Eighty Six S2 – 8 [Stay This Way Forever]

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.

Moving on to the episode itself I can’t say I was all that engrossed. A lot of it felt like a set piece for set piece’s sake. Like the author thought they needed a big “twist” or something here. It’s a shame because I think a slow plodding sense of dread, just a simple “The cannon is gone” would have been more effective than “It was actually ME DIO OVER THERE”! And then the cannon fires but no one dies, so nothing changes. The status quo at the beginning of this episode is exactly the same as at the end. There was no gravitas, I didn’t care about the outcome. The only real change is that we got a peek inside the Legion’s head/s and yeah, that’s kind of interesting. But is what little we got worth an entire episode? I don’t think so.

As for that Legion bit, yeah, this was kind of interesting. Seeing inside Kiri’s head and realizing that the humans placed in these mechs are not only still in there but are actively effecting the decisions of the Legion is cool! We see how their individual emotions bleed into and affect their actions. This could quite possibly be the chink in the Legion’s armor! These cold unfeeling robots, ruled by cruel logic, could find holes in their defenses left by the lingering emotions and actions of the very creatures they added to their network to increase their processing power. Eighty Six could do some interesting stuff with that! Explore or comment on how our flawed human nature is simultaneously our savior and destroyer. Or if you want to get really Nihilist with it you could show only our worst impulses via the Legion. There are a wealth of opportunities here!

Speaking of the Legion it would be remiss of me not to mention their command structure! Up until now we really haven’t known that much about the Legion. Oh sure, they are robots hell bent on the destruction of the human race and were created by an Empire for their defense. But we haven’t known how the operate or make the decisions they do. Is it a singular hive mind? Or perhaps al amalgamation of all the heads/soldiers that were added to their ranks? We have no idea! But we learn this week that there are at least specific, identifiable consciousness inside the Legion. One of these is Kiri, a human turned robot. But what about Pale Rider? Is this another human consciousness somewhere in there? Or is this some sort of “Original” personality for the Legion itself? Only time will tell and I’m eager to find out.

Sadly that’s the end of what positives I have for the episode. Now… now its just shock and disappointment. Take for instance the mark on Shin’s mech: Since when is a “Nouzen specific” mark? Why is this suddenly something that makes the Nouzen clan special vs just a… a military callsign? Is the implication that Shin has made it Nouzen specific through his use? Because if so that wasn’t communicated clearly at all. Instead it feels like Eighty Six is just making them out to be more and more “Chosen warriors” and this really works against the general tone and feel the war had going before this. And as for the disappointment? I’ll give you one guess as to who is involved in that.

If you guessed Frederica you’re partly right! She is definitely some of my issue with the second half of the episode, though not for anything new she has done. Its just her continued presence and the “Look at me I’m a 10 year old with greater philosophical maturity than a 40 year old man while talking in a squeaky voice”. I just don’t think that she brings anything to most of the scenes she is involved in, including this one. Yeah sure, giving a 10 year old a gun to kill herself if the 86ers die is morbid. But only when she’s actually in any danger! And since her shooting herself hinges on the entire unkillable, plot safe 86ers dying… well we know it’s not going to happen. No more than Shin having to put a bullet in any of the others eyes at least.

The other side of the disappointment though is the President. I just… I really don’t buy his whole Nihilist thing. The “It is better to die moral than to live immorally”. Its so heavy handed. There’s no nuance to it and so it comes off like the kind of thing an edgy teenager would write. Like… does this president seriously believe that people would follow those orders? After he told his entire command structure, to their face on open comms, that he plans to purposefully lead them to their deaths? At what point does this become a military coup against a fascist dictator?! Because in my eyes that makes him the bad guy. I get what Eighty Six is trying to do here, I really do. It wants to take shots at our modern systems and say what we are doing is wrong. But this isn’t how you do that.

So yeah all in all I wasn’t impressed with this episode of Eighty Six. Production wise its clear we aren’t going to be returning to the first season anytime soon. Not in shot composition and direction nor in raw animation and artistry. Meanwhile the narrative continues to lose any and all nuance or subtly it might have once had, instead seeking to replace it with slowly escalating giant robots and new characters. Like… just imagine what this season could have been if it was all about the 86ers trying to get back to a San Magnolia under siege to save Lena instead of this whole Morpho and Frederica shit? The oppressed coming back to save their oppressors not because they care or its the “right thing” but because of one person in particular. I dunno about you, but I’d be a lot more interested in that.