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.
Moving on to the story I can’t help but be a bit confused at the opening. Have we skipped some time? How did we go from Lena in the office being defended by her Uncle to out in the field coordinating with a team? I really hope we haven’t just skipped over an entire chunk of Lena content and everything that was happening there. I was actually excited to get to spend some time with her! To see the reactions of San Magnolia to the war appearing on their doorstep. To seeing some of the 86ers and Lena’s relationship with them. And yet Eighty Six decided to cut back to Shin and the 86ers for the entire runtime. Hopefully Eighty Six cuts back to her at some point in the next 6 episodes. I don’t want the next time we see her to be Shin saving her.
As for the 86ers this all ranged from just fine to pretty good. A large portion of it was about the Federation finally being shown to have many of the same problems as San Magnolia. And while this wasn’t surprising, its been setup since episode one, I do wish Eighty Six had tackled it with a bit more subtly. Maybe taken the time to show us more cracks in their society in general, or played up the economic disparity we saw with Eugene, before Eighty Six went all in on their treatment of foreigners. But that comes back to my feeling that Eighty Six is rushing through story content. That it isn’t confident in what its built up to hold our interest and so must resort to “combat combat combat”. It’s a damn shame if you ask me. In the hands of a more confident writer this could be interesting.
Meanwhile the other half of this episode was all about the 86ers personal experience with prejudice. And if my gushing up above over Shin’s scene with the general wasn’t indication enough, I quite liked this. I’m a sucker for personal, character driven drama like this. A story that doesn’t just say “This nation is racist” but actually lets us see the lives of those being discriminated against and thats exactly what Eighty Six does here. Showing the soldiers talking behind their backs, the army sending them because they are “expendable” and that the rest of the men would riot if “their friends” were sent. This is good shit! This is the kind of stuff I enjoyed the first season of Eighty Six for. Where it forced Lena to recognize the ugly truth of her nation and to pick a side.
I also liked how Eighty Six tied all of this in to Lena. While we didn’t see much of her this episode we did get proof Shin is thinking about her and how that feeds into his martyr complex. I particularly like this idea that she was supposed to be the one to outlive him. That out of everyone in the squad, everyone who kept dying and leaving him behind, Lena was supposed to survive because she was safe in the capital. And yet here we are. San Magnolia under attack by the Legion, Lena as good as dead in his mind and Shin once again the one left behind. Let me repeat, once again, that this is the good shit. Give me more time with these two, the characters that have been built up for an entire season, and less of the Loli.
Anyways all in all I would say this episode was a success. I still think Eighty Six needed more time to establish all that is happening right now and that most of this could have been done without giving us a finale at episode 5. But at least what we are getting out of it is good. The parallels with San Magnolia and the Federation, Lena and Wenzel, Shin’s simultaneous concern for Lena and deteriorating mental state. I hope that that second half of the season, starting up in 2 weeks since we have a one episode break next week, can make up for the relatively weak first half.
I don’t really understand where 86 (the show) is going with having everyone hate the 86 (people). I get that the Republic basically dehumanized them so they could use them to fight the war. But the Federacy should treat them like royalty since they are basically saving their asses. Really odd
Also, I don’t mind Frederica. And is it fair to group her as a loli since the anime doesn’t sexualize the character? I genuinely don’t know
For the 86 I think its going for a “Fear of others” thing. This tribalistic “they are different so fuck them” sort of take. Eighty Six as a show definitely hasn’t done this subtly. Theres no nuance to it. But I do like that we are following the victimized group instead of it just being a problem for the MC to solve in some Isekai and look good for fixing.
For Frederica… I can see where you’re coming from. Aside from the shirt gag last episode they haven’t sexualized her. But personally I can’t stand her. From her “wittle woli woice” to what little she brings to the show. She takes me completely out of the war drama.
The stuff with Lena at the start of the episode caught me so off guard and was over so quickly that I was wondering if it was even real and if we’d get a scene of Lena waking up and revealing it was a dream of her fear of what is going to happen. Glad that she’s back in the storyline; but they’re in a tough spot. Spending more time on her would be good, but because they’ve spent no time developing her with her new squad nothing that happens to them has any value. The only person with value in her storyline is her, so unless she’s personally in danger there’s little point in spending time on her.
The mere fact that this episode had hardly any Frederica upped it in the quality scale, and I did like them visiting the fact that the 86ers are expendable here too. There isn’t really any place where they’re going to feel like they belong. Although it should be pointed out that they volunteered to go back into battle and did have an out presented to them that they passed on.
Freedomslayer: A very late reply I know, but the sentiment towards the 86 especially from the Alba doesn’t have its intended effect on me and comes off as a cartoonish parody of Nazi Germany to me. One of the biggest issues I had with 86 season 1. My main issues stem from season 1 so I won’t get into it here, but I think Lenlo put it well, there’s no nuance. I’d buy it more if they did more to support within the show why the Alba are able to dehumanize the 86 so much in so short a time. It is handled better in season 2 to this point for me, or at the very least I find it more believable rather than coming off as such an over the top parody.