sets of tanks are differentiated. The clean crystalline style works well for the opposing AI and sets them apart from the grungy 86ers. My hope is that 86 will take these clear styles and focus more on wide still shots, making full use of the backgrounds, rather than the janky action.

Continue reading “86 – Eighty Six – 2 [Spearhead]” →